Best grated carrot salad

I've tried a few grated carrot salads in the past but never got it quite right. This attempt turned out exactly as I wanted; even better... The toasted coriander is key, and came from a Delia recipe (that I then decided not to stick to...).

1 tbsp coriander seeds
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp sesame seed oil
2 tsp white/red miso
1 tsp honey
salt+pepper
1 tiny clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp finely chopped onion
c 10 medium carrots, peeled and coarsely grated
1 tsp lemon zest
2 tsp chopped chives
1/4 cup raisins
2 tsp black onion seeds

Toast the coriander seeds and then crush them in a pestle and mortar. Put in a medium bowl with the vinegar, oils, miso, honey, salt and pepper (not much salt, miso is salty), crushed garlic and chopped onion. Whisk together with a fork. Add the grated carrots, lemon zest, chives, raisins and black onion seeds and mix to combine. Keeps well in the fridge (the raisins will plump up) for a few days.

Sunshine beet salad

We got golden beets in our veg bag 2 weeks ago. I wasn't very inspired at first - seemed like disappointing leftover winter veg. But we also got a recipe leaflet that my former teammate Ina started making with her students. One of the recipes was golden beets with lemon juice+zest = sunshine beets. I took the combination and made it into something more substantial... and it worked really well.


2-3 medium-large golden beets
salt+pepper
olive oil
1 cup pearled spelt
1-2 tbsp chopped fresh thyme leaves
juice and zest of 1/2 a large lemon
1 tsp white miso
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp apple cider vinegar reduction
1 tsp cider vinegar
salt+pepper
handful of chives, chopped

Wash the beets and then wrap them in foil with a little salt and pepper and olive oil. Put on a baking tray and roast at 200C for approx. 1 hour until soft. Let cool completely. Meanwhile cook the spelt in water until tender, drain and let cool.

When ready to assemble the salad, first make the dressing: chop the thyme and then mix with the lemon juice+zest, miso, 2 tbsp olive oil, vinegar reduction (use honey instead if you don't have it), vinegar, salt and pepper. Dice the beets into 1 cm dice and put in a serving bowl with the spelt and chives, then add the dressing and mix well. Eat straight away, or keeps well in the fridge for several days.


The beet-spelt-lemon-thyme combination works really well - and it does taste and look like sunshine... appropriately enough, given the insane sunny weather we've been having.

New potatoes, peas, radishes and skyr

D+Sh visited last weekend. For the first time in ever. It was fun. It felt very different from any time we ever spent together before. They were on holiday, and if anyone was in charge it was S+me. Perhaps I am grown up at last.

We made quite a lot of adventures: the zoo, Louisiana (both really good), Relae. But spent a fair bit of the inbetween time chilling on our balcony (it was very hot out, like over 30C), listening to jazz drifting up from the bar across the canal, and more of it from boats floating past with bands on. We ended up having some nice salad+bread type meals on the balcony too - it was salad weather, and Danish bread is sooo good. This was one of the salads. It makes very pleasing use of in-season fresh peas, new potatoes, radishes and chives. Plus skyr, which forms a creamy dressing while remaining fresh and light and not overpowering.

20 or so new potatoes (adjust according to size / taste)
500 g bag of fresh peas, shelled
1 bunch of radishes, trimmed and sliced
1 tbsp chopped chives
4 tbsp skyr mixed with 2 tsp lemon juice and 2 tsp olive oil
salt+pepper

Cook the new potatoes until just tender and set aside to cool while you prepare the other ingredients. Blanch the shelled peas by pouring boiling water over them then draining pretty much straight away. Put all ingredients in a serving dish and mix together. Serve warm or cold.

Cottage cheese dip with lovage and chives

We visited Tower Hill Botanical Garden near Berlin while we were staying in Boston this last week or so. It was raining and perhaps closed, but we walked around anyway. They had a cool 'Systematic Garden', with plantings according to phylogeny, inspired by Arthur Cronquist. Among them was lovage, which at first glance looked a lot like angelica... or even celery. Sniffing a bit made it clear how similar to celery it is - it has a celery-like smell and taste, mixed with something deeper and spicier. Considering our recent obsessions with both celery and celeriac, it seemed like a nobrainer as something we should eat more of. But I've never really seen it anywhere to buy, so have only eaten it a few times, mostly in soup...

