Recipe: Carrot and Toasted Pine Nut Salad

Had a barbeque on sunday- Lovely! So nice to finally have a meal outside in my parent's sunny garden. We used one of those portable barbeques- they actually work pretty well! They look so puny i guess, but we cooked chicken, paneer, sausages and corn on the cob very successfully. I made a load of side salads to have with our sizzled meat, and this one came out on top. Very simple but delicious.

Carrot and Pine Nut Salad (serves 4 as a side dish)

5 carrots, peeled and grated

Handful fresh basil, finely chopped
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp French dressing
100g pine nuts, toasted
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Mix together all of the ingredients except the pine nuts.  Season to taste, top with the toasted pine nuts and serve!

 

Recipe: Apple, Celery and Pecan Salad

This is basically a "Waldorf salad", but with pecans instead of walnuts. Because it's scrummy and that's the way I like it! A nice summery salad and a great dish to bring to a barbecue/ party. I served this alongside my spicy marinated chicken drumsticks, a recipe that should follow next after this one in the next couple of days. If you aren't a huge fan of mayonnaise, feel free to use Greek or natural yoghurt, that works pretty well too.

Apple, Celery and Pecan Salad (serves 4 as a side dish)

2 apples diced

2 celery sticks, diced

80g pecans, roughly chopped

100g red grapes, halved

250g light mayonnaise

1. Mix together all the ingredients well, and serve!

Recipe: Tandoori Lamb Salad

Bit of a cheat recipe, but it's so quick to make, delicious, and super healthy! These "Minted Lamb Kebabs" are 2 packs (with 4 kebabs in each) for £5 in Sainsburys at the moment. Totally worth it! Using the griddle pan reminds me of when in some Indian restaurants, when you order a tikka, tandoori, or shashlik dish, and the waiters come to your table with a big sizzling griddle full off spiced meat and onions- yum! This is definitely a MAN salad!

Tandoori Lamb Salad (serves 2)

 

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp garam masala
4 Sainsburys Minted Lamb Skewers
12 cooked small new potatoes, halved
½ white onion, sliced
¼ tsp garlic salt
140g spinach
12 cherry tomatoes

Dressing

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt, pepper and sugar to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 220C. Put a griddle pan onto a high heat with the extra virgin olive oil. Sprinkle the garam masala over the lamb skewers, and put onto the hot griddle pan, cooking for 2 minutes each side.
2. Place the skewers on an oven tray and put into the oven for 8 minutes. Meanwhile, put the new potatoes, sliced onion and garlic salt straight onto the hot griddle pan, and cook for 7 minutes, stirring often.
3. Whisk together all of the dressing ingredients until well combined, season to taste and set aside. Place the spinach and cherry tomatoes on two plates. Remove the lamb skewers from the oven, remove the sticks, slice, and put on top of the spinach and tomatoes.
4. Top the salads with the fried onions and new potatoes, drizzle over the dressing and serve!

Recipe: Crispy Buttermilk Chicken, with Tomato and Chive Bulgur Wheat

This recipe is great for those who are allergic to egg, as normally one would put the chicken in flour, egg, then breadcrumbs. Using buttermilk is a great way of keeping chicken moist and flavourful, whilst still creating a nice golden crispy crust on top! Kentucky Fried Chicken eat your heart out, ha-ha!! The bulgur is a very pleasant, tasty and healthy accompaniment to the chicken too. I have garnished my plate with a handful of pea shoots (because I love them!) but feel free to serve this meal with your favourite salad/ green veg. 

Crispy Buttermilk Chicken, with Tomato and Chive Bulgur wheat (serves 4)

The Chicken

4 chicken breasts

120g plain flour

140ml buttermilk

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

½ tsp celery salt

150g dry breadcrumbs

¼ tsp garlic powder

Salt and cracked black pepper

The Bulgur wheat

300g bulgur wheat

900ml beef stock

1 tsp tomato paste

4 large ripe tomatoes, diced

Large handful fresh chives, diced

Splash red wine vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

Salad garnish (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Get three deep plates. Put plain flour on one plate, put the buttermilk, Worcestershire sauce and celery salt (mixed) on one plate, and the breadcrumbs with garlic powder and seasoning on the other.

