edible courgette salad

Yes, yes, I know courgettes *can* be the vegetable of the devil, but if you don't boil 'em to death they can actually be quite tasty. Have them raw in a coleslaw or grill the suckers into submission (see below) to enjoy in a salad with some nutty buckwheat and crisp apple. Just don't let my mum near them.

Ingredients

1. A courgette
2. 2 handfuls spinach
3. cupful of buckwheat
4. 2 spring onions
5. 1 apple (granny smith's)
6. olive oil
7. lemon juice
8. salt & pepper
9. dried chilli (optional)
   

Method

• Halve the courgette widthways then slice as thin as you can lengthways without removing your skin. Brush lightly with olive oil, then bung under the grill. When one side chars, turn over, rebrush and slam 'em back in.
• Prepare the buckwheat by rinsing thoroughly and boiling for approx 10 mins, depending on how crunchy you like.
  
• Meanwhile, chop the spring onions and apple into bite-size chunks. Squeeze some lemon on the apple so it doesn't go brown and horrible, and make a vinaigrette with the rest of the juice, oil and seasonings.
  
• When the buckwheat's ready, rinse under cold water to cool down and squeeze the water out. Then bung in a bowl with the rest of the ingredients (spinach, courgettes, onions, apple). Toss lightly with the vinaigrette, add the chilli if you're not a jessie and enjoy.
  

crunchy couscous

really easy - the only cooking is bunging some hot water on the couscous, though sprouting the moong beans took a couple of days.

Ingredients

1. small cup of couscous
2. 1/2 tsp veg stock powder (optional)
3. about 1/8th red cabbage (or whatever you have lurking in fridge)
4. olive oil
5. 1/2 lemon
6. 1/2 red chilli (or that ready-squished stuff)
7. 1/2 cm ginger (ditto)
8. 2 spring onions
9. 1/2 cup bean sprouts (i sprouted some moong beans, but whatever you can get hold of)
   

Method

• Put the couscous in a bowl and cover with boiling water. If you want tastier couscous (but with more salt), add some veg stock powder. stir and leave to soak.
  
• Meanwhile, chop the cabbage and chilli finely. Grate the ginger and slice up the spring onions.
• Once the couscous is no longer gritty, toss together with the rest of the ingredients, adding more seasoning if required.
  

summery shrooms

With some vague bits of summer peeking through UK clouds, I've experimented with ways to make mushrooms summery treats. This would be even better if I had some fresh tarragon, but my gardening-fu is consistently hampered by slugs and ineptitude....

Ingredients

1. button mushrooms - the bigger the better as you want some nice big slices
2. 1 lemon
3. slug of olive oil
4. tarragon - dried or fresh
5. seasoning (salt; pepper; chilli)
   

Method

• Wipe or peel the shrooms, depending on how filthy they are. Don't wash them 'cos they'll soak up lots of water and taste a bit ... flabby.
• Slice the shrooms as finely as you can, and place in a bowl.
  
• Whisk together the olive oil, juice of the lemon, a pinch of tarragon and seasoning.
  
• Toss the shrooms in the vinagrette and leave to marinate for at least an hour.
  

This tastes great with a salad of watercress, spring onion and finely chopped red cabbage.

Quinoa & purple

A wintry salad to stave off hunger and snow

Ingredients

1. quinoa - about 1/2 - 1 cup
2. 1 onion
3. can of mixed beans - or unmixed if you only like one kinda bean. Not baked beans though. Bleurgh.
4. 1/4 red cabbage, roughly chopped
5. jar of piquant peppers (try saying that fast)>
6. oil, lemon juice, chilli, seasoning

Method

• First, toast the quinoa - basically bung it in a dry saucepan over a highish heat stirring frequently so it doesn't burn until it's golden brown and starts to smell (nice). Then add twice the volume of water and simmer for 10 mins until it splits and goes soft.
• While the quinoa is cooking, chop the onion and bung it in the microwave on high for about 5 mins to soften and sweeten it.
• Roughly chop the cabbage and peppers; drain the beans.
• Add all the ingredients together with the quinoa while it's still warm, add oil, lemon juice, chilli and seasoning to taste. Everything will marinade as it cools down ....

