Posts Tagged With: salad

Cooling Watermelon, Tofu & Mint Salad

Posted on April 1, 2017 by leroy watson
Cooling Watermelon, Tofu and Mint Salad

It’s getting HOT over here!

I realise that most of you don’t need cooling down, but we do. Its baking in our little place in the coconut grove, Goa. This is the most cooling and simple salad I could think of with the added benefits of tasting very awesome and also bags of sparkling nutrition.

We don’t have a kitchen so we’re loving playing with salads, of the fruity sweet variety and killer savoury ones normally with tahini dressing. We’ve a great supply of locally made tahini and tofu, it’s making us very happy. It’s been about a year since I’ve enjoyed one of my favourite things, tahini I could eat on anything and everything.  I love the creamy flavour and it’s of course, one of the best sources of calcium around.

Whilst taking these pictures we had to fend of Indra the local alpha bull geezer, a speckled massive creature with impressive horns. He’s a bit of a punk and loves nibbling things when we sit near the edge of our terrace. His tongue is outrageously long, something like a mighty iguana. Especially good at hoovering up stray bananas.  Cheeky chap, but we’ve a soft spot from his brusque greediness. He eats all of our peelings and I think looks a little happier afterwards. Other animals hanging around the coconut grove today are large woodpeckers, egrets, a family of buffalos, stripy chipmunks, a pack of semi-feral yet friendly mongrels, wild peacocks at dawn, fish eagles, many funky lizards, a praying mantis and probably loads of other amazing little things. Mosquitos, some. Families of geckos, yes. Anyway, we’re a food blog right!…….

If you’re in northern Europe, maybe save this one until summer hits (or turn the heating right up!) If you’re in more southern climes, this one is a light and cooling lunch for two that also looks a bit sexy.


Recipe Notes

The chillies are a great little kick, but optional.

The tofu quality is important when being eaten cool like this. See if you can get some good stuff, the tofu here is rich and creamy, slightly crumbly like feta. Perfect for salads. Add a squeeze of lemon, a little salt and come nooch (nutritional yeast flakes) if you have them for extra feta like cheesiness.

Watermelons are always huge. We’ll only use a little here so why not try cutting it into cubes, freezing it and using it as exotic ice cubes in your favourite juice/ cocktail. Of course, blended up with cucumber, lemon and mint (maybe a touch of sweetness), your looking at a wonderful smoothie.

I’ve seen some people taking the pips/ seeds out of their watermelon.  It’s a total waste of time!  Just crunch them down, they are not bitter at all.

The Bits – For 2 lunch

250g firm tofu (cubed)
1 cucumber (peeled and cubed)
2 cups watermelon (cubed)
2 tbs fresh mint (finely sliced – do this last)
Pinch salt
Squeeze lemon juice

1 green chilli (finely sliced) – optional

Dressing
2 heaped tbs tahini
½ lemon (juice)
Water
Pinch salt

Do It
Cut the melon, cucumber and tofu into similar sized cubes.

Squeeze a little lemon and a pinch of salt over the tofu and toss lightly.

Mix your dressing together with a fork adding drizzles of water and stirring in until a single cream texture is formed.

Mix your mint in with the tofu and place in the centre of a large plate. Surround in layers with your melon and cucumber. Sprinkle over leftover mint and chilli (if using)

Best served with a sunset;) From Zoori’s Place – Anjuna, Goa

Foodie Fact
We’re going to let Macka B take over the foodie fact, so many incredible health giving properties to the humble cucumba!!!!

Happy cooking!

Categories: gluten-free, Healthy Eating, Music, Nutrition, photography, Recipes, Salads, Summer, Travel, Vegan | Tags: , , , | 10 Comments

Umami Flax Seed Crackers and Veg Box Salad (Raw/ Vegan/ Gluten Free)

Posted on August 1, 2013 by leroy watson
Umami Flax Seed Crackers

Umami Flax Seed Crackers

 

These crackers came out of the blue, as an afterthought, they appeared in a bowl, I stirred them, decided to dry them and hey pesto!  Umami Crackers came into the world.  CRUNCH!

The real reason for these flax crackers was the desire to make a superbly healthy cracker, something to idly munch on without care.  Jane and I can put away vast quantities of oat cakes/ crackers at one mid-sitting, its something to do with the texture.  Most crackers aren’t exactly packed with nutrition, we’ve found that after a couple of these we are sated.  Its all the good stuff in them we reckon.

Flax (or Lin) Seeds are a special little thing, one of the finest things for our digestion.  When you pop a little water on them, you’ll see why.  Flax takes on a gooey, emulsion-like property which the belly and below loves, this is the exact property that makes these crackers ‘gel’.  Just add a little water to flax, leave them for a few minutes and they become a vehicle for all sorts of flavours and once dried/ baked they make crunchy biscuits to get excited about.  There is absolutely nothing negative about these crackers, nutritionally, they are food for super humans (that’s all of us then!!!!)

Umami is the fifth taste, along with bitter, sweet etc.  Umami means ‘yummy’ in Japanese and the Umami spectrum was opened up by a Japanese fellow.  Umami is a delicious savouriness, think MSG but natural.  MSG is not the baddy that many think, it is present naturally in foods like parmesan, sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms.  Added to this, umami just sounds like alot of fun!

I used a splendid Halen Mon product here, Umami powder.  Its a mixture of their awesome sea salt (from the Menia Straits just outside the Beach House) and some seaweed and dried mushrooms.  Seriously savoury and brilliant for perking things up, stews, risottos, soups…..you get the picture.  Its a wonder condiment.

The Veg Box Salad is a Jane speciality that we enjoy on numerous occasions per week (especially when Janes cooking/non-cooking).  It consists of loads of veggies and other special bits from the fridge and larder (seeds, olives, dried fruits…..), you never know what to expect from a Veg Box Salad, but you know that it will be massive and super tasty.  The exhaustive list of ingredients of this particular salad are below, but feel free to empty your own fridge or veg box into a bowl and enjoy the spoils!!!!!   There is an alarming amount of awesome veg to be found here.

A good salad is all about combining textures, flavours and colours, all topped off with a kickin’ dressing.  Ingredients don’t matter here, this is free-flowing fare, changing with the seasons and your whims.

Crackers

Makes around 10 crackers

1 1/2 cup flax (lin) seeds, 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup sunblushed tomatoes (finely chopped), 1 teas umami powder, 2 tbs black sesame seeds, 2 cloves garlic (crushed, minced or mashed up)

Umami Flax Seed Crackers (Raw/ Vegan)

Umami Flax Seed Crackers (Raw/ Vegan)

Do It

Mix water into flax seeds and leave for 10 minutes, the seeds should be sticky, but not too wet.  Add the rest of your ingredients and stir well.  Spread out onto dehydrator tray or baking tray, oiled.  1/2 cm thickness is good and any shape that take you fancy.  Cracker size!?

Dehydrate for 6 hours until crispy, bake for 10-15 minutes at around 1800C or until crispy.

Be gentle when handling the finished crackers, they are sensitive little guys.  Use a flat spatula for the sake of a decent sized cracker.

Veg Box delights!

Veg Box delights!

Veg Box Salad

One massive bowlful 

3 stems swiss chard (finely sliced), 1/4 green cabbage (shredded), 1/2 white onion (finely chopped), 2 stems celery (chopped), 2 handfuls chopped parsley, 1 avocado (roughly chopped), 1 green apple (diced and cored), 1 small courgette, small cucumber, small broccoli (all diced), 2 handfuls of olives, 2 handfuls of pumpkin seeds, 3 tbs nutritional yeast flakes (optional but very tasty)

Dressing

1 handful of fresh mint, 1 handful of fresh basil, juice and zest of 1/2 lemon, 1/2 cup fruity olive oil, 1 cup soya yoghurt, 1 teas sea salt, 1 teas bharat (spice mix, or garam masala), 1 tbs apple juice concentrate (or honey), 1 tbs white wine vinegar

Blend all together in a food processor, adding the olive oil slowly to for a good emulsion.

Serve

We broke up some of the crackers and added them as a topping which worked out nicely.  Big bowls.  BIG bowls!

We Love It!

Every Thursday (that’s today) we pick up our veg box and are consistently surprised by the wonderful veg produced by the magical John and Pippa.   There is no better way to celebrate good vegetables than very, very simply.  Salad style definitely works here.

The flavours of these organic vegetables light up the bowl, a dressing almost seems like overkill.  The crackers make a decent accompaniment to such a bounty of veg goodness.

Foodie Fact 

Flax seeds are unique in many ways.  Firstly, they provide the highest levels of Omega 3 oils found in a vegetarian diet (hundreds times more than the nearest competitor!) and these abundant oils are not altered by cooking at high heats.  Which is great news!

Flax seeds are also insanely high in lignans, which act like fibre and have antioxidant effects on the body.

As mentioned above, flax seeds have mucilage properties, which means they form a ‘gum’ like substance in the body which helps the absorption of many nutrients in the intestines.

