sunday lunch take 2

An update to our previous Sunday lunch, this time it was smoked salmon, sauerkraut, plum tomatoes, rocket drizzled in lemon, sourdough bread with a thin scraping of butter and mustard, served with radishes and topped with scrambled eggs and wild garlic from Leila's Shop. Seasoned with sea salt and pepper. A real buffet!

The wild garlic was a revelation, and we wilted them slightly with the eggs just before serving as per the lovely shop assistant's recommendation.  Leila's is a great place for discovering new ingredients. Every time we go there for the usual staples of Poilane bread and fresh eggs, we end up walking out with something unexpected. Recently it was Polish pickles and mustard, this time it was wild garlic. Definitely worth a look if you are in Shoreditch!

couscous and fries

Two favourite recipes that have been high on rotation recently and that are a match made in heaven:

Crispy Cornmeal Sweet Potato Fries via My New Roots

Green Couscous (wholewheat couscous, spring onions, rocket, coriander, mint, parsely, fried onions) from Ottolenghi's Plenty.

christmas day

A little belated but here are the dishes we prepared for Christmas Day.

Jamie Oliver's Perfect Roast Potatoes

Baked Peas with Tarragon, Yoghurt and Pistachios via 101 Cookbooks

Roasted Pumpkin with Wild Rice Salad via 101 Cookbooks

This was a healthy slice made for a trip up to the small isles in Scotland. We weren't sure what food would be available, so wanted to be prepared for many long train and ferry trips with a delicious snack that was not pre-packaged or processed. 

I can't remember the exact recipe, but it was inspired by these Everything Bars and involved carrots, medjool dates, nuts, oats and wholemeal flour, with coconut oil and maple syrup. 

end of week stir-fry

As with our curry formula, we enjoy making a stir-fry at the end of most weeks as the perfect way to use up any leftover vegetables. We have learnt that nearly any vegetable can work in a stir fry (even pumpkin)   and like most meals we cook it is simple, fuss-free and delicious.

sunday lunch

On a Sunday one of our favourite lunches is fresh rocket (drizzled in lemon juice and mixed with sunflower seeds as always), fried eggs, mackeral and fresh bread served with a cup of tea.

tofu burger

A simple, satisfying vegetarian burger.

Roasted pumpkin, tofu and a fried (organic, free-range) egg, nestled between slices of wholemeal/rye/sourdough bread (take your pick). Assemble and serve alone, or with some rocket drizzled in lemon.

mushroom and rice bake

I recently made Nigel Slater's Baked Mushrooms and Rice dish. It was a hit and has been made again and again since. Very simple to make, it is a great vegetarian alternative to a Sunday roast.

kale crisps

Back in April, tempted by the farmer's warning that this was the last weekend for kale, we bought as much as we could carry. Returning home, we soon realised that we had been a little over enthusiastic and so after searching through some of our favourite websites discovered a recipe for Kale Crisps  over on My New Roots.

This recipe is the perfect way to eat this superfood. All you need is a few simple ingredients (lemon, maple syrup, sesame seeds, olive oil, salt and tamari) and a big bunch of kale to make a delicious and healthy version of Britain's favourite snack.

The key here is the massaging of the kale, as this breaks down the structure of the leaf which is notorious for being tough.

lentil soup

Recently we tried this Coconut Red Lentil Soup recipe from 101 Cookbooks and it became an instant favourite. Over the past few weeks we have made this at least two nights a week, and made a version of it many times while on holiday in Scotland recently. It is a great dish to adapt depending on what you have at hand. It can be stripped right back to just lentils, tomato puree and some spices or can be made more elaborate. Variations have included using puy lentils and omitting the coconut milk, adding more tomato puree and celery, adding brown rice or barley - the options are endless. It is very filling and really holds heat, so is perfect for the extended winter weather here in London (just be careful not to burn your tongue like we seem to do every single time).

stewed apples

We pick up a bag of apples or two at our local farmer's market most weeks. Sometimes we buy more than we can eat raw, so we stew them with cinnamon and use them throughout the week with breakfast, as snacks, or as a base for desserts. I like to take a small tupperware container of stewed apple mixed with almonds to work. It also tastes lovely warmed up on the stove and served with some fresh yoghurt, seeds, nuts and honey.

spiced butternut squash and chickpeas

This is a version of the Spiced Sweet Potato and Chickpea dish from Sprouted Kitchen but with butternut squash replacing the sweet potatoes and leeks added. It is a really warming bowl of food, and fills you up very quickly. It would also be great in summer served cool, perhaps alongside some rocket drizzled in lemon juice or fresh avocado.

curry

Most weeks we make a curry. Usually we use cauliflower with peas and onion, served with brown rice and seeds (sunflower, sesame, linseed). Sometimes we use aubergine and tomatoes. It is a really versatile meal, and you can always add or subtract vegetables depending on what is in season or what is left in the fridge. Our way of cooking it is probably not very traditional or typical, and is perhaps closer to a stir fry, but it tastes good, is thrifty and pretty healthy too. The great thing with this kind of dish is you can make a lot and it will just get better the next day.

For a while we would used standard pre-mixed curry powders for flavouring, but recently decided to make our own curry paste. A quick google search mid-cook led to Jamie Oliver's Easy Homemade Curry Paste recipes. All are very simple, based around standard ingredients such as garlic, ginger, cayenne pepper, cumin, salt, oil, perhaps a dash of almond meal, tomato paste or shredded coconut... anyway you get the idea. This is a perfect mid-week recipe and the leftovers make for a cheap, delicious, filling lunch the next day. Beat's Pret every time.

black bean enchilidas

This is a quick, simple and tasty meal. We made our own enchilada sauce using olive oil, a touch of plain flour, chilli powder, cumin, tomato paste, garlic and sea salt. Combine pre-soaked black beans, 2 grated carrots, 1 grated courgette, 1/2 sliced onion with half the sauce and mix. Spoon 2-3 tablespoons of the mixture onto your base - we used rye mountain bread. Roll up in baking pan and once they are all done cover with half of the leftover sauce. Bake for 30-35 minutes at 180 degrees, adding the rest of the sauce halfway. Goes really well with ginger beer.

roast winter veggies

Really simple, but really packs a punch. Butternut squash, red onion and whole garlic cloves with parsnip and some new (to us) kind of broccoli we found at our farmers market (broccolini?). Cut, brush with oil and a little sea salt to taste and roast for a bit longer than you think is necessary, those extra few minutes can really bring out the sweetness in the squash.

Best served alongside fresh flowers.

butternut, mushroom and sage lasagna

This is a delicious recipe I got from a fellow expat colleague, takes a while to get all the bits together ready to cook but well worth the time you put in. I roasted the squash in oil, fried some mushrooms in butter and garlic and boiled some spinach. To make the white sauce I infused the milk (I used goats milk) by simmering it with half an onion and a few sage leaves before adding white flour and some salt. For next time I would triple the amount of white sauce as it's the means of softening the pasta sheets. Put it all together and into the oven.

Perfect with a hearty aussie shiraz!