Warm salad

Recipe number four is this one, a warm vegetable salad. It looked very pretty on the photo and I had great hopes for it, as it seemed to include a very good balance of healthy things.

Ingredients

3 red onions

60 g cavalo nero

zest and juice of a lemon

6 garlic cloves

a handful of fresh tarragon leaves

4½ tbsp olive oil

chilli flakes (optional)

4 large eggs

500 g courgettes

2 x 400 g butter beans

salt and pepper 

4 soft wholemeal lavash breads

Method

1. Peel and wash the onions. Dice one of the onions finely and slice the other two and keep separate.
2. Remove the thick stems from the cavalo nero and save for soups. Wash the leafy parts, shake off well and shred.
3. Wash and zest the lemon, then squeeze out the juice. Peel the garlic and wash and cut the tarragon leaves finely.
   
4. Put the diced onion, the shredded cavalo nero, the lemon zest and juice along with 1½ tbsp of olive oil, chilli flakes and a pinch of salt in a large bowl. Mix and massage well, then cover and set aside to marinate.
5. Trim, wash and slice the courgettes thinly, 2 – 3 mm, and drain the beans.
   
6. Boil the eggs to get the yolk to a waxy consistence. Rinse under cold water, peel and set aside.
7. Meanwhile, heat up 1 tbsp of the olive oil on medium-low and fry the sliced onions for 5 minutes until they go soft and transluscent. Transfer to the bowl with cavalo nero and stir in.
8. Heat up the remaining oil to medium-high and fry the courgettes for 10 minutes, while stirring, until they go soft.
9. Press in the garlic and add the beans and stir-fry for a couple of more minutes to get the beans warmed through.
10. Transfer the courgettes and beans to the cavalo nero, add the tarragon and stir to combine everything.
11. Warm up the lavash breads and pile the warm salad on top of them, finishing with two egg halves, then wrap and serve.
    

When it was freshly made, it was OK, but the lemon dominated everything else and it just felt like something was missing. So for our lunch the following day, I decided to put the salad on top of a lavash bread and make a wrap. This turned out to be a good idea as the bread seemed to be that missing something. It is possible that overnight the butter beans might have soaked up some of the lemon and created a more balanced salad.

Lundulph wasn't too extatic about this, and suggsted a reduction of the lemon juice. I suspect that it wouldn't work, as that is the active ingredient in the marinade and cavalo nero would be way too hard to eat uncooked otherwise. So overall, I think this one is a work in progress and I'll run it by my Mum to see if she can help pin down what might be missing.

Caponata chickpea traybake

 The third recipe I picked out, again a veggie one, is this one as it seemed like a nice variation on what I've been doing for the last few years - namely roasting some vegetables to go with foil baked salmon or crispy tofu. I skipped the celery sticks, because I don't like them, even if Lundulph is OK with these things when they are cooked. Instead I added peppers and mushrooms

Ingredients

2 red onions

4 garlic cloves

3 aubergines

2 bell peppers 

500 g button mushrooms

500 g cherry tomatoes

2 x 400 g tins of chickpeas

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp capers

50 g raisins

50 ml cider vinegar

a handful fresh mint leaves

25 g toasted almond flakes

4 wholemeal pittas

salt and pepper

Method

1. Peel, wash and cut the onions into wedges. Peel the garlic.
   
2. Trim, wash and dice the aubergine into 2 cm chunks.
3. Trim, wash and cut the bell peppers into chunks. 
4. Peel the button mushrooms and save the stalks for another use. Cut the mushrooms into chunks, if too large.
   
5. Wash the tomatoes and drain the chickpeas.
6. Preheat the oven to 220 ℃/200 ℃ fan.
7. Put the onions, aubergines, bell peppers, tomatoes in a large baking tray and press in the garlic.
8. Drizzle over the oil and season, then stir to get the vegetables coated. Spread evenly in the baking tray and roast in the oven for 30 minutes.
9. Remove from the oven and add the chickpeas, capers and raisins and carefully stir through to mix. Turn down the oven to 200 ℃/180 ℃ fan and return the baking tray to the oven for 10 - 15 minutes.
10. Remove from the oven and put the pittas in to warm up in the residual heat.
11. Sprinkle the vinegar and stir carefully not to break the vegetables. Leave to rest for 10 minutes.
12. Wash and slice the mint leaves finely and toast the almond flakes in a dry frying pan.
13. Sprinkle the mint and almonds over the vegetables and serve up.