Some Beach House leaves picked yesterday

Some Beach House leaves picked yesterday

 

Categories: Local food, Raw Food, Recipes, Salads | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Sprouted Wheat Grains, Apple, Carrot and Mustard Salad (Raw)

Posted on July 9, 2013 by leroy watson

A wholesome, hearty salad that fits perfectly with our beloved Welsh summer (meaning torrential rain and mist, even the sheep look miserable!)  This is actually  unfair as today and yesterday have been complete beauties, check out the sunset below taken from the kitchen window.

Its a real eden like environment up here on the hill and our garden is loving the sun.  The beetroots and cavolo nero particularly are leaping out of the ground.  Slugs seem to be taking it easy, probably hiding in some damp slug den, planning there next raid. Cunning slime balls that they are.  Long like the sunshine!

RAW TIMES

Sprouted wheat grains have been a saviour for us in the past as they sate and bready sweet pangs that we have.  Sometimes when we sit down to some nice raw salads, soups etc we do crave a little bread to add something a little different. We will be experimenting with raw breads very soon, but until then we reach for our buddies the wheat grains.

It takes a couple of days for them to sprout and after that you have a lovely sweet and chewy grain to use in all kinds of good things.  They need to be soaked in filtered water for 24 hours and then placed in a sprouting tray or something flat, rinse them twice daily with fresh water and you’ll soon see the sprouts waking up.

Anybody who reads the BHK regularly knows that we are into our sprouts.  Anything sprouted just seems so full of vitality and energy.  They are so easy to do at home even we manage!  We have been experimenting with other grains, oat and buckwheat are two firm favourites.  We also have barley, which is next on the sprout list.  The grain sprouts bring something new to the menu, quite chewy and meaty in texture.

The star here is the dressing, pairing our local rapeseed oil, with mustard and apple concentrate, a brilliant combo of flavours.  The rapeseed oil is almost buttery and the sweet apples cuts through nicely. YUM!

Making dressings all hangs on what the ingredients of the salad is and the overall flavour you’d like.  This is a sweet salad, with the apples and the raisins, which Jane really loves.  We made the dressing slightly tart to counteract the sweetness, I always try and think of what the overall flavour of a salad will be when I’m making a dressing and adjust it accordingly.  A dressing can accentuate the flavour of great ingredients, or hide them behind bog flavours.  I think a balance is best, with the veggies shining through.

 

The Bits – For 2 Hungry Herbivores

2 cups sprouted wheat grains, 1 apple (decored and chopped), 1 celery stick (chopped), 2 carrots (scrubed and chopped), 2 cup raisins. 1 handful mint (ripped), 1 handful parsley (chopped), 2 handfuls rocket leaves, 1/2 cup sunflower seeds

Dressing – 1/2 cup cold pressed rapeseed oil, 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, 1 tbs apple concentrate, 1 tsp English mustard, 1 clove garlic (crushed), 1 teas sea salt (to taste)

Do It

Chop all ingredients in a fashion that suits your mood.  We were in a post work hurry, so they became abstract, but satisfying non-the-less.  Also when the sun goes down, we are using candle light and it can be difficult to chop things and wash up when you’re in the dark.  In fact, many things are.  You need to slow down, read, then sleep.  Which is great.

Whisk up your dressing ingredients in a small bowl, making sure all is nicely combined.

Serve

Dressing on the side, it is quite potent and each persons taste will differ.  Salads are of course best served super fresh, straight off the chopping board.

We Love It!

A real local treat this one, welsh rapeseed oil, mustard, apples, celery, rocket…..almost  the entire bowlful came from our neck of the woods and some from the garden.  We love this time of year when the sun shines a little and plants begin to bloom and fruit.  Happy days indeed!

Foodie Fact
Rejuvelac is an amazing by-product of the grain sprouting process.  It is regarded highly by Ann Wigmore and all at the Hippocrates Healthy People, which we pay great attention to.  It is one of those things that boasts incredible health benefits, but there is something about it that is quite special, almost undiscovered by modern science.

Rejuvelac contains many enzymes aiding digestion and is filled with friendly bacteria which are amazing for us, helping us to release toxins in the body.  Add to that the fact that it is bursting with vitamin B, E and C and you’re looking at quite a beverage.  It also tastes nice, like a tangy lemonade with a hint of sweet grain.

Here’s how its made.

Suns gone and I’m typing by feel, time to call it a day………

Categories: Recipes, Salads | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Crunchy Thai Salad with Green Coco Dressing (Raw)

Posted on June 28, 2013 by leroy watson

 

Crunchy Thai Salad with Green Coco Dressing

Crunchy Thai Salad with Green Coco Dressing

So here we go again! Raw Earth Month at the Beach House Kitchen will see a huge influx of tasty salads and juices, its inevitable and we love ’em all!

An amazing friend of the BHK (Dodee over in Hawaii – see magical ‘Sacred Backyard Blog‘ here) said of raw food, ‘I’ve made the decision to feel good all the time!’ and how true that is.  Jane and I are buzzing around feeling ace, it’s day five I think and we are fully over our ailments brought on by a fairly intense ‘treat’ time in Dublin(Guiness-fest), lots of birthdays in a row (wine and cake-fest) and meals out (plenty of great rich food).  Our bodies are thanking us now and our energy levels are through the roof.  We are also enjoying the naturally slower life, with no lights and electrical appliances at nighttime.

Jane enjoying the slower life - Glynllifon Estate, Caernarfon

Jane enjoying the slower life – Glynllifon Estate, Caernarfon

I had some fairly strong caffeine withdrawal symptoms on day 2, pounding headache and no energy whatsoever.  After a good sleep, this passed.  Its amazing how the body adapts so quickly to things, good or bad and how sensitive you become when eating this wonderful raw stuff!  Happy days indeed.

Salad wise, we had some left over thai curry paste hanging around the  fridge that demanded a dish.  This salad has all the flavours of Thailand and more, when we’re raw we really like to make a fuss over our salads.

Jane and I love Thailand and on rainy afternoons in Wales we sometimes wonder how Bangkok is and our favourite little coast towns; how are those street food stalls doing without us!?  How is a our favourite juice guy near Kaosan Road?  How is the coconut curry man in Prachuap Kiri Khan?  At times like this, the tastebuds are going mental and they need something with the incredibly pungent and fragrant aromas of THAI.  Its unmistakable and I’d almost consider going back just for the food alone, but there are at least a 101 other countries I’d like to visit before I start re-tracing my steps in the global sand.

Nutritionally, this is a beast of a dish; with sweet potato, sesame seeds, peanuts, avocado, spinach, etc etc etc, the list goes on and with a punchy/ creamy dressing to finish things off, its a real main event salad.  When you decide to eat raw vegan, there is very little you can eat that will do you any harm, that’s one of the beautiful things about the lifestyle, pile it on a plate and know that its all good.  No baddies included.

This salad boasts quite a list of ingredients and was mainly dictated by what we had in, but you can very happily have a play with this one; veggies can be chopped and changed and any nut will do here!

Talking of chopping, if you can get them into thin, baton-like shapes, they work best here. The dressing clings to them and they look the part also.

ความสงบสุข
khwām sngb sukh (peacex)
Makes one large salad bowl full, enough for four hungry munchers.

The Bits

Salad – 1 carrot, 1 stick celery, 1/2 cucumber, 1 red pepper1/2 sweet potato (all chopped into thin batons), 1 cup rocket (arugula to some), 2 spring onions (finely chopped),1 red chilli (finely chopped), 2 cups spinach (finely chopped), 1 cup cherry tomatoes (halved), 1 cup beansprouts (we used homesprouted mungers aka mung beans), 1 cup basil leaves, 1/2 avocado (scooped out with teaspoon), 1 lime (zest and juice), 1 tbs black sesame seeds, 1/2 cup raw peanuts

Dressing – 2 cup organic coconut cream (the creamier the better), 2 tbs green thai curry paste, 1/2 lime (zest and juice), 2 teas white wine vinegar, 1 handful basil leaves, 1 teas sea salt

Do It

Chop all hard veggie ingredients into long, thin batons leaving the avocado, nuts and basil leaves to the side for topping purposes.  Add all the rest of the ingredient and the hard veggies to a large salad bowl, mix in half of the dressing, combine well and sprinkle over the topping ingredients.

For the dressing, simply blend all together in a food processor.  The texture should be thick and ‘cling-y’ to get sticky all over on the salad.

Serve

Not chilled, but not quite room temperature, this is a good gauge for our salad temps.  To cold and you don’t get the flavour, to warm and you have wilting issues.  We always have a nice surplus of salad dressing in a bowl on standby.

CRUNCH! and ZING!

CRUNCH! and ZING!

We Love It!

Getting back into raw vegan ways is a serious blessing for body, mind and soul.  We are so lucky to both want to lead this type of lifetsyle, if one of us wanted chips everynight it just wouldn’t be the same!  This salad is a far from chips as you can get in the food world.  It’s a proper zinger!