We are back in Copenhagen now, and I went to get supplies from the Frugt og Grønt store near Christianshavn metro, and found they had lovage (løvstikke) among their impressive selection of herbs. So of course I couldn't resist. We've had some in salads, S has added it to pasta sauce, and I put it in this dip as well, having also succumbed to a craving for cottage cheese.

(enough for two as a side)

4 tbsp cottage cheese
2 tbsp yoghurt
1 tbsp chopped chives
3 tbsp chopped lovage
1/2 tsp white wine vinegar
salt+pepper

Mix all ingredients together. Adjust for acid, seasoning and consistency. We ate with toasted brown pita breads cut into strips.

Red cabbage, radish, sesame and wasabi

We had a red cabbage in the fridge, and three tubes of wasabi to use up before we leave (not going to happen)... I'd stumbled across these coleslaw recipes a couple of times, and this time thought I'd borrow the wasabi dressing idea for a red cabbage salad.

~1/2 a smallish red cabbage
2 medium-large purple radishes, peeled and grated
2 medium carrots, peeled and grated
~ 1 tbsp chopped chives

~1 tbsp peeled, finely chopped ginger
~1 tbsp wasabi paste
~ 2 tsp honey
juice of ~ 1/3 lime
~1 tsp umeboshi plum vinegar (optional)
~1 tbsp cider vinegar
~1 tsp sesame oil
~ 1 1/2 tbsp sunflower oil

1 tbsp white sesame seeds and 1 tbsp black sesame seeds, toasted

Finely shred the cabbage and put in a medium bowl with the grated radishes and carrots. Add the chives. In a small bowl, whisk together the ginger, wasabi, honey, lime juice, vinegars and oils. Pour the dressing over the vegetables, add the toasted seeds, toss and serve. Best eaten immediately but keeps OK for a couple of days in the fridge.


Another fresh+tasty Winter salad.

Grated Petersilienwurzel (parsley root), carrot and apple

I discovered Petersilienwurzel the first time I went to Germany with S, and was instantly intrigued: it's like parsley (+S loves parsley), but it's a root not a leaf. I didn't get to try it that time, but I bought some seeds and tried to grow them back in Norwich. No success.

While M was here we took her to Wegmans to stock up on Thanksgiving in a tin (based on a conversation with our Bostonian friend N, most traditional Thanksgiving dishes involve combinations of things out of tins). She ended up with a good selection - some things Thanksgiving-y (tin-shaped cranberry jelly, tinned pumpkin); also other American / local specialities (Boston brown bread in a tin). While there, S+I accidentally ended up in the produce section, where we came upon chestnuts (kurigohan happened, and it was fiiiinnne), elephant garlic, celeriac, and, resplendent beside said celeriac, petersilienwurzel! Wegmans truly does have EVERYTHING!

We roasted some in chunks with a mixture of other roots (carrots, celeriac, beetroot) and tofu, and it was really delicious - incredibly sweet (reminiscent of parsnip; they are quite closely related), with a delicate, slightly parsley-y / perhaps more parsnip-y taste.

After chatting with S's Austrian friend L, and eating her excellent vegetable strudel and beetroot, horseradish and caraway salad (from her grandmother's recipes), I decided to also follow her / her grandmother's suggestion for petersilienwurzel and grate it with carrot and apple. I threw in a few other things too, and it ended up a really yummy Winter salad - juicy and fresh and sweet.

5 small petersilienwurzel (parsley root), peeled and grated (celeriac is a good alternative / addition)
3 medium carrots, peeled and grated
1 medium apple, cored and grated
1-2 tbsp cider vinegar
1-2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
~1 tsp chopped chives
handful of raisins (preferably golden)
handful of pecan pieces

Grate the petersilienwurzel (and/or celeriac), carrots and apple into a medium bowl. Add the cider vinegar, olive oil and seasoning (quickly, to avoid browning) and toss. Add the chives, raisins and pecans and toss. Ideally eat straight away, but it keeps OK in the fridge for a few days (consider just adding the pecans last minute if you want to serve it later).

Cajun spiced potato wedges with dilly cream cheese dip

These were an afterthought - I had the oven on to make roasted brussels sprouts with birch syrup, and thought I may as well root through the fridge and see what else I could bung in the oven while I was at it. I found potatoes.

