Posts Tagged With: dressing

Mango, Mint & Chickpea Salad

Posted on February 15, 2013 by leroy watson

Whats our favourite fruit? Mango (of course!)

In the world of things fruity and exotic, the mango stands tall, a royal pip amongst all things seeded. Mango is such a tough fruit to harvest, the trees secrete poison that is quite nasty when the fruit is picked, making mango something to cherish and enjoy with glee. I know this because I have randomnly harvested mangoes on a Nicaraguan island. It’s a long story, but they were lovely.

This chickpea concoction is a saladty departure for mangos fruity sweetness. It is a purposefully sweet salad for those folk who are not generally willing leaf munchers. The sweetness and awesome textures plus the creamy yoghurt dressing are a real highlight A good one for entertaining friends and family if you happen to be a vegan and with summer just around the corner, we need to get our salad skills dust free and sharp.

We very rarely get to use mangos as we live in Wales for most of the year and the Welsh mangos resemble rugby balls in texture and odour! Rubbery and rugged that is. They are a bit more exotic over here in Spain and there are a few fable mango trees in a particular valley nearby. Nobody seems to know where they are though but they are said to be the sweetest mangos ever (nice fairytale huh!). I think the mangos we used came freight class all the way from Costa Rica but for this salad we’ll make an exception to our ‘mostly local’ focus.

Recipe Notes

The dressing here is nice and thick and coats the salad, we normally prepare the salad when the chickpeas are luke warm, it really gets the flavours going. The pomegranate molasses is something we picked up in the Iranian supermarket in Brixton. It packs a real tang! It is not essential, but good to have in the cupboard, if you can seek some out, it is a pleasant addition to the pantry.

You can use sprouted chickpeas here if you would prefer making this a raw salad.

Here goes. A regal fruity and spicy salad with barrel loads of flavour!

The Bits – Makes one decent salad bowlful

1 mango (pipped)

1 cup butternut squash

1/2 cucumber

1 carrot

1 small red pepper (all diced small)

2 cups cooked chickpeas (roughly one and half tins)

1 chilli (very finely diced, watch out for spiciness!)

½ handful of roast pumpkin seedsr

Dressing

Mint (2 handfuls)

Coriander (1 handful)

½ a lemon (juice and zest)

3 tbs soya yoghurt (unsweetened)

1 tbs olive oil

2 teas pomegranate molasses

½ teas ground cumin

1/4 teas cinamom

1 teas smoked paprika

Sea salt (to taste)

Do It
Chop all fruit/ veg into 1cm cubes, nice and easy to crunch and gets the flavours and textures mixed well. Place in your finest salad bowl, mix together, adding chilli and seeds.

Add dressing ingredients to a food processor and blitz for a short time, checking the seasoning. The dressing should be thick, and herbs incorporated. The dressing clings to the chickpeas.

Reserve one handful of mint and chop roughly, for the topping.

Que Rico! Mango Salad

Serve
We like a splash more lemon juice and a few more pumpkin seeds and the chopped mint on top, just before serving.

We Love It!
Fragrant mango and chunky chickpeas!! Two of our favourite treats in a salad.

Foodie Fact
Mango is not only the most luscious and decadent of the fruits, it also packs a nutritious punch. Mango is full of vitamin A (beta-carotene), alot like carrots really, a brilliant anti-oxidant that will keep you shining.

Categories: Dressings, Recipes, Salads | Tags: chickpeas, dressing, food, healthy, mango, pomegranate molasses, raw, recipe, salad, summer, sweet salad, vegetarian | 9 Comments

Trio of Simple Organic Summer Salads

Posted on August 27, 2012 by leroy watson

Aloe Vera Plant

Only naked and fresh veggies here! Food for the sun. When the produce is this good, you don’t want to mess with it too much. The flavours of these veggies are amazing, we are so privileged to live in an area with some serious vegetable growing heroes living close by.

We are getting veg from two local farms over the hill and have recently been picking up a veg box from another farm. We are suddenly inundated with incredible produce and can think of no better way of eating it than raw. Bring on the salads!

