Diced cucumber, tomato and feta salad with chickpeas

Cucumbers are so deliciously crunchy and crisp and delicately tasty and juicy. Perfect antidote to accidentally drinking too much coffee... again. Why not cut them into chickpea-sized pieces along with some cucumbers and a little bit of feta... add parsley and tasty bits and pieces, and crunch on it along with a bit of bread... whenever I cook chickpeas they disappear so fast!

1/2 cucumber, diced
6 ish small-medium tomatoes, diced
1 in piece of feta, diced
cupful of cooked chickpeas
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp chopped capers
1 tbsp chopped sundried tomatoes
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
salt+pepper

Mix everything together, dress with olive oil, balsamic, salt+pepper. Done.


Nothing but simple food, and especially salads at the moment. S has been bringing lunch to work as well since we moved here, so it's kind of a fun challenge thinking of what will feed my appetite plus his.

Overnight couscous

This recipe (5th one down) seemed made for these hot hot days/nights: loads of fresh veg and herbs and absolutely no cooking. I was excited about the process as well: the idea of using the juices from the veg to hydrate the couscous is simple but super smart. S doesn't always like couscous, but since his main complaints are that it can be wet and tasteless I thought this method could be a solution.

100g couscous
3 large, juicy tomatoes, roughly chopped
½ cucumber, peeled and diced
50g parsley, chopped
25g mint, chopped
2 tbsp chives, chopped
1 small red onion, finely chopped (used 2 spring onions)
50g raisins
25g shelled pistachios
1-2 tbsp capers (or nasturtium seeds, or dry, salty black olives)
Juice of ½-1 lemon
Dash of hot sauce
Salt and black pepper

Put the couscous into a large bowl and add the tomatoes, cucumber, parsley, mint, chives, red onion, raisins, pistachios, capers and lemon juice. Mix well. Season to taste with salt, pepper and a few shakes of hot sauce. Cover, and leave in the refrigerator for at least 4-8 hours. Let it come to room temperature before serving.


All the herbs (chives, mint, parsley) came from my pots, which makes me proud. My herbs have done fairly well this year.

This was a huge success! It formed the basis of a fancy (but easy!) picnic (this, some bread, elderflower cordial and fizzy water / water, and a few fresh apricots) that we took to Shakespeare on the Common (Two Gentlemen of Verona, Vegas / Ratpack-style) and it worked brilliantly in several ways...

1) I could make it the night before and store it in the fridge so all I had to do before rushing out to the show was chuck it in a plastic box on the back of my bike, and it was perfect when we got there.
2) It simultaneously, preemptively solves the potential problems of couscous getting over-cooked or claggy, and of all the excess liquid that juicy veg like tomatoes and cucumber produce - the couscous is texturally perfect, and extra tasty because instead of just water it has soaked up all the juices; while the salad has a great overall texture with none of the messy liquid or wateriness that can plague this kind of thing, which also meant that the herbs and veg were in great shape after a day in the fridge.

...and S loved it (it was probably a good move mixing couscous with so much parsley - parsley is one of his all-time faves), so perhaps couscous can be on the menu sometimes after all. I am pretty enthused about this overnight method: feel like there is a lot of potential for experimentation.


Note: I tried a quicker version of this: add a little boiling water to the dry couscous, cover, leave for a bit, then toss. Then prep and add the other ingredients, juiciest first, tossing after each addition. Finally, taste for seasoning and acidity. By the time everything was prepped and added, the couscous was perfectly softened. The exact amount of water to add is guesswork, based on how juicy you think the other ingredients will be and how soon you want to eat it. This is a wonderfully summery dish, and happily adaptable - this time I had no parsley so used coriander, which obv tasted different but similar overall effect. Also subbed lime for lemon, spring onions for chives+red onions, currants for raisins...

