I hate wasting food, and the other night when I made the KALE, LENTIL AND POMEGRANATE SALAD I made way too much quinoa and had a container of it sitting in my fridge waiting to be eaten. I really wanted to use it today and felt like something that would feel indulgent because it’s Friday and that’s always worth celebrating (even if I am still on holidays right now..)!
For me, summer means salad and BBQs and this salad is delicious with barbecued anything! It has great flavours and textures and is full of a variety of nutrient dense ingredients. I think kale has such fantastic flavour and texture when it’s treated correctly… but sometimes big undressed pieces of it can seem grassy or have a bit too much bite. Whenever I use it raw in a salad I like to roughly shred it and allow it to soak up flavour, it keeps its great texture still but doesn’t over power other ingredients. The lentils and quinoa keep mean that it works as a whole meal as well as in smaller portions as a side.
I am by no means claiming that this is a traditional middle eastern dish but it was those flavours I was thinking of when I came up with this. This is super easy to do, and full of flavour. You can get your butcher to butterfly the chicken for you or do it yourself (it’s really easy to do and you can always find a tutorial online!). I have also cooked this in the oven and it works just fine, but you don’t get the smoky char of course! Delicious served with the KALE, LENTIL AND POMEGRANATE SALAD 😉
Avocado. Maybe the most posted food item on my Instagram feed. Thus I figured it was time to have a post dedicated to one of my favourite breakfast sides, this tangy fresh and delicious avocado and feta mash. I almost wasn’t going to bother as it’s so simple but it’s so good so here we are. It’s great just with crackers or as part of a big shared brunch spread or just smeared on to your toast… maybe with an egg on top! If you’re not a coriander fan you could replace with either basil, mint or flat leaf parsley. The lemon can be replaced with lime and sometimes i put a clove of garlic or a pinch of paprika or cumin in to change the flavour profile depending on what I’m serving it with. But this is the basic recipe. This makes enough for 4-6 pieces of toasts depending on how generous you’re feeling!
I love pasta and stir fry. I also love vegetables and try to get as many of them in my diet as possible and a vegetable spiralizer is a fabulous way of doing this. The below recipes are some of my favourite ways to eat ‘zucchini noodles’ or ‘courgetti’ or spiralized zucchini if we’re going to be all honest about what food really is 😉