Giant wholemeal couscous salad with a tahini-maple dressing

I look back at my last post with a certain amount of wry acceptance. Alas, my hopes of long weekend bike riding and picnicking were not to be. Poor Mini Bite came down with a stomach bug early on Sunday morning and was unwell for the next 3 days. Poor Mr Bite had the same thing on Friday through to Saturday, and I am desperately hoping it ends there. (I had 24 hours of nausea but nothing more dramatic - at least to date!)

On to happier topics. This meal is, to me, the epitome of comfort food. 'Salad' usually conjures up images of crunchy greens but this dish is hearty and soothing. It pairs giant wholemeal couscous with sweet potato and peas, plus seasonings of paprika, turmeric and cinnamon and a simple tahini-maple dressing. You can enjoy it hot or cold, and as a side or main dish.

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Easy bean salad with corn and avocado

After the blazing sunshine of a week ago, we are back to more typical April weather with cooler temperatures and some grey skies. Nonetheless, there is progress towards warmth and the sunshine of last week offers a glimpse of what is to come.

Outdoor eating from a week ago

This salad was a perfect match for the sunshine and it would be a great barbecue side dish for the summer months. It is extremely simple - kidney beans, sweetcorn kernels, coriander and avocado. I served it with sweet potato on the side, but you could mix it all together if you prefer. A drizzle of balsamic vinegar is all the end product needs and even that is optional.

 

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Spiced courgette fritters

Life is returning to normal in the Bite-Sized household. My parents are now back in Australia, we are all back at work and nursery, and Christmas feels a long time ago (and Spring a long time ahead).

In the middle of winter, it can be nice to eat summery foods as well as relishing warm stews, soups and porridge. These fritters offer a summer feel whilst still being hot and comforting. The only downside is that they are best eaten straight after cooking, as they go a bit soggy if stored over multiple days.

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Jacket potato stuffed with hummus, kale and pepper

This really doesn't qualify as a recipe, but sometimes the posts I like best on others' sites are those that give me inspiration without complication. In other words, posts like these, which may offer new ideas for ingredient combinations without lots of preparation time or effort. I'm not sure if this particular mix will be new to you - but it went down well for me this week as a simple but tasty lunch.

With little to say about this dish other than it being simple, quick and tasty, I will share some random other points with this post...

• Christmas products are officially in the shops. I am not a fan of Christmas marketing this early, but was pleased to see vegan white chocolate santas on sale for just 10p each (in Sainsburys).I bought 12! I think it may have been a labeling error (usually they are £1).

• For various reasons I won't bore you with, I found myself with time at home this week while Mini Bite was at nursery. It was my first time in the house without her in the 13 months since she was born. It was (and I hope I don't sound like a bad mother for saying this) amazing. I got so much done! It was so quiet! Things stayed where I left them! I will have to find a way to repeat the experience before another 13 months passes.
• Also coming up as a 'first since Mini Bite's arrival' is my first half marathon in almost 2 years. I'm running the Tonbridge half marathon on the 1st October and am excited to get out there and attempt 13.1 miles again. I've got up to 11 miles in training, so I'm hoping my body remembers the final stretch.
• It's been a while since I've shared book, TV or movie recommendations. I may organise myself to do a proper summary soon, but for now, I will say that we recently (finally) watched A Theory of Everything and loved it. I was also excited to hear about the new release, Mother, by Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky. However, on reading about it I am not sure I'll actually like the film. If you see it, let me know what you think. Given we never make it out to the cinema, I probably won't watch it for several years anyway.

Jacket potato stuffed with hummus, kale and pepper

Quick, easy and tasty!

Serves 1

Vegan

Author: Bite-sized thoughts

Print recipe

Ingredients

1 potato of a size to suit your appetite

1 cup baby kale leaves or chopped regular kale

1/2 yellow bell pepper, chopped

1/4 cup hummus

Salt and pepper, optional and to taste

Method

If using a microwave, microwave your potato until cooked through - in my case, roughly 7 minutes on medium-high power, turning once at the half way mark. If cooking in the oven, bake until cooked through.

Once cooked, cut the potato in half and scoop the soft potato filling into a small bowl. Stir through the kale, pepper, hummus and seasonings. Scoop back into the potato skin and serve.

What are you eating, or doing, this week?

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Spicy + smoky tofu open sandwich

When putting together my recent picnic ideas post, I was reminded of how much more creative I could be with vegan sandwiches. Basically, I rarely make them and when I lived in Australia I wasn't very fussed about having them. However, London offers quite a few vegan sandwich options (from Pret A Manger varieties, to the Laura's Idea range in Whole Foods, to lots of hummus-based wraps) and so I have developed more of an affection for sandwich lunches. This post features one I made recently, albeit with so much filling I had to make it an open faced variety!

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Spiced couscous salad with grilled portobello mushrooms

I'm still in my mushroom phase and have branched out from small button mushrooms to the larger portobello variety. Aren't they fun? One day we will have an outdoor barbecue and I'll grill them in style, but for now they are just as delicious cooked in an oven-based griller.

