Wholefood champion: Jude Blereau

A cook, author and passionate advocate of real food, Jude Blereau has been involved with the organic and wholefood industries for more than 20 years. Through her cooking school and her books, Wholefood and Coming Home to Eat, Wholefood for the Family, she encourages us to embrace fresh and natural ingredients and get into the kitchen to rediscover the joys of organic cooking and eating food that nourishes. We asked her to share some of the secrets of her kitchen.

What do you like for breakfast?
It varies – whole oat porridge, fruit, honey, yoghurt and LSA (ground linseeds, sunflower seeds and almonds), with coconut milk added sometimes. In summer, I like black sticky rice with coconut milk and mango. When I have a very heavy morning, it’s usually a few veggies (in spring, I would do asparagus) cooked with a bit of butter, then an egg fried on top. Or scrambled eggs and a piece of toast. On weekends, it’s French toast, with lots of gorgeous fruit, coconut milk, maple syrup and LSA. Sometimes in winter, I will have leftover soup.

What are your favourite ingredients?
Coconut, pumpkin, coriander, spelt flour, rapadura sugar, basil (pesto!), mirin.

What do you always have in your fridge?
Pumpkin, a good curry paste (Christine Mansfield Massaman Curry), sweet potato, parmesan or pecorino, butter, grains, nuts, seeds, white miso, unpasteurised genmai miso. Almond oil, unrefined sesame oil, flax oil, nuts and seeds. I try to have  homemade chutney in the fridge, I love chutney.

And in your pantry?
Tinned or Vacola tomatoes, coconut milk, sweeteners – all of them (Billingtons), rapadura, agave nectar, rice syrup, barley malt, spelt syrup, palm sugar, apple juice concentrate, pear juice concentrate; pulses – all of them; sea vegetables – all of them; grains – all of them (these go into the fridge when the weather gets warmer). Brown rice vinegar, balsamic, raspberry balsamic, apple cider vinegar, umeboshi vinegar, mirin, wheat-free tamari, tomato sauce, honey and homemade jams. Also organic herbs and spices – all; preserved lemons.

Action station: Jude's light-filled kitchen.

What’s your after work standby meal?
Generally a curry base, then throw in some coconut oil, add onion, ginger and garlic, throw in some pumpkin, sweet potato and carrot, add half coconut milk and water. For protein, sometimes I add split red lentils. When veggies are cooked add top veggies – kale, broccoli, snow peas… whatever is in the garden really. Sometimes I add kefir leaves from the garden, sometimes some of the Paramount wild Alaskan salmon. The thing that makes this work is the biodynamic Sonnentor sweet curry spice… it’s glorious. Have with brown rice and chutney.

What do you prefer to cook for those you love?
A roast always goes down well. We had the most glorious mutton – grass fed, biodynamic from Sid and Edith De Burgh from Baramba the other week. The fat was golden and the veggies tasted glorious. But also lasagne or canneloni are big favourites.

What do you like to drink with friends?
I’m not a big drinker, but probably a Bailey’s, no ice, just straight. If it’s very cold, Wild Turkey, straight no ice.

What’s your favourite cookbook?
Apart from mine (just kidding)… Peter Berley’s The Modern Vegetarian Kitchen. Brilliant stuff.

Where do you draw your inspiration for cooking?
Biggest one is not being tired; meditating (really); reading billions of cook books; going to great markets; traveling.

And your secret foodie indulgence?
Currently, I’m addicted to Unique Organique coconut chocolate fudge, but just bits. Good chips with nice sea salt, fried in good oil (olive) and rosemary.

If you’d like to know more about Jude’s books and cooking classes, click here.

Coming Home to Eat: Wholefood for the Family,
by Jude Blereau

If you care about flavour, family meals, nutrition, your budget and a sustainable food culture – this is your book.  Jude Blereau’s desire to feed both heart and soul manifests itself in these meticulously researched and tested recipes.  No one could ever accuse Jude of being shallow or lacking in passion.

All this attention to detail would be worthless, however, if the food failed to get the thumbs up from the very picky family I cook for.  No problems there, they love the food – it’s that simple.  They have second helpings.

What could be more satisfying than seeing your children enjoy healthy food?  So far my favourite recipe is Cupboard Love Stew, which I have served at two extended family gatherings.  My husband’s favourite is Pirates Pie, which is well worth a trip to the fresh fish market.  We have all enjoyed the cannelloni as well as Mushroom and White Bean Cacciatore.

If you have concerns that wholefood might be too bland or earnest to be enjoyable, this book will make you think again.