2. Coat the chicken breasts first in the flour, then in the buttermilk, and then into the breadcrumbs. Place onto an ovenproof tray, and repeat for the other chicken breasts. Place tray in the oven for 30 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, cook the bulgur wheat in the beef stock until the wheat is cooked, and all the stock has been absorbed (add more water during the cooking process if necessary). Put into a mixing bowl, and mix with the tomato paste, tomatoes, chives, vinegar and seasoning.

4. Remove the chicken from the oven, and serve with the bulgur wheat, and a green salad on the side if desired.  

Recipe: Asian Duck Breast, with Miso Bulgur wheat and a Mango sesame salad

This is one of the nicest meals i've ever cooked i think!! I've eaten duck breasts loads of times but i've never tried cooking it- worked a treat! Bit of a cheat using a packet sauce, but theres a lot of different steps in this recipe so it's just easier using something ready made. I suppose if you wanted, you could make your own sauce before you make this recipe then heat it up as you would do the packet. Duck and mango go so well together! I was thinking of having the duck and the salad with noodles or rice, but didn't have any in the house, so went with bulgur wheat, and was really happy with the results- makes the dish a bit fusion-y I reckon! A nice easy dish to impress a date I reckon.

Asian Duck Breast, with Miso bulgur wheat and a mango sesame salad

Duck
2 large duck breasts
Salt and pepper
2 tsp Schwartz Thai 7 spice mix
1 packet Blue Dragon yellow bean and cashew sauce.

Miso Bulgur

100g bulgur wheat
1 tbsp white miso paste
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 tsp soy sauce
Plenty of ground pepper to taste
1 beef stock cube

Salad

80g watercress, rocket and spinach mix
1 mango, peeled and diced
2 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted

1.       Preheat the oven to 180C. Pat the duck breasts (fat side up) with some kitchen roll. Slash criss-cross lines over the top of the breasts. Season with salt and Thai 7 spice, and fry on a very high heat in a large saucepan, for about 4 minutes each side. Put on a baking tray and put in the oven, 5 minutes for rare, 10 for medium, 15 for well done.

2.       Meanwhile, put a large pan of water on the boil, and add all the miso bulgur wheat ingredients. Cook for about 10-15 minutes, until the wheat is soft, and drain.

3.       In a small frying pan, heat up the packet of sauce. Remove the duck from the oven, and slice on an angle. Plate up the duck, bulgur wheat, sauce and salad evenly amongst two plates. Top with more toasted sesame seeds if desired, and serve!

Recipe: Chicken Fajitas, with a tomato and spring onion salad

This is the first proper meal that i've made for my new housemates! So cool! My south african house mate Brendan, who i get on fantastically well with, really liked this dish. Aw- i'm glad I can hopefully keep the (4!) boys i'm living with happy through feeding them lovely things! This is a really tasty, quick and healthy dish- and you can make it as mild or as spicy as you like, just depending on personal taste. You can adjust the cayenne pepper and the chilli in the dish- or you could add some spicy salsa or jalapenos to the wraps just before eating. Yum!!

Chicken Fajitas with a tomato and spring onion salad (serves 3)

1 tbsp olive oil
2 chicken breasts, sliced
½ green pepper, sliced
½ red pepper, sliced
½ yellow pepper, sliced
½ white onion, sliced
Handful fresh coriander, chopped
1 tsp Thai yellow curry paste
1 tsp Schwartz vegetable seasoning
¼- ½ tsp cayenne pepper (depending on how hot you like it!)
1 red chilli, finely chopped
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

6 medium or 3 extra-large tortilla wraps.

250g cherry tomatoes, quartered
2 spring onions, finely sliced
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp French dressing
Big handful fresh coriander, finely chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

1.       Add all the fajita ingredients to a large frying pan or saucepan, and fry on a high heat for about 25-30 minutes, or until everything is well cooked and the chicken and veg have started to blacken a bit/ stick on the pan. Season to taste.

