Posts tagged salad

Mixed Seed Pesto

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One thing I love about being a student is the necessity to be resourceful with whatever food is to hand. With a need to budget, being economical with your weekly shop is an art, and I am forever searching for ways to make my food go further without EVER skimping on flavour or going hungry. So, today I knocked up a satisfying, tasty and fresh salad which my taste buds were certainly thankful for, after noting the anorexic looking shelves of my dying fridge. I seem to be using pumpkin seeds a lot at the moment in this Autumnal weather, so I decided to use a handful of mixed seeds to create a pesto dressing for the last of my sweet, ripe tomatoes and pessimistic salad leaves. Homemade pesto is always more wholesome and scrumptious than the jarred equivalent in the shops and this one certainly didn’t let me down……

  • 2 tbsp of mixed seeds (I used pumpkin, sesame and sunflower)
  • Small bunch of coriander and flat leaf parsley
  • Small handful of grated parmesan
  • 1 small garlic glove
  • ½ small lemon
  • Salt and pepper
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  1. Start by grinding the garlic to a paste with some coarse salt in a pestle and mortar.
  2. Toast the seeds in a dry frying pan until they release their flavour and begin to crackle.
  3. Add to the pestle and mortar and grind to a chunky paste with the garlic. You can grind it as much as you like. I like to keep the seeds a bit chunky to add a bit of texture
  4. Now add the herbs and parmesan and grind to a green paste.
  5. Add a splash of oil and a squeeze of lemon juice to make a thick pesto or to your desired consistency.
  6. Taste and adjust using salt and pepper and more lemon if you like.

I added a large tablespoon of my pesto to a mix of bitter cos lettuce, sweet tomatoes and some cress for a lovely salad. This would be delicious topped with some salty, fried halloumi cheese…..but, sadly my fridge didn’t deliver on that one.image

Roasted allotment salad with Balsamic Pearls

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Roasted allotment salad with Balsamic Pearls

 

If you grow your own produce then maybe you can relate to this time of bountiful year on the allotment. The vegetables are literally elbowing each other with they’re knobbly roots to fight for the glorious prospect of supplying our busy kitchen. Beetroot, sugar snaps, runner beans, courgettes, potatoes and tomatoes seem to have smuggled the odd protein shake or steroid supplement and are bursting to be eaten…we can’t do it quick enough. So tonight, I went vegetarian again. A roasted salad.

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I recently found these little balsamic gems in Waitrose and just had to try them! They’re like dinky diminutive drops of balsamic caviar which burst in your mouth with ever bite! Topped over this beetroot salad……..amazing!

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  • 4 raw beetroot washed and chopped into chunks
  • 7 small carrots, whole
  • 1 tbsp cumin seeds
  • 2 whole garlic cloves
  • Small bunch of thyme, leaves picked
  • Olive oil
  • Salt and pepper
  • 150g goats cheese, crumbled
  • 2 tbsp mixed seeds, pumpkin, sunflower
  • Small bunch of chopped mint leaves
  • Balsamic vinegar
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Balsamic caviar (optional)
  1. Preheat the oven to 190°C. Mix the beetroot and whole carrots in a roasting tin and coat in the cumin seeds, thyme leaves, plenty of olive oil and seasoning. Add the whole garlic cloves.
  2. Roast, turning every so often for 45-50 minutes until the veg are soft and caramelised at the edges.
  3. Meanwhile, toast the seeds in a dry frying pan until they are fragrant and begin to pop. Chop the mint leaves.
  4. When the vegetables are ready, remove from the oven. Take the garlic cloves and squeeze the soft, sweet pulp into a pestle and mortar. Add a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar, a good glug of extra virgin olive oil and some seasoning and bash until blended into a paste. Coat the warm vegetables in this dressing.
  5. Crumble over the goats cheese, seeds and mint leaves and serve, scattered with a few teaspoons of balsamic caviar if you like!

Roasted Carrot and Avocado Salad

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Roasted Carrot and Avocado Salad

Today the sun made a rare and facetious appearance in this so-called summer season we seem to be laden with this year. So naturally as Brits, we grabbed the opportunity to have a barbie. My most inspiring idol in the food industry, Jamie Oliver, has been the backbone of my passion for food and cooking ever since receiving a copy of Jamie at Home when I was a teenager. The titled spine of this book, after many years of use, is holding tightly (but dare I say unsuccessfully) to the binding of the splattered cover and greasy pages. This book is a staple in my assembly of cookbooks and always makes an appearance especially in the summer sunshine. This tasty and delicious little salad is therefore courtesy of my mate Jamie (I wish) which went down guilt free with our charred meat and roasted beets and goats cheese.

  • 500g small carrots (mixed varieties if available)
  • 2 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1 tsp crushed dried chillies
  • salt and pepper
  • 2 garlic cloves, peeled
  • 4 thyme sprigs, leave picked
  • Red wine vinegar
  • 1 orange, halved
  • 1 lemon, halved
  • 2 ripe avocados
  • 4 x 1cm thick ciabatta/sourdough slices, toasted
  • 2 handfuls of mixed salad leaves
  • 1 punnet cress
  • 4 tbsp mixed seeds
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Parboil the carrots whole, in salted water for about 10 minutes. Drain and place into a deep roasting tin
  2. While the carrots are boiling, grind the cumin seeds, chillies and salt and pepper in a pestle and mortar. Add the garlic and thyme and smash to a paste. Add a swig of oil and a splash of red wine vinegar.
  3. While the carrots are still warm in the tin, cover with the this paste. Place the halved orange and lemon cut side down in the tin and roast the carrots for 30 minutes.
  4. While the carrots are roasting, toast the bread slices. Tear into pieces and add to the sliced avocados on a serving plate. Add the salad leaves and cress and toss.
  5. When the carrots are ready, remove from the oven and, using tongs, squeeze the juice from the lemon and orange into a jug and add an equal amount of oil and a swig of red wine vinegar and season.
  6. Add the carrots (along with the spices and marinade left in the roasting pan) to the bread and salad mix. Drizzle with the lemony dressing and scatter with toasted seeds. Serve!image