Salad

spicey cauliflower and kimchi salad
Gluten Free, Salad

Spiced Cauliflower and Kimchi Salad

Add some probiotic goodness to your everyday salads with Kimchi.  It tastes good and it is good for you –  and I think that is mostly what we are all hoping for in our cooking. I have used roughly chopped kimchi  here to act as a salad dressing with a spicy fresh kick. I’m using it in the same way you would add vinegar to your  salad vinaigrette – which gives balance and liveliness to the richness of the roast vegetables and the fresh flavour and texture of the herbs. I was very lucky to have been given a big handful of beautiful fresh purple sprouting broccoli grown right here in Queenstown.  Amazing what will grow here, planted in early autumn, wintered over and finished in spring.  It needs just a little luck ( read lots of luck), with the weather and clever gardening skills – not mine, I might add – thanks Isabel and Sarah.  The sprouting broccoli went perfectly with the cauliflower, and the leaves crisped up when roasted in the same way kale leaves do. Other than the gardening none of this is really all that clever, we have all made lots of lovey roast vegetable salads, but the idea of adding the Kimchi as a dressing in the salad is definitely new for me, and lends itself to further using kimchi as a salad ingredient in its own right.  I can also imagine it chopped and tossed through a grain, quinoa or rice salad salad, or […]

beetroot burger patties
Breakfast, Brunch, Canape, Gluten Free, Lunch, Meal, Salad, Snack, Spring, Summer

Beautiful Black Bean, Beetroot and Brown Rice Burger Patties

  Explanations to follow, but that said – you really should start making these now! They are so much more than just a vegetarian, dairy and gluten free patty.  To have them made in the refrigerator means you have an easy meal in a multitude of guises ready to go for breakfast lunch or dinner.   I was definitely a reluctant starter but I am now thoroughly in love with these. With winter now officially behind us, I am very excited to start thinking about casual spring and summer eating, barbecues and picnics.  Unfortunately the new seasons vegetables are slow to appear in these southern areas so I am reinventing those same vegetables we have enjoyed over winter in different guises – cutting them differently, cooking them in a lighter style and eating them in fresher simpler ways. With this all said the story for these patties begins with my friend and employer, Angela. Angela had requested a  vegetarian burger patty for work. To be honest I was a little under whelmed by the idea, not something I have ever really considered eating, and because of that I was slow to get going with recipe development.  Moving on though, and not prepared to say no to the challenge, I did get going and have been working on these vege burger patties for a while – there have been quite a number of unfortunate fragile fall apart piles of deliciousness around here! The challenge I made to myself was to make […]

spring green and mozzarella salad
Gluten Free, Meal, Salad, Spring

Simple Spring Green and Fresh Mozzarella Salad

With longer days and sunshine, I am looking for clean green foods to eat.  Fresh food for spring that matches the flavours, textures and colours I am looking for on my plate.  There is something about the change of seasons that opens the way for doing things differently –  for fresh starts or new beginnings  – and spring especially seems to inspire me to up the anti on healthy living and eating.  It seems that if I can eat simple, fresh, delicious food, and feel satisfied, I have made a good start toward achieving my goals. Give me fresh herbs and green vegetables teamed with lemon chilli, garlic and some beautiful fresh mozzarella and life does seem good! In real life, the spring vegetables are still a few weeks away, so there are some cheats in this salad with the frozen beans and peas.  I love the sweetness that the peas give, and as there is only a small amount of broad beans, a little token shelling of them will go a long way.  It is my hope that people know just how much you love them when you go to the trouble of double podding broad beans.  But if not, at least I enjoy the difference it makes. This salad is brought to life with lots of lovely fresh lemon juice, olive oil, mint and finished with a hint of garlic and chilli.  As always, it is seasoned with salt and pepper.  I think this point, in the finishing […]