I had serious reservations about the raisins. When I've added sweet dried fruit to a savoury dish, it has always been a bad idea, but this was just 50 g for loads of vegetables, so I thought it wouldn't be too bad. And a good thing too, they were barely noticeable. The mint was quite strong when we ate the dish freshly cooked, but after stiring things together and having for lunch the next day, it was very nice. I didn't even bother reheating it and it was still nice. Lundulph insists on hot food, so he reheated his lunch and liked it as well.

This is a really nice dish, and would probably also work with meat or fish as well as on its own. I'd like to increase the amount of capers, because I quite like the taste, but Lundulph doesn't, so I probably won't. I think the fresh mint can be replaced with basil or tarragon or other fresh herbs and the almonds can also be replaced with other nuts or seeds. 

The original recipe was for 4 portions, but as I boosted it with extra vegetables, it resulted in at least 6 portions.
 

Risotto with harissa aubergine

 The second recipe I tested was this one. I'm normally not too big a fan of risotto because often I feel it's "just rice". However, Lundulph has a mild obsession with aubergine and this recipe did sound nice, especially since there was no mention of copious amounts of parmesan. I also made the executive decision to spruce up the "just rice" bit and reduced the amount of rice significantly.

Ingredients

3 aubergines

100 g harissa paste

2 onions

1 tbsp butter

250 g arborio rice

1 litre vegetable stock

300 g mixed frozen vegetables (carrots, cauliflower, French beans and petit pois)

vegetable oil

Method

1. Wash and trim the aubergines, then cut in half lengthwise and then cut each half into long thin slices, about half a centimetre thick.
2. Place the aubergnes in a bowl, add the harissa paste and stir to coat them well, then cover and set aside.
3. Peel, wash and dice the onions.
4. Heat up the butter in a deep saucepan and gently fry the onions on medium-low heat until they go transluscent.
5. Add the rice and stir around to get it coated, about 2 minutes.
6. Start adding the vegetable stock, a ladle at a time and stiring to prevent anything from sticking to the bottom of the saucepan. Add the next ladle once the previous one has been absorbed.
7. Once the stock has been added, add the frozen vegetables and stir in. Cover and let simmer until the vegetables have been cooked as well.
8. Meanwhile, heat up a little oil in a frying pan and fry the aubergine slices on medium-high heat until they go soft.
9. Serve the risotto with a few slices of aubergine on top.

 This turned out quite delicious, though I used 180 g harissa paste, which turned out to be over the top and the aubergines were very spicy. However, the risotto neutralised that somewhat and the combination was very nice. This is what I think risotto should be - with veggies incorporated.

Lundulph liked it a lot too, perhaps because of the spicy aubergines. But it could use some sort of protein to go with it, I think, not just on its own.

Old clothes

My pile of free magazines from the supermarket is growing steadily. I always mean to go through it and it almost never happens. But the other day, I managed to do just this and found a treasure trove of interesting vegetarian recipes and I have been working through them over the past couple of weeks.

I decided to start with this one, mushroom ropa vieja and any Swedes reading this might well know why. Ropa vieja is a dish made in the Spanish speaking regions and the name means old clothes. It also seems to be a take on using up leftovers in a creative way. Everyone has those. This particular version is supposedly Cuban. The name of the dish was one of the jokes used in the Swedish comedy "Sällskapsresan" ("Package Tour") and a great example of things that don't translate well. And as I always do, I made some tweaks.