Local food is fresher and contains more nutrients due to this, we also like to support these amazing folk who are dedicated to the land. These salads are simple and contain only a few ingredients. Its what you’ll find us eating most days. Adding less ingredients to food makes the nutrients in food easier for the body to digest and use.

Our garden has taken a beating recently with the ‘summer’ storms, the wind is raging out there as I type these words. Leaves whizz by at right angles and the rocket is blown flat to the ground. The slugs have also had a field day out there, I can only hope they enjoyed what they ate. We have been harvesting some lovely red potatoes and a little rainbow chard, but really, the garden had been a steep learning curve this year. Next year, we are full of hope and fresh ideas to fortify our garden from these vicious Welsh elements. Having spoken to local farmers, it has been the worst growing season for 20 years, so a meagre crop is understandable. So we need some help!

Doing my best for the leeks

I’ve been working like a trooper of late, no time to cook food at the BHK. I needed plenty of shiny food and nutrition to keep me going and Jane has stepped in and has been making the most fantastic raw food delights. These salads, that we ate last night for dinner, were for me the pick of the bunch. Simple and tasty with a wonderful dressing.

I have a habit of throwing things together and letting a little bit of experience and my taste buds sort out the rest, Jane is brilliant at following recipes and measurements. This is important with some parts of cookery, namely baking and it would appear dressings. This dressing was perfectly balanced, with the warm edge of mustard and a good amount of honeyed sweetness.

Thinly sliced veggies

Thinly Sliced Veggies

Some may call this a ‘carpaccio’, but really it’s just a stunning way to serve veggies as a salad. Get your nicest plate out of the cupboard, some amazing veggies and slice thinly and arrange. Viola!

The Bits

We used our one each of our local organic farms courgette, beetroot, broccoli and a organic yellow pepper. Any combination of hard vegetables will do, if you are conscious of presentation, maybe mix up the colours a little.

Tomato and Basil Heaven

Tomato and Basil Heaven

For this you must have the finest tomatoes available. These red/green tomatoes came with our veggie box and completely blew us away. They grow in poly tunnels and god knows what else! They are insanely tasty and needed just a few torn basil leaves which are blooming on the windowsill and a splash of olive oil.

The Bits

2 handfuls of amazing tomatoes, meagre handful of torn basil leaves, a splash of great olive oil and sea salt and pepper if you must.

Carrots and Almonds

Carrots and Almonds

The sweetness of these carrots and almonds goes perfectly with the sweet mustard dressing.

The Bits

3 wonderful large carrots (scrubbed, not peeled), 1/3 head of broccoli (broken into little pieces, use the stalk and leaves), 1 handful of raw almonds, thinly sliced red onion and yellow pepper.

Sweet Mustard Dressing

Shake all ingredients together in an old jam jar, they are also handy to keep your dressing in afterwards.

The Bits

1 teas English Mustard, 2 teaspoons clear honey, 1 tbs lemon juice, 4 tablespoons rapeseed oil, a sprinkle of sea salt and pepper.

There is so little work in getting these together, we hardly need a ‘Do It’ section. More time to soak up some rays with your loved ones.

Serve

All veggies are best served at just under room temp, we used the dressing on the Carrot and Almonds and Thinly Sliced Veggies, the tomatoes needed no additions nonsense.

We Love It!

Magic veggies deserve to be eaten in all their glory i.e. naked and fresh!

Foodie Fact

Why buy organic/ local? Food loses nutrition when shipped and kept, so the more local fresh food you consume the better for you and your community in general. Organic veggies actually contain no more nutrients that conventionally grown, but they are clean and contain no pesticides (or poisons). Organic practices enrich the earth and by not using chemicals and GM techniques, ensure the fertility of the earth for future generations. Also, people who grow organically are normally lovely people to visit for tea!

Categories: Organic, Recipes, Salads, Vegan | Tags: dressing, food, healthy, local, organic, raw, salads, vegan, vegetables, vegetarian, why | 4 Comments

Beetroot & Sprouts Salad with Strawberry Dressing

Posted on July 8, 2012 by leroy watson

Hello Beauty Strawbs….we are going to eat you…..

This is a vibrant looking thing. Beetroots, Radish and Strawberry coming together for a colour-fest!