This goes well in a winter lunchbox, and as it's not too gloopy it won't leak out the edges of your Underwhelming Tupperware box ....

dip theory (a)*

for dip heads everywhere... i ran out of houmous (shock! middle class disaster!) and decided to go off road with an alternative with random items.

Ingredients

1. can of cannellini beans, drained
2. juice of half a lemon
3. couple of good handfuls of spinach
4. seeds from a couple of cardamon pods - bash up to get the seeds out
5. splash of olive oil
6. 1 tbsp tahini
7. pepper
   

Method

• toast the cardamon seeds in a dry frying pan.
  
• if you're a jessie, heat the oil in the very same pan and gently fry the garlic. hard core garlic nuts can just chop it up.
  
• bung it all in a liquidiser and process until squish. serve with pitta.
  

that's it .... you can add salt if you want but i tend to leave it out, given that the pitta usually comes with quite a lot of added salt (read the label ...)

* the theory is that pretty much everything can be dipified.

you're having pilaf

made-up randomness with rice, spice and veg; the hardest bit is getting the rice right, and i finally seem to have cracked it. you can make this with whatever random veg, and it would also be nice with brown and/or wild rice. if you're of the bizarre opinion that coriander is a Good Thing and not the spawn of the herb devil, bung some in. If you were craving more protein, you could stir in a few hardboiled eggs to get some kedgeree echoes happening.

the recipe uses at least 3 pans, so don't offer to make it if you have to do the washing up as well ...

Ingredients

1. basmati rice (brown if you're going offroad)
2. 1 medium onion
3. glug of oil, sunflower or olive
   
4. 3 cloves garlic (or less if you're a wuss)
5. 1 hot chilli (ditto)
6. 1 tsp lazy ginger (the ready-squished stuff in a jar)
7. selection of veg - i used a red pepper and some elderly mushrooms
8. 3 tbsp sunflower seeds
9. 1 tbsp cumin seeds
10. 2 tsp veg stock powder
11. a lemon
    
12. pomegranate molasses (optional - i seem to schloop it into everything)
    
13. pepper
    

Method

• cook the rice the best way you know how. i normally suck at it, but this time i slooshed it around with clean water, then added water to about an inch above the rice, bunged it on the stove until it boiled, then turned it down to the lowest heat and put a lid on until all the water had disappeared
• while the rice is cooking, put the chopped onion in a pan with a glug of olive oil on a medium heat- i wouldn't normally use olive oil in an indian dish cos it tastes funny, but the spices hid it ;)
• when the onion's softened, add the garlic, chilli and ginger and stir for a minute until the spices belt you in the nose
• bung in the rest of the veg and cook on a highish heat
• when the rice and veg are approaching being done, put another small dry frying pan on the heat. dry-fry first the sunflower seeds, and then the cumin, adding each ingredient to the veg once it's toasty
• when the rice is done, stir it into the veg. stir the veg stock and pomegranate molasses into a cup of hot water, then stir that in along with some pepper and the juice of half a lemon.
• put the rice into an ovenproof dish, cover with foil to stop it drying out, and heat for about 10 mins until all the flavours have all combined.
• also awesome the next day in a lunchbox.
  

not rocket science guacamole salad

i accidentally bought a bag of 20 avocados for a quid at the market at the end of the day ... so expect a rush of guacamole. here i added it to some leftover couscous, with a bit of apple for fresh crunch, which you can of course leave out if you fear fruit in salads (and yeah, yeah, i know the tomato's really a fruit). you could also add in something toasted - pine nuts or sunflower seeds - for extra protein if you were feeling like heating something.

Ingredients

• 1/2 small bowl couscous, already rehydrated with some veg stock and cooled
  
• 1/2 a ripe avocado, chopped into quite fat chunks
  
• 1/4 - 1/2 red chilli (depending on how much of a wuss you are), finely chopped
• 1/2 granny smith apple, chopped (you could use any variety, except golden delicious cos they are horrible)
  
• 1 tomato, chopped
• handful rocket, roughly chopped
• squish of lime juice
• splash balsamic
• salt, pepper
  

Method

1. place the couscous in a bowl and toss in the rest of the ingredients. This ain't rocket science.