I am a little past the half way point at the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts Chef's training program. It has been an extremely intense, gratifying, and humbling experience. We started with the basics - knife skills, proper bean and grain cookery, and soups and stews and have steadily progressed to hors d'oeuvres, pâtés, and pastry. Although NGIHCA's scope is slanted toward health supportive cuisine, the classic and essential skills are covered and serve as the foundation for becoming a well rounded natural foods chef. Ahead you will find my visual diary summarizing the past 10 weeks of culinary school.
Read morechickpea + kale soup
I've been in culinary school the last two weeks and the amount of knowledge which I have absorbed is exponential. I thought that I had a solid understanding of whole foods and vegan cooking but, as I eagerly discovered, there are infinite things to better understand and discover. One of the foundations that I have learned is the basic principle behind beans. From a nutritional standpoint, soaking beans increases the legume's digestibility for some individuals and affords the consumer total control over sodium content, quality, and quantity of spices which flavor or preserve the beans.
Don't get me wrong - I have always been a boxed or BPA-free can bean sort of girl. The ease and simplicity is undeniable as well as the last minute convenience of cracking open a can of cooked beans. Yet, once you cross over to prepping beans yourself, the difference is insurmountable.
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