Raw Beetroot, Orange and Asparagus Salad with Hazelnut Dukkah

Ready for some summer weather!?

A couple of weeks ago everyone from my office went for a work lunch and even though I was tempted to order a big pizza I quickly opted for a house salad as everyone decided on healthy options. I work in a really healthy office, no biscuit tin to be seen! This is actually quite nice to be honest, I can still buy treats if I fancy it, but the temptation isn’t always there.

The salad I ordered seemed to have absolutely everything in it! Avocado, orange, grapefruit, beetroot, salad leaves, tomatoes, hazelnuts and many more salad items. It was nice but I found it confused so I decided to do my own version with a selection of the flavours I really enjoyed.

I used to eat a turkey and orange salad all the time and since I turned vegetarian I actually haven’t eaten oranges in a salad, and as soon as I tried it again I fell in love with the juicy sweet freshness it adds to a savoury salad.

The second addition to this salad is the hazelnut dukkah. This was on the salad I had at the restaurant, when I read it on the menu I got really excited as I’d never tried it before but when it turned up all I could find was toasted hazelnuts. I googled dukkah and it describes the dish as nuts mixed with spices so I gave it a go and I think it worked amazingly, especially with the fresh oranges.

I used the dukkah as a sort of dry dressing as it coats everything with flavour and the orange segments act as a wetter ingredient. Make sure everyone has enough orange segments to balance out the flavours.

Autumn colours, summer flavours

Serves 2

Vegetarian, dairy free, gluten free, fruity!

Handful of Watercress
1 small head of Lettuce – chopped
1/2 Raw beetroot
8 spears of Asparagus,
1 large Orange or 2 medium sized ones
Hazelnut Dukkah- 5 toasted hazelnuts blitzed with 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds, 1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds and black pepper.
1 teaspoon pumpkin seeds
Organic extra virgin Olive oil

The method is very simple – peel the orange and slice into thick segments, peel and finely chop the beetroot into little match sticks and peel and roughly chop the asparagus.

Dry fry the fennel seeds, crushed hazelnuts and coriander seeds until slightly golden and the aroma has been released. Blitz them with some black pepper in a blender and then stir in the pumpkin seeds. Put this to one side to sprinkle over the salad. It should smell amazing and fragrant!

Griddle the asparagus until soft and slightly browned and leave to cool slightly.

Assemble your salad with the mixed lettuce and watercress on the bottom and then the beetroot, orange and asparagus spears scattered around then sprinkle over the hazelnut dukkah and drizzle over good quality olive oil.

Brighton: A city close to my heart!

Colourful doorways built under the walkway along the sea front.

Brighton has become like a second home to us. We came here for the first time together on our mini honeymoon and the memories of that wonderful weekend are made even better by the fact that we have continued to create new special memories every time we go back. From the moment we step off the train and head down to the sea front to make our way to the fantastic Pelirocco hotel I can feel myself relaxing, all worries drift out to sea.

It’s not just the fact were on holiday that makes me feel so happy and its not just the sound of the sea that makes me feel relaxed, it’s the friendly people and interesting architecture. It’s the quirky shops, free spirited fashion and huge variety of restaurants and bars.

It brings out my creative side and I can’t help finding beauty in every detail of the city! Needless to say, it is obvious I am in love with Brighton!

Every pebble is beautifully unique.

For our birthdays this year we took the train down to Brighton on a Thursday and came home on the Monday after. Some of the things we got up to included an afternoon playing in the arcade on the pier – the machines where you drop 2p in to a slot and try to use it to nudge more 2ps off a ledge is so addictive! It makes you feel like a kid again

We had a few walks along the beach, we were lucky to have bright weather when it had been predicted to rain. We also had tickets to the Brighton tattoo convention which was so much fun. We sat with a couple of beers and ‘people watched’ for hours, admiring the quirky fashion, big hair and endless ink proudly on display. The event was held in the Hilton hotel which is very classy and it was good fun to see the shiny hallways filled with leather jackets and doc martens!

Brighton is full of artwork, graffiti and sculptures. It brings character to the city!

Another thing I love about Brighton is the artwork on display at every corner, there is official artwork being show cased but also more free style pieces such as amazing graffiti and murals painted on the sides of shops. Unlike messy tags and profanities which graffiti can become, they have a great balance of unique personal style and crowd drawing points of interest.

The sculpture pictured above was first placed there in 1998 and was renovated due to damage in 2007. The artist is called Charles Hadcock and the piece was funded by The National Lottery. It had mixed reviews when it was put up but I personally love it, it’s strong, rustic and full of possible meanings and interpretations… Just how art should be in my mind.

I could spend every day sat on this beach lost in thoughts, happiness!

It wouldn’t be the British seaside without a seafood hut!

