Tag Archives: salad

Asparagus: making healthy food less boring

We’re in the prime of British asparagus season, with May being Asparagus Month and a great time to explore this vegetable in all its many shapes and guises. Asparagus is, in general, a pretty awesome vegetable and happens to be extremely handy for people who do the intermittent fasting (aka 5:2 fast diet) thing. In fact, asparagus is good for anyone watching their calories – one medium spear of asparagus has just 3 calories but packs loads of flavour and can make traditional, boring “diet foods” into something quite interesting.

Case in point: salads. This is a favourite for many fasters and calorie counters because it allows one to have a big ol’ pile of food – quite nutritious food, at that – without necessarily having a big ol’ pile of calories along with it. But salads can be problematic: how many of us have eating a gargantuan salad only to find ourselves deeply unsatisfied at the end of it?

Let’s face it, there are many dimensions to food satisfaction: not only quantity, but flavour and texture, too. This is where asparagus can come to a salad’s rescue with its notable flavour and crisp bite (provided you don’t boil it to death). It also pairs extremely well with other fast-friendly foods like eggs and potatoes, plus fresh herbs like dill, tarragon and chives, which all together can make a salad so much more than a pile of leaves.

Dressing helps, too, but even a simple treatment of lemon juice and olive oil with salt and pepper can go along way (a little Parmesan helps, too, which is fairly low-calorie as far as cheeses go). But if you want to take it a little further, I can heartily recommend the tarragon vinaigrette recipe I’ve posted below, a little something I learned from The Vegetarian Cookery School that has proved infinitely versatile and especially stunning with potato, eggs and, yes, asparagus. All together it makes for an incredibly flavoursome fast day lunch or dinner dish – it clocks in at about 250 Calories, leaving you plenty of extra calories (250 if you’re a woman, 350 if you’re a man) for another asparagus session for later in the day.

Asparagus, Egg and Potato Salad with Tarragon Vinaigrette

You can adapt this recipe to use whatever salad vegetables you have on hand; the dressing is marvellously versatile, but is especially good with potatoes and light cheeses like ricotta and fresh goats curd. Calories: ~250.

5 asparagus spears, blanched and slice into 3cm pieces
2 boiled new potatoes (~1/2 cup or 80g)
1 carrot, julienned
1 tomato, sliced into wedges
Lettuce leaves
1 Tbsp tarragon vinaigrette (see below)
1 boiled egg
salt and pepper
lemon to serve

Tarragon vinaigrette:

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp chopped fresh tarragon
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp honey
pinch salt & pepper

Method:

Make the tarragon vinaigrette by whisking together all of the ingredients in a bowl (this makes more than you’ll need so store the rest for future salads).
Combine the asparagus, potatoes, carrots, tomato and lettuce leaves in a bowl. Toss with ~1 Tbsp of tarragon vinaigrette, plus a pinch of salt and a good grind of pepper.
Serve garnished with the boiled egg and a lemon wedge (in case it needs a little extra zing).

This post originally appeared on Great British Chefs.

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Avocado Tahini Dressing

Once again, the elusive avocado threatened to defeat me today. Just one light squeeze and I could tell it was on the far side of ripe – and slicing the avocado open confirmed my suspicions. It was green, but starting to get those unpleasant stringy bits. I had no desire to eat the avocado as is, and yet, it didn’t seem totally useless. And besides, avocados are expensive. Waste not, right?

So I got this idea in my head to turn it into a salad dressing. I started with this cilantro avocado dressing on 101 Cookbooks, subbing lemon for lime, parsley for cilantro and tahini for yogurt. The result was pretty stellar, the perfect splooge for my baked falafel. I think I’ll try the rest with roasted pumpkin, or maybe these crispy cornmeal sweet potato fries.

I reckon this is a good starting point for all kinds of creamy vegan dressings. I’d like to try it with other fresh herbs – basil and chives come to mind. Some jalapeño wouldn’t go amiss, either.

Best of all, I have something I can do with my almost-off avocados. Which reminds me, Katy Salter wrote about her quest for the perfect avocado in the Guardian yesterday, which confirms some of my suspicions: The myth of the ripe and ready range.

Avocado Tahini Dressing

Recipe type: Salad Dressing

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 1 min

Total time: 6 mins

Serves: 6

Ingredients

1 large avocado, ripe
juice of 1 lemon
¼ cup parsley
1 clove garlic
2 Tbsp tahini
¾ cup water
½ teaspoon fine grain sea salt

Instructions

Whizz together all of the ingredients in a blender. Taste, and add more lemon, tahini, salt or anything else as you see fit.

