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Chickpea & Blue Cheese Summer Salad

Another quick & delish easy salad combo to share….

INGREDIENTS/ METHOD
300g reduced salt tinned chickpeas
Two large handfuls mix lettuce leaves
Circa 150g creamy blue cheese cut into squares
Handful fresh picked green beans cut roughly the size of your thumbnail
1 red capsicum, cut same size
Small 1/3 handful of pumpkin seeds (toast them in a pan for extra nutty-ness)

This is super-quick to throw together, and great with a small drizzle of balsamic vinegar… perfect for a filling healthy late summer lunch…

 

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Easy Homemade Bread

This is something I tend to do more in winter, but I was so inspired by the markets and their delish offerings yesterday, and it was a good warm day, perfect for raising dough….

The pic below is the black pepper, garlic and thyme focaccia I made yesterday, and it’s topped with fresh smoked mozzerella from the market (that stuff is amazing and almost deserves it’s own post, you can cook it like haloumi for goodness sake!)

Back to the bread…. making fresh bread is so freaking easy. Seriously. Once you do it for the first time you’ll be blown away by how simple and completely rewarding it can be to combine what is essentially four key ingredients…. (Flour, Active Dry Yeast, Water, Salt)

All bread recepies have slight variations, I love focaccia and it’s a great starter for your bread-making journey….

INGREDIENTS
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (NB: can sub wholemeal flour)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1 pinch ground black pepper

METHOD
In a large bowl, stir together the flour, salt, sugar, yeast, garlic powder, oregano, thyme, basil and black pepper. Mix in the vegetable oil and water.

When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until smooth and elastic. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl, and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth, and let rise in a warm place for 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Punch dough down; place on greased baking sheet. Pat into a 1/2 inch thick rectangle. Brush top with olive oil. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and mozzarella cheese.

Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve warm.

 

Some of my fav combos:
Rosemary, garlic, olive oil, salt
Thyme, mushrooms, olive oil, salt
Black olives, salt, olive oil
Semi dried tomatoes, feta, salt, olive oil

 

Seriously… Go nuts. Cooking and play are best friends, creating something totally new out of different ingredients is one of life’s simple pleasures.

NB: one of the first things I’ve learned about in my nutrition course is the way that ‘white flour’ is processed, this is why I’ve put the sub in for wholemeal flour. Another post coming to outline this.

 

 

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Stuffed Breakfast Mushrooms

Easy & tasty breakfast idea.. simply fresh large portobello mushrooms, and in the case of these pics, in one we have chorizo, parmesan, thinly sliced red capsicum, chives and pine nuts… too easy!

METHOD
Mix everything in a small bowl, scoop out the stalk of the mushrooms, stuff the mixture in, then pour a light drizzle of olive oil.
Pop them into a pre-heated oven at circa 150 for around 10-12 mins or until the cheese melts and the pine nuts become golden.

Other great combos:
Feta/ basil/ garlic/ mozzarella
Cheddar/ bacon/ red onion/ chives/ dollop of creme friaché once they come out of the oven
Ricotta/ red onion/ thyme

 

The possibilities are delicious and endless! Breakfast doesn’t have to be boring…

 

 

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Aunty T’s Chilli

We’re still in the so-called summer months here at the moment, but it’s been a bit cold, and I’ve been recovering from a nasty virus, so in the interests of a tasty healthy meal I decided to haul myself out of bed, and make a big pot of slow-cooked chilli. The best thing about this is that it tastes even better the following days, as the juices soak in. It’s straightforward, healthy and hearty, and it just cooks away as you go about your life (or go back to bed in my case!)

Caution: lots of chilli in this one, just half or 1/3 it if you like, but remember to layer the different types of chilli as this builds the flavour)

INGREDIENTS
1 kg chuck steak/stewing steak
2 large onions
2 teaspoons garlic
2 teaspoons chilli flakes in oil
2 teaspoons crushed chilli paste
2 teaspoons dried chilli
2 fresh chillis (seeds/membranes in for extra kick)
1x large (400g) tin of tomatoes
2x heaped tablespoons beef stock (minimum)
1x 300g tin red kidney beans

METHOD
Now you can do this one of two ways, brown the beef in a pan (recommended) or if you’re short on time just throw everything in the slow cooker and let it get going. When you brown the meat it does have a lovely rich flavour, but if you’re making this before you scoot off to work you’re not going to be stoked about an extra step so it’s up to you….

I slow cook the above ingredients for a minimum of 6 hours, it needs this much because this is a tough cut of meat, and after the right amount of time, it will fall apart in your mouth…

Around 45 mins before serving I roughly cut up 3x medium-large zucchini, and 2x large red capsicums, to around 3/3cms – chunky and as uniform in size as you can get it. Throw this in, stir it up, and let it soak up the flavours.

Around 20 minutes before serving I also add around 1.5 cups of rice. Theses days I use a pre-cooked bag of Uncle Toby’s rice because it’s easy and fast…. if you want to go the traditional route you should add this (cleaned/ drained so it doesn’t make everything gluggy) at least 2 hours before you plan to serve.

Keep tasting as you go, to ensure the textures and flavours are where you want them to be.

Serving: I served with garlic pita bread, but you can make a wonderfully easy focaccia to go with this, it soaks the juices up (and believe me, people will be scraping the bowl!)

Great for Autumn, Winter or whenever you need a little comfort food.

 

NB: pro-tip, sometimes dishes like this just don’t seem to ‘pop’ the way we want them to, on those days I add a sneaky pinch of cinnamon to the slow cooker, and it’s just magic.