Orange and Beetroot Quinoa Salad

It's been one of those stifling Melbourne weekends where all I seem to be able to manage is lying in a puddle on the floor when I should really be writing a thesis and going for runs and other things of that nature.  At least this weekend I managed to eat well.  


This salad works hot or cold, but if it's been 38 degrees then I'd go with cold.  It's refreshing, tangy with little crunchy almond surprises scattered throughout.  I have also been telling myself it's full of nutritional value, which makes that potato cake I had before seem all okay.


Ingredients:

• 1 cup quinoa
• 2 oranges
• 1 beetroot plus leaves
• 1 cup almonds
•  teaspoon cinnamon
• good olive oil 
• salt and pepper for seasoning

Cook the quinoa in 1.5 cups liquid made up of the juice of one orange and the rest boiling water.*  While it's cooking prepare you're other ingredients.

Strip the beetroot of its leaves and reserve them.  Peel the beetroot and grate.  Rinse the leaves and finely shred.  Halve the remaining orange, remove the pith and peel from one half and chop into small pieces.  Juice the other half of the orange and reserve for the dressing.

Roughly hew the almonds and toast in a dry pan until beginning to brown.

Once the quinoa is done add the orange, beetroot, leaves and almonds and toss through.  Dress the salad with the remaining orange juice, a drizzle of olive oil, the cinnamon and a little salt and pepper.  Delicious.

*If you've never cooked quinoa, a basic method involves placing it in 1.5 times the quantity of boiling water, cover and simmer for 15 minutes, then with the lid still on take off the heat and rest for another five minutes.

Lemongrass and Ginger Beef Salad

 
I happen to have a little insight into one of my Christmas presents this year.  It involves Vietnamese street food and recipes and is a book.  Yup.  And just knowing this got me all excited about Vietnamese food.  Also, I had a craving for fresh salady things.  So I did a little squirreling around the internet and mashed a few different things I'd seen together to make this wonderful, fresh and very spicy salad.  The spicy lemongrass and ginger paste softens the beef to it's super tender, and the pickled carrots... well they'll be featuring a lot in my tummy from now on, that's for sure.


Ingredients (serves 4):

• 500g beef sliced into strips
• half an iceberg lettuce
• 1 Lebanese cucumber
• 1 carrot
• 1 bunch each mint, coriander, basil
• 1 stalk lemongrass (white part only)
• 1 walnut sized knob of ginger
• 2 birds eye chilies
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• Juice of half a lemon
• 1 shallot
• Fried rice noodles

Take the spices and smash them up in a mortar and pestle.  Add the fish sauce and lemon juice and continue to grind them until they form a thick paste.

Then place your beef strips in a bowl and smear the paste over them, massaging it in with your hands.  Place the beef back in the fridge and marinate in the spices for at least an hour.

Next, prepare the pickled carrots.  Finely slice the carrots.  Then mix together the vinegar, sugar and salt, and cover the carrots with the liquid.  Also place in the fridge for 45 minute to an hour (the pickled carrots will keep for up to several weeks).

Prepare the fried shallots.  Finely slice them and sizzle them in about 1cm vegetable oil in the bottom of your wok. Watch them closely, as they will take a while, and then turn from pinkish to brown to black within moments.  Be ready to remove them as soon as they start to darken.  Drain on a board.

About 50 minutes later, take the lettuce and finely shred about half.  Julienne the cucumber, and finely chop the herbs.

Prepare the wok with a fine sheen of sesame oil, and fry the beef until browned. 

Finally, arrange the lettuce, cucumber, herbs and carrots in your bowl.  Add a serve of the beef. Lastly, sprinkle some of the noodles and fried shallots on top. 

It's healthy, insanely tasty, and has the most wonderful mix of flavours.  If you have a sensitive stomach maybe go easy on the chili.  I didn't do this.  I have no regrets.