Nutrition Information

Calories: 85 Fat: 7.6 Saturated fat: 1.1 Carbohydrates: 4.2 Fiber: 2.8 Protein: 1.6 Cholesterol: 0

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Baked Falafel

The traditional way of making falafel involves soaking chickpeas, blending them up with onion, herbs and spices, then deep frying them into crispy balls of perfection. The key point here is that the chickpeas aren’t cooked – if they were, they falafel would fall apart and you’d need flour or breadcrumbs to hold the falafel together. To me, this defeats the purpose, especially if you’re serving the falafel in a pita. I want to fill my pita with beans, not bread (it’s the age-old veggie burger versus bread burger dilemma).

For lack of good falafel in the Cotswolds, I’ve tried making my own falafel the traditional way but it’s always been a disaster, primarily at the deep frying step. I don’t think I can get my oil hot enough on the electric hob (that, or I’m scared). So the falafel just ends up soaking up all the oil and then falling into greasy gross pieces.

I’ve experimented with several baked falafel recipes, all of which involve using cooked chickpeas, or in Leon’s case, chickpea flour. The baked falafel I made with my sister was decent, but not exactly ultimate.

At last I came across this baked falafel recipe, adapted from The America’s Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook, which follows the traditional method of soaking the chickpeas. To get around the fried bit, olive oil is included in the falafel mixture itself, and in the baking tray.

I’ve made these twice now, and while they don’t have quite the same wow-factor as really good deep-fried falafel, they are still pretty damn good and, as it seems, worth making again and again. They also keep well in the freezer which makes them handy for lunches (I re-heat them in the toaster!).

I like to serve mine with a simple tahini sauce made with lemon juice, tahini and enough water to make a drizzle-able dressing. Chilli jam or harissa is nice, too.

The next thing to master are those great pickles you get with falafel in good falafel joints. The best I’ve ever had were the falafel and pickles from Arabica in Borough Market, though the last time I had them they weren’t quite as good as I remember. (I’ve since been told I must go to Mr. Falafel in Shepherd’s Bush.)

Is it pickled turnips I’m after? And I haven’t even touched on the falafel sauce. Tzatziki? Tahini? Hot sauce? All of the above?

Suggestions welcome.

Recipe: Baked Falafel

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Indian Cabbage Salad

I had a pretty stellar Thanksgiving this year. The party included two of my bestest friends of all time, Rachel and Dave, visiting for the occasion all the way from Austin, Texas (via a year-long stint in Berlin).

On the evening before our big day of nut roast and Prosecco, I decided a pre-Thanksgiving dinner detox was in order. So I went with the kind of food that I know I can make well, tastes a bit celebratory, but just happens to be healthy and vegan at the same time. The meal: my reliable red lentil dahl with panch phoran, Indian cabbage salad, basmati rice and flatbread masquerading as naan.

Of all the dishes, the cabbage salad was the biggest hit, a nice thing because I never know if my love of this salad has something to do with my own personal obsession with all things cabbage, or with the fact that the cabbage salad really is that good. Rachel seems to confirm my suspicion that this, indeed, is cabbage clad in awesomeness, so I’m posting the recipe here for her and for all cabbage lovers of the world. (Consequentially, I also made this salad for my friend, Claudia, last year – you can see it in the picture above, made all the more better by her rad vintage tableware – she also gave it the thumbs up.)

This salad is basically a winter riff on this cucumber and coconut salad and leaves a lot of room for improvisation (because I know how much Rachel loves improv). Any cabbage will do for this salad, though I am partial to the texture of Savoy. Chop it chunky or slice it fine. Skip the carrots if you don’t have them, or try adding other slaw-style goodness like bell peppers. Up the spices or the chilli if that’s your thing. Go nuts with the coriander.

I don’t usually follow a recipe when I make this, but I’ve attempted to write it up as such all the same. Do let me know if you try it and what you think!

Indian Cabbage Salad

I left out the asafoetida and curry leaves when I made this for Rachel and Dave but if you have them, use them. Feel free to chop the cabbage and carrots as finely or as not finely as you have the patience and inclination. My tendency is often to slice as finely as possible, but sometimes I like a chunky salad!

