Nicoise-inspired salad

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients:

Salad

• 2 tins Butter beans
• ~150 g Tinned tuna
• 10 Cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 cup Mixed leaves
• Handful snow peas, sliced length ways
• 1/2 Red capsicum, chopped into cubes
• 3 tsp Capers
• 1-2 tbs Kalamata olives sliced
• 3 ‘just-boiled’ eggs, halved

Dressing

• 1/4 cup Red wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup Olive oil
• 2-3 tbs Basil, chopped
• 1 dessert spoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp Honey

What I did…

1. Boiled the eggs – put 3 eggs in water onto the stove and brought the water to boil. Cooked the eggs for an additional 1 minute once water was boiling… perfectly cooked.
2. Mixed all the salad ingredients in a large bowl. I just layered the ingredients as I prepared them i.e. chopped tomatoes, olives on top, then leaves then… finishing with the tuna and egg.
3. Prepped the dressing and tasted it to make sure flavours were balanced. Poured the dressing over the salad then served it up. In the process of serving you inevitably get a mix of ingredients so I don’t bother mixing it ahead of time.

NOTES: The obvious difference here between a traditional nicoise and this one is the absence of potato. We used butter beans instead – texturally similar, but shaped differently of course. Beans provide carbohydrate, like potato but are also a good source of protein, fibre and release energy into our bodies more slowly/evenly – yay!

We find this is such a good ‘go to’ recipe when we are out of ideas/haven’t got any fresh meat/vego protein, but can’t stomach the thought of take away (or can’t afford it :)). It’s really tasty, filling and Mr T loves it which is a bonus!

Pasta salad with Avocado ‘pesto’

 

Ingredients:

Salad

• Feta (Danish), crumbled
• 1/2 punnet Cherry tomatoes, halved
• 200g Spiral pasta
• Handful Rocket
• Handful Baby spinach leaves
• 1/2 Red capsicum, chopped into 1x1cm cubes
• Handful Sugar snap peas, sliced in half

Avocado ‘pesto’

• 1 Avocado
• 2 Garlic cloves, crushed
• Juice of 1/2 lime
• Salt & pepper
• Olive oil

What I did…

1. Cooked the pasta as per the instruction on the packet. Drained and allowed to cool.
2. Mixed salad ingredients together with cooked pasta
3. To make the avo ‘pesto’ I mooshed the avocado until smooth. Then combined all the other ingredients with the avo, tasted it and then mixed it thoroughly through the pasta salad.
4. Got Mr T onto bbq-ing the meat
5. Served 🙂

NOTES: Mooshed doesn’t appear to be a word… but it’s a very useful technique 🙂

As with all my salads, proportions a pretty fluid – you can add more/less based on what looks good.

 

Deconstructed Moussaka

Moussaka & chickpea salad

Deconstructed moussaka

Ingredients:

Moussaka (serves 2-3)

• 1 large Eggplant
• Olive oil
• ~1 cup grated Cheese (we used haloumi)
• 3 tbs chopped Mint
• 500g Lamb mince
• 2-3 cloves Garlic
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1-2 Tomatoes
• 1/2 Red onion
• Salt & pepper

Chickpea salad (serves 2-3)

• Handful of rocket
• 1 cup chickpeas
• 2-3 tbs Flat-leaf parsley
• 1 clove garlic

