This salad tastes like summer. Eat it by itself. Eat it with a vegetable gallette. Eat it with barbecued lamb or chicken or fish or steak. Mix it with pasta. Just do yourself a favour and eat it. It’s super quick and simple to make, tastes great and looks pretty. It’s also full of stuff that’s good for you. Green stuff, good fats, great things. So stop reading these words and skip down to the recipe.
I have a problem. I really like baked goods. Especially in the afternoon, anything sweet really, although fruit just hasn’t been cutting it lately. I need more. But when I eat too much processed food and sugar I sleep really badly; then I’m tired; and then I want more sugar in the afternoon to stay awake. It’s a sugary, circular battlefield. To solve this ‘problem’ (really I’m using that term in a pretty fast and loose way – my problem is on the pathetic side!) I’m trying to find low fructose, whole food solutions that are free of refined sugar to stop this cruel circle. Saving lives over here, solving world problems and the like haha.
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 😉
This recipe combines three ingredients that I find very addictive. And adds a bit of salt to them, so you know all self control is out the window. Maple. Chilli. Roasted Nuts. They are sweet, spicy, salty and ridiculous. My boyfriend has also humbly pointed out that he made a chilli and honey peanut version of these a while back so I am stealing his ideas. My dad all makes maple glazed pecans all the time so I guess I amalgamated both their recipes and made it mine, mine, mine. Haha happy holidays and all that stuff – get roasting!
Summer has hit Melbourne and I’m in the mood for salads and asian flavours. This dish combines those things. It packs a punch and feel free to adjust the chilli to your liking (i use the seeds as I’m a fiend but discarding them is always an option).
I am sitting on my bed with the sun streaming through the window eating ‘off cuts’ of these while I write this. Well if I’m being honest I actually finished eating while I waited for my computer to start up….