simple celeriac salad
Gluten Free, Salad, Spring, Winter

Quick and Delicious Celeriac Salad

If the fennel I wrote about last week seems still exotic to me what do I now think of celeriac?  Not so sure.   I  wonder why, even though it is definitely not a vegetable I have grown up with or cooked with or eaten – it still almost falls in my mind, to the category of the much maligned swede.  Having said that, price wise it is more of a luxury vegetable, and certainly in culinary sense you will find it much used in french and european cooking – remoulade sauce and salad being very traditional uses of celeriac.  We also often see it on restaurant menus in soup or puree/mash under fish and meats and with its celery flavour it lends itself to all these ideas and many more salads. I have paired it today with walnuts, cornichon, apple, radishes and lots of fresh herbs -dill, parsley and mint.  This salad reminds me a little of my easy-raw-beetroot-salad in its simplicity of preparation and in its ability to satisfy.  This salad works well in many situations, it is great as a side with a main meal or made into a salad meal in its own right.  It works well teamed with lightly smoked and rich flavours – think about – smoked fish tumbled gently through this salad, with boiled egg and your favourite greens, or with chicken or pork braised in rich smoked paprica and lemon sauces or chorizo sausage, or you could eat it as part of a salad […]

roast fennel and tomatoes
Meal, Salad

Simple Oven Roast Fennel and Tomatoes

Fennel is one of those ingredients that still seems exciting and exotic, challenging me to try new combinations and create meals that are new to my palate. I let it take me to places I haven”t yet been –  I imagine lunch between the vines on warm summer evenings under ancient trees with family and friends, or Scandinavian winters, open fires and apres ski – melty cheesy baked fennel dishes.  In reality I have traveled little in my life, but from my love of food, cooking and reading about the people, the cooks and the chefs – the places they come from and travel to – food has taken me, in my imagination to these places.  Maybe not real but vivid and enchanting. Winter in my world is at its best now, spring is around the corner and the days are starting to get longer.  Knowing that the shortest days are past I am enjoying these last lingering evenings.  This roast fennel dish is still warming but a little lighter after the heavier, comforting winter meals and could be easily eaten at room temperature on a summer evening. This is leisurely cooking, simple and easily prepared at the end of the day while completing the necessary tasks of the day, or prepared as a simple light lunch. ROAST FENNEL WITH TOMATOES CAPERS AND PRESERVED LEMON Serves two people as a side dish or part of a light lunch, but can easily be doubled and more for a crowd. Pre heat […]

roast cauliflower salad
Autumn, Condiments, Salad, Winter

Roast Cauliflower Salad with Crunch

Salads are the stuff of my life at work and at home.  So much so that at times I forget which kitchen I am in!  I’m surprised at what I find or more often don’t don’t find in the kitchen I am in.  In the confusion of what has been done or brought for which kitchen, there is sometimes a creative disjunct and the great ideas and foods that get created are in the rush of life forgotten.  To create a trail of recipes, ideas and memories was always one of the reasons for creating this blog,  for myself to remember what I spend my time doing, and to share these ideas with people I care about.  So sometimes a simple (ish) comfort salad like this deserves a place in these memories as a reminder of meals I have made and want to share. This is a hearty and delicious, comforting salad that can be a meal in itself, or served as part of a selection with your main meal.  Once cold you could extend it a little by tossing through a bag of baby lettuce leaves or mesculin before drizzling with your favourite balsamic vinegar. Some ideas are so simple they hardly seem worth writing about, but it is sometimes these simple things in my pantry that take a meal from ho-hum to delicious.  I hate food waste and to be able to toast up stale bread ends, and scraps of parsley hidden in unexpected parts of my garden, […]

korean carrot crepes
Autumn, Gluten Free, Meal, Salad, Savoury, Snack, Spring, Summer, Winter

Spicy Kimchi and Carrot crepes

Korean Kimchi has been front and centre of my attention this year, I am hooked on this crunchy, spicy, nutritious condiment.  You really do have to love something that tastes so good, is simple to make, and is good for you.  My https://freshkitchen.co.nz/kimchi-everyday/ has become my go to condiment, and this is another way of including it in my every day meals. The inspiration for these crepes comes from “Green Kitchen At Home” by David Frenkiel & Luise Vindahl, a beautiful book that is high on my wish list. These are great to have as a sharing, construct-it-yourself-at-the-table meal, or you can make and wrap them in advance, put a little extra dressing in a jar and take for a picnic or packed lunch.  The crepes are light, easy to eat and delicious, complimenting the ingredients and holding together perfectly. I love that by adding carrots to the crepe batter, it adds colour and extra vegetables into my life. I used the blender to make my crepe mix and the carrot was completely blended in, giving the batter a beautiful golden colour.  I think it would also look beautiful if you finely grate the carrot and make the mix with a whisk so you can see the shreds of carrot in the batter. I bought a beautiful big organic chicken for this and cooked it with hoisin sauce and garlic. I used only the breasts for these crepes and now have the carcass quietly boiling away to make bone broth and there […]