2.       Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200C, and put the tortillas, wrapped in cling film, into the oven for 8-10 minutes. Mix together all the salad ingredients, season to taste and set aside.

3.       Take the wraps out of the oven, fill them with the chicken fajita mixture, and serve with the tomato salad, and some natural yoghurt if you so desire.

Recipe: Griddled Peach and Feta Salad

This is frankly the most GORGEAUS salad recipe I have ever made!!! It's got so much oomph, such zingy flavours, really well paired ingredients- basically it's just fab! If you cant get raspberry vinegar (i'm not actually sure how readily available it is in this country- the raspberry vinegar I have was a nice foodie buy from France this summer) then just use cider vinegar. You can also use nectarines or apricots in the place of peaches if you want. The nice dish i've presented this in was a present my mum brought back to me from Mexico- very pretty isn't it??

Griddled Peach and Feta Salad (serves 2)

Salad
2 ripe peaches
1 tsp raspberry vinegar
½ tsp sugar
Salt and pepper
100g mixed leaves (preferably peppery Italian leaves)
100g feta, diced
Salt and pepper

Dressing
1 tbsp raspberry vinegar
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
½ tsp Dijon mustard
Salt, sugar and pepper to taste

1. Put a griddle pan onto a high heat. Stone the peaches and cut each one into quarters. Brush each quarter with raspberry vinegar (or lemon juice) and sprinkle with sugar, salt and pepper.
2. Put each seasoned peach quarter onto the griddle pan, one of the flesh sides facing down. In 2 minutes, turn it onto it’s other side, and then after another minute, turn it onto the skin side (making sure the peach “wedges” are griddled all over).
3. Put the leaves into a big serving dish. Top with the feta, and the still warm griddled peaches. Whisk together the dressing ingredients, season to taste and pour over the salad. Serve!

Recipe: Jamie Oliver's Courgette and Boccocini Salad

This is a lovely little salad recipe that Nick made me last week, after we'd both seen Jamie Oliver make it on his "30 Minute Meals" program. Very simple and very refreshing I thought, and tasty too. We made half the amount Jamie made on his show, as it was to serve four- but other than that we followed the recipe to the letter. I will definitely be making this again, it is delicious, however i think that the salad would be nicer with some creamy goats cheese or some feta instead of the boccocini (mini mozzarella balls- sometimes called Mozzarella pearls in supermarkets) as I didn't think they actually added much to the dish. Nick actually took the picture of this dish with his iphone, they've got such fantastic cameras on them havent they??

Courgette and Mozzarella Salad (serves 2 as a side dish)

1 yellow courgette, peeled thinly into strips (discarding the middle bit)
1 green courgette, peeled thinly into strips (discarding the midd bit)
1 red chilli, very finely chopped
1 squeeze fresh lemon
Handful fresh mint, very finely chopped
salt and pepper
10 Boccocini

1. Mix all the ingredients together (except the boccocini) and season to taste. Lay the courgettes onto a platter and top with the boccocini- serve!

Recipe: Greek Salad

Hey guys. So "Widcombe Rising" is Bath's biggest street festival, it is a big mish mash of art, drama, music, food, drink and festivities- and my boyfriend Nick and Natural Theatre Company director Ralph Oswick organise it every other year . An estimated 8000 people visit Widcombe Rising on the day, and it is always fantastic and fun filled. This year,since it was all "Olympiad" themed, i decided to have my own stall selling Greek salads! I did really well actually, and reckon i would have sold out if it hadnt have rained a bit on the day. This is the recipe that i used to fill my greek salad pots, it's a main course sized portion for 1, that can of course easily be multiplied to feed a family, or to make a fab side dish. In the picture i've just used red peppers (because i ran out of green, lol) but it's always good for appearance sake to use different coloured peppers. Also, this dish is so healthy- each portion makes up 3 of your five a day!!