Herby-couscous-crusted Portobello mushrooms

I hardly ever cook with couscous, despite its obvious advantages (so quick and easy!), as S is not a fan, texturally (one of the few things he doesn't like, so I can't complain). He was into this idea though, so we gave it a whirl.

~6 portobello mushrooms, cleaned and trimmed
1 cup couscous
boiling water
olive oil
1 tbsp sunflower seeds
1 tbsp pumpkin seeds
1 medium onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
~10 capers, chopped
~10 black olives, chopped
2 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
2 tbsp fresh dill, chopped
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
1 tbsp za'atar
juice of 1/2 lime
red wine vinegar
salt+pepper

Heat the oven to 450F. Put the couscous in a bowl and cover with boiling water (up to about 5 mm above the level of the couscous in the bowl). Cover the bowl with a lid or plate and leave to steam.

Meanwhile, heat ~1 tsp olive oil in a pan and then fry the sunflower and pumpkin seeds with a little salt. When lightly browned, transfer seeds to a bowl. Add another tsp of olive oil to the pan and when hot add the onion and garlic. Cover and cook, stirring often, until softened. Add the remaining ingredients (except the mushrooms), including the couscous (check it is soft and fluffy first), and taste for seasoning, adding vinegar, salt and pepper to taste.

Lightly grease a baking sheet with olive oil. Place the mushrooms on it, gill side up. Using a teaspoon, squish as much couscous mixture as you like all over the gill surface of each mushroom (I made them about an inch thick with couscous in the middle, curving down towards the edges - if you leave the stem on build the couscous mixture around it, if not just put it all over). Put in the oven for 20-30 minutes, until the mushrooms are fragrant and have softened to release their juices, and the couscous on top is golden and crisp (the underneath couscous will still be soft, try a thinner layer if you'd rather it was all crispy).


Turns out that as the baking makes the upper layer of couscous crispy this creates some textural variety and defuses S's texture issues. I also enjoyed the combination of crispy outside and surprising, softly steaming, inner couscous with the juicy mushroom. Could have perhaps used even more herbs (double?), I thought, but anyway this was simple, comforting and subtly tasty.

Potato salad

As a child, the only way I'd eat boiled potatoes was in potato salad, which had to be with salad cream and chives (or finely chopped onion at a push) - no other way.  As an adult, salad cream seems disgusting.  I guess this is a grown-up version.

~20 new potatoes (we used fingerlings, other small boiling potatoes would also be fine), scrubbed and boiled with the skin on until just cooked, left to cool (can store in the fridge for several days)
1 tbsp chives, chopped (parsley also good, or both)
2 tbsp capers, drained and chopped (sundried tomatoes in oil also good - if using replace the olive oil with the tomato oil)
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
2 tsp honey
1 tbsp lemon juice (juice of 1/2 a lemon)
2 tbsp olive oil
salt+pepper

Chop the cold, cooked potatoes into chunky, evenly sized pieces.  Mix the remaining ingredients in the bottom of a medium sized bowl and check for tastiness.  Add the potatoes, toss and eat.


This is a classic. I've made many slight variations but the honey-lemon-mustard-olive oil dressing with herbs and nuggets of strongly-flavoured caper or tomato is really yummy, and makes for an instant storecupboard / fridge salad out of a tub of leftover boiled potatoes.

Caponata

I made this for the first time years ago.  It's really good - kind of like ratatouille, but better.  I'd make it more often if it wasn't that we don't often have aubergines, celery and pine nuts all in the house at once.  I think this is a fairly simple version - stuff like cocoa and artichoke hearts can be added; the key ingredients remain aubergines, celery and capers.

600g aubergines, chopped into ~2cm chunks
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
~5 big stalks of celery, chopped (or substitute ~3/4 tsp crushed celery seed)
1 clove garlic, chopped (optional)
1 tbsp sultanas (or golden raisins)
~3 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tin chopped tomatoes
~2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp capers
2 tbsp olives, pitted and chopped
1 tbsp pine nuts (or substitute slivered toasted almonds)
1 tbsp chopped basil (optional)
salt and pepper

Salt aubergine and put under a heavy weight to drain (for approx half an hour).

