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How to Use Wholefoods

How to Use Wholefoods

Incorporating Wholefoods into your daily diet couldn’t be easier with this simple guide.

What is a Wholefood? Generally a Wholefood is a foodstuff that has had as little processing as possible. This means no heat treatment except for slow drying, none of the foodstuffs have been chemically altered and no salt or sugars added for taste. The resulting crunchy nuts, dried berries and snappy seeds are all pure and an excellent source of protein, micronutrients and healthy fats/carbohydrates,

From the harvesting to drying, all Indigo Herbs Wholefoods are guaranteed to be of the highest possible quality as well as being sourced from responsible producers who take great pride in their products. They are in their purest forms, without being adulterated in any way whatsoever, and are absolutely delicious! Below are some suggestions of how best to incorporate these foods into a healthy diet. 

Wholefood products
What you will need
Equipment

You can chop, slice, grind, mince and blend Wholefoods to smaller sizes if you should so wish. In the case of seeds, these can be roasted or fried so a little preparation is needed. Some helpful tools to for process are:

  • A Food Processor: If you have a food processor that chops, this might be useful to reduce the size of nuts for sprinkling on the top of flapjacks and muesli.
  • A sharp knife: Another option is to slice succulent dried berries, nuts or seeds by hand.
  • Pestle and Mortar: With this useful piece of equipment you can grind, pound and mix seeds and nuts.
  • A frying pan: Very useful for frying and dry roasting seeds and nuts to sprinkle on your favourite meals.
  • Jars: Sealable jars and tubs should be used to keep the right amount of moisture in all Wholefoods.
  • Sprouting tray: If utilising seeds for sprouting then a sprouting tray can be a great piece of equipment. Very easy to use by just adding water and making your Wholefood come alive! Also a simple jar can be used in place of a sprouting tray.
  • A dehydrator: For making seed crackers and ensuring maximum nutrients remain intact.
Ingredients

Here are just some ideas of what you can do with Wholefoods. Some of these may take a little preparation and research but most are quite easy to prepare:

  • Seed & Nut Milk
  • Seed & Nut Butter
  • Sprouted Seeds
  • Soaked Dried Fruits
  • Trail Mix
  • Muesli Bars
  • Topping for cereal: porridge, muesli
  • Topping For Salad:
  • Medicinal Mushroom Butters & Honeys
  • Seed & Nut crackers
Instructions

A great way to get all the goodness from nuts in liquid form is to make a simple nut milk. Alternatively you can make a nut/seed butter. Related here are two sets of instructions to make both.

Homemade Fresh Almond Milk (makes just under a litre)

You will need:

  • 1-2 cups raw unsalted organic Almonds
  • 4 cups filtered or purified water
  • Blender

Optional:

  • Pinch of Himalayan sea salt (optional)
  • 1-2 tablespoon local raw honey or other sweetener (optional)
  • 1 vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

Instructions

  1. Soak your Almonds and vanilla bean (if you are using one) for 8-12 hours in the purified water.
  2. Discard soaking water and rinse your Almonds and the vanilla bean.
  3. Place soaked nuts, the whole soaked vanilla bean (you can chop it up or split it open if you wish) or vanilla extract, honey (or other sweetener), a dash of sea salt and 4 cups of water in a blender. Cover and blend on high for 1-2 minutes. The resulting liquid will be milky and foamy.
  4. Strain milk through a nut bag and squeeze into a bowl.

Note: A nut bag is generally a lightweight cotton gauze.

The Almond Milk is now ready to drink! Store in a covered glass jug or bottle in the fridge and consume with 4-5 days.

Homemade Almond Butter

In this set of instructions we will direct you to making the best possible Almond nut butter. There are quite a few different variations depending on taste; some people prefer an oily nut butter while others prefer it a little chunkier.

You will need:

  • 2-4 cups of raw Organic Almonds.
  • 1-2 tablespoons neutral (use more if you prefer), light tasting or flavour-complimenting oil, coconut oil is a good choice.
  • 14 cup blender

Optional:

  • Extra fine sea salt
  • Sweetener, such as maple syrup, honey, raw cane sugar, coconut sugar, coconut nectar, etc.

Instructions

  1. There are various ways in which to prepare the Almonds. Some people like to soak the nuts and then dehydrate them; others might roast the Almonds in the oven for 10 minutes (170-190c/gas mark 5); while some like to just add the raw nuts and blend.
  2. Add the nuts to the bowl of a 14 cup food processor. (If you have a smaller processor, reduce the seeds proportionately. There needs to be enough room for the nuts to move to convert to butter! I found 2-3 cups to work the best in my 14-cup processor, 3+ cups definitely works but takes a bit longer to process.)
  3. Grind to a fine powder (2-10 minutes, or so), at this time, you may want to add some oil. I personally recommend it, but it’s not necessary. Continue processing until the Almonds become smooth and creamy, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl every minute or two.

Continue processing – the nut’s oils are released and as the mixture continues to warm. The mixture should turn creamy and smooth and move around very easily inside the bowl of your processor. If not, it is OK to add a bit more oil until the mixture is runny and blending smoothly. It may take up to 15-20 minutes until it is totally creamy, this depends on the 

What else you can do

There are many different choices of what one can do with wholefoods, the only limit is the imagination. Here are a few more suggestions.

  • Why not add some powdered nuts to a morning smoothie for added oils and protein.
  • Dried berries can be cooked with and added to breakfasts, yogurt, smoothies and desserts.
  • Seeds can be added to a trail mix, fried, roasted and added to salads and cakes.  
About Indigo Products

Here you will find a link to our extensive range of wholefoods which include some of the more exotic mushroom chunks and powders from the Indigo Herbs range.

More Information

Indigo Herbs Wholefoods are all sourced from responsible producers and are of the highest possible quality. These foods are in there most pure and simple form having not had any treatment or alteration of any kind. This is why they are so good for the human constitution and are recommended for a healthy diet.

  • Ensuring that all growing mediums whether they are soil or water are free from harmful chemicals, toxins or heavy metals.
  • Harvesting at the critical moment when the nut/berry/fruit/seed is at peek nutritional potency.
  • Drying methods that ensure that plant material is not overly heated to keep all vitamins/minerals/phytochemicals/proteins intact.
  • Storage that keeps these Wholefoods at peek potency ready to be used by you, our customers.

Indigo Herbs has a quality guarantee that ensures all our Wholefoods are the best that can bought on the market at very competitive prices.