 Thank you Zahra, Salamu alaykum. Welcome to Morning Baraka and in this segment we're going to be discussing health and nutrition and here with me is Sanaa. Welcome Sanaa. Thank you. And we're going to be talking about Middle Eastern food but hopefully bringing it in a healthy way of eating. So what have you got for us today in our first? So today I'm going to be making a grilled pepper and tomato salad. Okay I haven't heard of that before. It's not something you really think about when you're making salad but it's a traditional Moroccan salad that we have and it's very tasty and really quick and easy to make. Okay so tell us about the ingredients that you use. So we're going to be using some red peppers, yellow peppers, green peppers and some tomatoes. They've all been grilled so before obviously we start we will grill them. You can grill them in the oven. Traditionally they would put it on the fire stove and let it go all black and then you would put it in a bag and seal the bag and let it sweat and then when it sweats the skins will come off easily. Okay so let's see you prepare this. So let's prepare yeah. Well these are interesting ingredients and I know that peppers generally are very rich in vitamin C's and it also contains a lot of water. It's like 92 percent water which is really really healthy for us. I mean a lot of the times we don't realize how much we need to hydrate ourselves. How much we need to keep because our brain actually contains majority water. A lot of people don't understand this fact. We always say we have to have a lot of water and it's for a reason because there is a function that we have to maintain in our body and being hydrated constantly you know sometimes we forget. So having these ingredients that contain the extra water and in this general you know salad there's no lettuce which normally has water. So the green peppers or the red and you know which ones you're using that actually do contain quite a lot of water. Exactly yeah and I mean it depends on what you would like to use. You can use just one color or you can mix like we're doing today. I prefer to mix because I just think it makes the salad look a lot more bright and vibrant and it just looks a lot more you know attractive to the eye when you're looking at it. But it is something that we use a lot in Morocco and it's something that like I said it's very quick it's tasty and we're going to be mixing you know and a lot of other things in there like the parsley and the coriander and the olive oil which will also give it that additional taste. You've got even health benefits of green peppers which in you know it basically reduces sort of several chronic diseases and even not just taking into consideration the health benefits from you know normal studies that have done even in Islam when we Imam Ali alaihi salam says that its type of taqwa is to actually take care of your health yeah not just you know spiritually but physically and this type also can help you prevent any sort of diseases and so we need to take more interest in what we eat and I know even when I coach clients as even though I'm not a you know nutritionist I do take a lot of interest as to how clients diet works because even though I work with the mind we have a lot of foods nowadays that actually make a difference to your mood there are foods for your mood it can increase or decrease stress or anxiety it can help with your you know mental you know ability to give you more boost and all of these ingredients that we're going to use hopefully throughout the show it's going to give us that insight and awareness and what I also think is really important is that we want to stick to sometimes our own culture food which is we always think that if we're going to diet we're going to be healthy we cannot do that with our own food but we actually can exactly yeah it's really important that you know we highlight that when we use these ingredients this is from our you know the cultures in the background that we used to and we can actually use it to our benefit exactly we can adjust it so for example where you know sometimes they would fry this in oil yes so you can think you know what I want to be a bit more healthier today so instead of frying it put it in the oven and grill it so the taste obviously we do know when something is fried it does taste a lot better but it's not much of a big difference really because you're still getting the benefits and the taste absolutely so you know remind me again so how did you prepare this so with the peppers and the tomatoes I grilled them and once they went quite dark and I placed them in a in a bag and I allowed them to sweat for about ten minutes okay and once I did that I took them out and then I peeled the skin off the outside which was when the good tip with the bag is that it's a lot easier to take it off okay so it will be a bit messy so I would advise to do in the sink and I even see you using gloves at the moment which would you normally use at home well not all the time but because we want to promote you know health and and to keep hygiene exactly to keep hygiene in mind as well so it's quite important to do that so yes so now what I've done is I haven't used a little bit because I don't think we need it yes but I've just chopped a bit of each and now what I'm going to add is a mixture of the just a bunch it obviously again it depends on what you like and your taste buds of course if you prefer to put more in it's up to you so what herb is that so this is a mixture of both parsley and coriander I love parsley in my salad it actually makes such a difference it's lovely and the fragrance of it is so so nice absolutely it adds color taste and it is really another part of your healthy plan exactly because a lot of the times we might put it on certain foods are just as a garnish but we can take advantage of having more if you add it to the salad exactly yeah and again with this you can chop it as you know as fine as you want I prefer to do it a bit more fine and some people like to just put it in completely of the leaf and mix it in again it's down to your own individual choice of how you prefer and now another thing that I'm going to put in there is olive oil I put a tablespoon of olive oil okay olive oil it's really really good for the health and it can low because that cholesterol so I think it's really really advisable that we should use more olive oil in our cooking generally yes exactly I mean in Morocco traditionally we always use olive oil for most of our cooking so we hardly use sunflower even a normal food cook foods normal food so you know in our stews in our curries any of these things we would always use olive oil mainly vegetable and sunflower or if we're frying like potatoes or chips or these things we would use it but olive oil is pretty much used in most of all in our cooking so I mean it's really really good it normalizes blood clotting and it can prevent sort of high blood pressure we don't realize these ingredients are so important exactly you know subhanAllah these ingredients