You can walk around for hours and the scene changes, you go from generic shopping centre and high street chain restaurants through trendy wine bars and boutiques to the boho vintage vegan friendly lanes. One day we walked into a park and stumbled across the council building…in amongst the modern shop fronts is the most extravagant building ever! The photo below is the entrance to the council gardens. Isn’t it fab!!

Extravagant architecture

The Aladdin’s cave of spices

I had loads of fun in this shop, the woman working that day was more than happy to describe spices I hadn’t heard of before and chat about different uses of ones I was more familiar with. I decided to buy these Annatto seeds because I had no idea what they were and thought it would be interesting to have a go at using them. Annatto seeds are used mainly as a colouring in foods such as cheese (specifically Red Leicester) and it can be used by boiling the seeds or infusing oil with them.

I’m not sure what I will use them in yet but I’m tempted to try things like risotto and maybe using it to colour tofu! You can find more information on these seeds here.

Traditionally used as a natural food colouring in items such as Red Leicester cheese

I also picked up these spinach and beetroot powder which could also be used as colourings, the lady suggested using the beetroot in cakes as colouring such as red velvet so I’m very excited to try that! It sounds a lot less messy that using fresh beetroot which just gets everywhere!

I’m not sure about the spinach powder, I can imagine using it to make coloured flat breads, spinach muffins or to create green sauces! I can’t wait to start experimenting!

Brighton, we’ll be back! Thank you for being an amazing city and if anyone has any suggestions of cool things to do when we’re back that’d be fab!!

Do you have a regular city you go to on holiday? What’s your favourite city in your home country, in the world?

BBQ no. 2 – Giant Cous Cous Salad, Sundried Tomato Humous and Beetroot Burgers!

We were really excited this weekend because we have been living in a house with a garden for over a year now and we are finally having a BBQ! Last year was very hectic and we didn’t invite people over for the first few months over summer because we had lots of belongings in boxes and the house wasn’t how we’d like it when we have guests (other than family). However we love socializing and hosting parties so it’s great that we have finally got into the swing of it!

My mum left behind a small barrel BBQ which we used to cook all of the food and I also made some cold items which we put out in the kitchen to all help ourselves. For everyone else there was marinated lamb, sausages and burgers which were bought last weekend (left over from our bank holiday bbq) from a local butcher in Tamworth.

We had a meat side and a veggie side! (My sides more colourful!)

I also made my favourite Beetroot, Feta and Chickpea burgers. It was interesting following the recipe again as it has been so long since I made them that I really had to follow my own instructions, it was a good test to see how other people would find it. They turned out good so I was pleased, although I used a different curry paste this time and it was much stronger so I think a milder curry paste is always better with these.

Beetroot, Feta and Chickpea Burger

Instead of a green salad I decided to make  a fruity giant cous cous salad. I decided to try giant cous cous because I had never cooked it before and it would look more interesting. Giant Cous Cous differs from the normal variety because you actually have to boil it in water or stock for 6-8 minutes then drain it before serving. I then ran cold water through the cous cous to cool it down ready to be made into a salad but you can also serve it hot.

Cous cous salads in general are extremely easy and a great addition to a dinner party or a buffet, I usually roast some vegetables such as courgettes, peppers and red onion then dice them up and stir into the cooked cous cous with some lemon zest and oil. However this time I wanted to make it more summery so I decided to add some fruit, similar to our holiday rice salad we have in Spain. You can add any firm fruit such as peaches or nectarines and you could even add chopped dried apricots or raisins.

Giant Cous Cous is also known as Israeli Cous Cous

Serving this style of salad also means you can use up ingredients which you’ve made other recipes from, for example I had some feta cheese, red onion and chickpeas left over from the beetroot burgers so I added that to the salad. Here is a rough guide to the quantities I used for my salad:

150g Cous Cous (around 1 cup or half a pack of Merchant Gourmet Giant Cous Cous)
1 Peach or nectarine
1/4 Cucumber
1/2 Red Onion
1/4 Block Feta Cheese
1/2 cup Chickpeas (handful)
Small handful Sunflower Seeds (or pine nuts)
Small bunch Coriander
Drizzle Good Quality Olive Oil
Lemon Juice

Place the cous cous in a saucepan and pour over enough stock to cover the grains, bring to the boil and then simmer for 6-8 minutes untill soft. Drain and run through cold water to allow it to cool down. Pour it into a large serving bowl.
Chop the peach, cucumber, red onion and feta cheese and mix in with the cous cous. Add the chickpeas, sunflower seeds and coriander and stir. Top with a drizzle of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice and serve.

To go with the salad and burgers I decided to make some sun dried tomato humous and serve it in buns with strips of courgette and red pepper which had been cooked on the bbq. This was delicious and I loved mixing the humous with the bbq vegetables.