Ingredients

2 dl brown shortgrain rice
500 g parboiled chanterelles
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
2 red bell peppers
18 cherry tomatoes
2 bay leaves
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp tomato purée
200 ml vegetable stock
1 tsp granulated sugar
400 g tin of white kidney beans with their liquid
salt and black pepper

Method

1. Put the oven on at 100 °C and place two large bowls in to heat up. 
2. Boil the rice.
   
3. Peel the onion and the garlic. Dice the onion.
4. Wash and slice the peppers. Wash and dice the tomatoes finely.
   
5. Heat up the oil in a frying pan, add the onion and press in the garlic. Fry gently on medium-low heat for about 5 minutes until they go soft.
6. Add the bay leaves, cumin, oregano and tomato purée, stir through and fry for a further 2 minutes.
7. Divide the onion mixture in two and remove half of it into a bowl.
8. Add the peppers, tomatoes, stock and sugar to the frying pan and let simmer gently for 15 minutes until the mixture thickens.
9. Add the mushrooms, cover and simmer for a further 5 minutes until everything is hot. Then transfe to one of the bowls in the oven.
10. Return the second half of the onion mixture to the frying pan and add the kidney beans along with their liquid.
11. Stir and simmer for 10 minutes until thickened and season to taste.
12. Serve the mushroom stew with the beans and the rice.

The original recipe calls for 300 g oyster mushrooms that are to be shredded and sprinkled with salt and left to drain for 15 minutes, then squeezed before being added to the stew. I had parboiled mushrooms, so I used them instead and quite a lot more than you'd end up with from the oyster mushrooms. So we ended up with a bit more of that stew, but it was so tasty, that I recommend my amounts.

In the original recipe, it should be black beans, however I wanted to try the white kidney beans and they worked very well. But if I make this again, I will try to use black beans.

I should also add that I used 2 bell peppers instead of one, because I had two that needed to be used up and also because I'd increased the mushrooms.

The original recipe also suggested using a ready cooked mixture of basmati and wild rice. I'm not a fan of ready cooked rice, nor basmati, but a mix of brown shortgrain rice and wild rice will proably be quite tasty and esthetically pleasing too.

Lundulph scoffed his portion quite quickly and we had a minor argument about who would get what for lunch the following day. The beans were quite amazing too and reminded me somewhat of a Bulgarian bean stew, so I would aim to double the amount next time I make this dish.

Honey-glazed salmon with watercress salad

 Every now and then I flick through our local magazine. I used to read them quite thoroughly a few years ago, but they never really had anything useful and so I stopped. But sometimes there is a good recipe in there and I was lucky to spot this one the other day. It contained the magic ingredient watercress, so I had to try it out. I had a colleague who has a watercress farm at the end of his road and he would bring freshly picked watercress at lunch. It is a wonderful thing and this recipe reminded me of my colleague and the fabulous watercress.

Ingredients
2 portions

1 small red onion
3 tbsp cider vinegar
¾ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp sugar
2 cloves of garlic
50 ml honey
1 tsp chilli flakes
2 salmon fillets (around 250 g in total)
1 avocado
½ lemon
80 g watercress

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
   
2. Peel and slice the onion thinly. Place in a jar together with the vinegar, salt and sugar. Close the lid tightly and shake well, then set aside.
3. Peel and press the garlic into a small saucepan. Add the honey and the chilli flakes, then heat up gently to infuse the flavours. Don't let it get too hot, just warm it up.
4. Glaze the salmon fillets generously, then wrap in aluminium foil and bake in the oven for 20 – 30 minutes, depending on their thickness.
5. Divide the watercress between two large plates.
6. Cut the avocado in half lengthwise, remove the stone, peel each half and then slice thinly. Place on the two plates.
7. Cut the lemon into wedges and divide between the plates.
8. Give the onion jar a shake now and then.
9. When the salmon is ready, place a fillet on each plate on top of the watercress and add pickled onion on top.
10. Serve immediately with carbs of your choice.

The original recipe says to fry the salmon in a hot pan. This is a very bad idea, which I suspected, but did anyway. What happened was that the honey burnt quickly and the salmon went almost completely black. It was OK to eat, but the charcoal flavour was a bit too strong for me. So bake in the oven is the way to go. 

I boiled quinoa and it combined quite nicely with this salad. Lundulph was quite pleased with the result and the really nice surprise was actually the pickled red onion, it was delish! Well worth making for regular salads.