Cardamom cooking

Training: Swim 1.8km / Run 7km

Another double training day done!

This morning started with the longest swim I have done in quite a while. I was at the pool by 6.00am, and completed 1.8km in around 45 minutes. To break up the monotony that is inevitable with lap swimming, I broke the distance up into stages as follows:

• 500m -  warm up
• 500m - 50m 'quad' breathing/breathing every 4th stoke / 50m normal stroke x 5
• 500m - 50m 'tri' breathing/breathing every 3rd stroke / 50m normal stroke x 5
• 300m - cool down

I am consciously working on learning to breathe on my left side as I have learned that during a triathlon you cant always breath to the right side (be it due to sun glare or annoying swimmers beside you!). Dividing the distance up into 4 smaller components also meant that I didn't get too bored - and is a tactic that I will be sure to use again.

After work this evening I laced up  my sneakers for my second training session of the day, a 7 km run.  I followed one of my 'usual' routes which  is a 5km hilly run, followed by an extra section, to get the distance up to 7km. My calves were hating me by the end!

Mystery Box

To say that the run left me hungry was an understatement! Craving a quick and easy dinner, I switched around our meal plan and cooked tomorrow night's planned dinner  instead.

With the Mystery Box for inspiration, of course:

Cardamom!

  

Did you know? Cardamom is native to India, and is a member of the ginger family. It comes in both green and brown varieties, and can be used as a cooking spice as well as a medicine. Cardamom medicinal uses range from relieving stomach dyspepsia, increasing appetite, soothing the mucus membranes, relieving gas and heartburn, and eliminating bad breath.

While I would normally use cardamom in Indian cooking, I wanted to try something a little different tonight…. pasta with cardamom and tomato sauce.

 

To make the sauce, I sautéed an onion with garlic, grated ginger, turmeric, ground cumin and 8 cardamom pods that I had lightly crushed. Once softened, I added diced roma tomatoes, and cooked the sauce until it had thickened (around 20 minutes).

Into the pan then went half a bag of baby spinach and a  kalamata olives…

Followed by a couple servings of GF pasta that I had cooked until al dente.

Stirred until the spinach had wilted, then served and topped with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.

This was a tasty pasta dish, and a great way to end the day.

The cardamom added a hint of spice to the sauce, although I probably should have removed them before serving as they were not so great if you bit into them!

Luckily for me, I only came across 1 pod – where as Mr BBB found the remaining 7 in his bowl!

What about you? Do you like to cook with cardamom?

----

And, if you have a spare moment, I be thrilled if you could vote for me in the Foodbuzz Project Food Blog competition. Check out my entry for challenge 1 here, and use the voting tab near the top of the page!

---

Happy Baking :)