Ingredients

½ head of cabbage, finely sliced or chopped
2 carrots, shredded or sliced
a small bunch of fresh cilantro (i.e. coriander), finely chopped
2 tsp olive oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
½ tsp asafoetida (optional)
~10 dried curry leaves (optional)
1 green chilli, finely sliced (be careful with these – they can be HOT!)
2Tbsp grated or dessicated coconut (or more to taste)
juice from half a lemon
salt

Instructions

Put the cabbage, carrots and coriander in a bowl and set aside.
Put the oil in a large frying pan with the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, asafoetida and curry leaves. Turn the heat up to medium and wait for the seeds to start sizzling and smelling delicious.
When the mustard seeds begin to pop, add the green chilli and fry for another few seconds, then pour the oil and seeds over the salad. (If you’re struggling to get all of the seeds out of the pan, put some of the salad in the pan and swirl it around, then scrape back into the bowl.)
Add the lemon juice, a pinch of salt and the coconut. Taste, adding more salt, lemon or coconut if desired.

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Waldorf-Inspired Breakfast Salad

This has been breakfast the last few days, a sort of glorified vegan version of the classic Waldorf salad, inspired by this season’s apple harvest and a few stalks of celery lurking in my fridge. You could bulk this out with added quinoa, bulgar wheat, maybe a few raisins, or even a blob of yogurt, but I found this wasn’t necessary. As is, this was my idea of perfect breakfast: delicious food that satisfies without over-filling. Major feel-good factor here.

For one serving:

1 apple, chopped
1 carrot, grated
a few thin slices of red onion
2 celery stalks, sliced
10g walnuts
2 tbsp chopped parsley
a few little gem lettuce leaves
salt and pepper to taste
sliced green chilli (optional)
2 tsp dijon-based vinaigrette (mine was the House Dressing recipe from Arthur Potts Dawson’s Eat Your Veg, but any mustard-based dressing would do – I love this honey mustard dressing recipe)

Mix it all together and serve.

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Helen and Silvana’s Vegetarian Smorgasbord

A recent lunch re-affirmed two things I already knew: Helen Lawrence from The Vegetarian Cookery School is one of the best vegetarian chefs of all time ever, and Silvana de Soissons really knows how to pick ‘em.

The occasion was The Foodie Bugle Contributor’s Lunch Party, hosted by Silvana, who wisely chose Helen to create, cook and serve the meal. The end result was the smorgasbord of my dreams (veggie or otherwise). Get a load of this menu:

Roasted red pepper soup and harissa
Wild mushrooms with pinenuts and herbs
Imman Bayaldi
Roasted butternut squash and haloumi salad with tahini yoghurt and spices
Castelluccio lentils with beetroot & caramelised fennel
Tomatoes slow roasted tomatoes with fregola and herbs

This is my kind of food, and reading the menu filled me with promise. But it was in eating the food itself where I was reminded why Helen rocks my world.

I’ve known Helen for the past few years in my work with The Vegetarian Cookery School and Demuths Restaurant (where Helen used to be head chef). Helen is happy, fun and spontaneous. She works hard but never stresses. She loves ingredients. She loves to play. She loves to cook. All of this results in some amazing food, often with flavour combinations that surprise and inspire, and always beautifully presented as if each dish is an homage to the vegetables themselves. I’ve been a (mostly) vegetarian for the past 20 years and every time I take one of Helen’s classes or am treated to her cooking, I leave saturated with new ideas for how to make vegetables extraordinary.

Case in point was her lentils with beetroot and caramelised fennel, where the fennel was roasted on a very low heat over the course of two days to make the lentils absolutely soft, tender and sweet. Add to this deeply roasted beetroot and red onion, pomegranate molasses and edible flowers and you have something for which the phrase “lentil salad” simply doesn’t do it justice.

The other revelation came in her rose harissa – take your usual spicy harissa past and add rosewater and rose petals. The result: a world-rocking addition to roasted red pepper soup, bread, salad and pretty much anything that takes well to a bit of heat. (Following its positive reception, Helen has graciously shared the rose harissa recipe for all to enjoy.)

It wasn’t all fireworks and surprise flavours – Helen knows when to hold back and let great ingredients speak for themselves. Her sauteed wild mushrooms were going to be wrapped in filo and served with pine nuts, but in the end she served the sauteed wild mushrooms as they were – another example of Helen’s spontaneity resulting in beautiful results.

I asked Helen what her favourite dish was to make. Her response: “that’s like choosing your favourite child.” This was right before she commandeered the mint tea, opened the pot and threw in some fresh sage leaves: “let’s put some of this sage in there because it’s just so lovely.”

