Meatless Monday - roast tomato, haloumi and mint salad

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This was something I created a little while back with Gourmet Garden. It's no secret I adore haloumi, and with a minty dressing, I'd just about do anything for anyone. The roasted tomatoes are a little change from fresh, but work so well with the ingredient combination, and I like to squish them so their juices run out and mingle with the minty dressing...

I nearly ate this whole thing when I first made it. And I made enough for four people.

You can find the recipe here.

Linky Bitz

♥ The linky will be up every Monday morning, and will stay up until the following Sunday. It doesn't matter if you eat your meal on a day other than Monday - it's just an easy day to create the link.
♥ Grab the Meatless Monday button above and put it in your post, and even on your sidebar if you're feeling generous!
♥ Visit at least one other blogger and leave some love. This is so much more cool if we're in it together!

Soba noodle salad

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 It's definitely warm enough where I am for salads as meals, and this one is delicious, simple and filling.

I love how soba noodles hold their shape without being hard or too chewy, and they are soft without being goopy. They carry the dressing well (as do the broccoli florets), and the corn gives little pops of sweetness I really enjoy. What makes it for me, though, is the coriander and mint - it's just such a wonderful combination. The picture above doesn't show it as I was worried it would look too wilty to be appetising, but never fear - it was added very quickly!

I won't give exact measurements of things, as it depends on how many you're feeding.

Ingredients
soba noodles, cooked according to packet directions
broccoli florets, steamed til crisp-tender
cherry tomatoes, halved
red onion, sliced thinly
cucumber, halved and sliced thinly
carrot, julienned
capsicum, julienned
fresh coriander
fresh mint
fresh corn

Dressing:
Juice of 1 lime
2 tbs grated palm sugar or brown sugar
2 tbs light soy sauce
1 chilli, minced
1 clove garlic, minced

Directions:

1. Mix veggies and soba noodles.

2. For dressing, whisk all together. Ensure you taste for balance of flavours - I find I'm always putting in extra sugar but it depends on your limes and how your palate prefers this kind of sauce.

Linky Bitz

♥ The linky will be up every Monday morning, and will stay up until the following Sunday. It doesn't matter if you eat your meal on a day other than Monday - it's just an easy day to create the link.
♥ Grab the Meatless Monday button above and put it in your post, and even on your sidebar if you're feeling generous!
♥ Visit at least one other blogger and leave some love. This is so much more cool if we're in it together!

Meatless Monday - black bean and corn salsa with lime and avocado

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It's getting warmer! Well, where I am, very warm. It's already time for eating outside and tomatoes and freshness and salads and things with coriander in them.

I love this time of year. I love breakfasts on the patio. Lunches on a blanket outside under a tree. Dinners with wine and candles and a warm breeze. Putting the kid outside with a popsicle and every messy food known to man so my floors stay somewhat clean. It's not too hot and life is good.

Life is always good when there's Mexican-inspired dishes in this house. Black beans and avocado and lime and coriander never ever fail to make me happy. 

This salady thing serves 4-6 depending on what you're using it for. I like it on the side of something for dinner, and a bowl of the leftovers for lunch the next day.

Ingredients:
2-3 cups cooked black beans (canned is fine but boy are they expensive here!)
2 ripe red tomatoes or a punnet of grape tomatoes, diced or halved
kernels from 1 cob fresh corn (I didn't have any here so I used canned)
1 avocado, diced
2 spring onions, sliced thinly
1 bunch coriander
juice of two limes and zest of 1
a pinch of brown sugar
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tbs olive oil
big pinch of salt
hot sauce to taste
a little white wine or champagne vinegar if your limes aren't tangy enough

Directions:

1. Mix beans, tomatoes, corn, avocado and spring onion together gently so the avocado doesn't go all weird. You can use the corn kernels fresh from the cob, or blanch them briefly. Or straight out of the can!

2. In a small bowl, mix lime juice, zest, sugar, garlic, olive oil, salt and hot sauce. Mix with the salad.

Linky Bitz

♥ The linky will be up every Monday morning, and will stay up until the following Sunday. It doesn't matter if you eat your meal on a day other than Monday - it's just an easy day to create the link.
♥ Grab the Meatless Monday button above and put it in your post, and even on your sidebar if you're feeling generous!
♥ Visit at least one other blogger and leave some love. This is so much more cool if we're in it together!

Roasted veggie quinoa burgers

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Remember back a little while ago I made a roast veggie quinoa salad? And it was delicious and you all loved it? RIGHT? Well anyway, I made mention that the salad was too big for little ole me and I made the rest into burgers, which I froze.