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan, add onion and celery (and garlic if using), and cook for ~5 min until starting to soften. Rinse the aubergine and press it dry. Add the aubergine to the pan with the onion, and cook for ~10 min, until softened and starting to brown.

Add sultanas, vinegar, tomatoes, sugar, capers and olives (and celery seed if subbing for celery). Bring to a gentle boil and simmer until everything is soft and thick (at least 30 min). Finally, stir in pine nuts, and basil if using. Taste, and add more salt, sugar, pepper or vinegar if it needs it. Let cool. Ideally keep it for at least a day before eating - the taste and texture improves.


Check for seasoning, then eat - hot or cold, with pasta or with bread or on its own.

Bean salad

Saw this recipe in the Guardian this weekend, then ended up with an awful lot of yellow beans (3lb for $1) - seemed to fit together.

280g yellow beans (had loads of yellow and no green, so just used yellow)
280g french beans, trimmed
2 red peppers, deseeded and cut into 0.5cm strips
2½ tbsp olive oil, plus 1 tsp extra
50g capers, rinsed and patted dry
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp coriander seeds
4 spring onions, thinly sliced
10g roughly chopped tarragon (didn't have tarragon or chervil so used mixture of parsley and dill instead)
20g picked chervil (or a mixture of picked dill and shredded parsley)
Grated zest of 1 lemon
Salt and black pepper

Heat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Bring a large pan of water to a boil and add the yellow beans. After two minutes, add the french beans and cook for four minutes more. Refresh under cold water, drain, pat dry and place in a large bowl. Toss the pepper strips in a teaspoon of oil, spread on an oven tray and roast for five minutes, until tender. Remove and add to the beans.
Heat the oil in a small saucepan. Add the capers (be careful, as they'll spit) and garlic, fry for 20 seconds, then add the seeds and fry for another 20 seconds. The garlic should by now have turned golden. Remove from the heat and immediately pour over the beans. Add the spring onion, herbs, lemon zest, a quarter-teaspoon of salt and some black pepper, and toss to combine. This salad will keep well for a day.

It was, as advertised, pretty damn tasty.  Quite salty - might not bother adding extra salt another time, the capers are probably salty enough.

Caper raisin pasta

S loves pasta, I am not so excited about it. I saw this recipe and thought of him - he also loves salty olives and capers, parsley, and fennel. And we had all those things in the fridge...

Basically this.

6 stalks celery (ie, around 180g) (or fennel, or red onion which would need more cooking)
90ml olive oil
30g pine nuts, roughly broken (used sunflower seeds instead)
40g capers, plus 2 tbsp of their brine
10 large green olives (40g), pitted and cut into 1cm dice
1 good pinch saffron, mixed with 1 tbsp hot water
1½ tsp white-wine vinegar
100g raisins, soaked in water
250g conchiglie pasta (shells)
30g chopped parsley
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1 garlic clove, crushed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Grated parmesan (or pecorino for vegetarian alternative), optional

Trim any leaves from the celery (save them for later) and cut the stalks into 1cm dice. Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan and add the diced celery and pine nuts. Over high heat, fry, stirring all the while, for a minute or two until the nuts begin to brown (take care as they can easily burn). Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the capers and their brine, the olives, saffron and its water, the vinegar and the drained raisins. Set aside.

Cook the pasta until al dente, drain into a colander and shake well. Tip the pasta into the pan, place over medium high heat and, stirring gently, quickly heat through. Once hot, stir in the parsley, lemon zest, garlic and lots of black pepper. Taste and add salt if needed.

Transfer to serving plates or bowls, scatter the reserved celery leaves on top and finish with a little cheese, if you like.


It was good - caponata crossed with S's perversion pasta.