Best Baked Potato Ever

I had a craving for baked potatoes last night for tea but also wanted something healthy. Not something layered with sour cream, bacon and cheese. So after searching our cupboards this is what I came up with. It was delicious, and had a fab texture. Best of all we were left full but feeling fresh and healthy.
I have added fish and chicken stock to this recipe but you could easily replace or remove these to make a vegetarian version, and, remove the cheese to create a vegan dish.

Ingredients

Large potatoes

frozen corn

sprouted legumes

splash of chicken stock

anchovies, cut up

cracked black pepper

baby spinach

chia seeds

roast walnuts

avocado

goats cheese/feta/quark

I haven't added amounts to the ingredients - it really just depends on how many people you are going to feed and how hungry you are feeling.

Bake the potatoes whole in a hot oven.

When the potatoes are pretty much cooked heat up a frying pan on the stove. The filling takes less than 5mins to cook.

Place the frozen corn in the pan, let it thaw and allow the pan to become hot again.

Add the legumes, a splash of chicken stock, anchovies and black pepper.

Stir until slightly heated through.

Add the baby spinach. Stir until wilted.

Add the rest of the ingredients, other than the cheese, and stir to combine.

Take the potatoes out of the oven and slice open.

Place the filling on top of the potatoes.

Top with cheese.

Enjoy!

Stephanie Alexander App

For all of those who love Stephanie Alexander check out her new app available from the Apple App Store. I love Stephanie Alexander and was super excited to see that she had a cooking and recipe app!The app is based on her best selling cookbook The Cook's Companion. It has all the same recipes and tip bits as the book. It also has a tab with each recipe so that you can add your own notes.Now when I searched for the app I discovered that it was free! I thought wow this is way too good to be true! And it was. The app is free to download but when you go into the app everything is in sections. For example, pasta and noodles, basics and equipment, vegetables and herbs etc. The first section, pasta and noodles, is free to access and use. However, you have to individually pay to access each of the other sections. They range in price from 99c for the basics and equipment section, to $9.49 for the vegetables and herbs section. So to get all the sections it can add up pretty quickly.Having said that it is a really good app. I find the iphone has too small a screen to read recipes off but if you had an ipad it would work really well. However, if you are like me and think that you can remember your shopping list and then get to the supermarket and realise that the shopping list has slipped your mind, its very handy having the recipe on your phone to refer back to the ingredients list.

Puy lentil, quinoa and haloumi salad with baby carrots and asparagus

On a hot Sunday night this was just what we felt like for dinner. We picked up fresh asparagus and baby carrots from the market so they were super fresh!

The lentils and Qunioa can be cooked in advance and the dressing can be made up to a day a head or earlier if you omit the tomato and add it on the day. The onions can also be done the night before too.

There are only two of us here but if you upped the carrots and asparagus to say 500g each then it would be plenty for four. We had enough for dinner and some for a lunch the next day.


Puy lentil, quinoa and haloumi salad with baby carrots and asparagus

200g Puy lentils
2 cloves garlic
100g quinoa - I used black Quinoa
200g baby carrots
250g asparagus
1 T olive oil
1 tsp each of cumin and coriander seeds
flaky salt and black pepper

1/2 red onion, finely sliced
1 T red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp Allspice
1/2 tsp Sumac

1/2 cup hazelnuts - roasted and roughly chopped
200g haloumi, thickly sliced
1/2 cup finely chopped parsley
1/2 cup labne or Greek yoghurt

Dressing
1 tomato, deseeded, small diced
2 T red wine vinegar
2 T pomegranate molasses
3 T virgin olive oil
Black pepper
1 tsp flaky salt
2 cloves garlic that you cooked with the lentils, mashed
1/2 tsp sumac


First bring the lentils to boil with the garlic cloves and a couple of bay leaves and simmer for about 20 minutes or until tender. Drain and briefly rinse. Set aside.

I cooked the Quinoa using the absorption method with the ratio of  one and a half times as much water. You don't want it crunchy so keep adding more water if you need.

Finely slice your onion and place it in a bowl with 1 T red wine vinegar and the sumac and allspice, mix it together and leave while you sort out your other bits.

Mix everything for the dressing together and set aside.

Place the carrots, 1 Tablespoon of oil and the cumin and coriander on a roasting tray and roast for about 6 minutes at 180°. Then add your asparagus and cook for a further 5 minutes.

While the carrots and asparagus are cooking you can start mixing your salad together.  In a bowl add the lentils, Quinoa, marinated onions, parsley and dressing. Season well.

Arrange the lentil salad on a serving platter and pile your roast carrots and asparagus on top.

