When Dr Geraldine Robson-Parsons of NutriLicious KiTchen contacted me to edit her recipe book a few months back, I knew I’d be completely on board. Not only because I love eating just about anything that stands still for long enough, but also because I truly love food that provides real nutrition and fuel to your body. Sometimes, I page through recipe books and get so despondent as, page after page, all I can find is recipes based on sugar and carbs. I’m all for balance, and won’t turn down a great cheesecake, but we just don’t eat like that on a regular basis.
The NutriLicious Kitchen has a different focus. Instead of worrying about counting carbs and eliminating any trace of natural sugars, Dr Robson-Parsons has created a cookbook, workshop and life around ingredients and dishes that are simple, healthful and delicious. And I know this because she invited me to a workshop.
She is a doctor of homeopathy and combines her technical and medical experience with a sense of adventure in the kitchen. This is all a major bonus for her patients, who benefit from an all-round approach to dealing with their health issues.
Her home and kitchen in Knysna are beautiful – perfect for workshops and entertaining. Our menu of recipes included:
- Golden milk frappe – an aromatic icy drink of coconut milk, turmeric, black pepper, dates and vanilla that is as refreshing as it is comforting.
- Apple bread – a seed loaf with a difference. This is perfect for Banting (low-carb, high fat), and completely moreish.
- Cheesy kale chips – Dr Robson-Parsons reinvents kale as a delicious, crisp, cheesy snack that you won’t want to share with the Dorito-lovers.
- Raw chocolate bark – I’m not hugely into dark chocolate, but this was amazing. Raw cacao (I keep imagining it being harvested by Incas), macadamia honey (seriously, I got emotional; this is absolutely amazing), vanilla powder, and Turkish apricots (which you can replace with nuts, other dried fruit, or berries)… It tasted decadent. It tasted so good, it felt wrong. Which made it so right.
What struck me the most was how very knowledgeable Dr Robson-Parsons was. The other lady in the workshop, we’ll call her Ruby, is a patient of Gerladine’s. We asked questions about technical issues and she had the insight to explain them to us in ways that we could understand. She chose recipes based on Ruby’s hormonal imbalances. She explained how each ingredient would contribute to regaining that balance. I loved this personal, multi-faceted approach.
What I also loved was having first-hand experience of how easy it was to prepare these dishes. What may have seemed like a really technical dish suddenly became totally do-able when I saw it in action.
I’m already quite a healthy eater, and I don’t like to feel brow-beaten about the choices I’ve made. Geraldine’s balanced approach and almost-tangible passion for food made the workshop fun and inspiring. It never felt like discipline.
Food is such an important contributor to our health and wellness, it needs to move up in the ranks of priority (possibly even to a place ahead of conventional medicine, in many cases). The NutriLicious KiTchen workshop made that much more plausible for the average person. Of course, a passion for all things delectable certainly goes a long way.
If you have health issues that you’d like to discuss with Dr Robson-Parsons or you’d like to book a workshop and sample some real yumminess, she can be contacted via email (dr.robsonparsons@gmail.com), her website, or her Facebook page. Her fabulous recipe book will be available early next year.
Some of our nutritious workshop treats
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