The one thing we can almost always count on is getting ill in the winter – and then getting ill again as the virus makes its way back to us. Normally we rely our Sick Girl foods – spaghetti bolognaise, tomato soup, garlic bread, TUC biscuits and ginger ale – but this time we were craving something a little stodgier and greener. (After all, our immune systems clearly need a boost!) Enter curly kale and spinach – two foods well-known for being rich in vitamin C and other anti-oxidants, which we picked up at last week’s farmer’s market.  Now, because they have distinctive flavours, we decided to cook them down in lamb stock and added minced lamb and creamy quinoa/bulgur for protein and stodge – a wonderful warming dish. The concept is similar to khichadi, an Indian ayurvedic dish made with lentils and rice that we were always given when we were little Sick Girls – but for meat eaters. Of course if you’re veggie, you can easily use vegetable stock and leave out the meat as it isn’t necessarily the star of the dish.

Try it and if you’re ill like us, we hope you get better really soon 🙂

Makes 4 portions

400g minced lamb
a handful of curly kale, stems cut off and roughly chopped
a handful of spinach, washed
about 1 cup of hot water
1 lamb stock cube
200g quinoa/bulgur mix (or you can use just quinoa), cooked
salt and pepper to taste

1. In a large saucepan, brown the lamb on medium heat for about 15 minutes. Keep stirring so that the meat doesn’t stick to the pan.
2. Add the kale and spinach, along with the water and lamb stock cube. Turn the heat on high until the mixture starts to boil.
3. Then bring the heat down to a simmer, stir a few times and cover the pan for 15 minutes so that the kale cooks through.
4. Then remove the cover, add the quinoa/bulgur and season. As we don’t like it too soupy, stir and keep cooking for 5 minutes so that the water evaporates a little.
5. Eat (maybe with a bit of butter) and feel better already.

So what do you think? Feel free to share your questions and comments below! We’d love to hear what you have to say.