Next you want to cook you Haloumi as you want it more melty and less squeaky. Heat a non stick pan on a medium heat and heat 1 T of oil. Add your Haloumi slices and turn when caramelised. When cooked place the Haloumi on top of the vegetables. Sprinkle with the roast hazelnuts and dollop on the Labne.

Finish with a squeeze of lemon and serve!

Carrot and Cabbage Tabbouleh

Having a garden has really improved my inventiveness, creativeness and flexibility in the kitchen. When food is ready in the garden it has to be used or all of your hard work ends up in the compost! Today we had cabbage, spring onions and carrots that desperately needed eating...This lead to the following recipe - Carrot and Cabbage Tabbouleh. 

This is a really nice light, fresh salad that is a bit of a combination of tabbouleh and coleslaw. It is healthier than coleslaw as it doesn't have mayonnaise in it. You could leave out the cracked wheat/burghul, olive oil and lemon, and, add a mayonnaise to make an equally yummy, more traditional coleslaw. 

You can use either cracked wheat or burghul. It depends on what you have in the cupboard and what taste you prefer.

I have put quantities in the recipe but I usually just keep adding ingredients until I feel there is a good ratio of them all. The secret is to try and slice everything as finely as possible.

2 cups cracked wheat/burghul

2 cloves garlic, finely sliced

3-4 spring onions, finely sliced

1 small/medium cabbage, finely sliced

3-4 carrots, finely sliced

5-6 inner stalks of celery, finely sliced

at least 2 large handfuls of flat leaf parsley, chopped

large handful of mint leaves, chopped

juice of 2 lemons

4 T olive oil

salt and pepper

Place cracked wheat in a mixing bowl. Cover with boiling water. Allow to soak for 30minutes. Once tender, drain as much liquid from the cracked wheat as possible.

Mix all vegetables and herbs with the cracked wheat.

Mix lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper together. Pour dressing over salad.

Then all there is to do is enjoy!

Hot smoked salmon, labne, snowpea, avocado and sunflower seed salad

A quick salad I made for lunch today with bits and bobs from the fridge and garden. It just looked so pretty and tasted delicious!


1/2 baby cos, leaves picked
a handful of rocket
1/4 cucumber, diced
8 snowpeas, sliced
1/2 cup labne (strained yoghurt)
2 small avocado, diced
1/4 cup sunflower seeds, toasted
1/3 cup sunflower and parsley pesto
juice of a lime or lemon
a few sprigs of dill
black pepper and a little flaky salt

Layer the baby cos and rocket around the plate you wish to serve it on.
Sprinkle over the diced cucumber, the avocado and snowpeas.
Dollop little teaspoons of the labne and the pesto around the plate so every portion gets some.
Flake over the hot smoked salmon, squeeze over the lime or lemon and sprinkle over the seeds.
A few cracks of black pepper and a bit of flaky salt and you're done!

This fed 3 of us for lunch.

Sunflower seed and curly parsley 'pesto'

I always have an abundance of curly parsley. It seems to grow better and faster than its friend Flat leaf or Italian parsley which I also happen to  prefer. You need to cut curly parsley quite fine or it gets stuck in your teeth and it doesn't have a nice texture when roughly chopped. It does have a good flavour so has its place in my kitchen. 

This recipe is great because everything goes in the blender. It makes a good dip or it would be nice with BBQ'd meat or vegetables. Adding rocket or any other soft herbs you have available would make a good variation and you could also thin it out with a bit of water to make a nice dressing.

Sunflower seed and curly parsley pesto

1/2 cup of raw sunflower seeds, soaked in water over night

1 clove garlic

1-2 cups of well packed curly parsley

1/4 -1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 T water

zest of 1 lemon

juice of 1 1/2 lemons

a good tsp of flaky salt

2 tsp honey

black pepper to taste

pinch of chilli flakes

Place soaked sunflower seeds and remaining ingredients in a blender or small food processor and blend until smooth. Check seasoning and serve as you wish.

Broad Bean Hummus

We have had a decent crop of broad beans this year and so every broad bean recipe known to man has been tried in our household.

After a day at work I got home to a note saying 'harvested the broad beans today and made some hummus' and a couple of containers of the broad bean hummus were waiting for me in the fridge.

So far this is definitely the winner of the broad bean recipe participants! Its made just the same as regular hummus but you replace the chickpeas with blanched, de-skined broad beans instead. Make sure you add lots of lemon juice as it really enhances the broad beaniness. Its delicious on everything!

Lemon sugared doughnuts

Made these bad boys today at work. Delicious dipped in lemon curd!