THE EVOLUTION OF THE HEALTH GRENADE

The Health Grenade - 'an explosion of goodness'                                                                                                            Charlie

 Me mate Stef and I, were on a little Sunday foraging outing under the expert guidance of Tracy Armbruster. Tracy was educating us on edible and medicinal plants. (Look for Tracy Armbruster on facebook – she offers regular foraging outings and other exciting ‘stuff’ too). Anyhow, it was on such an outing, that as we passed a huge patch of nasturtiums, Chef Stef suggested it would be a cool idea to make some ‘wraps’ with the big nasturtium leaves. "What a jolly good idea", I thought, while been slightly annoyed that I hadn't thought of such a cleaver thing myself. It wasn’t long before the first prototype was produced. We decided that, the sweetness of raw carrot and beetroot would take off the peppery edge of the nasturtium leaf, that a thin slither of spring onion would add an oniony flavour, without being overpowering and that a slice of avo would give it some body and a subtle smoothness, that only avo can give (man, I love avos, they go, with pretty much everything). Our first prototype was wrapped up ‘dolmades style’, the flavours worked, they were fresh, crunchy and gave you a feeling, that if you ate enough of them, you could heal just about any ailment you might be suffering from, or might ever suffer from. We tried a few dipping sauces and found that a sweet chilli, and a mix of soy and sour fig syrup (a simple sugar syrup will do the trick) were best with our little nasturtium nuggets. Our only problem was sealing our little parcels. That problem was soon solved, when our cleaver and practical mate, Ian Ian suggested, we tie them closed with a strip of sliced spring onion or a chive. Again, I was slightly annoyed that Ian Ian had come up with such a cunning idea and I hadn’t. When I told Stef about Ian Ian’s idea, which I probably claimed it as my own, he suggested we should leave the sides open, so that the contrasting colours of the carrot, beetroot, spring onion and the avo would be exposed in all their vibrant glory. "Just for once, why couldn’t I have been the cleaver one?" It wasn’t long before my big moment came, I figured that if you picked the leaves and left on a long stem, you could use that, with which to tie your nasturtium parcel closed. So that was it - my 'amazing' contribution in the evolution, of what is now called, The Health Grenade.

The Health Grenade in 'expert rolling hands'                                       Moose

The thing about a Health Grenade, is that in the dead of winter, when the dreaded colds and flues are doing their rounds, so to are all the necessary Health Grenade ingredients. Of course, having said that, you can pop whatever fits into a nasturtium leaf, to form whatever ‘grenade’ fits your fancy – smoked salmon and crème fresh is rather good, I might add.