Foodie Fact 

Sesame seeds are outrageously healthy, some say  they are the healthiest food in the world.  These wonder seeds have been with us for many thousands of years and are thought to originate in India, having been mentioned in ancient Hindu texts.

They are very rich in minerals, especially copper, iron, calcium and zinc.  So ‘open sesame’ and pop some in your diet soonXXXXXXX

Categories: gluten-free, Raw Food, Recipes, Salads, Vegan | Tags: , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

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.

P1190462

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: , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Winter Zing Salad

Posted on December 8, 2012 by leroy watson
P1180930

Winter Zing Salad

A salad for the lovers of all things green and healthy. A real cold buster! The winter zing will beat the heck out of all those winter blues and ailments that hang around at this time of year.  It’s designed specially to make you fly into Christmas time feeling superb!  All that decadent scoffing is just around the corner and our bodies need a helping hand.

It’s that time of year when salads should be eaten more, with the dark and gloomy weather, everyone is getting colds and run down. You just need to flip your head around a little here, salads are not just for summertime. Trust us, your body will thank you for this one.

We all need some food medicine sometimes and a boost, this salad boasts all of this and some funky green stuff to top it off.  I like the idea of using food for healing the body (mind and soul too), a preventive measure to illness, something that benefits the body and actually gives energy freely, without taking it away.  All ancient civilizations knew about this, especially the Indias, who through Ayurveda, have a complete method of food science created thousands of years ago! It is mostly still relevant today and modern science seems to be catching up!

Most foods we eat at this time of year are stodgy, rich and satisfying, it seems natural to be drawn to them when it’s raining and miserable outside. These foods are the exact opposite to what our bodies actually need, we end up feeling heavy and bloated, our bodies energy is mainly used to digest the food being eaten and not keeping us in tip-top shape, fighting bugs and all.

In wintertime the body needs a boost, an influx of nutrients, alkaline foods and a vitamin kick to keep them clean, light and healthy. With salads like this you’ll be the only one at work who doesn’t get that cold!

This bowl of goodness is basically lots of green leafy bits and other hard colourful veggies chopped up finely and given a wonder dressing. It is hearty and rich, with the addition of olives and a good glug of olive oil which gives plenty of fats to keep you well padded in colder climes. You can use different combos of hard veggies and leaves depending on what you have in the fridge, but this bowl works wonderfully. We have been experimenting extensively in the super zing salad field; too many baguettes and lumps of cheese in France has left us feeling in need of some quality salad time.

The idea here is to chop everything up into small chunks, so that you can get many different flavours on your fork/ spoon at the same time. Mingle the zing! You don’t want a mouth full of just spinach, you want it all mixed up and coated in your magic dressing.

Jane on the each with Robbie (the dog)

Jane on the beach with Robbie (the dog)

This recipe uses raw garlic, we love it and so do our nearest and dearest. You may want to moderate the quantity if pungent garlic breath is not you thing, although trust me, your body will thank you for the garlic buzz (it’s pretty powerful stimulant).

We topped this salad with some treats from the health food shop that you may not have in the cupboard. Nori and all of the seaweed family are just amazing for you and also add a distinct flavour to each dish they grace. For vegetarians, they are almost essential, the more green things in your diet the better and the seaweed family is full of chlorophyll and anti oxidants that make you zing and shine. As a substitute you could use wheat grass powder, spirulina or some finely chopped green herbs. Basil would be rather nice and is a special leaf.

The blob of miso on the side here acts as your salt for the meal, it is full of sodium but also many, many other goodies and cold fighting friends. You can regulate how much you fancy or need.

We are getting back into our food combining behavior and feeling all the better for it. Usually we wouldn’t eat dried fruits with this salad, but those fresh dates a too fine to ignore and of course add a lovely sweetness to proceedings.

Makes one large bowlful for one very lucky salad muncher.

A decadent salad for beating dark long days…….

The Bits

All veggies should be chopped into fine cubes (approx 2cm):

1 handful spinach leaves, 1 handful chard leaves, ½ cup brilliant green olives (pitted easier to eat), 1/3 cucumber, 1 gorgeous tomato (we used a black kumato), 1/3 head of broccoli and stem, 1 small carrot, ½ red pepper, 3 fresh dates (chopped), 1 tbsp nori sprinkles, 1 teas barley grass powder, 2 teas mixed seeds, small blob of brown miso (on the side)

Dressing – 1 garlic clove, 3cm sq cube ginger (both finely diced), 1 1/2 great olive oil, 1 tbsp coriander leaves (finely chopped), ½ tbsp lemon juice

Do It

Rinse all your veggies in a bowl of water, chop it all up into little pieces, we don’t peel anything unless absolutely necessary.

If you are presentation conscious, layer the salad (green leaves first) and top with olives, dressing and green sprinkles. Otherwise, mix all your veggies and olives in a bowl with the dressing and then top with your sprinkles.

Serve

Your finest salad bowl, although you could serve this salad in any pot or dish and it would light up your day.

Winter Zing Salad

Winter Zing Salad

We Love It!

Taste amazing, full of crunchy bits and many surprising flavours, one moment a date pops up, then a little miso, then an olive. This is fun food and always interesting to eat!

Foodie Fact

Cold busting 101:

Exercise, eat healthy, avoid excessive boozing, get some sun (if you can!!), treat yourself, relaxxxxxxxxxx, embrace the beauty of winter, get social and most of all, catch plenty of ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ’s.

Winter is a tough time for body and mind, eat more salads!

Categories: Ayurveda, Raw Food, Recipes, Salads, Superfoods | Tags: , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Kumato, Piquillo, Butter Bean and Coriander Salad

Posted on November 30, 2012 by leroy watson
P1180654

Kumato, Avocado, Butter Bean and Piquillo Salad

A salad to light up any table with a wonderful combination of strong colours and sweet flavours.  I know we always rave about our food, but we happen to like it!  This salad is a combo of all the things we adore in food; beans, sweet things, crispy veg and a tangy dressing.   It’s a hearty salad and ideal for a main course.

All ingredients are from the local market, grown by people who love their plants.  I swear you can taste the difference!

Piquillos are something new for us, I have never fully appreciated their potential to tantalise.  A proper taste explosion!  There is such a wide range of flavours that can be experimented with when marinating.  The process is the same with meat and veggies, peppers are ideal for the slow soaking process.  Really getting the flavours in there and becoming nicely tender.

Piquillos are little red Spanish chilli peppers, which are spicy in a soft way. To make our marinated peppers, we roast them off first, get a little colour on them, and pop them in a jar and cover with olive oil and a drop of honey.  Herbs and spices can be added, we like them nice and simple.  Seal well and leave for a few days, longer if you can, and enjoy on all salads, sandwiches or served straight up as a nibble/ tapas treat.

Kumatos are a real star.  A type of tomato grown in these Murcian parts, dark green (or called black by some!) and full of a vibrant sweet flavours.  Very fruity indeed.  I did not fully understand the wonder of tomatoes until I visited southern Spain.  They grow all around this region, unfortunately mostly in longs bags in massive plastic covered farms.  These beauties came from an old mans back garden and you can taste the love!

Salads like this deserve a decent plate to be served on, not stacked up in a bowl.   This adds a little theatrical joy to the dining experience.  Get your largest, finest plate and spread the gorgeous ingredients out in a haphazard, indulgent fashion.

I like to serve the salad with warm butter beans, it brings the flavours out even more.  If you use warm beans, serve straight away, things can get limp.

Time for the assembly…..

Makes one large plate of salad, good for two as a main serving.

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The Bits

5 medium kumatos (or the best tomatoes you can get your mits on), three large handfuls of chopped swiss chard, 2 cups of cooked butter beans, 1 cup chopped piquillos, 1 avocado (chopped into chunks), 1 handful of fresh coriander,

Dressing – 3 tbs great olive oil (or use the oil from the piquillos, even better), 2 tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice, sea salt and cracked pepper to taste.

Do It

Lay your chard out onto the plate and pop the rest of your bits evenly on top, leaving the coriander until last.  Drizzle with a little dressing and keep some on the side for people who love their tang!

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Kumato, Butter Bean, Coriander and Piquillo Salad

Serve

Centre stage maybe with some crusty bread and lashings of olive oil.

We Love It!

Rich and sweet, just like us (not!)  A real gourmet salad treat.

Foodie Fact

Piquillos are traditionally grown in northern Spain and are full of vitamin C  (comparable with a citrus fruit).  They are also rich in many other vitamins and are generally served in Spain stuffed and roasted.  They’re great stuffed with cream cheese and herbs.

Categories: Raw Food, Recipes, Salads, Vegan | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Ang’s Quinoa and Roast Veggie Salad

Posted on October 8, 2012 by leroy watson

A recipe here from a friend of the Beach House Kitchen.  All the way from sunny Auckland (New Zealand that is), Ang floats over some tasty bites over to the Beach House.  WE LOVE ANGx  

I met Ang in Barcelona, where she lived a tofu chuck away from a health food shop.  I needed some ‘health’ after being on the road for too long and eating out of dusty stalls.  Ang cooked up some amazing vegan treats and planted seeds that have now formed the BHK.  