are natural and they are so good for us and even you know we always think that we have to live a healthy life just by thinking in a particular way but actually our body and our mind has to work hand in hand and it's really important that we understand you know a lot more about food and how we can actually use that to our benefit and even still enjoy what we normally used to exactly yeah that's amazing by the way yeah no we just need to season it and it's with a bit of basic seasoning really just salt and pepper and I would put in here about a teaspoon I love balsamic vinegar but because you've put the olive oil the salt and you've got the parsley I mean it is a choice to put lemon or balsamic vinegar that's an extra or do you think because you having this as a side does that make a difference it depends I mean it would probably be very tasty with the vinegar okay and some lemon juice but and this is how we traditionally make it so you can add it how do you have it alongside what particular food so we would have this as traditionally on a table we would have the main meal in the middle okay so whether that will be like a chicken tagine or a lamb tagine and around the the actual main meal will be little plates of these salads okay and so and each plate would have a spoon so each person around the table would have their own salad portion exactly so that's why we're not making a lot because it's not something that you don't make huge amount I was gonna say yeah yeah I wanted a big bowl and again obviously you can choose to have it you know on its own if you don't want to have it with a meal it's you know you don't need absolutely if you just want a quick snack it's really healthy and it's quite hydrating and it's really colorful and tasty I'm just looking at it I can't wait to taste it yes so it smells very nice amazing especially when you've roasted it like grilled it like you have it's just so beautiful if anyone can you know it's not it's really lovely and I'm gonna also add obviously again this is based to your own taste yeah of course I don't like too much black pepper so I'll put about half a teaspoon or even less about quarter and then that's everything I see we've also got some lovely bread here as well is that something that you normally have or is it like rice normally with a meal or do you have both no we actually traditionally have bread so all of our dishes even our curries our shoes our tajins they're all with bread fresh bread so even salads we have we have it with bread yes and traditionally they would eat it with the salad with their fingers because you know like as part of the center is they say it's good to eat with the definitely with your hands with your hands because exactly yes so and what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna now serve it just move this out of the way let me help you there a bit put that behind you okay now again I said it's very basic it's very simple anyone can make it home really quickly and most of us have these ingredients in the fridge well to be fair like I said it's not the traditional salad and I think it's really healthy to have a different way of having salad which includes different ingredients which actually have more health benefits than the usual salad and again this could be a little bit more filling because you can have the salad alongside bread yeah and as that even as a lunch meal I personally would have that as a quick lunch you know snack if I was really busy and didn't have time to prepare and make anything or even to take that away because I don't know you mentioned before you could have that hot or cold exactly yes so this one is a cold one but if you would like to make it hot similar things that we've just done right but we would put it on a pan and put a little bit of again olive oil in the pan right and but this time we would add some just a little bit of onions a bit of garlic and then put all the ingredients inside allow it to just kind of simmer and absorb all of the the flavors right the salt the pepper and also the parsley and it will become a little bit more mushy yeah soft so exactly yes so it's even easier to eat with bread so sometimes it could become almost like a little stew yeah and you can have it with bread or even with a spoon on its own yeah and so there's two ways this is the cold version and the warmth they're both very tasty so you can give it a go and do you find that having this sort of ingredients especially with children do you find that they can easily you know take that because it's very difficult to have children eat these types of vegetables and greens for example it's true you know what one of the things that you can do is now not all children like fresh peppers they will prefer it grilled or vice versa they would like it the other way so for example one of the things that I've noticed is that my daughter prefers it if it's grilled so she enjoys it like that if I was to give it to her fresh she'd be like I'm not really it's a different texture and different taste exactly it's easier to have it in that sort of form and just looking at it looks absolutely delicious yes and the crunchiness I guess you know again you said it's a just you know it's a personal sort of it is yeah exactly and like I said it's not for everyone but you can give it a try it's very easy it's not the normal salad that we would have lettuce and which is what I love because it's nice to have something different and again it's it is traditional it comes from you know what we would normally have you know in our cultures and backgrounds but at the same time we use it for our own health benefits to improve our way of living and being and we don't realize that you know what we have and what we intake in our body makes such a difference to our everyday dealings yeah so this is why it's really important that we learn so much about what we have generally so anyway I'm just gonna tuck in yes I can't wait trying to try this a bit of parsley as well mmm it's delicious yeah I love it I mean I love vegetables anyway so I'm oh my god it's probably nicer as well when you put it in the fridge and let it get a little bit cool I love it and the thing is and just on its own not even having any bread alongside it yeah and that's an amazing plate just to have with so you know like I said there's a takeaway meal that you just you know in a rush and if it was you know for the next day if you're going to work yeah it's just perfect if you have guests as well it's also something that's really easy and quick to make because you know when you have guests over you always think what can I serve with the main meal this could be something that you could do at home it's quick and easy and it's something new that you can you know show to the to your visiting well thank you so that was really interesting and hopefully you know audience have sort of gained a little bit more awareness of these ingredients and this recipe and I hope you use this in your home and enjoy thank you for watching and shall I will see you next time salamu alaikum