They were pretty damn good. In fact, I have two left in the freezer that I am afraid to eat, because once I do, there is no more. Never mind the fact I can just make another batch. Shut up.

Anyway, if YOU want to make some, first you have to make the salad. The recipe you will find if you follow the abovementioned link.

Then to your leftovers (about four cups of salad or so) you will add one egg and 1/4 cup plain flour.

You will then put spoonfuls of this mix into a hot frying pan to reasonably resemble burgers.

You will then flip the burgers after a few minutes, when the underside should be nice and brown. You can put them over a pretty high heat without too much issue. You will cook them for another couple of minutes until browned and heated through.

You will then eat them however you like. On a bun with salad, on a plate with stuff, sprinkled with salt and eaten with a fork... I can personally vouch for all three here. Especially if you put the burger on a bun with salad and sweet chilli sauce and sour cream. Veggie Mama seal of approval.

Vegetarian Caesar Salad

I'm regularly ridiculed at family gatherings with this salad. By the meat-eaters, obviously.

It has no bacon, for a start. Ludicrous.

It has no anchovy in the dressing. Who would eat this monstrosity?

Well, they do after they've tried it. Sure they whine about the lack of bacon but they can always go home and fry up a few lardy strips if they're so inclined. I'm not and it still tastes good! In fact, it's surprising how good it is and I can't take any of the credit for it, really. It's all in the dressing. That I get out of a bottle.

I do chop up some crispy "chicken" strips and add for a more substantial dish, and I really think it's important to boil your eggs for only 7 minutes or so - I don't like them totally hardboiled, but a bit soft and gooey.

Anyway, it's far from traditional but it is an easy salad that packs a lot of flavour. I'm not sure you can really argue with that!

Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 head cos lettuce
1/2 loaf turkish bread, spread with butter and Gourmet Garden Garlic cut into small-ish cubes.
2-3 crispy "chicken" strips
Praise Caesar Salad Dressing (anchovy-free and awesome)
3 eggs, boiled in their shell for 7 minutes then chopped when cool enough to handle
shaved parmesan

Directions:

1. Bake the crispy strips and bread cubes until golden brown and cooked through. Chop strips into cubes.

2. Mix the salad, dressing, eggs, strips, turkish bread and parmesan. Shave more parmesan over the top.

Crumbed Eggplant with Chilli Tomato Jam and Bakers Delight Chia Bread

Ah chia. You and I meet again.

I've just spent the last 10 minutes searching YouTube for the clip I will forever think of every time I hear the word. Sadly it must be such a random part of the Wayne's World movie that nobody's put it up for my enjoyment! Anyway, Benjamin Kane is flicking through the TV channels, and after the clapping lamp ad, he flicks to this:



So I'm constantly singing in my head "clap on, clap off, the clapper! ch-ch-ch-chia!" And it will not go away.

'90s movie obsessions aside, the kind people over at Baker's Delight sent me some of their new chia bread to try recently, and once I stopped singing the song and explaining to the courier why he was delivering bread to me, I ripped a piece out and buttered it. Forget about the fact I actually had to cook with it

Bakers Delight has the BEST white sliced.

Anyway, I'm a huge fan of chia - as I mention in this post where I make banana chia muffins. Sadly, I'd have to sell Veggie Baby in order to fund one banana these days so I've had to use different ingredients in them.

With the suggestion that I might like to make an Australian recipe from the bread, I immediately had two ideas:

Little Aussie kid toast rusks! A smidgen of Vegemite, a sprinkle of cheese on the wholemeal chia bread, and into a low oven until they're hard. NOM. 

And the rest of the bread I left out overnight (covered) until it dried, then whizzed them in the food processor to make breadcrumbs. I then egged and crumbed eggplant slices and baked them at 180C for about 20-30 minutes until crispy on the outside and cooked through. then I smothered them in homemade chilli-tomato jam.

I normally add spices and things to my breadcrumbs, but I left these plain so as not to compete with the jam. To be honest, the breadcrumbs didn't really need it. I especially like the extra crunch from the chia seeds, that pop a little when you bite into them. Delicious and healthy... oh chia is there anything you can't do?

Thanks to Baker's Delight, I'm giving away three prize packs that include a packet of chia seeds, a $5 voucher to try their bread, and a medium-sized chia-branded singlet. Just leave a comment below and tell me what Aussie recipe would you have made? 

The giveaway is open to Australian residents only, and will end at 5pm on Tuesday October 18. Random.org will be used to choose three winners, who will be notified by email, so make sure I can contact you somehow!