Like I said, Silvana knows how to pick em’, and that goes beyond chefs – she knows how to pick her friends, too. The lunch party was full of the coolest, friendliest and most talented foodies around. Authors, chefs, cookery teachers, food and drink “artisans”, journalists… mostly small business owners who have the freedom of life to disappear on a weekday afternoon into Silvana’s countryside wonderworld – the crockery, the linens, the Aga, the dogs, the wine, the food, the people – it’s all straight out of the “Make Life Awesome” handbook. It’s a sure sign that things are headed in a pretty swell direction.

I’ll finish this post the same way we finished the meal: with dessert. Semolina cake with roasted quince alongside rosewater and pistachio meringues, blackberries and vanilla labna. There are those roses again, kickin’ ass and takin’ names. I need to get some.

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Smoked Mackerel and Sweet Potato Fishcakes

I scored some really nice smoked Mackerel this week at Upton Smokery – a random stop on my way back home from Oxford. I decided to use some of it for a version of these smoked mackerel croquettes with chilli jam (as far as I can tell, croquette in this case is just a fancy word for “mini fishcake”).

According to the recipe, the fishcakes are made with mackerel, potato, chilli, curry powder and lime, which then get dredged in egg and breadcrumbs, then deep fried in hot oil. I adapted it slightly, using sweet potato instead of normal potato, which proved a good match for the smoky mackerel and fragrant spices (I’m working with Mark Bittman’s homemade fragrant curry powder). Instead of deep-frying, I pan-fried the fishcakes in a cast iron skillet (following the technique given in How to cook perfect fishcakes).

I didn’t make the chilli jam, but instead used some Tracklement’s Chilli Jam that my neighbours gifted me, along with some delicious coriander and coconut chutney made at yesterday’s Gujerati Thali (leftovers for the win). The two dips were great together.

This was my first foray into fishcakes. I think I’ve always avoided them because I thought they were total grease bombs, but this experiment proved otherwise. I’m also digging this use for sweet potato – will make again!

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Blackberry Vinegar

Blackberries are back, baby. This time last year, when the blackberries were growing faster than I could eat them, I started thinking about vinaigrette – I used to really enjoy the Annie’s Naturals raspberry vinaigrette when I lived in the U.S., and wondered if I could make something similar with blackberries. Meanwhile, apple season was also in full swing, and I was having fun making my own cider vinegar following Carl Legge’s recipe. Could both of these forces somehow combine for the greater good?

Short answer: yes. Lynne Clark gave me this super recipe for blackberry vinegar that I’ve been using throughout the year. It’s a sweet and sour, thick-ish vinegar that works especially well with fruit, sweet root vegetables and goats cheese. I use it as I would balsamic – simply tossed into a salad with olive oil, salt and pepper, with perhaps a little extra blackberry vinegar drizzle at the end.

My favourite salad so far has been this beetroot and orzo salad with goats cheese and pine nuts consisting of: 1 beetroot, about 40g cooked orzo, 3g pine nuts, 20g goats cheese, a handful of spinach, 1 thinly sliced spring onion, salt, lots of pepper and a good drizzle of blackberry vinegar:

A similar approach works equally well with any combination of grain, fruit and nuts. I especially love strawberries, peaches and/or figs with toasted walnuts or cashews. Here’s one with strawberries, basmati rice and pistachios:

You could also make a vinaigrette with this – I’ve been meaning to adapt this raspberry vinaigrette recipe but so far havent been able to diverge from enjoying it in its pure form. Thanks to Lynne for sharing her vinegar mojo!

Blackberry Vinegar

Recipe courtesy of Lynne Clark (@josordoni) who sent this to me in a tweet last year.

Ingredients

Blackberries
Cider or wine vinegar
Sugar

Instructions

Weigh your blackberries.
But the same weight of vinegar in a large container. Add the blackberries and let the mixture steep for 7-10 days.
Strain the mixture, reserving the liquid.
Add the liquid to a sauce pan with 450g sugar per 700ml of liquid.
Bring the liquid to a boil and boil for 8-10 minutes.
Bottle!

Raw Kale and Brussels Sprouts Salad

If you know me at all then you I’m a bit of a kale addict.

Raw kale salad features prominently on my lunch menus. My usual approach is simple: finely chopped raw curly kale tossed with lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Sometimes I add orange wedges, red chilli and sunflower seeds. Other times I add red onion and carrots. Sometimes I add boiled eggs, beans, tofu, tempeh, or bulgar wheat.

This weekend I discovered that Tuscan Kale, aka ‘Cavolo Nero’, is also great in raw salads. A family friend sent this recipe, which sounds like a weird melange of ingredients: Tuscan kale, brussels sprouts, pecorino and almonds in a lemon vinaigrette. Does this really go together?

