Leftovers Salad with Savoury dressing

Summer is here. Tonight's salad. Brown rice, spinach, baked kumara, steamed broccoli, sauerkraut, tomato & sliced artichoke. Savoury sauce/dressing of blended tofu, salsa, soy milk, nutritional yeast,vinegar & mustard.

Red bean slaw

My working lunch today

Cabbage 1 c chopped
Celery 1 stick chopped
1 red pepper
2 tbs ruby red raw sauerkraut
1/2 c Farro cooked (brown rice would do)
1/2 c red kidney beans

1 portobello mushroom chopped and sautéed with 1/4 onion & 1 tsp garlic granules
1 tbs pumpkin seeds for garnish

Dressing: (blend together) add just enough to moisten the salad
1/2 tsp roasted garlic hot sauce
3 tbs vinegar
2 tbs Dijon mustard
1 tbs maple syrup


Mm the colours, the flavours, the crunch

Holiday Chickpea & sweet potato soup

Self catering on holiday in UK & whipped this up. There were chickpeas needed using and I had some marinated semidried tomatoes which inspired me.


(Serves 2)

1 Sweet potato / kumara
1/2 onion chopped
1/2 red pepper chopped
2 stalks of celery finely chopped
1/2 carrot sliced
handful of marinated sundried tomatoes, chopped
2 c vege stock
1 tsp italian herbs
1/2 to 3/4 can chickpeas (drained)

Saute the onion in a little water, add celery and pepper and carrots and deglaze with water as needed. Add the stock and then the kumara and chickpeas, season with herbs. Simmer 20 minutes. Remove 1 1/2 cups of soup and mash with potato masher and/or fork (blend if you have a blender) and return to pot - stir in and serve with whole grain roll and hummus (or your favourite soup accompaniment).

You could garnish with parsley and or nutritional yeast and freshly ground pepper if you have any.

You could try this with a morrocan spice blend instead of the italian herbs - i was going to do this but couldn't find this at the local supermarket.

Split pea and Kumara Soup

Ingredients:

1 large onion chopped

1-2 carrots chopped

1-2 stalks of celery chopped

2 bay leaves

1 cup split peas

1 large kumara

parslety & nutritional yeast for garnish

fresh ground pepper

Cook chopped onions, chopped carrots and salary in water with a couple of bay leaves and whatever herbs/seasonings you like for 1/2 hour (this makes you a nice basic vege broth) - I used some garlic salt, pepper, & at least a teaspoon of braggs organic sprinkle herbs and spices. 

Then add split peas and continue cooking for at least an hour

Peel and chop kumara and cook for another half hour

remove the bay leaves and blend the soup to the consistency desired. 

taste and season again as needed. 

Serve & Sprinkle with parsley and nutritional yeast and fresh ground pepper. 

The Hearty Salad

I have fallen in love with the idea of the hearty salad and over these hot summer months have often had it twice per day. With the constant variations on a theme it is always different. This is a whole “meal in a bowl”. This post is to inspire you to start your own combinations.

 

Choose combinations of the following:

 

Greens – either in the salad or serve the salad on a bed of greens – vary them – rocket has been a recent favourite but baby spinach and cos lettuce come in close behind.

 

Starch – whole grains – eg brown rice, quinoa, wild rice, black or red rice, faro, freekeh, wholegrain couscous etc (whatever floats your boat) or a starchy vege eg baked kumara or potato etc

 

Legumes – beans (black, pinto, cannellini, kidney… or a mixture) , lentils, peas, tofu or tempeh ….

 

Other veges – capsicum, radish, carrot, tomatoes (mmm - love the cherry tomatoes), fennel, celery, broccoli stems … (look for variations in colour, texture, taste, crunch factor).

 

Cooked veges – a mix of cooked and raw veges in a salad can be wonderful – the cooked ones can be warm or cold – lightly steamed broccoli, cauliflower, sautéed mushrooms with onions…  (if it’s a vege you can add it to a salad!)

 

Extras – fruit – blueberries, mango, strawberries, orange segments ….

                Dried fruit – cranberries, raisins, currants, dried apricots ….

                Seeds – pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, or small amounts of chopped nuts (raw not roasted)

                Raw Saukerkraut – I have some red and it kicks up the colour and flavour (naturally fermented foods can be so good for the gut).

                Mediterranean stuff – olives, capers, artichokes …

 

Dressings – can be as simple as a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, fruit- infused vinegar (raspberry vinegar is wonderful) squeezed lemon or lime juice.

Try hummus with some orange juice, mustard and vinegar,

exotic dressings – with pureed red peppers and sundried tomatoes,

use watered-down tapenade and add  other flavours,

pesto,

try curry, red or green Thai curry paste in dressings,

silken tofu blended with mustard and vinegar makes a mayo-like dressing.

Tahini dressing – start with tahini and lemon juice and add other flavours to taste – if it’s too thick thin it with water or juice.

 

Wild rice, mango and minted pea salad with guacamole hummus

No quantities with this one - just me experimenting in the kitchen with colour, taste and texture and it worked!


1 c wild rice cooked
frozen minted peas (defrost under warm water) try approx. 1/2 cup
frozen corn                        "
mango peeled and chopped - try approx. 1/2 a large one
red capsicum chopped
celery chopped
small handful of coriander chopped


Dressing stir through lime juice to taste and a generous amount of fresh ground pepper


Serve on a bed of your favourite greens - I used rocket/ arugula. Add a dollop of hummus to the centre of the bowl


Guacamole Hummus
I was unsatisfied with the batch of hummus I'd made and stirred through it 1/2 a mashed avocado, some pureed spinach, ground cumin and a shake of ground chilli