Easy, everything, summer salad

This weekend is another long weekend in England (we get two in May) and, again, we are blessed with amazing weather. Indeed, it is more summery than spring-like but with the bonus of the vivid greens and bright flowers that spring provides.

Sissinghurst Castle Gardens (National Trust)

After losing most of our last long weekend to illness, we are soaking up outdoor time this time around. A repeat visit to Sissinghurst Castle Garden provided perfect picnic weather, and Mini Bite has taken to moving pebbles and stones around our garden and any other setting that offers the opportunity. She's getting good and messy in the sunshine.

Perfect picnicking

With the summery weather, salads are an appealing choice. Today's recipe offers a bit of everything and is more an idea than a recipe. I added new season tomatoes, sweet bell peppers, local Kent strawberries, celery, walnuts, tofu and chickpeas to a bed of spinach and finished things off with a scattering of alfalfa sprouts and a drizzle of balsamic vinaigrette (for the observant amongst you, the photos were taken pre-vinaigrette).

Summer and spring in a bowl!

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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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Thai red curry tofu and cabbage salad

I recently read the book Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness by Scott Jurek. It was truly excellent and perfectly matched my love of running (albeit my running is nowhere near the scale of Scott's!) and my love of plant-based food. Scott discovered vegan eating as he ran longer and harder, and he is a clear example of how plants can fuel amazing athletic achievements.

At the end of each chapter, Scott includes a recipe. One was for Thai red curry sauce to pair with tofu and a raw cabbage salad. Thus this meal was born. It was delicious and has reminded me of cabbage (it had dropped off my food radar) and introduced me to Thai red curry flavours (I don't think I've had them before).

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Golden couscous salad

It has been a while between couscous recipes. There is no particular reason for this, other than the usual one of my favoured foods going through cycles. I may be re-entering a couscous phase since reminding myself of how easy it is to make.

Today's salad is golden in lots of ways. There is orange in three formats (zest, juice, segments) plus grated carrot, chopped butternut squash and turmeric. Coriander, ginger and a dash of soy sauce round out the flavour mix, whilst chickpeas and spinach leaves round out the meal. It all comes together very easily and the result is hearty enough to stand alone as a meal, whilst also being well suited to picnic-style eating or a barbecue side dish.

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Zucchini noodles with a creamy turmeric dressing

My last post welcomed summery weather. This post would moan about it, if it wasn't for my prickly awareness that at least I have a house to be hot within. Non-UK readers may not be aware of the London fire that hit Grenfell Tower block last week, killing an estimated 79 people and injuring many more. Hot weather isn't anything to complain about when placed in that context.

There is no avoiding, though, that it is hot in England this week. Weather records have been broken and it isn't even summer yet. Regular readers will know how much I dislike the heat (one of the key reasons for my move from Australia to England) and so dishes that keep me cool are high on my priority list right now. Ice cream is good. So are cold meals.

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Zucchini noodles with orange and cashews

I was recently browsing my own Recipes page and was surprised to see, first, just how many recipes are on there (well over 200!) and, second, how many dishes I have made, loved, and then not made again. My various courgette / zucchini noodle dishes are a case in point. Whilst I haven't recreated one of them here, I was inspired to pull my spiralizer out again and make a new zucchini noodle dish to match the spring weather.

This salad is dominated, in a good way, by orange. It features an orange-soy-ginger dressing as well as orange segments. A scattering of cashews rounds out the dish and I also included tofu (ginger flavoured for good measure) that I enjoyed in the mix. If you left the tofu off this would be a nice side dish but with it you can easily consume the salad as a main meal.

My tofu was the new-ish sweet ginger tofu made by Cauldron foods. If you aren't in the UK or don't have access to that, any marinated tofu would work, although one that compliments an orange-soy-ginger dressing would obviously be best.

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Barley salad with kale, walnuts, cranberries and an orange-maple dressing

When I bought cranberries for my cranberry and chocolate chip banana bread, I had more berries than the bread required. I used the leftovers for this barley salad. Whilst completely different to the sweet bread, I liked it just as much and have been eating it for lunches across the week.