Salad dressing

• 1 tbs Tahini
• 1-2 tsp Honey
• Juice of 1/2 a Lime
• Salt & pepper

What I did…

1. Preheated oven to ~ 200 C (not fan forced)
2. Cut eggplant into 1 cm thick slices. Lay the eggplant on a oven tray lined with baking paper and using a pastry brush, painted the top surface with olive oil…into the oven until browned and cooked through.
3. Once cooked I turned the oven setting to grill. After topping each eggplant slice with cheese I returned the tray to the oven to melt and grill the cheese.
4. In the meantime, I heated a frypan to moderately hot, then added a splash of olive oil to the pan along with the onion and garlic. Once browned I added the mince to cook through.
5. To the mince I added the chopped tomato and lemon juice which cooked for around 2-3 minutes allow the juices to reduce. After removing the pan from the heat I seasoned the mixture with salt and pepper and stirred the chopped mint through.
6. To assemble the Moussaka I started by placing  a slice of cheese-topped eggplant (largest diameter) on each plate. I then topped this with some of the mince mixture, followed by another piece of eggplant and so on, finishing with a slice of eggplant.
7. To make the salad I just combined the ingredients in a bowl and poured the dressing over, and mixed through.

NOTES: We had a 3 tiered moussaka i.e. three slices of eggplant per stack – you can have more or less depending if you want to make the recipe extend further or have a higher stack!

We used haloumi which kind of went with the greek style of the dish (and because we had this in the fridge) but you could easily use just a normal cheddar or even feta or ricotta. You also don’t need to put cheese on every slice – you may just like the top slice to have cheese (particularly if you are keen not to overindulge on calories :)). If you went with the feta/ricotta option I would think that you would add this fresh – i.e. don’t grill these cheeses.

The salad dressing should be made to taste – more honey for sweetness or to counter the tang of the lemon. You can safely leave out the tahini if you don’t like this or don’t have it in your cupboard.

 

Brazilian spinach salad

Ingredients (serves 1):

• Handful of Brazilian spinach
• 6 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/4 cup chickpeas
• 1/4 Avocado cut into chunks
• ~40 g Feta, crumbled
• Olive oil
• Balsamic Vinegar

What I did:

1. Combine ingredients and drizzle with oil & vinegar

2. Eat! Yum 🙂

Lamb Koftas & a Moroccan inspired salad

Mr Ts dinner 🙂

Ingredients:

Lamb Koftas (makes 9)

• 500g Lamb mince
• 1 tsp Ground Cumin
• 2 tsp Ground coriander
• 2 large cloves Garlic
• 1 tsp mint (or more if you have it!)

Salad (serves 3)

• 1/2 cup Chickpeas
• 1/3 cup Cooked quinoa
• 1/2 Avocado, chopped
• 4-5 Dried apricots, chopped
• 1-2 tbs Dried cranberries
• 10 Sicillian olives
• 1 cup Baby spinach leaves
• 2 tbs Roasted almonds

Dressing

• Juice of 2 Kaffir limes
• 2 tsp Honey
• 1-2 tsp Tahini
• 1/2 tsp Ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp Ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp Ground cumin
• 1 tbs Olive oil
• Salt & Pepper

What I did…

1. Mixed all the lamb kofta ingredients together, shaped into a log (turd?) shape and cooked in a moderate oven until cooked (~10 minutes).
2. Mixed all the salad ingredients together in a serving bowl
3. Mixed the ingredients for the dressing together and poured it over the salad
4. Served up the Koftas with the salad and a dollop of plain yoghurt!

NOTES:  I cooked up a cup of dried quinoa so I would have more quinoa ready to go for another salad/meal in the next couple of days – stored in an air tight container in the fridge.

I had previously reconstituted and cooked the chickpeas and had them in the freezer so it was just a matter of grabbing out a container of these and reheating them. I find this is a great way to ensure chickpeas are always on hand to add to a slow cook meal, curry or to beef up the protein and carbs (and therefore ‘fillingness’) of a salad. I think chickpeas prepped this way are much nicer than out of a tin but tinned is pretty convenient if you haven’t gotten around to cooking up the dried ones.

