Posts Tagged With: lemon

Asparagus, Lemon & Pesto Pizza

Posted on May 3, 2013 by leroy watson

I love May, full of birthdays (my sister and I’s) and the green spears of asparagus decide to make a brief appearance. Surely one of the finest vegetables with a flavour like no other.

I’ve always found asparagus season intriguing, it’s so short and makes the availability of British asparagus so appealing. You are forced to save up all of your asparagus recipes for this one little window of the year and then POW! Asparagus begins to appear on everything. So to celebrate this asparagus-fest, we popped ours on a pizza, there is something special about the flavours of asparagus that lends it to Italian cuisine.

It’s not often that we get a pizza on the roll, the original idea for asparagus on pizza came from a lovely blog friend Margaret over at Pachamama’s Beautiful Food. If you haven’t been over to this wonderful oasis of food and nature, we highly recommend a visit. Margaret is sure to brighten up your day!

The ingredients here are pan roasted off in a little balsamic before topping the dough, adding a nice sweet/ sharp tang. This pizza also comes with an oil that packs even more flavour onto this already heavy-laden crust. We’d serve it in a bowl separately and let people help themselves.

Pesto we had left over and thought it sounded like a right good idea, this does make it a very rich affair, but adds a tonne of flavour. The pesto we used was your standard green pesto, plenty of parmesan and basil. A regular tomato sauce would also be wonderful here. Lemon zest is also a brilliant addition and really shines through here, not something you see often on a pizza.

GREEN SPEARS

Asparagus is one of the oldest recorded vegetables and is said to originate from the Mediterranean, it was much revered by the Greeks and Romans (and still is!) Asparagus is related to the onion and garlic, also the daffodil and tulip. Asparagus is one of those strange vegetables that actually take up more calories to digest, than they offer the body, making it a negative-calorie vegetable (celery is another). A celery and asparagus could just be the ultimate ‘diet’ salad.

Asparagus must be served as fresh as possible, if not the sugars present turn to starch and it loses flavour. Asparagus is best harvested early in the morning and kept in the fridge in a plastic bag, this will keep them tender and conserve the vitamins present.

Normally I’m a brown flour chap, but a little white does make things a lot lighter and a heavy pizza dough is just no fun. It doesn’t matter what you do,where you buy it from, how Italian the flour is; if you don’t make your own pizza dough, it just ain’t the same! Give it a whirl…..

This is a special pizza for special occasions!!

Roast Asparagus, Lemon and Pesto Pizza

The Bits

Pizza Dough

Our No Knead Pizza Dough is our favourite at the minute. So easy.

Toppings

8 stalks asparagus (tops cut in half length ways)

1 tbs balsamic vinegar

10 cherry tomatoes

1/3 courgette (sliced at a 45o angle if you like)

1 block vegan mozzarella (sliced into 1 cm slices) or use cashew cheese – something that melts

1/2 lemon zest

Handful of pitted olives (chopped)

Pinch chilli flakes

4 tbs green pesto

1/4 cup yoghurt

Fresh basil leaves

Oil

2 garlic cloves (crushed)

1/2 lemon zest

juice 1 lemon

1/2 cup olive oil

1 tbs white wine vinegar

Do It

Make your pizza dough.

Get your toppings ready, in a small frying pan, add a little olive oil and begin to fry your asparagus with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, when they are beginning to colour they are ready. Repeat process with tomato and courgette.

Roll out your dough on an oiled surface and either use your hands or a rolling pin to massage the dough into a pizza shape. It will be resistant and needs a little coaxing, but will eventually rest into a shape. For a golden crust brush with a little plant milk.

Pre heat fan oven to 220oC (get very hot). If are lucky enough to have a pizza stone, pop that in now.

Spread pesto on pizza, leaving a one inch gap around the edges then scatter your toppings with glee on your dough. Be reckless and generous.

Pop in oven and check after 10-12 minutes, may need another 5 depending on the potency of your hot box. The base of the pizza should be cooked in the centre.

For the oil, simply add all to a bowl and whisk together. This will keep well in the fridge overnight and may be all the better for it!

Serve

Hot out of the oven, spoon over some yoghurt, sprinkle with basil leaves and serve with a nice light green salad with a sweet-ish dressing.

We Love It!

Too easy to love this one, far too easy. From zesty top to crispy bottom, its a all round champion!

Foodie Fact

Asparagus is a good source of dietary fibre and can help with IBS, they are also rich in the vitamin B’s and folates. It also contains many minerals, especially copper and iron.

Categories: Recipes, Spring | Tags: asparagus, asparagus recipes, cooking, dough, food, healthy, homemade, lemon, pesto, pizza, recipe, vegetarian | 17 Comments

Coriander and Mint Tea with Lemon Flower Honey

Posted on December 8, 2012 by leroy watson

Coriander and Mint Tea with Lemon Flower Honey

A refreshing green leaf tea with the gorgeous addition of local lemon flower honey, perfect for a cleansing morning tipple. We need all the help we can get in the mornings to get fully charged!

The lemon flower honey comes from a local co-operative in Murcia, Coato, who produced organic produce in a region where that term is rarely used. We visited recently and stocked up on all things Spanish; olives, almonds, olive oil, dried chillies, paprika, saffron……the list goes on, we got carried away. This honey is really something different, worthy of the name ‘Gold Liquid’. It has a mousselike white honey on the top and then sticky, lemony honey below. Lucky us!

The Bits

1 handful of mint leaves (stems are fine), 1/2 handful of coriander leaves and stems, honey to taste.

Do It

Add all to a kettle and leave to infuse for 5 minutes.