Spicy eggplant salad with chickpeas and sunflower seeds

I had an eggplant in my fridge all week.  I've been quietly fretting over it, because between you and me, I'm never quite sure how to cook eggplant. I fear mushy eggplant, soggy eggplant and bitter eggplant.  But I decided to nut up, use the food in the house rather than go outside/buy some more, and so I made this salad.  I have to confess that roasting the chickpeas was directly inspired by my lovely friend Jess who cooked me the most incredible meal the other night, including roast chickpeas in paprika.  This salad gets big fat ticks of approval for flavour, crunch, health, ease and use of oven for an extended period on a cold night.

Ingredients:

• 1 eggplant
• 1 tin chickpeas
• sunflower seeds
• garlic cloves (1 per person)
• tomatoes of some variety (I had fancy heirloom cherry ones!)
• baby spinach (or green leaves of your preference)
• leftover fetta you found in the fridge or any other white cheese of your preference
• juice of half a lemon
• olive oil
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
• salt to taste

Set the oven to 180 C.  Prepare the eggplant by cutting into three fat slices, sprinkling with salt and covering with paper towels.  Then walk away.  Come back in 30 mins or so and wipe off all the salt and liquid that has oozed out of them.  Rinse the chickpeas and pick out any discoloured ones.

Then cut the eggplant into chunky cubes and throw in a bowl with the chickpeas.  Add the spices and toss through until evenly coated.  Place in a roasting pan withe garlic (skin on) and roast for about 40 mins until crunchy on the outside.  Five minutes before they're done, add a big handful of the sunflower seeds to the roasting pan to brown.

Prepare the rest of the salad by placing the spinach leaves on a plate with the tomatoes cut into small wedges.  Scatter the cheese around the plates too.  Squeeze the lemon juice over and drizzle a tiny bit more oil.

 
Then take out your roast vegetables and seeds and scatter them over everything.  Make sure each serve gets a piece of garlic.  When you eat the salad, smoosh the garlic out of its skin and smoosh it around over everything.   And, consume!

Spicy carrot and beetroot salad

This started as a simple carrot salad I learnt from a Greg and Lucy Malouf cook book - grated carrots and delicious spice.  But these days I almost always add beetroot, and maybe some seeds.  And then this morning I went bonkas and threw in pomegranate, walnuts and chevre and the things went to a whole new level.  Tangy and juicy and hot hot pink.  I got a spray of pomegranate down my white t-shirt that made me look like I murdered an exotic fruit, and in many ways, I did.

Ingredients:

• 2 carrots
• 1 beetroot
• 1/2 a pomegranate
• big handful of walnuts
• big handful of sunflower seeds

Dressing:

• really good olive oil
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• splash of orange blossom water
• teaspoon cumin
• teaspoon of cinnamon
• half a teaspoon chilli powder
• teaspoon of honey

Grate the carrot and beetroot and put in a large mixing bowl.  This is the most time consuming part. You're already 80% there.  Oh man I love an easy salad.  Scoop the seeds from half the pomegranate.  If this is the first time you've done this it will be slightly baffling and little hard white bits will stick to the seeds (at least, this was my experience the first time I used one).  The key is to abandon all utensils and muck in with your hands - the little juicy seeds will come away from the fruit easily.

 Toast your walnuts and seeds by placing them in a thin layer in a dry frying pan, and tossing on a medium heat for about 2 minutes until they start to brown and the seeds start to pop.  Then add these to your salad.

Now mix the dressing, by taking all the dressing ingredients and stirring them vigorously in a little ramiken, like so.

Toss the dressing through, and finally, place your creamy chevre (that's fancy for soft white goats cheese) on top.

Zucchini salad

Fresh, green, tangy zucchinis.  I have long loved zucchinis, but never before has it occurred to me to eat them raw.  I suspect that there's a whole world of cooked vegetables that I should be eating raw.  I have already converted to raw beetroot.  And then Jamie fucken Oliver.  I hate the idea of sprooking Jamie Oliver recipes, but there's no denying that some of them are good.  I saw this one being made on tv and knew that I would make it soon. So I did.  It takes five minutes from start to finish, it's healthy and it packs punch.  Need to know more?

Ingredients:

• zucchinis
• 1 lemon
• good quality olive oil
• fresh mint
• red chilli
• salt and pepper

Finely chop the mint and chilli.  Grate the zest from the lemon.  Sprinkle all three over the dish you will serve the salad in.  Squeeze over the lemon juice and drizzle the olive oil.  Sprinkle a pinch of salt and cracked pepper.

