For the fennel Boil ground grain (e.g. green spelt) with water and leave to swell covered for 15 minutes with the stove turned off. In the meantime, proceed with the next steps.
In addition to green spelt, spelt or emmer are also suitable as crushed grains.
Wash the fennel bulbs, cut off just enough of the stalk to allow you to strip off the outer layers of fennel, including the stem. Depending on the size of the fennel, you will need 6-8 pieces. Blanch them in boiling salted water for 5 minutes, remove with a slotted spoon and drain in a sieve. Use the leftover fennel bulbs for another purpose.
The author recommends using two large fennel bulbs.
Briefly place the tomatoes in boiling water so that they can be easily peeled. Then dice the tomatoes. Finely chop the olives. Peel the garlic and onion and chop finely. Wash the peppers and cut into thin rings.
Depending on how hot you want it to be, choose a hotter or less hot pepper. If it is still too hot for you, you can also remove the seeds.
Heat some water in a pan and fry the onion, garlic and peppers for 2 minutes. Add the grain meal and diced tomatoes and sauté for about 5 minutes until the grain meal is crumbly, turning it with a spatula.
Add olives and lemon juice and season with spices.
Spoon the filling into the fennel shells and place in a lightly greased baking dish. Bake in a preheated oven at 200 °C top/bottom heat for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, wash the basil and roughly chop it with your fingers.
For the "cheese cream" Grind fenugreek and savory or use the ground ones directly. Mix the cashews with 60-80 ml of water in a high-performance blender to form a cream and stir in a bowl with the remaining ingredients for the "cheese cream".
Instead of 60 g cashews you can also use 2 tablespoons cashew butter.
Arranging and Serving Sprinkle the baked fennel with basil and serve with "cheese cream".
Detailed Nutritional Information per Person for this Recipe
The majority of the nutritional information comes from the USDA (US Department of Agriculture). This means that the information for natural products is often incomplete or only given within broader categories, whereas in most cases products made from these have more complete information displayed.
If we take flaxseed, for example, the important essential amino acid ALA (omega-3) is only included in an overarching category whereas for flaxseed oil ALA is listed specifically. In time, we will be able to change this, but it will require a lot of work. An “i” appears behind ingredients that have been adjusted and an explanation appears when you hover over this symbol.
For Erb Muesli, the original calculations resulted in 48 % of the daily requirement of ALA — but with the correction, we see that the muesli actually covers >100 % of the necessary recommendation for the omega-3 fatty acid ALA. Our goal is to eventually be able to compare the nutritional value of our recipes with those that are used in conventional western lifestyles.
The Mediterranean stuffed fennel with crushed grain (green spelt, spelt or emmer) is served with a vegan cheese cream.
Nutrient profile: According to GDA guidelines, one portion of this recipe covers about three times the recommended daily requirement of vitamin K. It also covers more than 100% of the requirement for manganese and copper. However, the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids, at 22:1, significantly exceeds the recommended maximum ratio of 5:1.
Fennel: Fennel belongs to the Umbelliferae family. The white to light green bulb is layered, similar to an onion, and has an intense aroma, which it owes to its high content of essential oils. The essential oils are also responsible for the health properties. Fennel supports digestion and is also said to have anti-inflammatory properties.
Green spelt: Green spelt is spelt harvested 2 to 3 weeks before it is ripe. This tradition of harvesting green spelt comes from the need for nutrient-rich staple foods for field work in summer. However, green spelt cannot be stored and is kilned or dried. Green spelt meal is made from spelt intended for green spelt, which is then ground after kilning. Like wheat, spelt and green spelt contain gluten, which can cause health problems for people with celiac disease (gluten intolerance). In terms of the vitamin and mineral content, there are only minimal differences compared to wheat. However, the silica content of spelt is significantly higher than that of wheat.
Cashew nuts: Cashew nuts contain many minerals, such as bone-strengthening magnesium and iron, but the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids is very poor at 48:1. For this reason, we have adapted the recipe accordingly (see above).
Fenugreek: Aroma and taste reminiscent of lovage and celery.
Schabzigerklee: The aroma of Schabzigerklee is more like green pepper or spinach.
Alternate preparation
Grain meal: Instead of green spelt, you can just as easily use spelt or emmer meal.
Making green spelt groats: You can easily make the green spelt groats used here yourself. This can be done relatively quickly, for example, with an (electric) coffee grinder, which can grind smaller portions well. Green spelt that you grind yourself is usually of a higher quality than ready-made products that are available for purchase, which are exposed to oxidation processes for a longer period of time due to the presence of oxygen. An alternative if you don't have a coffee grinder is to soak the grains, then boil them briefly and process them using a hand blender. With the latter method, however, you should keep an eye on the cooking time, as otherwise the processed green spelt will lose its firmness.
