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.
  

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.

tomato³ sauce

a lush tomato sauce, given depth with 3 types of tomatoes (canned, sundried and pureed) and various green flavours chucked in ... ace with pasta or spread on a pizza base. The pomegranate molasses brings out the sweetness of the tomatoes but it's probably only on sale in poncy-ish delis so you can use sugar instead. It's also a good recipe in which to hide veg that you or your recalcitrant other halves might dislike (I hid half a marrow in this one).

Ingredients

1. medium onion, chopped
2. 2 cloves garlic, chopped
3. teaspoon of capers, chopped
4. handful of green olives, chopped
5. sprinkling dried chilli
6. sprinkling of herbes de provence
   
7. can of tomatoes
   
8. large handful sundried tomatoes (6-8)
9. teaspoon tomato puree
10. any spare veg that needs eating up
    
11. pinch of sugar or glug of pomegranate molasses
12. salt & pepper to taste
    

Method

• If your sundried tomatoes are dried (rather than in oil), cover them with hot water and leave to sit for a few minutes.
• Heat a glug of olive oil over a lowish heat and fry the onions for a few mins until soft
• Turn up the heat and chuck in the garlic - stiring to prevent it burning and tasting horrible.
  
• When you can smell the garlic, add the capers, olives, chilli and dried herbs and stir for a further minute.
• Add the can of tomatoes, tomato puree, chopped sundried tomatoes and sugar or molasses. If you've soaked the sundried tomatoes, bung the tomatoey water in too.
• Add the requiring-hiding veg and stir together.
  
• Let simmer for at least 20 mins ,stirring occasionally, to go all gloopy and delicious. Season with salt and pepper.
  
• Use with your favourite pasta, bung in a lasagne or spread on a pizza base.
  

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.
   

chilli sort-of satay sort-of noodles

i had some fresh wholewheat spaghetti knocking around, so i improvised some spicy noodles with other random veg and a load of chilli. this makes too much for one meal (unless you're ravenous), so you could either make it for 2 or eat half, then have half cold later on, with an extra squeeze of lemon juice to loosen the noodles.

Ingredients

• portion noodles or spaghetti
• approx 1tbsp veg oil
  
• half a red onion
• a red pepper
• clove garlic
• tsp minced ginger (don't worry if you haven't got any)
• minced chillis (i use the lazy sort from a jar - add according to taste, about 1/4 tsp)
• couple of tbsp frozen peas or any other lurking left over veg
• 1 tbsp tahini
• good sloosh soya sauce
  
• slug lemon juice
• dried chilli flakes, to serve
  

Method

1. put your spag or noodles on to cook. chop the onion and pepper, or otherwise prepare your own veg into stir-fryable bits.
2. when your noodles are about 3 mins away from being cooked, heat a slug of sunflower oil (olive oil is too strongly flavoured for this) in a pan over high heat. stirfry the onion until it colours a bit, then chuck in the garlic, chilli and ginger (if using), stir for 30 secs or so until you can really smell them.
   
3. put in your other veg, and continue to stir until they are slightly softened. they should still be crunchy, but the right side of raw.
   
4. add the tahini and soya sauce, stir to coat the veg. if it's really sticky & therefore unstirable, add a bit of water.
5. drain your noodles, add to the veg and stir to coat. add the lemon juice and maybe some crushed chillis on the top :).

Notes

If you don't have any tahini, or if like my friend Hen your head swells up if you go near sesame seeds, you can substitute peanut butter instead. crunchy, naturally. smooth is for losers. You could use lime juice instead of lemon for a more authentic thai flavour, but i didn't have any limes lying around.

technicolour gazpacho

the ultimate speedy leftover soup marvel ... i usually don't believe in soup, but this cold multicolour version is pretty damn good on an almost-sunny day.

Ingredients

You can be quite adventurous with gazpacho - make it red with tomatoes, or white with almonds, or, like i did, go with whatever's lurking fridgewise. i reckon the essentials to make it gazpacho, as opposed to just whizzed up squish, are: bread, garlic, vinegar and olive oil. For mine, i used some acidic capers and jalapenos with lemon juice instead of vinegar, and randomly bunged in some tahini for nuttiness.

• handful cherry tomatoes
• a few slices red onion (i toned down the rawness by bunging them in the microwave for a few mins)
• couple of small slices oldish bread (i would have used brown but my Carnivorous Other Half bloody snaffled it all - and he doesn't even like brown bread)
• a few glugs olive oil
• 2 sticks celery
• handful of parsley
• teaspoon capers
• teaspoon jalapenos
• 2 teaspoons tahini
• clove garlic, chopped (mmm, raw garlic)
  
• small glass water
• lemon juice to taste (a few slooshes)
  

Method

1. Bung everything in the liquidiser and turn it on. If you don't have a liquidiser, you could chop it all up and mix it together after soaking the bread in the water, but it's a bit of a faff. Looks less pukey chopped rather than totally blitzed, though, so if you want to impress someone, chopping's probably the way forward ;).
   
2. Add more water if you want a thinner consistency.
3. Add salt and pepper if you want - i try and steer clear of additional salt so i didn't bother.
4. Enjoy :).