Greek Salad (serves 1 as a main course)

100g tomatoes, sliced into wedges (or halved cherry tomatoes)
5 black olives
20g thinly sliced red onion
¼ (50g) peeled and sliced cucumber
30g (1/4) red pepper
30g (1/4) green pepper
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp white wine vinegar
Salt and pepper
50g feta (diced into cubes)
Pinch dried oregano

1. Combine all the ingredients except the feta and oregano together in a mixing bowl. Plate up the Greek salad, top with the feta, and sprinkle the dried herbs over the top. Serve!

Recipe: Broad Bean and Courgette Bulghur Salad

Keep getting loads of broad beans from Riverford! You'll be expecting another broad bean creation as my next entry actually. Its a veg that I do really like, but I dont tend to actually go out and buy. This is a nice, tasty, healthy and fresh tasting dish- not made with my own courgettes yet, they arent doing so well this year. Only got two plants (3rd one got devoured by slugs!) this time and it's being a bit slower producing nice big juicy fruits! You can boil the broad beans seperately if you want to peel their skins off- but i don't mind the skins. If you get nice fresh broad beans and you dont overcook them their skins never get tough really.

Broad Bean and Courgette Bulghur Salad (serves 4)

110g bulghur wheat
200ml hot vegetable stock (or chicken, depending on whether you want it vegetarian)
250g fresh broad beans
2 tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, diced
1 courgette, halved lengthwise and sliced
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Big handful mint, finely chopped (plus extra leaves for garnish)
100g Feta Cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Cook the bulghur wheat in the vegetable stock for 15 minutes, or until the wheat has soaked up all the liquid and is cooked. 10 minutes before the end of the cooking add the broad beans. Pour broad bean and bulghur mixture into a bowl and set aside.
2. In another pan, fry the red onions for about 5 minutes in the olive oil, until softened, then add to the bulghur mixture. To the same pan add the courgettes and fry for a further 5 minutes, until beginning to brown, then add to the bulghur mixture.
3. Mix in the extra virgin olive oil and fresh mint into the bulghur salad. Season to taste, crumble feta over the top, garnish with a few extra torn mint leaves, and serve!

Recipe: Mel's Chicken Caeser Salad

This is Caeser salad done the way i like it! I use full fat greek yoghurt instead of mayonnaise- not for any health reasons really, just because I don't like mayo atall and i think you get a better flavour from yoghurt. Sometimes I use chicken breasts with the skin on too- if so, I sear the skin side of the breast in a frying pan before chucking in the oven. Oh, and I know traditionally Caeser salad has anchovies in it, but I can't stand the horrible little things! Used up some home-grown lettuce in this too, a variety called "Buttercrisp". It's kinda like kos or romaine though. Got loads of salad/ lambs lettuce to use- theyve all bolted suddenly all at the same time!

Mel’s Chicken Caeser Salad (serves 2)

The Chicken
2 chicken breasts
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp dried thyme
Salt and pepper

The Croutons
1 thick slice white bread, diced
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
½ tsp dried oregano
Cracked black pepper.

Salad
100g full fat Greek yoghurt
20g finely grated parmesan
15g wholegrain mustard
5 ml Worchester sauce
15ml white wine vinegar
1 crushed garlic clove
15ml extra virgin olive oil
Pinch of sugar, and cracked black pepper
250g torn Kos/Romaine style lettuce
Optional extras: sliced tomato, crispy bacon, anchovies, olives etc.

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. In a baking dish roast the chicken in the oven with the olive oil, thyme, salt and pepper for 30 minutes.
2. On a baking tray toss together the diced bread, olive oil, oregano and black pepper (you don’t need any salt in the croutons or the dressing, because the parmesan is salty enough for the entire dish). Bake in the same oven for about 5 minutes, until golden and crispy.
3. Mix together all of the salad ingredients well (except the lettuce), and season to taste. Mix the lettuce into the dressing ingredients. Evenly put the salad mixture onto two plates, top with croutons and the cooked chicken breasts, sliced. Add any extras you wish, and serve!