For the potato wedges:
3-4 medium-large potatoes
pinch of salt
~1 tbsp cajun spice mix (mostly paprika I think)
1-2 tbsp olive oil

For the dip:
~5 tbsp vegan cream cheese
juice of one small lime
~1 tbsp chopped fresh dill (or chives)
pinch of salt

Heat the oven to 400F. Wash (don't peel) the potatoes, trim off any dodgy bits, and cut into regularly-sized wedges. Toss the wedges with the salt, cajun spice and olive oil, then lay out on a baking tray, if possible with a skin side down. Put in the oven and bake for ~20 min, then take out and turn, checking they are golden underneath, and put back in for another 15-20 min. Let cool for a few minutes before eating.

While the potatoes are cooking, make the dip. Beat together the cream cheese, lime juice, dill and salt in a small bowl.


Really simple and good - these disappeared like lightning when S found them. The dip really made them (nb it is just as good although different with chives instead of dill... and TJs vegan cream cheese is so very surprisingly good).

Sweetcorn, tempeh, parsley and paprika

As I rode home last night I was thinking about how evocative food is for me - how both cooking and eating can make me feel connected to people, places, or times in the past. Then, as I parked my bike, I thought about my favourite childhood dinner - sweetcorn and cottage cheese pie with paprika and chives - and wondered why I'd never tried to make it. I couldn't really be assed with pie crust last night, and I don't really eat cottage cheese any more. But decided to substitute tempeh and see how it went.

1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 pack soy tempeh
1 1/2 cups frozen sweetcorn, defrosted
~1 tbsp chopped parsley
~1 tbsp chopped chives
~2 tsp paprika
salt+pepper
juice of 1/2 a lime (optional)

Heat the oil in a frying pan. Crumble in the tempeh and stir and fry for a few minutes to heat and brown. Add the sweetcorn, herbs and paprika and fry for a bit longer, until everything is combined and hot. Season to taste, and add lime juice if using.


I liked this. Not sure how accurate it was, but perhaps a little evocative. I didn't add lime juice, but did wonder if it could have used a little acidity. We ate it with cooked tomatilloes, so in this case lime wasn't needed but otherwise might have been nice? S pointed out it is quite similar to my favourite chicken of the woods preparation, which is totally true. It's also true that the tempeh is fairly similar in appearance and especially texture to chicken of the woods, although different in taste - also hadn't occurred to me til he pointed it out.

Quick quinoa salad

I felt like eating quinoa. While it was cooking, I thought I may as well mix it up with some stuff to make it more interesting. This was very quick and easy - herbs from the balcony (how much longer will they last as it gets colder?), and a few other things from the pantry / fridge / freezer, all requiring minimal prep. We both really liked it - not bad for an afterthought.

1 cup quinoa, cooked in 2 cups of water
1/2 cup frozen shelled edamame, defrosted
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds, toasted
1-2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1-2 tbsp chopped chives
2 tbsp olive oil
juice of 1 lime
1/2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1-2 tbsp wholegrain mustard
1 tsp honey
salt+pepper
1/4 cup dried sour cherries (or cranberries)

Put the quinoa in a small pan with the water, cover and bring to the boil. Simmer over a low heat til the quinoa is tender and the water all absorbed or evaporated (~10 min). Meanwhile, defrost the edamame (pour boiling water over), toast the pumpkin seeds and chop the herbs. Mix the dressing in a small bowl: beat together olive oil, lime juice, red wine vinegar, mustard, honey and seasoning. When ready, transfer the cooked quinoa to a serving bowl and add the dressing. Mix thoroughly. Add the edamame, pumpkin seeds, sour cherries and herbs, mix and serve.


I liked this so much I made a second round to take to the LUrC potluck last night - I thought it would be cool to make something savoury that featured some of the LUrC fruit (sour cherries). I forgot about edamame actually, so this version was just herbs, pumpkin seeds, sour cherries and dressing - I only remembered just now so obviously didn't miss the beans too much! Was psyched that my parsley was still alive on the balcony despite a few -3 or -4C nights. And the chives! So, although the quinoa and other ingredients are from distant lands; the sour cherries were from Cambridge, the herbs right outside my kitchen, and the honey from a friend of S's in Brookline.