Sun-dried tomato hummus

I’d never actually made hummus before but my mum makes it a lot and home made always tastes SO much nicer than the shop bought varieties. I didn’t have any tahini but I did have loads of sesame seeds left over from my tofu salad recipe so I toasted them, then blended them with a little oil. I then blended chickpeas with garlic, lemon zest, oil from the jar of tomatoes and of course some chopped up sun-dried tomatoes.

I’m not going to share this recipe quite yet mainly because it definitely needs tweaking, I found it abit garlicky and I’d like to have another go with different quantities of the tomatoes! Watch this space!

My plate of food! Just waiting for the beetroot burger to be done

What are your favourite vegetarian BBQ recipes?

River Cottage Rocks: Sunday Lunch recipe! Roasted Root Tortilla

This weekend was so lovely and sunny (I know I’ve mentioned that a few times this week now but in the UK it’s easy to get over excited about being able to wear shorts without looking stupid!) and I decided that I would cook a nice sunday lunch for me and Scott. I wanted to tie it in with a monthly challenge I have been taking part in this year – Rivercottage Rocks, over at Jo’s Kitchen.

If you haven’t already found Jo’s blog then go over and take a look! Click Here! She has tonnes of features, not just recipes and there is always something new to read.

This month’s theme was Sunday Lunch and I saw this as a bit of a challenge because I haven’t really cooked a sunday lunch since being a vegetarian and also the usual roast dinner ideas were just not in my interest. I sat with my slightly worn out River Cottage Veg cookbook (Hugh Fearnly Wittingstall’s vegetarian cookbook – worth a read!) and flicked through a good 3 or 4 times deciding which recipe could translate to a sunday lunch time meal.

I think Sunday Lunchtime should revolve around a central point of food which everyone can tuck in and share, rather than just serving up plates of food. Every time I’ve had a sunday lunch there’s always been dishes piled up in the middle of the table that everyone digs in to. Well I didn’t want to make a feast so I chose one dish which would look fab as a central point of a sunday lunch table – The Roasted Root Frittata.

I used potato, sweet potato, parsnip, beetroot, carrot and some roasted courgettes that I’d frozen after cooking in the summer! I mixed 6 eggs with some mint and dill which I had leftover from my herby risotto and I added a little bit of dried thyme!

The recipe said to grate cheese over the top but I’m not a fan of egg and cheese together so I left that bit out and just cooked it in the oven.

I think this dish is so pretty and would look perfect in the middle of any sunday lunch table!! Imagine it surrounded by lots of salads and veg and breads and dips. Delicious!

Warm roasted beetroot and purple carrot salad

This is a really colourful salad and as you can see the purple carrots look beautiful when sliced! Also each different type of beetroot has a slightly different flavour so all together not only does it look fantastic but it also has a real depth of flavour which is enhanced by the lemony mustard dressing!

Serves 2 (with left over beetroot)

4 Beetroot – different types if you can get them
2 Purple Carrots
180g Rainbow Chard
Dried Thyme
Salt
Spray Oil

Dressing:
1 tablespoon Olive Oil
a squeeze of Lemon Juice
1/2 teaspoon Wholegrain mustard
a splash of Cider Vinegar
Black Pepper

Garlic Bread:
1 Seeded Roll (I used a flat ciabatta shaped roll)
1 Garlic Clove
Olive Oil
Dried Thyme

Wash the beetroots and carrots but don’t peel them. Leave them whole and spray them with some oil, sprinkle with thyme and salt and roast on a baking tray for 45 mins at 180c. They are done when they are soft but not shrivelled up!

Wash the rainbow chard and slice the stalks off the leaves but again leave everything whole. When the beetroot has about 10-15 minutes left blanch the chard stalks in a pan of boiling water for 5 minutes untill softened.Then add to a frying pan with the leaves and fry on a medium heat untill the leaves wilt and the stalks have browned a little bit.

To make the dressing put all the ingredients in a bowl and stir with a spoon, taste it to make sure the balance is ok – you want it to be quite lemony and sharp as the earthiness of the beetroot will balance out the flavours once the dressing is on the salad.

To make the garlic bread roughly chop the peeled garlic clove and put it in a pestle and mortar. Add about 1/2 tablespoon of oil and crush the garlic into the oil untill you almost have a paste. Add a little bit more olive oil so it’s runny, then add the thyme and mix once more. Slice the roll into about 4 or 5 slices and toast one side of each slice under the grill, turn them over and spoon the garlic oil onto the uncooked side then put it back under the grill for 1 minute untill browned slightly.

Take the beetroot and carrots out of the oven and slice each one thinly. Arrange all the vegetables on two plates (any left overs can be put in the fridge and used to add to cold salads or pasta dishes etc) drizzle with the dressing and serve with the garlic bread on the side.

Each flavour element really compliments the other, the garlic bread and dressing help jazz up the beetroot and carrot and add another dimension to the dish. Simple, healthy and not expensive to make! Enjoy x