The beetroots we are getting at the moment are amazing, we are buying them from the farm by the bunch; quite small roots, but huge leaves. They are proving excellent value as the leaves are lasting for a few days salad-wise. The leaves are actually more nutritious than the roots. Its great to be able to eat the whole thing, no waste at all.

Beetroot, as we all know, is a vivid customer. Mainly due to the lasting impression it makes on your hands and nails when handling it. My advice, rubber gloves. I have no problems donning the marigolds in the kitchen, you do lose the ‘feel’ of cooking, but you gain a fantastic stain proof layer!

We are also getting a good supply of strawberries with actual flavour, always a challenge at this time of year. It seems that most people just want to cash in on this highly prized crop and do naughty things to grow them. Whatever they are up to, it completely saps their flavour. Anyway, our strawbs are ace!

I liked the sound of strawberry and beetroot, I liked the way it looked in my mind and it soon ended up in a bowl. I’ve used beetroot for desserts in the past (stuck some in a chocolate cake to great effect) and thought I’d give the strawberries a similar reverse treatment. They make for a really tart dressing and something I would highly recommend with any sweet-ish salad base.

Food processors are a choppers best friend. They do the hard work, while you stand there holding the button, wondering how much longer you can handle such a mental noise! Ours rattles like a badly oil cement mixer on overdrive. We used the contraption for the beetroots here and for the radish, it saved valuable minutes of our precious lives.

Radishes are funny little things, my Grandad loved to grow them in his allotment, but never seemed to know how to eat them. I think this was a general trend. This salad does them justice and I’m sure Bobby would have been proud, if a little confused by the pink dressing. I love a radish for its crunch and it just so happens that the colour goes very well with beetroot.

This is quite a sweet salad and very pretty, but we had to give it a dose of sprouts. They are so tasty and chock-ful of good things. Ideally served with some cashew cream cheese.

Beetroot and Radish Salad with Strawberry Dressing

The Bits

Salad

3 whole beetroots (leaves and all)

Around 8 radishes (thinly sliced)

1 big handful of sprouting green lentils (or a sprout of your choice)

2 handfuls of spinach

Dressing (makes 1 small tub full)

2 handfuls of strawberries (washed and stemmed)

1/3 cup great olive oil

Sprinkle of good sea salt

Good few turns of cracked black pepper

2 tbs white wine vinegar

1 tbs purified water

1 teas of sweetener i.e. agave syrup (if needed).

Do It

Make your dressing, add all bits to a food processor and blitz for a minute. Taste and add sweetener if your strawberries are a little tart. Set aside, will keep nicely overnight, so you can make in advance if your that organised.

Take your beetroots of the stems and scrub them well. Cut off an unsightlies. Take the stems and cut into cubes, then cut up a few leaves, finely shred, to be used as a base. Mix with the spinach and place in a nice big salad bowl. Place a few of the whole beetroot leaves over the edge of the bowl, covering the whole circumference to make a nice looking bowl.

Add the slicing blade to your FP and slice your radishes, then take your shredding tool-thing and shred all of your beetroots. Put them in a bowl and mix in a few tbs of the dressing, until well coated. Then take that mixture and place it in the salad bowl. Finish with a good sprinkling of sprouts (not essential).

Serve

Non rawers, sprinkle a roasted pumpkin seeds, rawers (you brave and wonderful few!) tuck in from your favourite bowl and let the flavours dance in your mouth!

Beetroot and Radish Salad with Strawberry Dressing

We Love It!

This turned out a treat, a little unusual, and we’ll be making strawberry dressing again.

Foodie Fact

Radish is one of the most nutritious root vegetables. Apparently you can get a black Spanish radish, but I’ve never encountered such a thing. You can also buy watermelon radishes that have a sweet flavour and look like watermelons when you cut into them. What amazing things you learn writing a blog!

The Chinese have a saying:

“Eating pungent radish and drinking hot tea, let the starved doctors beg on their knees”. Poor doctors.

As with most veggies, they are packed full of only good things for the body. They are a very good source of anti-oxidants, minerals, vitamins and dietary fiber. High in vitamin C especially.