Potato and green bean salad

Boiled potatoes and green beans are a great combination. This way you can cook both in the same pot without having to mix them and risk getting one or the other under/over cooked. I like them tossed with a mustardy, vinegary, capery salad dressing. Salty olives or sundried tomatoes also work well.

~15 small new potatoes, washed and bad bits cut off
bag of French beans, topped and tailed and cut into ~ 2 in pieces
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
1 tsp honey
1 tbsp nasturtium seeds (or capers), chopped
1 tbsp chives, chopped
1 tbsp parsley, chopped
2-3 tbsp olive oil
juice of 1/2 a lemon
salt+pepper

Put the potatoes in a few inches of boiling, slightly salted water in the bottom of a large, lidded pot you can fit a steamer basket into. Cover and bring to the boil. Prep the beans and put them in the steamer basket, then put it into the pan above the potatoes (make sure the water is not boiling up into the basket). The beans will take 10-15 min (until tender); the potatoes will take 15-20 min depending how big and how new they are. Meanwhile, put the remaining ingredients into a serving bowl and whisk together to make the dressing. When the beans and potatoes are ready stop cooking in cold water, drain and then transfer to the dressing while still warmish. Toss together, taste for seasoning and serve.

Three bean salad

Amazingly enough green beans to do something with, already. This time a multi-bean salad. I used to make these a lot, chucking in as many kinds of beans as I had, trying to max out the bean variety count. This time I kept it to three, as I thought they looked pretty and tasted good together. With tomatoes, herbs and nasturtium seeds (our other current favourite thing) from my pot garden (and garlic and sweet pepper from the CSA), this is super fresh and packed with flavour.

~1 cup green beans, top-and-tailed and chopped into ~2 cm pieces
~1 cup black eyed beans, defrosted
1/2 cup chickpeas, defrosted
1/2 sweet pepper (mine was yellow), diced
2-3 medium tomatoes, diced
~8 fresh nasturtium seeds, chopped
1 tbsp chives, chopped
1-2 tbsp mint, chopped
1-2 tbsp parsley, chopped
zest and juice of 1/4 lemon
1/8 clove of garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp honey
1-2 tbsp olive oil
salt+pepper

Prepare the green beans and steam them for 10-15 min, until tender. Plunge into cold water to stop cooking, then drain. Mix the black eyed beans, chickpeas and green beans in a bowl. Add the chopped pepper, tomatoes, nasturtium seeds, herbs and lemon zest. Mix the lemon juice, garlic, honey, olive oil, salt and pepper in a small bowl then add to the bean mixture. Toss everything together, taste for seasoning and eat.


This was really fresh and crunchy and tasty. There was quite a lot of liquid in it so I reduced the dressing quantities listed above (originally used more like 1/2 lemon etc).

Beetroot, lentils and wheatberries

This is a meal in a bowl, with all sorts of depths and exciting tastes and textures and colours. You might call it a salad? It comes together really quickly if you have the beetroot, lentils and wheatberries (or you could sub chickpeas and brown rice) already cooked and in the fridge. I had baked the beetroot while I had the oven on to roast some other veg a couple of days ago, so when I wanted to eat this I just had to cook the lentils and wheatberries and prep the other stuff. If I'd done the lentils and wheatberries previously it would have been even faster; as it was the remaining food prep pretty much fitted into the time they were cooking, so still quite speedy.

Baked beetroot:
~5 medium beetroot, washed and trimmed
few sprigs thyme
3-4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp water
salt+pepper

Boiled lentils and wheatberries:
1 cup wheatberries
1 cup brown or green lentils
1 bay leaf
stock powder

Seeds, herbs and spices:
1 tbsp coriander seed
1 tsp cumin seed
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp sunflower seeds
1/2 tbsp sesame seeds
zest of 1/2 a lemon
1-2 tbsp chives, chopped
1-2 tbsp parsley, chopped
1 tbsp mint, chopped

Dressing:
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp honey
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
1 tsp white miso
1-2 tbsp olive oil
salt+pepper

To prepare the beetroot, heat the oven to 400F. Wash the beetroot thoroughly and trim. Chop into large / even sized chunks (in half or quarters) and put in a lidded ovenproof dish. Add whole, peeled garlic cloves, thyme (fresh or dried), seasoning, olive oil and water. Put the lid on, put in the oven and bake for 30-40 min, until tender to the point of a knife. Remove from the oven, let cool, then cut into chunky dice.

