Courgette Ribbon Salad

As mentioned earlier, I have signed up to something called “Sleekgeek 8 week challenge“, which means that I have been trying to be more imaginative with regards to meal planning, colourful plates and cooking etc.

On a recent trip to Stonemanor (a grocery shop in Brussels specializing in British products), I stocked up on my favourite English food magazines… including a new one that I found called “Food to Love” magazine. Within this magazine, I found a recipe for a chargrilled courgette ribbon salad with green olive dressing. I didn’t make the dressing and rather added a sprinkle of feta and some toasted pine-nuts on top of the cooked courgettes.

Make again? I already have 🙂

Courgette Ribbon Salad

2 large courgettes
2 Tablespoons of olive oil
sprinkle of feta
toasted pine-nuts

• using a mandoline, vegetable peeler or sharp knife, slice the courgette lengthways into thin pieces
• Toss with olive oil and season
• Cook the courgette on a heated grill or a grill pan for 1 minute on each side (cook in batches)
• Place on a plate, sprinkle with feta and toasted pine-nuts

 

What is a “Buddha” bowl?

If you love instagram like I do, then you wouldn’t be able to scroll past the foodie accounts without encountering at least one “Buddha” bowl picture.

They might also have been called a glory bowl, grain bowl, sunshine bowl, hippie bowl or macro bowl… but as far as I am concerned, it is essentially a *deconstructed salad in a bowl*.

There is no rule written in stone on how to construct the bowl, but it essentially consisted of a little bit of this and a little bit of that, focusing mainly on vegetables (raw or cooked), a bit of grains (if you so wish) and some protein (although 90% of the bowls seem to be vegetarian and thus featuring tofu, beans, etc… it hasn’t stopped anyone from adding some form of fish or lean meat.)

There is also some disconnect on where the name came from and what it actually means with some definitions of a Buddha bowl indicating that the shape of the round bowl reflects the round belly of Buddha or (my personal favourite story) is that Buddha walked around with an empty bowl at the beginning of the day and each of his neighbours provided a spoonful of what they were eating – thus by the end of the day, he had a bowl full of food (with a little bit of this and a little bit of that).

Whatever definition or story you like to believe – I don’t really believe it matters but I do think that it looks pretty… so here is my deconstructed salad (aka “Buddha Bowl”) => corn, red kidney beans, tomatoes, cucumber, avocado and some sliced cooked chicken breast with a squeeze of lemon juice.

 

Aubergine Caprese Salad

As already mentioned… our lives have changed recently with a new arrival in the family (a gorgeous baby girl… and even though we know that we are biased about her beauty… our friends & family seem to agree with us :))

But this is also means that I am on maternity leave… and learning to live with a whole new schedule… which includes being awake around 4am…

Now most of you would be encouraging me to go back to sleep… but for some bizarre reason, I can go to sleep at the same time as her at 9pm.. and back to sleep instantly after the midnight feed… but after the 3am feed, I am normally WIDE-AWAKE… so I thought I may as well make the most of this time … right??

This does not mean that I am baking or cooking at this hour… but it does mean that I can get some writing time… and I can also go through my “must make”  recipe pile!

I found this recipe in the BBC Good Food Magazine (July 2013 issue) – although they called theirs “melting middles aubergine parcels” with focus on BBQ cooking & eating. The only difference to my interpretation is that after constructing the parcels – I didn’t put them back on a grill to melt the mozzarella – mostly because HIM looked at me strangely and said “But Caprese salad is eaten cold??”. (FYI – Caprese salad = mozzarella, tomato, basil and olive oil salad). And of course – I used ready-made pesto as opposed to making my own (why? Because I have a 2week old baby to look after … so short cuts are my favourite thing in the kitchen at the moment :))

This is a yummy tapas, starter, vegetarian or main meal kind of dish and would definitely be made again in our house!

Aubergine Caprese Salad

2 aubergine, sliced long ways
olive oil
2 tomatoes, sliced
2 mozzarella balls, drained & sliced
basil leave
ready-made pesto

• Brush slices of aubergine with olive oil and either grill or fry them (I fried mine)
• spread a small amount of pesto onto each cooked slice of aubergine, add a slice of tomato & a slice of mozzarella and then using a toothpick – wrap the aubergine slice around & secure
• You can either add the basil to the wraps or on the plate
• Season with salt/pepper to taste and a good drizzle of olive oil is an added extra!
• Serve either warm or at room temperature with extra pesto

Beetroot, Potato, Chicken and home-made Tzatziki dressing

This recipe falls into the “Quick” and “Simple” lunch category… but I do love the combinations!

I originally found the details in the Olive magazine (March 2012 issue) – where they actually topped the beetroot & baby potato salad with grilled Halloumi… but I was making use of what I already had in the fridge/cupboard, hence the adaptions!