We will be munching this soon and having tasted Ang’s cooking, just know that it will be very, very delicious indeed.  

Cheers AngX:

Ang sporting socks and deer

YUM!

Being a vegetarian on a low-FODMAP foods hasn’t been easy. No beans, chickpeas or lentils are allowed, but thank goodness for the almighty Quinoa.

I made some delicious quinoa and courgette fritters one night last week and had loads of quinoa left over, which resulted in this beast of a salad mixed together in a huge moroccan salad bowl – perfect for parties or BBQ’s.

-Cubed veggies, roasted (potato, pumpkin, carrot, courgette) with fresh rosemary and oregano
-Quinoa
-Baby spinach
-Feta
-Raisins
-Baby tomatoes

Dressing
-lemon juice
-dijon mustard
-basalmic vinegar
-olive oil
-S&P

Salads like this are so hearty and can be adapted in so many ways. Add olives? Avocado? Seeds? Make it your own 🙂

Ang’s Quinoa and Roast Veggie Salad

If there are any other friends of the BHK (thats all of you!) who would like to send us a recipe, we would love to hear from you and will most probably, depending on the deliciousness of the dish, put it onto the blog. 

Categories: Recipes, Salads | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Carrot Top Salad aka The Perfect Packed Lunch

Posted on September 25, 2012 by leroy watson

Carrot Top Salad

So what does a mostly raw food dude take to work for lunch?  A carrot top salad of course!  The most complete salad we can muster.

This Carrot Top Salad is a good example of my daily packed lunch, nice and quick to prepare and bursting with good textures and flavours.  Its one of my favs.  You may have noticed the distinct slow down in Beach House posting recently, I’ve been working like a donkey. I need all the energy I can get and this salad is a serious hit of nutrition, flavour and vitality. I feel fully charged after lunch and light as a feather. Non of those post lunch slumps with this salad.

To make this you need carrot tops.  To find those you need to go get some real food, most supermarkets won’t sell carrots with the tops on and if they do, god knows where they’ve been and what  the poor green things have been exposed to along the way.  Go local and find some earth loving types, normally living in peace and happiness somewhere in the middle of a field and ask them which way to the carrots.  It should’t take long.

Carrot tops are delicious and full of nutrients, especially chlorophyll.  They can be a little bitter, thats the potassium, so at least you know its some good stuff.  They make great juice and can even be crushed and used as a mouthwash.  They contain a lot of vitamins etc not present in the carrot (like ‘K’ for example).  They can be hard going and a little chewy on their own, thats why they are best in this salad.  They’re not as sweet as the ‘root’, thats where all the sugar and water goes.  So much food is thrown away nowadays and much of these we can re-use or munch on.  Please, give these little green beauts a chance!

Glorious local toms

To the salad….I basically combined the fruits, veg and seeds available into a massive salad, stick it in a container and have a jam jar full of dressing (that lasts a few days).  I make enough salad for at least two days (excluding the apple, normally added in the morning) and hey presto! LUNCH.

This is a huge salad by general standards, alot goes into it and it’s designed to be a hearty meal. The Carrot Top definitely cannot be termed as a ‘side salad’, this is the main attraction.  A word of warning, this takes quite a bit of munching.  You need to build up some decent jaw muscles to attempt such a salad.

There are constants in my salad world; dark green leaves make up the majority of it, lots of hard vegetables cubed (for crunch), seeds (lots)and the occasional dried fruit makes an appearance and also a nice easy, tangy dressing.  Then that’s me off, for another day in the office/ kitchen/ restaurant/ field/ bridge tunnel or wherever else the money lies!

We have decided to head off to Spain for a few months over the winter months and all the pennies are needed for time in the beautiful Mediterranean sun. Expect some real bright beach posts soon, until that time comes in mid October, its work and salad time for me.

Just for your information, I also scoff two pieces of fruit and a bowlful of nuts and seeds all washed down with a cup of green tea and lots of water.  You’ll be glowing afterwards, safe in the knowledge that this lunch time you were very kind to your body.

The only reason we can eat like this is due to Jane and I’s passion for healthy foods.  We have buckets of fine pulses and seeds filling up our kitchen.  We buy all this stuff in bulk normally and have it to hand.  We are lucky.  If we are not at home, travelling around etc, it can be tough to get anything like the real ‘Carrot Top’ together.

Kale takes a bath

This makes two large pots of salad, good for two lunches at least.

The Bits

Salad – 1 apple (or pear), 2 carrot, 1/2 cucumber (pickled or not, I like either), 1 courgette, 1 beetroot (all cubed), 2 handfuls of carrot tops (finely chopped), 2 big handfuls of beetroot leaves or green cabbage or kale (chopped), 1/2 handful of raisins, 1/2 handful of pumpkin seeds, 1/2 handful of sunflower seeds, 1 handful of mung bean sprouts, 1/2 handful of chopped mint leaves, 1/2 handful of chives, 2 teas barley powder/spirulina (optional, specialist things from health food shops that are full of zing), handful of cherry tomatoes (whole)

Beetroots on the board

Dressing – Juice and zest of half a lemon, 1/3 cup good olive oil, 1 teas honey, 1 clove garlic (minced), sea salt, cracked pepper.  Or just make a whole jam jar full and shake it up when you need it.  I normally carry it around in my bag.  If you friends laugh at you for carrying dressing around with you, they obviously don’t understand the importance of salad.

Do It

Gather all you ingredients in your largest salad bowl and get you hands in there, give it all a good mix up.  Separate into your containers and pop the lids on and into the fridge.  You are now well lunch’d up and ready to go.

Packed up and ready to go.

Serve

After a good mornings graft, eat with a large spoon and be happy in your munching.

We Love It!

Turning something that many would deem as waste into a tasty dish is just grand.  We love the crunch and texture of these salads, each mouthful is different.

Foodie Fact

Carrot tops can also be made into a brilliant tea, great for purifying the blood and kidneys.  They also used to be used as a fashion accessory:

“In the reign of James I, (1603)  it became the fashion for ladies to use flowers, fruit, feathers and the like to decorate their clothes. Picture showing carrot leaves in a hatThis was amusingly extended to the use of Wild Carrot flowers and its feathery leaves and stalks to decorate their hair, hats, sleeves, dresses and coats. The lacy green foliage  was especially fashionable during the autumn months when the leaves took on a reddish coloration.”

For more carrot facts like this, visit The World Carrot Museum

 

 

 

Categories: Healthy Eating, Raw Food, Recipes, Salads, Vegan | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Salad Shirazi

Posted on August 20, 2012 by leroy watson

Farm fresh veggies from our friends at Trigonos, bring on the salads!

Salad Shirazi is one of my favourite Persian salads and very easy to get together and prepare.  This salad seems to be ubiquitous from Delhi to Tangiers, hard vegetables chopped up small with onion and some lemon juice, herbs if you are lucky or decadent or both.

We used some lovely veggies from the farm and added a little courgette because it is that time of year.  The mint came from the herb garden and our little taste of Persia was complete.

 

This salad adds the ideal fresh crunch to rich cuisine and went perfectly with our Persian Aubergine Stew, but is perfect as a salad in its own right.  The fresher the produce, the better the salad.

The Bits
3 medium sized cucumbers, 3 small firm tomatoes, 1 courgette, 2 small sweet onions, 3 tablespoons good olive oil, juice of 1 lemon or lime, 1 handful of fresh mint (chopped, dried mint will do), sea salt and cracked pepper to taste

Do It

Cut tomatoes, cucumbers, courgette and onion into small cube-ish pieces and place them in a salad bowl and gently mix.  Add salt, pepper, mint, olive oil and lemon juice, mix well.

Salad Shirazi

Serve

Slightly chilled with smiles.

We Love It!

CRUNCH!

Foodie Fact

Salad is good for you.

Categories: Raw Food, Recipes, Salads, Vegan | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Warm Green Salad with Rapeseed Oil Dressing

Posted on August 9, 2012 by leroy watson

Warm and Green Summer Salad

A quick and easy summer salad with many a luxury touch.  The method here is simply blanching the veg and hopefully maintaining alot of their goodness.  You certainly don’t want to cook veggies until they lose their crunch, that is utter madness.  Veggies should be alive and crispy when eaten!

This salad was so green, it was jumping out of the bowl (if that makes any sense at all!)  All the veg here are seasonal, from the farm (bar the Avocado which I think flew over from Mexico), the basil came from the bush on the windowsill and even the oil and salt are Welsh.  It is so great to eat something made from produced sourced locally.  We have really struggled this year to gather together good, organic produce.  But the sun is out today and all is blooming, hopefully the next few weeks will see more harvesting and beautiful produce up for grabs.  Even our rainbow chard in the garden is looking good for the plate.  Amazing what a little sun can do!