Put the lentils in a small pan with enough water to cover them by 1cm. Add the bay leaf and a sprinkling of stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for ~30 min, until done. Put the wheatberries in a different pan with ~1 1/2 cups water and a sprinkling of stock. Bring to the boil and simmer 25-30 min, until tender.

Heat a frying pan and dry fry the coriander and cumin seed until fragrant. Let cool a little, then transfer to a spice mill and grind. In the same pan, dry toast the sunflower and sesame seeds until lightly golden and starting to pop. Chop the herbs and zest the lemon.

In a serving bowl, beat the dressing ingredients together with a fork. Add the cooked, still warm wheatberries and lentils and mix well together. Add the beetroot (and garlic and juices) and ground spices and toss some more. Check it is not too hot, then, immediately before serving, add the toasted seeds and fresh herbs. Toss once more, taste and add more salt, pepper and balsamic if needed, and eat.


This is really hearty and versatile - an excellent Autumn / Winter salad protocol. Versions of this have been seeing me right for weeks, as lunches and quick dinners. So long as I have some cooked lentils and wheatberries (or other grain) in the fridge, plus some kind of roasted veg - this week it is butternut squash roasted with za'atar - I can grab some herbs from my pots and mix this up in minutes.

Tzatziki

This was something I had been meaning to try when I got around to stocking up on coconut milk for kefir. But, in the end, S beat me to it. This was his recipe, and I think it tasted great. The coconut kefir is thinner than the thickened yoghurt usually used for tzatziki, so it is not thick but tastes delicious.

1-2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 cucumber, peeled and grated
mint and chives, chopped
~3/4 cup coconut kefir
salt

Put the prepared herbs and vegetables in a bowl and then pour the kefir in - add as much as you think it needs. Add salt to taste. Good with bread.


I wouldn't have added as much garlic as S did, but it was good.

Roasted potato and herb focaccia

Since we love potato bread (and S loves dill and salt), this bread immediately looked like it would be a hit. Definitely a weekend bread, as the protocol is a bit long... We had most of the ingredients, including 00 flour and salad potatoes. But I didn't have dill, so used some herbs I did have from our garden instead - thyme and chives. Think next year I will try and grow dill and coriander (I did plant coriander seeds but they didn't sprout) - they are the two we use most besides the ones I'm already growing (mint, chives, thyme, basil, parsley).

450g salad potatoes, washed (used red-skinned ones)
olive oil and sea salt flakes
1 tsp yeast
100ml low-fat yoghurt (used coconut kefir)
50g honey
175g pitted green olives (used 1 tin of black olives in brine, drained)
1 small bunch dill, chopped (used chives and thyme)
625g Italian 00 flour
2 tsp fine sea salt

Chop the potatoes into cubes, toss them with oil and a little salt, roast for 30 minutes (@ 400F) until barely cooked, then leave to cool (did this a day in advance).

In a large bowl, mix 375ml water with the yeast, kefir / yoghurt, honey, olives, herbs and cold potatoes, then mix in the flour and salt to make a sticky dough. Leave for 45 min, then knead the dough gently for 10 sec. Repeat this three more times at 45-min intervals, then line a baking tray (used roasting tin) with paper and press the dough out so it half covers it. Leave another 45 min, then stretch the dough to cover the rest of the tray. Sprinkle with salt flakes and leave for about 30 min while you heat the oven to 200C / 390F. Bake for 35-40 min, until a deep golden brown on top. Let sit for 10 min when you take it out of the oven, then lift out of the tray and off the paper and leave to cool on a rack.


I think this was a real focaccia-type dough: it was very wet. Interesting to work with - hard to knead properly - was glad it was a minimal-knead protocol. Came out lovely and soft as a result, with a nice loose, moist crumb. The kefir was definitely a good yoghurt substitute - I love the taste of it (you can't taste the coconut in the finished bread). Glad to find a good use for the last of my 00 flour - had almost exactly the right quantity. The protocol was really, really long (~5 hours not including the potato-roasting time!) - it was fairly simple but I don't think this will become a regular bread for us just because of the time. Even though it was quite delicious and I am intrigued to try it with dill / other additions instead of potatoes...