Recipe: Honey Paprika Chicken, with Avocado + Tomato Salad

This is just simply a lovely dish- an easy way to get big flavour into lean meat. The smoky flavour of the paprika compliments the sweet honey very well, and the cooling avocado and tomato salad cuts through the sweet spiciness of the chicken perfectly. A quick mid-week meal, that's really good for your health- the natural oils from the avocado really help to maintain beautiful skin, hair and nails.

Honey Paprika Chicken, with an avocado and tomato salad (serves 2)

2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp honey
1 tsp smoked paprika
Salt and pepper
2 large chicken breasts

1 avocado, stoned, skin removed, and diced
2 ripe tomatoes, seeded and diced
20g finely chopped red onion
Handful chopped coriander
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper
Salad leaves (optional)

1. Mix the olive oil, honey, smoked paprika and a little salt and pepper. Coat the chicken in the paprika mixture, and marinade for 30 minutes in the fridge.
2. Preheat the oven to 220C oven (or 200C fan oven). Put the marinated chicken (and all the marinade!) into a baking dish, and bake for 30 minutes, basting half way through.
3. Meanwhile, add the avocado, tomato, coriander, and balsamic vinegar to a mixing bowl. Mix, season to taste, and serve alongside the chicken, with a handful of leafy greens.

Recipe: New Potato Salad with Wild Garlic

Now, wild garlic- have you ever tried it? If you havent, you MUST, it is fabulous! Now i'm not much of a "forager" per say, not like these chefs that go out picking their own mushrooms and catching their own seafood and things, but wild garlic is very easy to identify and collect. It's not like I could mistake it for something else, and end up ruddy poisoning someone! As you can see with the pictures here, wild garlic leaves are thin, dark green, and the plants have white flowers. The flowers can also be picked and consumed- they look lovely as a garnish! You will know it is wild garlic when you pick it- cause all you need to do is smell it- it has a very pungent garlicky smell! Infact often, when you get large patches of it like this, you can actually smell the wild garlic in the air- it's amazing!

Now, it's hard to make potato salad look pretty- but this dish is soooo tasty- and healthier than your adverage potato salad too, cause it uses yoghurt instead of mayonaiise (cause I aint a big fan of mayo). Wild garlic is seasonal to the UK in April/ early May, and can mostly be found in wooded or shady areas. It aint around for much longer now, so get out there and start picking!

New Potato Salad with Wild Garlic (serves 2 as a side dish)

1 heaped tsp smooth Dijon mustard
1 tsp honey
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tbsp walnut oil
Pinch of sugar, salt and pepper
4 tbsp Greek yoghurt
6 wild garlic leaves, finely chopped
8 cooked (cold!) new potatoes, quartered

1. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the mustard, honey, vinegar, oil, salt, pepper and pinch of sugar, until it emulsifies (just like how you would normally make vinaigrette).
2. Mix the Greek yoghurt and wild garlic into the other ingredients until well combined. Mix the potatoes into the finished sauce (not too vigorously! You don’t want to mash the potatoes!).
3. Season to taste and serve!

Recipe: Tabouleh

If you have't tried this dish before you are really missing out, trust me. Tabouleh (Prounced Tah-Boo-Lay) is a Lebanese herb and bulghur wheat salad. It is so delicious, fresh and healthy- and goes fantastic as a side dish for Arabic/Middle Eastern Lamb dishes. And for the veggies it's very nice topped with a few hot slices of griddled haloumi. I have seen many people fail to make this dish properly, because they don't realise that the main emphasis of flavour should definitely come from the herbs. It shouldnt be a couple of lonely sprigs of parsley amongst a heap of bulghar.

Tabouleh (serves 3 as a side dish)

100g bulghar wheat
500ml water
20g fresh mint leaves (no stems), chopped finely
40g fresh parsley leaves (no stems) chopped roughly
250g ripe plum tomatoes, seeded and diced
½ red onion, diced finely
Juice of ½ a lemon
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
½ tsp salt
Black pepper to taste

1. Boil the bulghar wheat in the water for about 10 minutes, or until the grains are soft and all the liquid has been absorbed. Drain under cool water and set aside.
2. Meanwhile, put all the other ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Add the reserved cooled bulghar wheat, stir until well mixed, season to taste and serve!