Then using a vegetable peeler, peel the flesh from the zucchinis in ribbons over the top, avoiding the seeded middles.  Then smoosh the whole lot around until the zucchini is evenly coated in all the delicious little tasty bits.  Serve it with fish or seafood or chicken or pie or just eat it up with a fork and a glass of white wine!

Tri-salad Sunday

Ah the change of seasons.  Time for finishing the scarf I started knitting over a month ago.  Time to buy some new 100 denier tights.  Time to consider growing my hair long, again.  Time to buy new batteries for my bike lights for the dark evenings.

It's also time to get my first dastardly head cold of the season.  Time to go to bed early.  Time to take fruit, and eat vitamins.  Time to up my vegetable intake massively.  Hence Tri-salad Sunday.  A way to capitalise on some time at home in the midst of my manic massive work and study load, to stockpile some high veg, low(ish) carbs, tasty meals to last the majority of the week.

One Sunday.  One blog post.  Three salads.  Let's do this thing.

1. Green lentil salad
2. Pearl couscous, beetroot and sweet potato salad
3. Roast mushrooms

Okay, that last one isn't really a salad, but it's vegetables, and it's yummy, so just go with it, okay?


Green lentil salad 

 Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups green lentils (Puy if you can get 'em) 
• Bay leaves 
• 1 tomato, diced
• half a green capsicum, diced
• half a red capsicum, diced
• half a small red onion, finely sliced
• goats fetta
• 1 cup walnuts
• bunch of fresh parsley, finely chopped
• dressing - grape must, macadamia oil and raspberry balsamic

Heat the oven to 180 degrees C.  Dry roast the walnuts for 8-10 minutes.  Rinse the lentils under cold water then add to a pot.  Pour over 4.5 cups of boiling water (you can use stock if you prefer).  Add the bay leaves and simmer for 20 minutes.  To check if they're ready, taste to make sure the texture is right.  I wanted my lentils to be firm but chewy, and not tough.  Once cooked, drain the remaining water and again, run cold water over the lentils to cool them.

Finely chop your tomato, capsicum, onion and parsley.  Add the walnuts, vegetables, parsley and fetta to the lentils and toss through.  Make up your dressing and pour over.

Pearl couscous, beetroot and sweet potato salad

Ingredients:

• 1 packet of pearl couscous
• 2 cups stock
• 1 sweet potato, diced
• 3 small beetroots or 2 medium beetroots, diced
• olive oil
• lemon juice
• 1.5 cups rocket 
• salt and pepper 

Peel and dice the beetroot and sweet potato.  Toss in oil and roast in a 180 C oven for up to 50 minutes, or until browning and crunchy.

While the vegetables roast, place the couscous in a saucepan with a dash of oil, and heat through, coating the couscous.  Add two cups of boiling stock, cover and simmer for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking to the bottom of the pan.  Then cool and seperate with a fork.

Rinse the rocket and pat dry on a tea towel.  Then add the rocket and roast vegetables to the couscous, and toss.  Add a splash of olive oil, juice of one lemon, salt and pepper, and mix through.

Roast mushrooms

Ingredients:

• white button and large portabello mushrooms, roughly chopped
• olive oil
•  3 cloves of garlic
• fresh parsley
• knob of butter

Place the mushrooms  in a pan and drizzle olive oil over them, then toss.  Sprinkle salt and pepper over them if you fancy extra seasoning.  Add the garlic cloves to the pan and roast in the oven (180 C) for about 20 minutes, checking to make sure the mushrooms do not dehydrate fully.

Remove the garlic and squeeze out the roasted insides.  Add to a bowl with the knob of butter and microwave for 20 seconds, or until the butter is melted.  Add the mushrooms to the bowl with the finely chopped fresh parsley, and toss.

Serve all three with freshly baked dinner rolls and lemon infused olive oil.  Oh yum.

NB This will make huge quantities of salad, if you make all three at once.  Eat them all week and show your head cold who's boss!