Sweetcorn, chicken of the woods, lime

Rolling home, around 8pm. A frilly, orange mushroom I hadn't noticed before catches my eye. On a tree, a little above eye level, right by my way. I ride on a little, approaching the next green light, my brain processing what my eyes had seen. Could it have been a chicken of the woods? I pull over and turn around. I'm sure it is. It is beautiful, with a soft-but-firm texture and a mushroomy, slightly fruity (and very tempting) smell. It's about the diameter of my spread-out hand, and very clean and fresh-looking. I debate picking: it looks so perfect and tasty; but is right beside the road; and is so pretty as well - it seems a shame to take it so others can't see it. Then again, I am amazed that no-one else seems to have seen it / nabbed it - so many people tramp this way, towards the T, all the time. I decide to take just a bit - that way I can taste it while leaving the rest to be beautiful. I break off a couple of lobes and secrete them in my backpack.

I excitedly doublecheck my ID when I get home; the mushroom book only confirms what I am sure of already. I can't wait to eat it! It hardly needs washing but I do anyway. It's just a little bit, but I decide it would go well with freshly-cut sweetcorn, a little bit of chilli, salt and lime, chives for colour, and garlic because I seem incapable of cooking a mushroom without garlic.

2 tbsp olive oil
1 small clove garlic, peeled and chopped
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
2-3 cobs of sweetcorn (make sure it is good, sweet corn)
about 50g of chicken of the woods
little pinch of salt
good pinch of paprika
2 tsp chopped chives
good squeeze of lime

Prepare the corn by removing the husk then carefully cutting off the kernels by working a sharp knife down the sides of the cob. Set aside in a bowl. Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the garlic and cook for a minute until starting to soften. Add the chilli flakes and cook for 30 sec. Add the chicken of the woods, torn into small (1 inch long / 1/2 inch across) pieces, and saute until it starts to look lightly browned: 2-3 minutes. Add the corn, and continue cooking for 4-5 min. It will get deeper yellow and start to brown a little. If it sticks a little bit that's ok: the burny bits are weirdly good. When the corn is done, add salt and paprika and taste for seasoning. Finally, turn off the heat and stir through chives and lime juice. Yum!


Chicken of the woods has to be one of my all time favourite mushrooms - it has great taste and texture (really substantial and not at all wet; quite unique) and beautiful colour. The reddish-orange mushroom in combination with the yellow corn and the flecks of green chives and red-brown chilli and paprika is super pretty. And tastes awesome: the sweetness of the corn offsets the vibrant, rich mushroom taste really well, and the lime and chilli cut through nicely. We ate it with wheatberries, and that was good too. I was planning to observe the rest of the mushroom in situ and see how it changed over time, but the following evening on the way home from work someone had taken the whole thing!


Note: I've found out a few things about CotW since I wrote this - first that specimens can be variable in taste (I haven't had a bad one yet but apparently they exist) and texture (older ones can be dry); second that it has a tendency to soak up a lot of oil and dry out in the pan - have been dealing with this by keeping covered and adding liquid. Looking forward to trying out a CotW risotto. I froze some of my last one (just as was, in cleaned pieces), so there's potential risotto right there in my freezer.

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...

Raw sweetcorn

Sweetcorn is really good at the moment - it's fresh and in season so it doesn't travel far before it gets to our kitchen, and is still sweet and juicy when it arrives. When corn is like this, it doesn't need cooking. I had been meaning to make a raw corn salad - something simple that lets the corn stand out. This is it. I had to keep resisting adding more stuff (avocado, sesame, sweet peppers, tomato... might be good variations in future). I think corn, lime, chilli and these herbs really complement each other.

3 cobs of fresh, sweet corn
juice of 1 lime
1/2 tbsp chopped chives (I like to snip chives with scissors rather than chop them)
1-2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
1 tsp sugar (optional)

Strip the husks from the corn and trim off any imperfect-looking bits. Cut off the kernels (carefully) and put them in a bowl. Squeeze the lime juice over the corn, then add the remaining ingredients and toss. You can eat it straight away but it will also be fine, perhaps even better, if you let it sit for an hour or for a day or more in the fridge.

Easiest beetroot prep: beetroot and brazil nut salad

Beetroot is so beautiful, so tasty, and even comes as two veg in one: greens plus roots. Here is my usual, simplest way to prep the roots - once they are cooked they peel very easily, and can be thrown in any kind of salad or grain dish. Like the one below.