As you can see I am on a bit of a band wagon with the moroccan style spices and the addition of dried fruit to salad 🙂

Almond-Banana-Choc Cake

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Almond meal
• 1/3 cup Cacao powder
• 1 tsp Baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 2 Ripe bananas
• 1/3 cup Olive oil
• 1/2 cup Honey
• 2 Eggs

What I did:

Well I followed a recipe! (Found at greenkitchenstories.com)

1. Prepared a smallish pan – greased with oil and then dustedin some cacao powder and almond meal
2. Combined all the dry ingredients in a bowl
3. In another bowl, whisked the eggs and then added the other wet ingredients
4. Mixed the wet and dry ingredients together and poured the batter into the prepared pan
5. Cooked cake for 45 minutes at 170 degrees Celsius
6. Served as is (Mr T had it with cream)

NOTES:  I know it’s not a main meal but this was so easy and delicious and pretty non-naughty.

Easy because I had all these ingredients in the pantry – not sure if that is typical of other people’s pantries or not??; little washing up and seriously easy to concoct with a baby strapped to ones front!

Just a Basic Pasta Salad

Served with Tandoori chicken

Ingredients:

• Penne pasta (I used about 200g Vetta high protein low carb pasta)
• 1 can cannellini beans drained and rinsed
• 1 avocado diced
• 1 Lebanese cucumber sliced
• 1 punnet of organge roma cherry tomatoes halved
• A handful of fresh basil torn
• Olive oil
• Lemon juice
• Red wine vinegar
• Salt & pepper

What I did…

1. Cooked the pasta then rinsed with cold water to cool quickly
2. Combined the salad ingredients in a large bowl with the pasta
3. Made the dressing to taste and tossed it through the salad
4. I served the salad with sliced beef (for the kids) tandoori chicken (for us) but obviously it will be great with loads of things or on it’s own.

NOTES: It was a classic case of “what can we throw together for dinner tonight without going to the shops or ordering take-away?” and I invented this surprisingly delicious pasta salad using ingredients we had on hand.

• It would have made me happy to add some dots of goats cheese or small chunks of fetta on top but unfortunately that would have required a trip to the shops. Next time.
• Other fresh herbs, such as flat leap parsley or coriander would work too. Tearing the basil meant my daughter could pluck it out easily because she isn’t a fan and the rest of us don’t mind a good hit of basil. In the past I have chopped it up small but then she won’t eat any of it. That is rather annoying.
• Canellini beans are a slightly weird addition but sneaking a few legumes in ticks another nutrient box.
• I’m not exact with quantities for dressings but it seems to work out ok. Essentially a good glug of oil, a splash of vinegar and juice of half a lemon is how I like it.

Lamb and Israeli cous cous salad

Dodge quality photo and only captured leftovers 🙂 but you get the gist of it.

Ingredients:

• Lamb steaks
• Israeli cous cous
• Stock (500 ml)
• Rocket
• Cucumber, capsicum, celery
• Sicilian olives
• Medjool dates
• Avocado
• Pepitas
• Ground cumin; Ground cinnamon; Ground ginger
• Juice of an orange
• Olive oil
• Salt & pepper
• White wine vinegar (could use balsamic)

 

What I did…

1. Pan fried the lamb; Sliced once cooked and served with the cous cous salad
2. Cooked the cous cous in stock; drained
3. Toasted the pepitas under the grill
4. Made up a dressing (orange juice, oil, salt, pepper, vinegar, spices – combined to taste (should be slightly sweet, slightly tart))
5. In a bowl, combined the salad vegetables/fruit (Cut cucumber, celery, capsicum and dates into small pieces; Cut avo into slices)
6. Tossed half the dressing through the cooked cous cous and the other half through the salad veg.
7. Tossed together the cous cous, crunchy pepitas and salad
8. Served salad with the Lamb… wa-la 🙂

NOTES: I haven’t included amounts because it is irrelevant 🙂 You can make up the amounts to suit you – the number of people you are feeding, what you have in your fridge to put in the salad. To me the make or break ingredients are the lamb, the cous cous and the spice. After that, the crunch – doesn’t have to be pepitas though. Some sweet element – I used dates. Other options include dried apricots or figs or raisins. Obviously the salad vege can pretty much come from whats in your fridge (within reason :))