The dressing is made with Blodyn Aur Rapeseed Oil, a real find in Wales.  Great folk who use the cold press techniques of olive oil making to produce a stunning rapeseed oil.  Real food heroes who enrich our lives with beautiful oil.  The flavour is very buttery, nutty and smooth and the colour is the brightest gold.  This oil also has bags of Omega 3 essential fatty acids, which are great for us.  If you live in Britain, I hope you can track some down.  It is like no other oil I have come across.

We also used some local sea salt flavoured with celery.  Halen Mon are a family business making salt from the pure water of the Menai Straits on Anglesey, we can seem them from the kitchen window of the Beach House Kitchen and have never tasted salt this good.  Really.  It’s amazing salt.  See our Halen Mon post here.

We always have a good stock of seeds, but if you don’t have sesame or flax, any seed will do really.  Although poppy seed would be a little strange.  We like adding flax to dishes because it is good for the digestive system.

A opposed to our normal raw food fare, this warming (I wouldn’t go as far as cooking!) of the salad really brings out the flavour of the dressing.  We have also recently been told that it is not such a good idea to each French beans or broad beans raw.  They contain things that may do you no good.

Rapeseed Flower

PS – A handful in our recipes is probably about a cup (in our hands!).  Maybe yo have different names for these beans, fava etc.  I hope you know what we are talking about here!

The Bits

Salad – 1 ripe avocado (chopped), 3 handfuls of spinach, 1 small sweet onion, 3 handfuls of chopped french beans, 2 handfuls of podded broad beans, 1 stick of finely sliced celery, 1/2 handful of chopped basil leaves, 2 teas sesame seeds, 2 teas flax seeds.

Dressing  – Freshly squeezed juice of a lemon, 3 tbs great oil (olive or we used local rapeseed oil, it has a lovely buttery flavour), 2 cloves of crushed garlic, 1 teas organic honey, cracked black pepper, sprinkle of sea salt (we used Halen Mon celery salt).

Do It

Gather all your broad beans, french beans, onion, place in a bowl/pan and pour over just boiled water.  Leave to sit for a few minutes.  Make the dressing, add all ingredients to a small bowl and whisk vigorously with a fork or small whisk.  Drain you veggies and add to a large salad bowl (or any good looking receptacle), mix in your avocado, celery and basil leaves (gently does it) and pour over and stir in your dressing.

Warm Green Salad with Rapeseed Oil Dressing

Serve

Warm, with smiles and summer joy.

We Love It!

All good local fare; seasonal veggies that are so full of flavour and the vibrant dressing adds a lovely rich citrus kick.  A bowl full of the joys of these lands.

Foodie Fact 

Unlike all other vegetable oils, cold pressed rape seed oil contains a natural balance of omega 3, 6 and 9 oils, making it a great source for these essential fatty acids. ‘Good oils’ are essential in bodily functions, including aiding cholesterol reduction, and maintaining a healthy heart.  Omega 3 is a rare oil, that can be difficult to include in our diet.  Rapeseed oil also contains Vitamin E, a powerful anti-oxidant.

Categories: Recipes, Salads, Summer, Vegan, Welsh produce | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Watermelon and Tofu Kebabs

Posted on July 24, 2012 by leroy watson

The Bits

We don’t care if the weather is damn awful, we are having our summer!  These kebabs are pure sun food, to be eaten when it’s too hot to even consider a barbecue and all you want to do is have a massive chill (preferably in a hammock).  Serving suggestion – on a tropical beach.  They are easy on the eye, served cool and require very little effort.

Summer will not be reaching Wales this year, so we are making our own, using kebabs.  When you need to get a big fire on in mid July, you know you’re in trouble.  British people are famous for talking about the weather, well it’s no wonder, it’s a freak.

Watermelons are a fruit custom designed for summertime.  They are so thirst quenching, I like then best just at it comes and straight out of the fridge.  When living in Murcia,(+40oC in summer) Spain I used to use them as ice cubes (just cut into cubes and stick in the freezer).  We decided to add kiwi here and some amazing cucumber from the farm; purely for the colour contrast, we demanded sexy kebabs.  The not-quite-ripe kiwi also adds a nice fruity bitterness.

We marinated the tofu for a few hours in a classic style summer dressing, all basil and mint from the garden with tad of honey and lemon.  You can use goats cheese or feta and treat it in the same way.

Marinating Tofu

When you buy a watermelon, and you don’t have a family of ten, you have to get a little creative to use it all up.  We found out recently that you can actually eat the rind of the watermelon, cook it up into a stew.  Checkout our some favela cooking, Rio style.  Waste not, want not!  We bought a beastly sized thing and have been making it into soups, salads, smoothies and all sorts. This was our favourite experiment with the big pink globe.

Watermelon works surprisingly well with savoury dishes, its light sweetness blends nicely with fresh flavours, it is quite neutral really.  It certainly add colour to the plate, which is something we love in any food.

Please try these cooling kebabs in a hotter part of the world, we ate ours with our fleeces on (indoors) dreaming of swaying palm trees.  We have good imaginations, it nearly worked!

Remember your seeds.  Keep them, dry them out and roast them for a lovely little snack.  Pumpkin and watermelon seeds are delicious and very easy to collect and roast.  It seems a waste to chuck them in the bin.

Kebabs and the ‘Big Crunch’

Makes two big kebabs:

The Bits

Kebabs – 10 big chunks of watermelon (cubes), 10 chunks of firm tofu (marinated), 1 large cucumber (chopped into chunks), 1 kiwi (not quite ripe, peeled and cut in slices).  2 large skewers, we used metal.

Marinade – juice of 1/2 lemon, 6 fresh basil leaves (ripped up small), handful of fresh mint (chopped), 1 teas honey, 1 clove garlic (finely chopped/ crushed), pinch of sea salt, cracked black pepper (to taste), 1/4 cup of good olive oil.

Do It

Mix up your marinade in a bowl, toss tofu well and coat in the marinade.  Leave  covered in the fridge for a couple of hours.  When ready to serve, gather your bits and begin to make the kebabs.  Slide on your chunks in a regular order, we like the last one to be a kiwi.

Serve

Spoon over any left over marinade and serve on a nice platter/ chopping board.

We had ours with a nice ‘big crunch’ salad:

All chopped – 1 head chicory, 1 apple, 2 carrots, 1 orange pepper, 2 large mushrooms, 1 beetroot, 1 red onion(diced small), 6 large lettuce leaves, 1 handful of beetroot leaves, sprouted mung beans, golden flax seeds with our ‘Beach House Dressing‘ mixed in.  CRUNCH!

Watermelon and Tofu Kebabs

We Love It!

This is the perfect summer munch and a fine way to get rid of your excess watermelon!  One day, we will eat this in the sunshine…….

Foodie Fact

Watermelon are the ideal accompaniment to a sun scorched summers day.  They are originally from Southern Africa and are closely related to the squash.  They are full of electrolytes and of course, water.  They also contain alot of lycopene (super antioxidant) vitamin A and C and potassium.

Categories: Dinner, Healthy Eating, Recipes, Vegan | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Beetroot and Apple Raita

Posted on July 22, 2012 by leroy watson

Beetroot and Apple Raita

The perfect accompaniment to the ‘Hippy Daal’.  This sweet, crunchy, fruity raita salad is the ideal side dish to spicy rich food, also great as a salad in its own right.

This is a really nice twist on your normal raita recipe. Absolutely nothing wrong with the original recipe, but when you have amazing beetroots and apples in the bowl, you just have to play with flavours!

Of course we love beetroot at the BHK, for the most part, we live on the stuff.  We juice it, chop it, grate it……our table is incomplete without a little purple plate or two.

I like using the apples here, because I would normally sweeten my raita, but with these apples it doesn’t need it.

Jane and I on the beach today, enjoying the a little bit of sun (too rare).

The raita will look great if you try and chop all components in an even way.  Squares work well!  Circles more difficult, but very impressive!

Make sure your yoghurt isn’t too thick, water it down if needed.  Otherwise you could have a sticky mess on your hands.  The fresh mint makes this dish, so do try and get some together.  It is really easy to grow and we have found it saves alot of hassle (and money) to have some planted outside or on a window ledge.  If given space, it will spread like wildfire and you’ll never have a fresh mint crisis again (you’ll also have an endless supply of amazing mint tea).

The Bits

1 medium sized beetroot (peeled or scrubbed and chopped), 1 sweet organic apple (chopped), 1/2 cucumber (chopped), 1 small courgette (chopped), 1/2 teas ground cumin, 1 clove of crushed garlic, 1 handful of chopped fresh mint (chopped), 150 ml of yoghurt (we use soya, greek/turkish would be amazing)

Do It

Add all ingredients to a bowl and give it a good stir.

Beetroot and Apple Raita (Raw)

Serve

Leave for at least an hour before serving, let the flavour’s gather.  Serve as you like, traditionally with a stonking curry or as we like, as a main course salad with some green leaves.  Add nuts (hazelnuts, walnuts) to make it more of a meal of it.

We Love It!

Creamy, spicy, fruity and what a crunch!  Difficult to find anything wrong with a raita.