This simple meal pairs the grilled portobellos with an easy couscous salad. The combination worked very well, both in ease of making (the couscous cooks while the mushrooms grill) and in the resulting mix of flavours and textures.

I used paprika, onion and chilli powders to flavour the meal, along with a dash each of salt, pepper and sugar and some fresh mint leaves. The mint leaves were from our garden, which added to my enjoyment of them! I also added diced carrots and whole snow peas (mange tout) to the couscous. I loved the resulting mix but other vegetables would work well too if you have different things to hand.

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Chickpea, apple and pepper scramble

Chickpea flour (besan flour) is one of those ingredients I almost always have in the cupboard, and really enjoy using, but also forget about for months on end. Having just remembered its existence, you may find that it appears more regularly again over the coming months.

Whilst I've long enjoyed chickpea flour, it took me a while to try chickpea scrambles. I think I was put off by the comparisons to scrambled eggs, which were never my favourite food. However, once I did venture into scramble territory, I was an immediate convert. There is a parallel to scrambled eggs in the style and form of the dish, but the flavours are completely different (in my mind, very much better!).

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Mexican couscous bowl

I'm not sure how a week has passed since I last sat down and opened Blogger. 2016 is certainly proving to be another year where time flies by. It's also hard to believe we're at the end of January!

I was pleased this week to find the time to make vegan lamingtons, in honour of Australia Day last Tuesday. I took a large plate of them to work and they disappeared in a startling fashion. I think I've converted more than a few Londoners to the delights of lamingtons.

With busy days and often long ones too, I've been glad of more easy meals (let's face it, I'm always glad of easy meals). You can make this couscous bowl in hardly any time and it will fuel you through whatever the day throws at you. Unlike most of my bowls, the bulk of the vegetables come separately - mix up a green salad to pair on the side - but you'll still be taking in a mix of vegetables, protein and carbohydrate with every mouthful.

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M&S-style nutty super wholefood salad

I mentioned in my last post that my favourite Marks and Spencer salad is their nutty super wholefood salad. Featuring green beans, peas, broccoli, carrots, black-eyed beans and quinoa plus peanuts, almonds and pistachios, it is absolutely packed with delicious ingredients. A dollop of hummous and a soy and ginger dressing finish the everything off.

Whilst I have no qualms about buying prepared salads on occasion, it's obviously nice to make them at home when possible. It saves money, for one, but it also allows you to customise ingredients and portions - and make up a batch to cover lunches for several days if you're so inclined. With salads like this one, it's also a good way to use up leftover grains or vegetables.

There are a few takes on this M&S salad online already, some following it extremely closely and others using it as a springboard for inspiration. My version is somewhere in between. Like the M&S original, my salad featured green beans, peas, broccoli, quinoa, almonds, hummous and a soy and ginger dressing. I omitted the carrots, black-eyed beans, peanuts and pistachios, but added butter beans, pecans and brown basmati rice (a half-half mix with the quinoa because I had some already cooked). In truth, small beans (black-eyed or otherwise) are probably better suited to this than butter beans, but you can use whatever you have to hand.

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Vegan eating at Waterloo train station

If you are going to be stranded at one of London's major train stations, and you are keen on vegan food, then I can recommend London Waterloo. One of my routes to work travels through the Waterloo East / Waterloo terminus and it is a very handy spot for picking up lunch or evening snacks. As I now live quite far out of London, there are also times I want something substantial to eat on my train ride home. Whatever the situation, Waterloo can provide. (And if you really are stuck there for a while, there is a branch of Foyle's Bookstore to browse too.)

Boots. One of my favourite take-away food options is the Boots meal deal, based around their vegan hummus, carrot and coriander sandwich on tomato bread. It is probably my favourite commercial sandwich and whilst in theory I can make it at home, Boots does it so well that my efforts don't quite match up!

You can buy the sandwich on its own for £2.50, but for £3.49 you can get the sandwich, a snack and a drink. In an example of good marketing I tend do that when I'm making a purchase. There are heaps of vegan snack options, including Clif bars, Trek bars, Naked bars, crisps, popcorn, dried fruit and nuts, and also fresh fruit. Their sugar free jelly is also vegan and I like that on occasion.

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Grilled hummus and lentils on toast

I've recently been enjoying variations of my grilled hummus on toast. Whilst the original (just hummus and tomato) is still delicious, I can also recommend adding rocket and mushrooms. And, of course, I highly recommend this variation with lentils.

I know not everyone is a fan of bread, but with so many varieties available (whole wheat, seeded, gluten free, sourdough...) I think there is a type for all of us. I have mentioned before that I don't make a lot of sandwiches, but sometimes bread-based lunches appeal more than my usual grain-based salads. If you join me in trying this open sandwich, I think you'll understand why!

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Vegan banh mi sandwich

After my delicious bahn mi lunch at Mono, I returned from Scotland determined to make bahn mi at home. This led me to look up the dish and learn that bahn mi really just means bread. To be specific, baguette made with rice flour as well as wheat flour. A bahn mi sandwich, on the other hand, refers to the complete dish: a filled Vietnamese baguette with meat or tofu, picked vegetables, chilli, and coriander (cilantro).