This recipe feeds 2… but can easily be adapted to feed one or more…. and is perfect for the festive season as a “Lighter” lunch option between Year end parties & excessive turkey consumption 🙂

Beetroot, baby potato salad topped with crumbed chicken & home-made Tzatziki Dressing

1 shallot, finely chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
fresh dill, handful – chopped
250g cooked beetroot, cut into match-stick slices
250g baby potatoes, cut any large ones into half
2 pieces of chicken (I used the frozen crumbed offering… because I am lazy :))
3 Tablespoons of greek yoghurt
1/2 cucumber, halved, de-seeded & grated
1/2 garlic clove, crushed

• Mix shallot, olive oil, dill & seasoning together and add half of it to the sliced beetroot
• Cook Chicken according to box instructions
• Boil baby potatoes in a pot of water (with a teaspoon of salt) until tender
• Drain & mix with the rest of the oil dressing
• To make tzatziki – mix together greek yoghurt, grated cucumber & crushed garlic… you can also add a teaspoon of water if you need to make it less thick
• Loosely plate up the beetroot, potatoes & chicken on each plate and drizzle the tzatziki on top

Portuguese Black eyed bean and tuna salad

As most of you already know… I married HIM… a wonderful, amazing and super-duper all-around great, funny & smart guy…who is from Portugal. (Yes – I like to gush about HIM a lot… and it makes him roll his eyes :))

Our cooking styles are very different and although we both take turns, he does his cooking out of necessity while I do it because I love being in the kitchen. (And before you accuse me of forcing him into the kitchen… he feels the need to get in there every once in a while in order to get a taste of “Portugal”… making things from home that he is convinced that I wont be able to re-create…..)

Any-hoo….

We recently hosted an Easter brunch for friends in Brussels… a beautiful spring (sunny) day where 17 people descended upon our apartment and spilled out onto our courtyard terrace … to enjoy a day of food, fun and laughter. Everyone contributed to the table in some way – whether through bottles of bubbles, quiche, chocolate hot cross buns or tiramisu…  so there was definitely what I would call “a selection”… salads, croissants, breads (one of which was baked by moi)… and of course – respecting the continental european way – cheeses & charcuterie….

One of the salads that was devoured in seconds was the Roasted Butternut Salad which I have blogged about before… and the other salad that went down a treat – was a black bean & tuna salad which HIM says is a very traditional Portuguese salad.

wherever it originates from… I don’t mind… because it is easy & delicious – a definite RE-MAKE kind of recipe!

Black-eyed Bean & tuna salad

1 red onion, chopped finely

2 cups of uncooked (dry) black-eyed beans

2 tins of tuna, drained

Parsley

olive oil

• Soak the beans overnight in a bowl of water
• Drain and place into a large pot with fresh water
• Bring to the boil and then reduce heat and simmer until the beans are tender but still hold their shape (about 1-2hr)
• Rinse, drain and set aside to cool down
• In a large bowl, combine tuna, beans, onion, olive oil and chopped parsley
• Refrigerate for at least 2hr before serving

super simple Tomato Salad

When Jamie Oliver first became the super star of the kitchen in the late 90’s and early 00’s… I vaguely remember him preparing a salad of tomatoes on his *naked chef* cooking show.

yes – just a salad of tomatoes.

no lettuce

no cucumber

no olives… no feta… no onions….

nothing but tomatoes…

Now, don’t get me wrong – I LOVE tomatoes, but I was somewhat sceptical… until I actually made the salad.

It is a WINNER! Delicious and everything that tomatoes represent. Sun-kissed blushed tastes with a good glug (a “Jamie” word) of olive oil (good olive oil, mind you) and of course a decent seasoning of salt and some herbs.

The secret is that you need to mix a variety of tomatoes together – different shapes, colours and sizes…and the salting process! Don’t skimp on the salt – because this is what brings out the flavours!!

Tomato Salad

Variety of tomatoes

Salt

Olive oil

oregano

• slice and dice your tomatoes to approximately the same size
• 
• Season with salt and some herbs
• and pour a good glug of olive oil over everything
• SERVE

Could it get any simpler?

This is definitely going to be a recipe that will be repeated over and over again – for all the braai’s (aka BBQ’s) that I am planning for our new garden/terrace this summer 🙂

Mommabear’s summer salad

My mother makes this amazing salad which essentially represents the taste of Summer… fruit and prawns with a tangy lemon dressing (sometimes she dresses it with a sweet chilli sauce mayo – which is more-ish!!)

The flavours work so perfectly… and the mint seems to bring all them together… in fact – the epitome of the salad reflects my mothers soul 🙂 Perfectly balanced! She brings people together and has been called *Mommabear* by myself and my friends since the beginning of High School!

I have memories of my friends coming to visit me in PE for Friday night movies (video’s in those days), and then half of them used to land sitting on the floor of my mother’s bedroom chatting to her!! She is the best person in the world for advice – she can grasp the problem and provide a variety of solutions within seconds (Super Woman has nothing on her :))… this is only one of her amazing traits and if I had to list them all here – I would run out of space.. but one thing that I can say – is that she truly is my Hero!!!

This salad can be served as a starter, side salad or as a main meal …. and it is easy to put together as long as you have the appropriate fruit (avo’s and pawpaw) that are ripe!

Prawn, Avocado and Pawpaw salad:

1 ripe Avo, peeled and cubed

1 small Pawpaw, de-seeded, peeled and cubed

2 cups of cooked prawns, deveined and cleaned

2 cups of mixed green salad leaves

1 tomato, cubed (optional)

Mint sprigs

Lemon juice

pinch of salt

1. Mix cooked prawns with avo and pawpaw
2. Serve either next to or on top of the mixed green salad leaves
3. Tear mint leaves and place on top
4. Sprinkle lemon juice and season with salt

Printable version available here