Foodie Fact 

Mint is high in fibre and magnesium.  It is very high in vitamin A and folates and also packs some serious vitamin C.  It also helps with all sorts of stomach issues.

Categories: Raw Food, Recipes, Salads, Vegan | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Coconut Pad Thai Salad with Almond Dressing

Posted on July 18, 2012 by leroy watson

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‘Tis a grey day in Wales and the streets of Bangkok seem a million miles away. There’s a man we know, who moonlights as a pole dancer (it is Bangkok) who makes the best Pad Thai, just off the chaotic Kaosan Road. He whips it up in seconds, with his vivid painted blue nails and long fake eyelashes.  It normally contains little dried shrimps and eggs, which we don’t add, but the rest of the ingredients are so simple and classically Thai.

This type of Pad Thai recipe has been in my mind for a while and Jane just kick started me into getting it done.  I knew I wanted coconut in there somewhere, to make up for the flavours of shrimp, fish sauce and egg, but it needed something else.  I sought inspiration on the interweb and found a great recipe at the taste space food blog.  Just add almonds!

This is a taste sensation, as you would imagine from anything faintly Thai.  Thai’s food knows no mediocrity, over cooked veggies or insipid stews.  Its all fresh and POW! over there.

Pad Thai Vendor

For the salad itself, you will need a sharp knife and a French peeler.  Really, no cooks drawers are complete without one, so it’s a wise purchase.  You will save years of your life peeling things, they are so easy to use and in this recipe, double as an ace veg noodle maker.  Yes, no noodles here, just veggies.  Making it super healthy and crunchy.

KELP NOODLES?

You can use some kelp noodles as a base if you are in a rush, this salad does take while to get together.  Kelp noodles are really interesting and taste fantastic, not disimilar to a noodle.  They are also completely raw (aka good for the belly and body).  They are widely available and well worth an experiment.

The salad base will be good with other things like carrots, cauliflower and apples for instance. We have gone for something a little closer to home i.e. whats in the fridge.

The kitchen is still full of the aroma of this intense dressing and the salad not only tastes wonderful, but is a rather sexy little number to boot!  It’s a looker.

This is the perfect summer salad to impress your friends (if they need any further impressing) and to treat your nearest and dearest to a taste of Thailand with a twist.  It is ideal served as a main course, but could also make a super side dish or starter.  Basically, you need to try this, however its served!

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p1170194

Coconut Pad Thai Salad with Almond and Orange Dressing

Coconut Pad Thai Salad with Almond & Orange Dressing

The Bits – One Big Bowlful

I know this looks like a hefty amount of ingredients, but don’t fret, its easy peasy really….

Salad/ Noodles

1 large courgette (ribboned)

1 head chicory (very thinly sliced whole)

1 red pepper (very thinly sliced)

2 spring onions (finely chopped)

1 stick celery (ribboned)

2 handfuls finely grated white cabbage

1 big handful sprouted mung beans (we used sprouting aduki beans also)

1 orange (peeled and chopped small)

1/2 small coconut (chopped into small chunks)

1/2 cup peanuts – roasted is nice if you’re not a raw one (crushed)

1 tbs sesame seeeds

1 lime (wedges for serving)

 

Dressing

3 tbs tamari (or g.f. soya sauce)

2 teas sweetener (agave, brown rice syrup etc)

2 cloves garlic (minced/ crushed)

1 inch ginger (finely chopped)

1 chilli (finely diced)

1 big lime (juice)

4 dates (soaked until soft)

1/2 cup of almond butter (we make our own using soaked almonds and a lot of blending, plus a little water.  You may use peanut butter here)

Sea salt (if you like)

2016-08-01 12.32.53

We love Thailand! Would be the perfect backdrop for this Pad Thai

Do It

Ribbon and chop all your salad bits and get them into a lovely big bowl.  To ribbon easily, keep your fingers out of the way and bring the peeler down in smooth, firm motions.  Flip the veg regularly to ensure it is evenly peeled and by the end, you should be left with only a little slither, which can be sliced and tossed in also.  Reserve a few of the peanuts, sesame seeds and coconut for serving later.

In a blender, add all of your dressing ingredients and whizz up for a few minutes until a smooth texture has formed.  Taste it and adjust accordingly, normally the decision will be, sweeter or not?  It may need a little more lime, use the lime reserved for serving.

Mix the dressing into the salad, gently does it, some of those ribbons are quite fragile and look great when served whole.

Dish up with a big smile and be prepared for some yummmmmssss!

 

Serve

Sprinkle a few peanuts, coconuts and sesame seeds and finish with a little twist of lime juice.

 

We Love It!

WOW.  A really stunning salad.  Jane said it was “more than lovely,  INCREDIBLE!  This salad is genius…..”

 

Foodie Fact 

Pad Thai is one of Thailand’s national dishes.  It has been served in Siam (Thailand’s old name) for thousands of years, but was made popular by president Luang Phibunsongkhram in the 1930’s.   He wanted to lower the consumption of rice in Thailand, which was making good money being exported, and therefore promoted Pad Thai as being proudly Thai and virtuous.  He set about educating the nation in making rice noodles, especially the under privileged, training them to sell Pad Thai dishes, selling them in small cafes or from street carts.  This may have something to do with the amazing array of Thai street food in modern day Thailand.

Now for a blast of Thai blues from my favourite bar in Bangkok, the legendary ‘Adhere Blues’ bar.  They don’t serve Pad Thai, but they do serve up some serious blues chops…

 

 

Categories: Healthy Eating, Raw Food, Recipes, Vegan | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 20 Comments

Summer Chili (Raw)

Posted on July 17, 2012 by leroy watson
Summer Chilli

“The aroma of good chili should generate rapture akin to a lover’s kiss.”
Motto of the Chili Appreciation Society International

It is chilly here!  But not in the good way, we thought we’d flip that and add a spicy chili to get some heat back into our sleepy Welsh village.  I know I keep on going on about the weather, but it is a bit of an issue.  We need the sun!

Chili is the epitome of soul food and I love the heated variety in all its forms, it was probably one of the first things I became passionate about cooking.

Chili is a dish that originated in the south of America, probably Texas and they are mighty proud of their dish down there.  I wonder what they would think of this, beef-less/chilled version.  I think I’d probably have to leave the state.

Chili originated, like most good soul food, in poorer homes and was made by scraping together ingredients that were available.  This raw chili was made with a similar sentiment, but we just happen to have loads of veggies and raw food bits.  The principal is the same.  Make do and make very tasty.

There are so many options to play with here if you are not raw.  I would definitely like to see some sweetcorn in here somewhere, but it needs cooking.

This raw food is addictive, in the sense that when you eat cooked food, you feel quite rubbish.  Your belly complains (swollen and windy) and your energy levels are low.  You become very sensitive to foods and this isn’t a bad thing, but it can be a challenge when travelling and socialising.  You can come across as some kind of nutter!  It has certainly made us more aware about what we are putting into our bodies and who our real friends are!

This sauce can be warmed up and poured over roasted veggies, which sounds delicious!  The beauty of these raw things, are their simplicity.  Whack it all in a blender and you’re off, leave it in the fridge and heat it later.  A very easy dinner and something a little different.  If you heat it to just over warm (seems to be a decent enough gauge) you will not kill all the good stuff either.

The inspiration for this recipe comes from the raw cookbook, ‘Live Raw by Mimi Kirk’ and a mighty vibrant read it is.

The Bits

Sauce – 1 cup of sun dried tomatoes (soaked for two hours to make tender), 2 cups of tomatoes (chopped and organic), 1/2 cup of carrots (chopped), 1 sweet yellow pepper, 1 small chilli (check the heat  there), 2 cloves garlic (crushed), 2 tbs tamari (or g.f. soya sauce for non-rawers), 1 tbs of each evoo (e.v. olive oil), apple cider vinegar (white wine vinegar will do), agave syrup (or sugar) and chilli powder, then 1 teas cumin, oregano, smoked paprika, fresh cracked pepper, 1 handful of chopped coriander leaves.

Chunky Bits – 1 cup sprouts (mung beans, aduki beans, or green lentils something nice and fat, we mixed them up a little), 1/2 cup celery, 1/2 sweet potato, 1 courgette, 1 sweet red pepper, handful of chopped mushrooms

Do It

Chop all of your chunky bits into funky shapes, set aside in a big bowl.

Add all sauce ingredients to a blender and whizz away until smooth.

Pour sauce over base (we were a little stingy with ours, it should look more like a stew really) and mix together.  Ideally, leave in the fridge for a while to let the flavours get together.

Rare blue skies –  salvaging some of our plants after another summer storm

Serve 

We would normally have an avocado on this, but had none.  Next time.  This would be great with some corn bread or tortillas (if you have a dehydrator handy) and would also be amazing with sour cream (raw cashew cream is very good indeed) and of course, loads of cheese and coriander.

We Love It!

Just the spice and fuel we needed in our lives this windy, wet summer.