It does. You’ll just have to trust me and try it. The key is to shred the kale and sprouts very finely. I use my hands to really rub the dressing into the leaves and then give it a half hour to soak in. You could skip the cheese and make it vegan, but I don’t think it would be as good (sometimes those are the breaks!).

If you’ve never had raw kale salad before, this is a pretty good place to start. I suspect it would work well with curly kale, too, or cabbage in place of the brussels sprouts. Ah but that is the beauty of salads, isn’t it? Endless adaptation. Anyone who thinks salad is just a big pile of leaves is just wrong!

Raw Kale and Brussels Sprouts Salad

Adapted from a recipe from a family friend. Made with Tuscan “cavolo nero” kale.

Ingredients

1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon minced shallot
1 small garlic clove, finely grated
1/4 teaspoon salt plus more for seasoning
Freshly ground black pepper
2 large bunches of Tuscan kale / cavolo nero (about 1 1/2 lb. total), center stem discarded, leaves thinly sliced
12 ounces brussels sprouts, trimmed, finely sliced or shredded
1/3 cup almonds with skins, coarsely chopped
1 cup finely grated Pecorino, Parmesan, Grano Padano or other hard Italian cheese

Method

Make the dressing: Combine olive oil, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, shallot, garlic, 1/2 tsp. salt, and a pinch of pepper in a small bowl. Whisk to blend then set aside to let the flavours meld.
Toast the almonds in a skillet over medium-high heat until golden brown.
Mix thinly sliced kale and shredded brussels sprouts in a large bowl. Toss with the salad dressing (add as much dressing to suit your tastes – you may not need it all). Use your hands if you like to really rub the dressing into the leaves. Toss in the cheese and, if you’re patient, put the salad in the fridge for 30 minutes or so to marinade a bit. Taste and season with salt and pepper if needed.
Serve garnished with toasted almonds.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook time: 5 minutes

Yield: 10 servings

Per serving: 195 Calories | 15.3 grams Fat | 8.7 grams Carbohydrates | 8.1 grams Protein | 3.3 grams Fiber

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Sprouted Mung Beans

I recently heard about a web meme called the 52 Week Salad Challenge. The basic idea is that everyone who participates must grow or forage some salad stuff to eat every week of the year.

Well, anyone who reads SmarterFitter Daily knows that I love salads. Furthermore, I could use some encouragement in the gardening department. Last year’s garden wasn’t my best effort – I bit off more than I could chew. This year, I’m taking it one step at a time. That is, I’m not going to let myself grow anything until I’ve proved that I can keep my current set of plants alive.

I know I’m a couple weeks late with this salad challenge, but better late than never. I begin the challenge with something easy: mung bean sprouts. I’ve had a hankering for these ever since the start of Chinese New Year (I want to make egg fu yung) but these sprouts, especially when young, are delicious raw in salads. And they’re pretty brainless to grow:

Take a container (a jar or a bowl works) and put in some mung beans, leaving at least enough space for the beans to quadruple in size (which they will di as they sprout)
Fill the container with water and let the beans soak overnight
Drain the soaked beans and rinse them
Repeat the rinsing and draining process every 8-12 overs
In a few days you will have sprouts!

(For more comprehensive instructions, read this: How to Sprout Mung Beans.)

But what of the salad? Sprouted mung beans have a very earthy flavour and take well to something with a bit of sweetness. So I put my honey mustard dressing to use and took some inspiration from this recipe for carrot and fennel salad.

My salad today was essentially:

1 juilenned carrots
1/2 fennel bulb finely sliced
1 cup mung beans
a small handful each of coriander, chives, and basil, finely chopped (also from my “kitchen garden”)
~1 Tbsp currants, soaked in boiling water for about 10 minutes
squeeze of fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp honey mustard dressing
salt & pepper

Toss it all up together and that was lunch (with a bit of mackerel on the side – a nice partner for this salad).

This salad was pretty good but I’m looking forward to toying with some other variations. I want to try a raw version of Ottolenghi’s Carrot and Mung Bean Salad. And this carrot and mung bean salad with coconut and indian spices also appeals.

Misk Cooks is also sprouting mung beans and made a beautiful salad of cubed mango, dried diced Bing cherries, parsley, basil, jalapeño, and sprouted mung beans, all tossed in a light dressing of lemon juice, olive oil and… whoa… fizzy lemonade!

Misk may say I inspired her to sprout mung beans, but SHE’S inspired ME to start growing herbs again in my kitchen. So perhaps that will be my next post for the 52 Week Salad Challenge. That is, if they’re still alive by then.

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