We Love It!

Full of green goodness with wonderful local lemon honey. What a treat!

Foodie Fact

Coriander is full of anti-oxidants and dietary fibre, it also has bags of potassium, iron and calcium to get you in good shape for the day ahead.

Categories: Infusions | Tags: coato, coriander, ecoato, flower, food, honey, infusion, lemon, mint, morning, murcia, spain, tea, vegetarian | Leave a comment

Sweet Onion Hummus

Posted on April 20, 2012 by leroy watson

Sweet onions (with a touch of celery)

This is a staple wonder paste at the B.H.K. I make hummus at least once a week and in my many experimentations with pulverized chickpeas, I can say that this is our fav.
It is nice and simple, lightly spiced and has the lovely sweetness of well-stewed onions. Not your conventional hummus and I don’t like to use loads of oil, I use the chickpea cooking juices and this makes the hummus lighter and lower in fats.

After tasting this recipe, the hummus from your local supermarket will seem salty and stodgy in comparison, and expensive!

We make a big batch that lasts us a few days.

Gigglebeans in the sun

The Bits
Approx. 3500g dried chickpeas (soaked for a day, then cooked in slightly salted water on a low heat for at least an hour until tender. You can use canned, but their texture is not quite as good), 2 onions (organic if you can, finely chopped), 1 teas cumin, 1/2 teas coriander seeds, 1 teas paprika, 1 teas turmeric, 1 teas thyme, 1 teas rosemary, 2 cloves of garlic (finely chopped), 1 cup of olive oil, 1 big tbs dark tahini, zest and juice of 1 lemon (unwaxed of course!), s + p.
Do It
Good glug of oil in a frying pan, gently fry onions for 10 mins, season, then cover and lower heat. Do not colour, gently cook. Leave for 45 mins, stirring occasionally, then take off lid and add spices and herbs, cook for 15 mins more until golden and most of the juice has gone.
Take your cooked and cooled chickpeas and place them in a blender (you can do this by hand, but you need big muscles), add onions, garlic, lemon and tahini, season with s+p. You should add around 1 to 2 cups of the chickpea cooking liquid here, use more later to make smoother.
Begin to blitz, adding a steady stream of olive oil as you go. Stop regularly, taste, adjust seasoning, add more lemon, spice, s+p etc, get it just right for you. Remember that the flavours will come together when left in the fridge for a while, getting more intense, also the texture will stiffen so make it a little runnier. A splash of water or chicpea stock is recommended to lighten your hummus. You know how you like it! I like to be able to taste the lemon and tahini over the spices.

Oatcake anyone?

Serve
On anything! Warm pitta of course, I normally finish it with another glug of olive oil and a dusting of paprika, maybe some sesame seeds if you’re feeling flash.

We regularly have it as a side with a main dish, it adds great richness and creaminess to anything it touches, especially when added to stews (normally just before serving).

Foodie Fact
The mighty Garbanzo (U.S.), Giggle bean (Germany) and Chick pea (other places) is a super legume. It is incredibly versatile, makes great flour and very good for us. What a natural beaut!
Chick peas are full of fibre, they actually lower our cholesterol and are full of antioxidants. They are colon friendly having a lot of insoluble fibre. Love your colon!

Categories: gluten-free, Healthy Eating, photography, Recipes, Sauces, Side Dish, Snacks and Inbetweens, Vegan | Tags: chickpea, chickpeas, dairy free, food, glug, gluten-free, homemade, hummus, lemon, olive oil, recipes, sweet onion, sweet onions, tahini, vegan, vegetarian | 2 Comments

Magic Morning Lemon Water

Posted on January 31, 2012 by leroy watson

I have always known that a glass of hot water and lemon is a good idea first thing. It just feels right (especially after a whiskey the night before). I thought I’d read into exactly why and was pleasantly surprised.

A glass of hot(ish) water and lemon will stimulate your digestive system, the potassium in lemons will help to give the brain and nervous systems a wake up call. The vitamin C boosts the immune system and reduces the signs of aging by purging toxins from the blood. The citric acid, when metabolised, will help lower your bodies acidity. Most of us are too acidic (in many ways!).

Lemons are high in pectin fibre, which helps fight hunger pangs. They help to stimulate the liver into producing more bile, which aids digestion, helping against heartburn and indigestion. Your peeing rate will increase, flushing out more toxins.

The fructose is lemon will give you a gradual sugar kick. Fructose levels are relatively low in fruit and vegetables and release sugar into the blood slowly (a low glycemic index), so its better than most other sugar***.

Fresh lemon will help to beat chest infections and has been known to help with allergies and asthma. You will be more chilled, Vitamin C is one of the first things to be depleted by a stressful life.

Most of all, it starts the day of with a zing! A real citrus wake up call.

As of this very day, I will almost definately, be drinking this every morning (maybe).

Remember – use the lemon peel. Its bursting with flavour and it’s such a waste to just use the juice.

***However, there is an increased use of high fructose corn syrup in processed foods. We can end up eating too much fructose, which can be a problem. Fructose is processed in the liver and avoids the normal appetite stimulators. This means that we feel like scoffing more and put on weight. If the liver processes too much frustose it begins to form triglycerides which may lead to heart disease. Diabetes is another potential concern.

The Hit List

HFCS is found in processed cereals, sweets (candy), soft drinks, ice cream, tinnned fruits, cakes, even some cough syrups. Thankfully its used less in Europe than the U.S.A, but its still there and ever increasing. It’s a cheap way for big business to sweeten food. Stay away from food wrapped in plastic and you are on the right track.