And for those playing along at home:

b  Chilli-Tomato Jam    b

Ingredients
1/2 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1cm fresh ginger, grated
1 red chili, chopped
1 can diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon brown sugar
salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Saute the onion, garlic and ginger over low-medium heat until translucent, about 5 minutes.

2. Add the chili and saute 1 minute.

3. Add tomatoes, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper and bring to the boil.

4. Reduce heat and let simmer about 20-30 minutes, long enough to get thick and jammy. Oh man, it's good!

You can read more about the history of the chia seed, the Kimberley region in which it is grown, and chia farming here.

Disclosure: I was given two loaves of bread to try and the giveaway stuff for you guyses. That's all, folks!

Japanese potato salad

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Oh Japan. There was so much to you that I fell in love with.

Toilets that played music. Pedestrian crossings that played music. Gadgets that played music. Buses that told its passengers over the loudspeaker to not talk on the phone too loud in case it annoyed the other passengers. Incredibly sweet and kind Japanese EVERYWHERE. 

Even their fire hose covers in the street were cute.

Golden Hello Kitty idols in the street were cute.

Hello Kitties made of flowers in the street were cute.

Japanese girls on TV were cute.

Insanely gorgeous places to stay were insanely gorgeous.

Incredible English translation was awesome.

Please excuse my rather tipsy head there.

Their cute food was cute. They had Hello Kitty stamped on tiny sausages for kids. Just about everything had a face. I fell in love with edamame. I fell in love with the dainty portions, the prettiness of their food, the care with which it was all prepared.

And I fell in love with Japanese potato salad.

Every morning we would walk to the dining room of our ski hotel for breakfast. You never knew what you were going to get - one day it was some kind of filled cabbage leaf in some kind of broth, the next it would be tiny sausages, a stalk of broccoli, an ice-cream scoop of potato salad and three carefully-placed dots of ketchup. 

I kindly offered my sausages in exchange for extra portions of potato salad. I'm caring like that.

Recently Veggie Dad scored a win when he bought me Adam Liaw's cookbook - you know that incredibly talented and adorable, green-jumper-wearing, samurai teddy bear that won Masterchef? Yeah that guy. And in his cookbook, he gives a recipe for Japanese potato salad. 

私の名前はStaceyである。 私はポテトサラダを好む。

Ingredients:

4 large floury potatoes

1/4 tsp ground white pepper

1/2 small lebanese cucumber

1 small white or brown onion, thinly sliced

1/2 small carrot

1 egg, at room temperature

1 cup kewpie mayonnaise

Directions:

1. Peel the potatoes and cut into cubes. Boil in salted water 15 minutes until quite tender. Drain and return the potatoes to the hot pan. Stir regularly over very low heat 2-3 minutes to dry the potatoes without burning.

2. Transfer the potatoes to a deep bowl and season with a little salt and white pepper. Using a wooden spoon, crush the potatoes against the bowl to make a rough mash. Whip the potatoes vigorously with a wooden spoon for a few minutes until fluffy. Leave to cool to room temperature.

3. Meanwhile, peel the cucumber, leaving on a little peel for colour and texture. Cut in half lengthways and scoop out the seeds. Slice very thinly into half-moons. Combine the cucumber and onion and toss with a little salt. Put in a colander and leave to drain for 15minutes. Rinse off the salt under running water and dry on paper towel.

4. Peel the carrot and thinly slice into half-moons. Boil in salted water 3-5 minutes until tender. Drain and set aside on paper towel to cool.

5. Bring a small pan of water to the boil. Add the egg and boil 8 minutes, then transfer egg to iced water to stop the cooking process. When the egg is cool, peel and roughly chop.

6. Add the mayonnaise, carrot, cucumber and onion to the potato and whip vigorously with a wooden spoon. Stir in the egg. Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Caramelised Onion and Feta Frittata

Ok so I lied... it's not so much frittata as it is omelet with stuff on top and not folded.... lazy frittata, if you will!

Very good for quick suppers with a salad and bread or potato of some type. Doesn't take long, you can put whatever you've got hanging around in the fridge on it, and it doesn't require turning on the oven. Win!!

As always, can be doubled, tripled, whatever... even cooked in the oven if you're so inclined! Just add 2 eggs per person.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 tbs each olive oil and butter

1 onion, sliced fairly thin

1 teaspoon brown sugar

2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

1 cup sliced mushrooms or any other veggie you want to sneak in. I also used 1/4 cup semi-dried tomatoes

5 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup shredded tasty cheese

1/4 cup feta, crumbled

salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Heat 1 tbsp each the oil and butter over medium-low heat.