kale pineapple and kumera salad
Autumn, Gluten Free, Salad, Savoury, Winter

Kale, Pineapple and Kumera Salad

These are fairly humble ingredients available all year round.  Kumera is our New Zealand sweet potato, so substitute what you have available and pester your green grocer to get these in stock, they are versatile, delicious and a great form of slow burning energy.  Kale, both green and purple, would have to be the easiest things I have ever grown even surviving our southern winter, and, If you don’t grow your own it always seems very affordable to buy.  Pineapples aren’t a locally grown food but they do seem to be a staple on the shelves year round and offer a delicious and exotic twist to this salad.  Peppers chilli and onions add to the complexity and savoury notes and colour in this salad. I  have made this at work as well several times and have added black rice sometimes, which makes it even more sustaining, and adds another chewy texture, for a whole meal salad.  The black rice I have used is  Riso Toro,  an Italian long grain rice, and has an almost sweet smell when cooking and is the most delicious rice!  It is also beautiful to look at and adds amazing colour contrast on your plate. KALE PINEAPPLE AND KUMERA SALAD Enough for four as a side salad, but easily doubled or more. Pre heat oven to 200’c First I like to twice roast my kumera.  As soon as you decide to make this turn your oven on and put your washed but not peeled kumera straight […]

bloody mary steak salad
Autumn, Brunch, Gluten Free, Meal, Salad, Savoury, Seafood, Spring, Summer

Bloody Mary Steak Salad

There is snow on the hills today and definitely our first taste of winter to come. My cherry tomatoes though, are oblivious to this, and are still giving the last of their summer bounty.  Ripening on withered vines, even the black tomatoes that I had given up on, are producing delicious fruits.  Most of my friends, with orderly lives have long since discarded their withered vines but – perseverance, gluttony and a blind eye to their unsightly appearance, has paid off for me and I will enjoy all they have to offer.   I have looked at this salad on one of my favourite food sites – Food 52 – for a long time, and finally made it this week.  I loved it and I am making my slightly amended version again now to share with you.  The dressing for this salad looks to have a lot of ingredients, but work with what you have.   I didn’t have any horseradish – sadly – because I do think this would be an amazing addition.  I also think you could double the balsamic vinegar if you don’t have sherry vinegar.  The hot sauce and the Worcestershire Sauce though are must haves for authenticity in your your Bloody Mary dressing.  It is not important to use the most tender cut of beef as you will be cooking it rare to medium rare!!!!! and slicing it thinly, making sure you trim any sinew or fat as you cut it.  These cuts have a […]

raw fish kokoda
Canape, Gluten Free, Meal, Salad, Savoury, Seafood, Snack

Delicious and Easy Raw Fish Kokoda

Sadly, I haven’t just returned from a holiday in Fiji sitting in beach front restaurants eating genuine Fijian raw fish Kokoda.  But, I was this week the recipient of some beautiful line-caught tuna, fresh from the West Coast.   The immediate problem was that the only time available to prepare the fish was now!  Luckily it came with a reference to a local restaurant that has a delicious Kokoda (Fijian ceviche), on the menu.  Thanks to Google, and the fact that making Kokoda requires just a few every day ingredients,  our dinner was delicious! Inspired by success, I knew I wanted to share this with you.  It is such a simple and delicious treat that can be made in large or small quantities – a dainty canapé, an entree or served with salad as a light main course.  Although I chose to use tuna a second time, this was because it was the freshest fish available on the day, you could make this with any very fresh fish you are lucky enough to buy, catch or be given.   So – to my lovely daughter who gave me the first piece of tuna and the idea for Kokoda, I say, “make sure you take a lemon, a red onion and a can of coconut milk on all your fishing trips, but please bring home a little fish as well xx”. As is becoming apparent, I do like food to mostly be quick and tasty .   Mid week particularly is […]