Foodie Fact

It’s a fruit!   A gift from the Mayans and Aztecs, native to Central America and then shipped around the world by those dodgy conquistador types.  Tomatoes are low in fat and cholesterol and are full of good things.  They contain lycopene, that is a super antioxidant that protects your cells and also your skin (from the sun).   They are also rich in vitamin A and C and have great levels of potassium.  When picking tomatoes to eat, the redder the better.

Categories: Dinner, Raw Food, Recipes, Vegan | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Kiwi ‘Slaw with Orange and Mint Dressing

Posted on July 16, 2012 by leroy watson

Kiwi ‘Slaw Base

We realise that we may be at risk of becoming a salad blog.  Not so much a kitchen as a place for leaf munching.  We are happy enough with this.

Eating salads up here, in the cold hills, is a little like eating a roast turkey dinner on a tropical beach; slightly incongrous, considering the rain is lashing down outside and we’ve been living in a cloud for the summer (what summer?!).  Still, these colourful bowls of goodness bring the sunshine to our table and some much needed colour and vitality to our lives.

The flavours here work wonderfully.  ‘Slaw is so underrated, just because its grated, doesn’t mean it can’t actually be an amazing salad that takes centre stage for a while.  I love the way that slaw absorbs all of the dressing and marinades so well.  It is also the idea stuffer and stacker, due to the grated part. It is easy to handle and won’t topple a sandwich, or stick out all over the place.

The thinking behind this recipe was maximum POW! flavours and colours. It’s a crunchy slaw with a tangy, creamy dress and if you can’t locate a kiwi, stick some pineapple in instead.  Swede is a revelation in salads and must be liberated from it’s ‘granny’ vegetable bracket.  It has a lovely, mellow and sweet flavour when eaten raw and goes great in salads.  It’s also cheap, which is never a bad thing.

The dressing here is quite special and is actually more of a sauce.  The lovely flavours of orange and mint really come through.  It has a rich texture and flavour and coats the slaw beautifully.

This is all put together using the magic of a food processor (they really are magic!  Even if they have a terrible name….process….food….it’s a bit robotic!?)  If you don’t have one, you will have to chop all the dressing bits up very finely and mix together and hand grate the salad.  A little bit more effort, but wow, how you will enjoy the spoils of your toils!

This is enough for one big bowl, you may have some dressing left over, it goes well on most things, even as a dip.

Kiwi ‘Slaw with Orange and Mint Dressing

The Bits

The dressing/sauce – 1/2 cucumber, 1 plump clove of garlic, 1/3 cup evoo (extra virgin olive oil), 1 kiwi (peel and chopped), juice 1/2 lemon, 2 oranges (peeled and chopped, minimal bitter white bits), handful of mint leaves, handful of parsley, 1 teas caraway seeds, 2 teas smoked paprika

Salad – 1/2 swede, 3 carrots, 1 courgette, 1/2 cucumber, 1 kiwi (peeled and chopped into little chunks), 1 big handful sunflower seeds (roasted taste better, but of course aren’t raw), smaller handful of flax seeds

Do It

Make dressing.  Add all ingredients to a food processor and whizz up for a minute of so.  Remove any stringy orange pieces, if we were being very restauranty, you could even strain the dressing.  But we like chunks.

Give the FP a rinse out and put your grating blade on.  Grate the swede, carrot and courgette and then chop up your kiwi and cucumber finely.

Mix all nicely together in a big salad bowl and that’s it!

Serve

Top with a few thin slices of whole kiwi as a nice touch and maybe a sprinkle of seeds and ‘erbs.

We Love It!

It’s the kind of salad that your makes your taste buds and body sing.  The kind of food we like to eat, real ‘soul’ food.  You can feel it doing you some good and its a real looker too.

Foodie Fact 

Kiwis are your vitamin C friend.  Just one of these emerald delights has 120% of your daily ‘C’ requirement.  Scientist cannot figure it out, but kiwis protect our DNA, making us less likely to develop illness.  If that wasn’t enough goodness, these little beauties are also full of dietary fibre.  They also look very cool.

Categories: Raw Food, Recipes, Salads, Vegan | Tags: , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Roast Corn and Avocado Salad

Posted on July 9, 2012 by leroy watson

Roast Corn and Avocado Salad

Roast!  You did read this correctly, I cooked something.  Hooray!  I think roasting a corn on the cob is a pretty decent way to announce your re-entry to the cooked world, especially when its incorporated in a beautiful salad like this.

This salad has the richness of the avocado with plenty of crunch, the citrus dressing lifts the whole dish.  The smoky corn is the real star though, such a different range of flavour’s when you begin heating food again.

It’s great to have corn back in our diet, raw corn is inedible due to the cellulose that our bodies cannot break down.  Cooked corn looses alot of its minerals and vitamin C, but frozen cooked corn retains most of them.  No idea why!?

I’ve a quite important meal to cook next week and I thought I needed to get my dusty pots and pans out again and give the heated world another bash. Get my roasted eye in!

It’s Sunday and we felt like trying something different, using the ingredients we have strooned around the kitchen.  This Roast Corn and Avocado Salad went perfectly with the fruity Kiwi and Orange Slaw that I rustled up.  Sweet and creamy meeting zesty and crunchy in a mouthful of pure happiness.

I’ve eaten roasted corn on the streets of most countries I’ve visited around the world, it is a ubiquitous source of sweetness and satisfaction to most of the globe.  The smell of roasting corn wafting off a little charcoal brazier is such an evocative smell for me.

Corn is such a versatile plant, I am particularly fond of maize tortillas and polenta in all forms is always a wonder to feast on.  It is such an interesting veg to eat, all those little rows of sweet kernels attached to a funny looking stick.  Like natures answer to a lollipop in bright yellow.

Beauty Basil – What a gift!

We’ve been eating a little muesli and yesterday I scoffed a macaroon (which was amazing).  We’re getting back into a little baked/ cooked foods, but still want to keep the majority raw.  I should also mention that a couple of dark chocolate bars have gone missing from the cupboard, chief suspect, Miss Jane.

We have tried out some raw chocolate and it is absolutely delicious, it does lack the ‘bite’ of a good dark chocolate, but has bags and bags of cacoa goodness.  Very deep flavours and would be perfectly acceptable as a substitute, if it wasn’t so darn expensive.  One truffle is the equivalent to one bar of decent dark chocolate.

Here’s a step back into the cooked world for us, fair enough only a baby step.  But as my Dad says “life is a compromise….”

The Bits

Salad – 2 corns on the cob, 1 avocado, 2 stalks of celery (finely chopped), 4 big handfuls of spinach, 2 handfuls of fresh broad beans (de-podded), 1/2 handful of freshly roasted pumpkin seeds, 1/2 handful of ripped basil leaves.

Dressing – Juice of half a lemon, 1/3 cup of amazing olive oil (we actually used good quality Welsh rapeseed oil), 1 tbs white wine vinegar, salt and pepper.

Do It

Add all dressing ingredients to a bowl and whisk until combined.  That’s it!

In a frying pan, heat some oil to just smoking and add your corn on the cobs, roast for five minutes, turning regularly, giving them an even colouring.  A little charring is definitely not a bad thing.  Place a lid on and continue to turn regularly until well coloured (5 minutes more should do), add your pumpkin seeds at this stage to get a little roast.  Take pan off heat and leave to cool with lid on.

Line your finest salad bowl with spinach leaves, the chopped celery and broad beans.

Get your cobs out, stand them upright on a chopping board and with a sharp knife, cut down the cob (starting at the base of the first row of kernels).  You’ll need to keep it slow and steady to ensure your running the knife along the base of each kernel.  If your knife is not super sharp, use a gentle sawing action as you go (watch your fingers!)  Move the cob around and start on the next few rows.  It will take a few cuts to get all the kernels off.  If you like, cut onto a tray or shallow bowl to ensure the kernels don’t go flying off.

Cut avocados in half, take out the seed and spoon out the lovely green flesh.  Try and get the avocado to look like fat shavings, or anyway that you think looks good.  A teaspoon is the best implement for this.

Arrange the avocado and corn on top of the salad and finish off with the basil and spoon on your dressing.

Roast Corn and Avocado Salad

Serve

This is good enough as a main course, it’s a very flavourful and satisfying salad.  The ideal summer lunch.  I don’t know why, but I think this would go nicely with a quiche.

We Love It!

Those roasted pumpkins seeds enhance anything they touch.

Foodie Fact

Corn (or maize) has been grown for thousands of years by the people of the Americas.  Corn is low in saturated fats and cholesterol, it contains good levels of thaimin and folate and plenty of dietary fibre (for your old friend the colon).

Categories: Healthy Eating, Raw Food, Recipes, Salads, Side Dish, Vegan | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

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.

Categories: Raw Food, Recipes, Salads, Vegan, Welsh produce | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Raw Vegetable & Coconut Curry

Posted on July 5, 2012 by leroy watson

One bright day in June (the bright day in June), our picnic spot, above Beddgelert

So the raw food lifestyle is continuing in the Beach House, this is a good sign.  We have been feeling good and loving experimenting with raw foods, so we are rolling on raw well into July.