Beetroot prep
 
Separate the beetroot from the greens (save the greens for something else). Scrub the beetroot (but don't peel), then put in a small saucepan and fill with water so covered by about an inch. Cover, bring to the boil, and simmer for 20-30 min, until a pointy knife tip goes in easily (ie they are tender). Drain the beetroot, leave to cool and refrigerate until needed.

Beetroot and brazil nut salad

~6 small beetroot, prepped in advance as above
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
salt+pepper
~10 brazil nuts, chopped
1 tbsp parsley, finely chopped
2 tsp fresh chives, finely chopped
~8 leaves crunchy Romaine lettuce, roughly chopped

Peel the beetroot: the peel should just slide off as you rub your fingers along them. Dice the naked beetroot into large chunks. Put mustard, maple syrup, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper in a medium serving bowl, then beat together with a fork. Add the diced beetroot and toss, then add the remaining ingredients and toss some more.


Herb combinations can be varied: chives alone, parsley alone, coriander or mint would all be good. the lettuce is optional (although the dressing quantities could be halved if not using). The nuts can also be subbed: walnuts instead, or toasted pumpkin seeds, or nigella seeds.

Spring pizza

Ramps were the one I hadn't tried in the Northeast Spring trinity (the other two in the trinity being fiddleheads and morels). They are essentially wild leeks, and while they grow in other places too people seems to be particularly nuts about them around here. I'd given up hope of eating ramps this year: Spring is basically over, and I thought my last chance had come and gone in Philly. But then they were selling them in the canteen at work (about the last place I would have expected!): they weren't in the best nick but good enough and I couldn't resist, so I bought a bunch.

But then, what to do with them? I settled on pizza as a good way of extending a small quantity of a fancy ingredient. I decided they would go well with hazelnuts, but otherwise wanted to keep that one simple. But figured we would need more than one pizza, so made enough dough and a second pizza with a riot of colourful (mostly green) Spring tastes on it. I wanted to explore a few more things regarding pizza: hoping for a good, quickish dough recipe, using 00 flour (bought by accident a while ago when looking for pasta flour, but probably perfect for pizza?), pre-heating our cast-iron pan / sliding prepped pizza onto hot pan, and freezing dough for future use. Decided to try out Jamie Oliver's recipe, as it contained both 00, semolina and olive oil, all of which seemed right in pizza, and also it proves in one hour (not unreasonable).

For the dough:
(makes enough for 4 smallish or 3 bigger pizzas)
3 1/2 cups strong white bread flour / 00 flour
(or 2 1/2 cups strong white bread flour / 00 flour plus 1 cup finely ground semolina flour (pasta flour))
1/2 tbsp fine sea / desert salt
1 3/4 tbsp dried yeast
1/2 tbsp raw sugar
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/4 cups lukewarm water

Toppings for ramp pizza:
~4 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp dandelion-ramp miso
1 tsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp olive oil
salt and pepper
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 bunch (5) ramps, cleaned, trimmed, separated into bulbs and leaves and chopped
~8 hazelnuts, toasted and chopped (add after baking)

Toppings for green pizza:
1/2 cup frozen broad beans (without jackets), defrosted
1/2 cup frozen peas, defrosted
1-2 tbsp mint leaves
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp lemon juice
salt+pepper
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 small bulb fresh spring garlic, trimmed and chopped (including green parts)
bunch of spring greens: nasturtium leaves, radish leaves, rocket leaves, roughly chopped (~1 cup when chopped)
5 black olives, de-pitted and chopped
1 tbsp sunflower seeds
1 piece of dry tofu, thinly sliced
flowers from 2 chive flowerheads (add after baking)

Mix the flours (I used the mixture of 00 and semolina) and salt with a fork, then dump on a clean work surface and make a well in the middle. In a large measuring jug, mix the yeast, sugar and olive oil into the water and leave for a few minutes. Add some of the liquid mix to the well, then bring in the flour, continuing to add the liquid and bring in the flour gradually until you have used all the liquid and the dough starts to come together. Knead for about 10 min, until the dough is smooth and springy. Put the ball of dough in a large flour-dusted bowl, cover with a damp cloth and leave somewhere warm for about 1 hour until the dough has doubled in size.