2. Add onion and saute gently 10-15 minutes. Add sugar and balsamic vinegar about halfway through.

3. Remove from pan and heat the remaining oil and butter.

4. Turn heat to high and add mushrooms. Cook until caramelised and soft, about 5 minutes.

5. Add semi-dried tomatoes or any other veggie if using. Pour over eggs and tasty cheese. Season.

6. Turn heat down to medium and cook until mostly set - 6-7 minutes. You can pop under the grill/broiler here if you like. It isn't necessary.

7. Top with warm caramelised onion and scatter feta over the top. Some fresh herbs wouldn't go astray.

Gnocchi with Summer Vegetables

 I don't know about you, but in summer it is super-hot where I live. I'm always on the lookout for recipes that don't take too long on a steamy night, and one that I can eat outdoors with a nice cold wine* and good company. Preferably only with a fork. And that doesn't require too much washing up. I still haven't found a recipe that will make itself, sadly.

Thanks to Martha Stewart here is a very easy, quick dish that won't have you slaving over a hot stove or oven for too long, but is a little more substantial than a salad. You could really throw anything you like in, asparagus would be nice, some different colour squash... but it's hot, and I'm heavily pregnant and I just couldn't. be. bothered. That's why I love this recipe!

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 zucchini
2 garlic cloves, minced
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Two handfuls grape tomatoes
1 package gnocchi
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
2 tablespoons grated parmesan
1 tablespoon butter
Juice of half a lemon

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add zucchini and saute until crisp-tender, about 5 minutes.

2. Add the garlic and grape tomatoes and saute five or so minutes more. You can squash the tomatoes a little as they collapse, which adds to the sauce.
3. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook gnocchi according to package instructions.

4. When they float to the surface, spoon them out with a little water and into the frying pan. Toss and add basil, cheese, butter, salt, pepper and lemon juice. Add a little more pasta water if it's looking too dry.

Serve with a generous helping of cracked black pepper and some extra parmesan.

Serves 4.



*Wine! Wherefore art thou, wine? A crisp white, a velvety red... a glass of port. I miss you. It's been too long. Have you waited for me? I told you I'd come back... not long now....
Original recipe here

Roast Pumpkin and Haloumi Salad with Honey-Lemon Dressing.

Once upon a time I was the editor of a small newspaper in a small town. The small town had several cafes, but I frequented just one - the one that had a roast pumpkin and haloumi salad on its extensive menu. I never once deviated from this choice in all the times I went there - which is incredibly strange, as I love to try new things. I just couldn't stray. If I was to meet someone for lunch, it was to this cafe I'd go, and to my beloved haloumi I would remain loyal.

One particular day, I was racing to get the paper finished by my 1pm deadline. Deadline days didn't usually leave me much time to eat, save whatever snacks I had stashed in a drawer, or whatever lunch I brought from home, microwaved in fits and starts, and mouthfuls eaten sporadically between work. It usually went cold and I would sadly poke at it at about 1.02pm. This day though was hectic. I drank about nineteen cups of tea and tried to forget I was hungry. As soon as that deadline hit, and I saw the last page disappear into the printing ether, I raced out the door and flew down the street in record time. Which hard to do in small towns. People want to stop you and chat. Particularly when you're the editor of the very popular (and slightly controversial) paper. I am sure I may have made a few more enemies that day, but I didn't care, all I wanted was the pumpkin and haloumi salad, and ain't nothing was going to stand in my way.

I don't even remember eating it. But I've no doubt it was good.

As is this one - the salty crispness of the haloumi pairs so well with the smooth, sweet pumpkin and the lemon dressing really adds another dimension of deliciousness. Very easy to throw together, and you can add whatever you fancy to flesh it out - this recipe should just be a guide.

Ingredients:

4 cups chopped pumpkin

Several handfuls lettuce

1 can lentils, rinsed and drained well

2 ripe tomatoes (cherry tomatoes would be even better), quartered

2 packets haloumi, sliced

Juice of 1 lemon

2 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon olive oil

Directions:

1. Roast the pumpkin and tomatoes in a 220C oven 15-20 minutes until soft and just starting to brown, turning once. I dusted mine with cinnamon, chili and sea salt.

2. Arrange the lettuce, lentils, tomatoes and/or whatever else you're using on plates.

3. Mix the lemon juice, honey and olive oil.

4. Fry the haloumi over medium-high heat until browned on both sides, a couple of minutes.

5. Top the salad with haloumi and dressing.

I only had sad little iceberg lettuce today (thanks so much, Brisbane floods/Queensland cyclone!) but I would totally recommend a nicer lettuce.