Our aim is to eat a lot of raw food, but soon start cooking again.  I cook alot at work, but its not the food that excites me, it seems a strange idea getting the pots and pans out again at home.  The oven, instead of the food processor.  I’m sure it will happen gradually and at the right time.  I still haven’t drank a coffee or any wine, again, it just seems like a strange thing to get back into now.  Those of you who have been on a raw diet will know how I feel.

It has been an atrocious June for weather, we’ve had a fire on most nights and the rain and wind has lashed down on our poor little seedlings.  Even with this wintery weather,  Jane and I have been perfectly happy with salads and cold food.  I think a full raw food diet (ps – when I say diet here, its not like a weight loss diet, just what we are eating) in winter is a possibility, whereas before I would have not considered it.  No hot soups!

One spoonful of this curry and we both exclaimed “This is the best yet!” Which is always a nice thing to hear about something.  This coconut curry has a lovely sweetness, the smooth richness of the creamed coconut and the gentle warming hint of garam masala.

We have not been eating a great deal of spice of late, the raw diet it not overtly anything really (bar amazingly healthy food). This dish added so much needed spice back to our lives.

I think this curry is a real winner this summertime. Raw food is, of course, perfect for a sunny day (which are rare in these parts, but hopefully on their way).  Summer is the ideal time to dabble with raw food and this Coco Curry would make an interesting salad to serve as a side dish at a barbecue or take for a picnic to a beauty spot.  It keeps well and is nice and quick to get together.

If you’re not a raw one, this will go very nicely with something like a cold rice salad.  You can even heat it up!  The flavours will still be amazing.  It can be thinned down for a lovely soup (just add a little stock or water)  and used as it is for a dipping and spreading.

The original inspiration comes from the brilliant British raw food book “Eat Smart, Eat Raw’ by Kate Hill, but I have dabbled with the recipe to bring it more into line with our taste.  That means more spice, more garlic, more ginger……..we like a big and bold flavour in the BHK.

Cauliflower can be used as a substitute for rice in the raw food world.  You just need to chop it up very finely, or stick it in a food processor, and it resembles rice but without the stodge factor.

The serving here is enough for four strapping individuals.  Jane and I saved some for lunch the next day.

The salad base, as you can see, we like ours chunky!

The Bits

Sauce

1/2 tin of organic coconut milk

1 avocado

4 dates (pitted)

4 tomatoes

1 carrot

1 medium onion

2 tbsp tamari (or soya sauce)

1 tbsp garam masala

1 tbsp turmeric

1/2 red chilli

1 inch cube ginger

2 cloves garlic

150ml water

 

Salad/ Filling

3 tbsp raisins

2 handfuls green lentil/ mung bean sprouts

1/2 handful of chopped coriander (with a little saved for topping)

2 handfuls of spinach

2 sticks celery (finely chopped)

1 carrots (finely chopped)

1/2 cauliflower (finely chopped)

1 handful of mangetout

1/2 butternut squash (chopped into little cubes)

The Coco curry pre-mix

Do It

Salad – We use a food processor, because it is so easy.  You lose the individuality of hand chopping, but it saves alot of time, especially when you’re eating raw foods and most of your days could be spent peeling and chopping veggies.  Most of these contraptions have a chopping and grating blade as standard that can come in very handy.  However on this occasion we hand chopped, just to be awkward!

So, put carrots, celery and cauliflower in food processor.  Chop up your butternut squash and avocado into small chunks and mix all of these with the other ingredients in nice big bowl.

Sauce – Chop all vegetables into manageable chunks for your food processor.  Ginger, garlic and chilli should be finely chopped.  Put it all into the food processor and give it a whirl.  Make sure you hold the lid down firmly to begin with, if its a small one like ours, it tends to jump around a little.

Indo Coco Curry (Raw)

Serve

Sprinkle on left over coriander, raisins and grated coconut (dessicated coconut is fine).  We ran out of coriander and forgot the coconut!  It would look grand though, you’ll just have to use your imagination.

We rarely have time for presentation touches as we are such scoffers!  In the bowl, quick pic then get stuck in!  Tends to be the order of eating affairs in the Beach House.

You could try it with some cauliflower rice (see above), it makes for an interesting change.

Foodie Fact

You may have heard that coconut is full of fat, well it is, but they are great fats!  Avocado, nuts, seeds etc do contain a high proportion of fats, but they do not harm your body like the fats in processed foods or donuts!

The fat in coconut does not raise your cholesterol levels like saturated fats in animal products.   It is actually the most health-giving oil available, you can buy coconut oil for cooking.  The make up of the fats is similar to mothers milk, the lauric acid (a fatty acid in mother’s milk) has antibacterial qualities.

Categories: Dinner, gluten-free, Healthy Eating, Raw Food, Recipes, Salads, Side Dish, Vegan | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Sweet Pepper and Pomegranate Antipasto (Raw)

Posted on July 2, 2012 by leroy watson

Raw Sweet Pepper and Pomegranate Antipasto

We felt like a little starter, something to nibble on.  Nibbles seem to be the new thing, judging by the snack section in our local supermarket.  We seem to becoming a nation of rampant nibblers (dipped in hummus of course).

Italians are the kings of the nibble, tied with the Spanish, but they tend to make it more of main meal, a la tapas.  Antipasto (translated as ‘before the meal’) is always the perfect accompaniment to nice glass of chilled something and good conversation as the sun is beginning to settle down.

This raw June (just passed) we have been mainly having large salads for dinner.  We didn’t manage to arrange a dehydrator for the month, which would have meant many dried, crisp goodies.  Instead we have normally opted for large bowls of salad, normally a green leaf based salad, a dip/ hummus/ raw cheese (something with a creamy texture), olives/nuts/pomegranate etc and one salad that is made of primarily harder fruit and veg (like this antipasto).  All this served with a lovely dressing.  The combination of these salads is tantalising!  We cannot get enough of them and have decided to extend raw June in the future……………our rawness may never cease!?

This is a clean and citrus antipasto dish that boasts fresh, fresh flavours.  The ideal pre-dinner plate to get the palate zinging.  The combination of sweet pepper, tomato and pomegranate is a taste explosion that is difficult to match.  If this little plate doesn’t liven up a dinner party, your friends may be comatosed!

The asparagus here was the last of the season from our local farm shop and very much relished.  It is not essential to the dish, but a real treat non-the-less.  The subtle flavour and crunch of raw asparagus will be missed until it re-emerges next year.

You can serve this with other antipasto favourites to make a platter, olives, artichoke hearts, chunks of cheese, marinated mushrooms etcetc.

Organic peppers and tomatoes will make all of the difference to this dish and your salads in general.  The organic veg flavour is infinitely better.

Thanks to Mimi Kirk and the brilliant ‘Live Raw‘ book for inspiration here.  If you live on a drab island like ours (where June resembles November) it is wonderful to leaf through the pages of this book and see the Holywood lifestyle and sunshine!  How I miss the sun.

Sweet, sweet tomatoes

The Bits

Antipasto 1 red pepper (sliced thinly), 1 yellow pepper (sliced thinly), 1 bunch of asparagus (cut into batons), 1 small pomegranate (seeds (or arils as they are called) only, no pith), 1 big handful of the sweetest plum tomatoes (we used red and yellow ones here)

Marinade – 4 tbs good olive oil, handful of fresh basil leaves, 1-2 cloves of garlic (crushed), a pinch of marjoram, oregano, thyme, basil, juice of 1 small lemon, 2 teas capers, pinch of sea salt and cracked pepper.

Do It

Whisk your marinade then combine all ingredients in a tupperware and mix together gently, don’t break up the asparagus and tomatoes.  Make sure all is coated with the marinade.  Leave in a fridge overnight or for at least a couple of hours to infuse.

Sweet Pepper and Asparagus Antipasto – So colourful, its worth a second look

Serve

On a nice big serving platter with whatever accompaniments you prefer.  You may like to add a little torn basil leaf as a topping and of course, some nice toasted ciabatta drizzled with olive oil if it takes your fancy.

We Love It!

It is so full of crunchy flavour and pomegranate in a salad is a revelation.  I’m not sure if my Italian friend would agree with such an addition, not proper antipasto they would say, but they only know what mama taught them!!!!  (Sorry guys)

Foodie fact

Most of us are aware that pomegranate is good for us.  You can buy it in juice form all over Britain, it is most definitely a super fruit of note, packed full of the antioxidant punicalagin which scavenges free radicals from our bodies.  Hooray!  One of my favourite pomegranate products is the pomegranate concentrate, it adds an incredibly intense flavour to anything it touches.

The worlds finest pomegranates are grown in southern Afghanistan, although I heard that Iraq had some tasty arils also!

Categories: gluten-free, Healthy Eating, Local food, Lunch, Organic, Raw Food, Recipes, Salads, Side Dish, Vegan | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

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