Meanwhile, prepare the toppings. For the ramp pizza, mix together the tomato puree, vinegar, 1 tsp olive oil, salt+pepper and miso, then thin with a little water until a good spreading consistency. Heat 1/2 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan, then add the white parts of the ramps and fry for a few minutes until starting to soften. Add green parts, season and fry for a minute or two more until wilted. For the green pizza, put the broad beans, peas, mint, 1 tsp olive oil, salt+pepper and lemon juice in a blender cup and blend until they become a smooth, green puree. Cook the garlic and spring greens together as for the ramps, adding the garlic first and then the greens.

Punch down the dough. Divide the dough into 3-4 balls (one per pizza). You can either use it immediately, or keep it, wrapped in clingfilm, in the fridge (or freezer) until required (I used two balls for this and put two more in the freezer*). For immediate use, roll a dough ball out to a rough circle about 1/4 inch thick. Transfer to a piece of baking paper scattered with semolina on top of a large wooden board. Put a pizza stone, cast iron pizza pan or baking sheet in the oven and heat to 450F. Arrange the toppings on the dough circle: smear the puree or sauce across the surface, taking it right up close to the edges, then sprinkle with the remaining ingredients (except stuff to be added after baking). Open the oven and carefully slide the paper and pizza onto the heated stone or pan. Bake for ~20 min, until the pizza is lightly browned and puffy around the edges. Remove from the oven, allow to cool for a minute or two, then sprinkle with the final toppings (hazelnuts on ramp pizza, chive flowers on green pizza) before eating.


Both came out pretty good. The sliding onto pizza pan worked out pretty good, and the dough puffed up nicely (although there is definitely a sweet spot with thickness - it is possible to go too thin and end up with something super crispy that doesn't really puff up and browns instantly at the edges). I liked both topping combinations: ramps and hazelnuts definitely go well together, and the radish/nasturtium/rocket mix was very tasty with the green puree, sunflower seeds and pretty purple chive flowers.

*To use dough from the freezer, take frozen dough balls out to defrost ~2 hours before you want to use them (I had no problems with them sticking to the clingfilm or anything like that). When they are soft, you can roll them out as for the fresh dough and proceed from there. 

Spring freekeh

It doesn't feel much like Spring today, although it should be nearly Summer already - this is Memorial Day weekend, it'll be June in a week. The air is thick with drizzle, and it's chilly although still very humid. Yum. Anyway, it's supposed to clear up by tomorrow lunchtime. And a little bit of mizzle wasn't going to stop me biking a crate full of tomato plants around town this morning, or making food that tastes of Spring.

I have really warmed to freekeh. It's like a more green-coloured version of bulghur wheat, and it tastes green: a little like the grass I used to chew on as a kid. So, I have decided it is much more interesting than bulghur. I have also decided it goes brilliantly with other green-looking and green-tasting things: peas, broad beans, courgette, pumpkin seeds, mint, chives... I thought my chives were dead after the winter but they resurrected, and are looking wonderfully green and healthy. The mint isn't doing too badly either.

I'm not sure what this is: sort of a salad, sort of a pilaf. Makes enough for 2-4, depending how hungry you are and how much else you've got going on.

1 cup freekeh (or bulghur, or wheatberries)
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 small courgette, thinly sliced
1/2 cup fresh or frozen peas
1/2 cup fresh or frozen broad beans
1-2 tbsp chopped mint
1-2 tbsp chopped chives
1-2 tbsp pumpkin seeds, toasted
1 tbsp dandelion leek miso
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp white balsamic vinegar (or lemon juice)
salt+pepper (maybe)

Put the freekeh in a small pan with ~ 2 cups of water and 1 tbsp olive oil. Boil until freekeh is tender and the liquid has almost all evaporated. Add the sliced courgette, peas and broad beans (may need to add these a little earlier if they are big) and cook for a few minutes more, just until everything is tender and the liquid is gone.

In the bottom of a serving bowl, mix the miso, EVOO and white balsamic vinegar. Add the freekeh-veg mixture and mix well together. Set aside and allow to cool until at least warm, ideally cool (so that the herbs stay bright green when you add them). Add the chives, mint and pumpkin seeds and mix it up. Taste to check if it needs any salt and pepper.