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.
  

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.

spinach sort-of pesto = spesto? spinesto? spinachesto?

pulverise spinach, especially spinach that's looking a bit sorry for itself, with toasted seeds, lemon, oil and garlic for an irridescent sauce - here i bunged it on some egg noodles but it's also good with pasta, or simply as a dresssing for veg.

Ingredients

• 1/2 bag spinach - about 100g, plus any other nearly-dodgy salad knocking around - rocket works well
• juice of half a lemon
• handful sunflower seeds (or pine nuts or any other tasty nuts you have that need using up)
• glug of olive oil
• clove garlic
• spinkling dried chilli
  
• salt, pepper

Method

1. toast the seeds (or nuts) lightly in a frying pan. if you burn them, you'll have to chuck them out because they taste really nasty.
2. once they're toasted, bung in a food processor or liquidiser. put the olive oil in the still-warm frying pan and lightly fry the garlic - again, if it overcooks it'll be bitter so keep an eye on it. cooking the garlic takes the edge off...
3. place everything else in the processor and squish on high until it's a sauce. serve ...

extreme green bean machine

speedy vaguely italian salad, simply dressed with lemon juice and olive oil, ideal for hoovering up leftover green salady items and excellent with sprouted funny beans :)


Ingredients

• a ripe avocado
• handful of spinach
• can cannellini beans
• large handful cress and/or alfalfa and/or any other random sprouts
• lemon juice
• olive oil
• salt, pepper
  
• few chopped jalepenos

Method

1. Chop the avocado and spinach and bung in a bowl.
2. Add the beans and cress and mix a bit.
3. Add lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper and jalepenos (if using) and toss lightly.
4. Inhale.
   

green bhaji squishup

a simple green lunch feat. onion bhaji, sort-of guacamole and spinach, inspired by finding some cut-price bhajis in the supermarket :)

ingredients

• one squishy avocado
• couple of handfuls of fresh spinach
• an onion bhaji
• lemon juice
• paprika, smoked if you've got it
• dried crushed chillis
• 2 wholemeal pitas
  

method

1. bung the pita in the toaster and the bhaji in the microwave.
   
2. squish the avocado up with the lemon juice, paprika and chilli according to taste.
3. once the pita's toasted, carefully remove it, avoiding the boiling steam (my friend jo still has a burn from ejected pita steam from 1997), and split in half.
4. mush half the bhaji onto one side of the pita, and half the avocado onto the other. fill the middle with a handful of spinach, and squish together. repeat for the other pita.
5. squish into face. mmmmm.