My version used a standard wheat baguette, but I tried to stay true to the spirit of Vietnamese sandwich fillings. Online information suggested I could pickle the vegetables quite briefly - for an hour or so - rather than needing an extensive pickling process. I used carrot, cabbage and radishes but cucumber and daikon would be authentic additions to the mix. Fresh coriander isn't in season here, but if you can find it, it would be a great finishing touch. As it is, I used the dried variety in my tofu marinade.

I've shared a few recipes lately with the note that you don't really need to press your tofu. Here, you do. Allow time to press it in advance and then marinate it for 30 minutes or so before cooking. The result is crispy thin slices that really make the sandwich.

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Harissa-spiced tofu, beetroot and sweet potato salad

I had trouble titling this recipe because I felt like all of the ingredients were stars. However, harissa-spiced tofu, beetroot, sweet potato, carrot, broccoli and kale salad with lemon and mint was too much of a mouthful. Rest assured, though, that you'll appreciate all of the ingredients in this dish should you choose to make it.

I don't mind confessing that the harissa in this came from a jar. I bought it on the same shopping trip that gave me preserved lemon paste. Both were impulse buys, but useful ones that have given rise to some new recipe ideas. For this salad, the harissa was key in flavouring the tofu and I balanced the spice out with lemon juice and mint.  I am still quite new to cooking with harissa but really enjoy the depth of flavour in the spicy paste.

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5 minute meals: Grilled hummus on toast and chilli-tahini kale and tofu salad

Sometimes, even a 15 minute meal seems too much. When it's 2pm on a Saturday and you're keen for food in a hurry, or 8pm on a weeknight and you want a quick but satisfying meal, 5 to 10 minutes is the time frame I want to work to. These are two recent meals that came together in hardly any time but still tasted delicious.

From hummus in lasagna, it was an easy jump to grilled hummus on toast. Have any of you tried it? It is even better than grilled cheese, and incredibly comforting despite being a simple meal. Just lightly toast two pieces of bread, spread generously with hummus and some halved cherry tomatoes, and grill for up to 5 minutes or as long as it takes to melt the hummus and turn the edges crispy.

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Smoky quinoa bowl with tofu, corn and kale

I seem to be going through a paprika and corn phase at the moment. The flavours featured in my sweet potato cakes of a few weeks ago, and in this dish they round out quinoa, tofu, kale and pepper to provide an easy bowl-based meal.

This recipe is fairly simple but I liked the result so much that I ate it for both lunch and dinner yesterday. I'm now wishing I'd made a larger batch, and suspect I'll be repeating the combination soon! It would be easy to swap legumes for the tofu if you prefer that, or to make the bowl with rice instead of quinoa if you aren't a quinoa fan.

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Kale, cabbage and apple salad with a peanut dressing

Kale. It's almost become unfashionably fashionable; the stereotypical health food, thrown out as an example of new age eating and January dieting. I'm torn between being pleased that kale is readily available and winning over an increasing number of hearts (and stomachs), and sorry that it's become another 'bandwagon' food.

Mostly, though, I don't worry about it too much. I just enjoy eating it.

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Easy vegan lunches - for home or work

During the week, I rarely spend more than 5 minutes preparing my work lunches. On weekends I do take a little longer, but still favour speedy meals in the middle of the day. I was reflecting recently on how my lunchtime routines have been streamlined and improved over the years, and so I thought...why not post about them? Why not, indeed.

Without further ado, here are some of my favourite lunch options for weekdays and weekends alike.

Cabbage salad with tofu and mango

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Mango, strawberry and sweet potato salad with a 'honey' mustard dressing

Dear readers, this will be a week of short and sweet posts. Our shipment has arrived and our flat is a disaster zone! We are really excited to be reunited with our belongings, but until we get the boxes unpacked and items stowed away, it is an obstacle course getting from room to room. Making dinner last night involved a narrow path from fridge to stove, and shuffling of boxes to get to the sink. It is tricky. I am also unsure why we (I) shipped so much. Living without much for  4 months has changed my views on 'essential'. I could have abandoned a lot more in Perth.

Mango, strawberry and sweet potato salad with a 'honey' mustard dressing

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Apricot and walnut quinoa salad with edamame beans

Our Mother's Day picnic wasn't, of course, limited to cherry ripe balls. The savoury fare included a jumbo green salad, bread rolls, crackers, a selection of cheeses and some herbed chicken. And, this apricot and walnut salad with associated edamame beans.

Apricot and walnut quinoa salad

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Grilled nectarine and pumpkin salad

I think I have discovered the secret to salad beauty: Char marks.

Like many of the dishes I make, this grilled nectarine and pumpkin salad has a simple ingredient list. However, by grilling the nectarine and pumpkin pieces, it is lifted from basic to (if I may say so myself) beautiful.

As summer winds down in Australia, I vote for farewelling it with this salad. For those of you in the northern hemisphere? You may want to welcome spring in with this dish, just as soon as nectarines reach your stores.

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