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Fruity summer coleslaws: Apple peanut butter slaw and sweet + spicy pineapple slaw

There is a big coleslaw divide in our household. I can't stand the traditional sort - it is up there with macaroni cheese as one of my most disliked dishes - whereas Mr Bite loves it. Unfortunately for him, my dislike of mayonnaise-y coleslaw means he rarely gets it at home, and if he does, it has to be store bought. More fortunately, he is quite tolerant of coleslaw variations like the Asian style slaw I've posted before (with a dressing of ginger, lime, soy and chilli instead of mayonnaise).

Peanut butter slaw

Whilst he likes some of my coleslaw variations, the two in this post were more to my tastes than his. This may be attributable to the inclusion of fruit in both; I am always happy to have fruit in my savoury dishes whilst he's not such a fan. So, if you share my preference for fruit in your salads, and for light coleslaw alternatives, I recommend these salads to you!

Sweet + spicy pineapple slaw

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Mediterranean pasta salad with tofu

We have had a few cold dinners this week, on account of some hot summer days and overly warm summer nights. The nice thing about England is that, generally, the hot weather doesn't last for weeks on end like it does in Australia. The flip side is that air conditioning isn't common here, so when it is hot, you are hot.

For those of you in the northern hemisphere, this Mediterranean pasta salad is perfect for summer nights, barbecues or picnics. It's easy to make ahead and then serve cold. For those of you in the southern hemisphere, I imagine it could work as a warm pasta dish too.

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Mint and paprika butter bean salad

I would struggle to nominate a single favourite legume, but butter beans would definitely make a top 5 list. They're a large, cream-coloured variant of the lima bean and I love their soft, fluffy texture. This salad allows their texture and flavour to shine whilst throwing in some other classic summer ingredients: corn, tomatoes and mint.

I made this salad during the week, as part of a meal to welcome my parents. They have been in the UK (from Australia) for a couple of weeks now but arrived at our place mid-week. It's been great to show them our new home and the local area, and of course to catch up on family and Australian news.

When I made the salad I served it with various other meal components, including boiled baby potatoes. These pictures show the leftover beans and potatoes in a single dish and as they paired very well together I would readily recommend the mix. Otherwise, the bean salad could be added to a wrap, served with greens or paired with a grain base of choice.

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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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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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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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Lemon and paprika lentil salad

My parents are visiting from Australia at the moment, having flown into London on Wednesday evening. My Mum was in England not long after we moved (last August/September) but it's the first time I've seen my Dad in a year. It was lovely spending yesterday with them.

Given our one-bed flat situation, their two nights in London were based in a hotel in Greenwich, not too far from where we live. I took yesterday and today off work (joy!) and had a great time playing tourist in Greenwich yesterday. We went to the National Maritime Museum, Queen's House, and painted hall and chapel in the Old Royal Naval College site. We also walked through the Greenwich foot tunnel to look back at Greenwich from the north bank of the Thames.

Greenwich from across the Thames

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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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Giant couscous salad with chickpeas, sweet corn, paprika and tomatoes

Have you tried giant couscous? I picked a pack up last weekend after searching fruitlessly for regular couscous in the supermarket. I still don't know where they were hiding the regular sort, but I am glad I was prompted to give this variety a go. It is utterly delicious and (I think) far nicer than regular couscous!

I used the couscous for a simple salad to take to a shared work lunch. In the end, most of our team forgot about the lunch, so it was cancelled and I was left with a large container of this to eat solo. I've spread it over the week and haven't minded at all. In fact, I liked it so much that I plan to make it again for the rescheduled work lunch.

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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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Jamie Oliver inspired gado-gado

Is anyone else enjoying Jamie Oliver's new show, Jamie's Comfort Food? Most of the dishes are a long way off being vegan, and we tend to skip the meat heavy ones, but I love his enthusiasm for food. Plus, even when the recipe isn't one I'd make as is, I often pick up tips for making things easier and/or better.

Gado-gado salad in sweet potato

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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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