Butter lettuce salad with a cashew cream dressing

It has been really hot recently, but I have still had some amazing produce in the garden.  Lots of radishes, kohlrabi, pepper dews.  I am knee deep in pickled pepper dews at the moment!

 

I have also had the most beautiful butter lettuces from the garden, which I love and consider such a treat so I wanted to hero them in a salad. 

 

The result was a lovely light/fresh salad with an unusual dressing. I have been getting bored of the same old dressing of olive oil, a squeeze of lemon and a splash of tamari so I came up with something totally different. To start with you will need some cashew cream which is easy to make and you can keep the extra in the fridge.

Cashew Cream

130g of soaked cashews-I soak them overnight but if you cant then about 4 hours will do!

Juice of ½ lemon

½ tablespoon coconut oil

Put all the ingredients in a food processor or blender with 50ml of water and blitz until completely smooth, scraping down the sides as you go.  You have to be quite patient, but persevere as it does come smooth. Put it in a little container and refrigerate.

Butter lettuce salad  Serves 4

1 large head of butter lettuce

1 kohlrabi –peeled and cut into ¼ inch match sticks

a small handful of fresh mint leaves

1 avocado-cubed (optional)

Dressing:

2 ½ tablespoons cashew cream

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon honey

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice or apple cider vinegar

½ teaspoon sea salt

freshly ground pepper

To make the dressing whisk together the cashew cream, olive oil, and honey.  Add the lemon juice/vinegar, salt and pepper and whisk again. Taste and add salt and pepper to taste or a touch more vinegar of you prefer your dressing on the more acidic side.

Gently pull the lettuce leaves from the head, making sure they are dry.  Toss the leaves, the kohlrabi, mint and avocado with the dressing and serve immediately. 

Chilled Avocado Soup with Chipotle Chile

I can't believe it has been over two years since I last wrote a blog post!  It doesn't feel that long ago...but in the mean time life has changed a huge amount for us and we now have a baby boy, Little H, who is 4 months old.

  In the past two years there has been the meteoric rise of food bloggers, lots of incredibly inspiration people, mainly women, writing and creating the most amazing plant based food. It is so exciting to see. I have even managed to get my husband to eat at Nama in London-the most incredible, raw food restaurant in Notting Hill, and The Mae Deli.

Life on the farm continues and we have just come to the end of our short season harvest of Hass Avocados, so of course todays recipe has to be avocado based!

 

It has been really hot here recently and so this Chilled soup has been hitting the spot.  It is loosely based on a recipe from Deborah Madison which I have adapted to make my own.  On a side note, I once read that if at least three ingredients in a recipe are changed the recipe is yours-does anyone know anything about this?
Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of the soup, photographing my food and "food styling" is something I am going to work on in 2017.

Chilled Avocado Soup-This is a really rich, smooth soup so I find that half a cup portions are enough.  This serves 6 people.
1 Small onion, cut into 1/2 inch thick rings
5 ripe avocados (about 300 grms), halved and seeded
2 cups home made vegetable stock or water
2 tablespoons chopped parsley (mint is also yummy)
2 teaspoons chopped oregano
1/2 Teaspoon of Chipotle chile paste
1 teaspoon ground cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
grated zest and juice of 2 limes
Sea salt
1/2 cup Coconut cream (coconut milk would also work)
Pepitas:
1 teaspoon oil
1/2 cup of pumpkin seeds, raw
Juice of 1 lime
Pinch of chile powder (I use Chilimanjaro powder)
Sea Salt

Sear the onion rings in a dry frying pan until softened and browned in places, about 5 minutes. I add 2 tablespoons of water half way through. You want to remove the harshness of the onion, but it doesn't need to be well cooked.
Using a spoon, scoop the avocado flesh into a blender.  Add the onion, stock, parsley, oregano, spices and the chipotle chile paste.  Puree until smooth.  Pour into a bowl and stir in the lime zest and juice. Add some salt to taste, then stir in the coconut cream.  Cover and chill well.
To prepare the peptise, heat the oil in a small skillet over medium heat.  Add the pumpkin seeds and stir until they begin to colour and start to pop, a couple of minutes. Add the lime juice, chile powder and a good pinch of salt and give everything a stir.  Remove the pan from the heat, and stir until the lime juice has evaporated.  Leave to cool.

Taste the soup for salt and acidity-you might want to add more lime juice, serve in small bowls with the pumpkin seeds scattered over.

Otsu-soba noodle salad

This is inspired by a reciepe of Heidi Swansons and adapted by me!  Otsu in Japanese means something strange, quaint, chic, spicy, tasty or romantic.  This buckwheat noddle salad is fiery and has personality to spare!

Ginger Sesame dressing:
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1" cube fresh ginger, peeled and grated
2 tbs honey
1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper or chili powder
3/4 tsp fine grained sea salt
1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup unseasoned brown rice vinegar-or japanese rice vinegar
1/3 cup shoyu sauce
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp toasted sesame oil

To make the dressing combine the zest, ginger, honey, cayenne pepper and salt in a food processor and process until smooth.  Add the lemon juice, vinegar, shoyu and pulse to combine.  With the machine running drizzle in the oils.

12 0z dried soba noodles
1/4 cup chopped fresh corriander
3 green or spring onions finely sliced
1/2 a cucumber, peeled, deseeded, and finely sliced
1 hass avocado-peeled and cubed
2 tomatoes-deseeded and cubed
1 small handful of chopped corriander for garnish
1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds for garnish

Cook soba in plenty of rapidly salted boiling water until just tender, then drain and rinse under cold running water.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the soba, the quarter cup of corriander, cucumber, green onions, avocado, tomatoes and about 2/3 rds a cup of the dressing-toss until well combined. Serve on a platter garnished with the corriander and sesame seeds.

It is yummy and unique, a really nice change.

Toasted millet, sugar snap & avocado salad with ginger, honey & pumpkin seed dressing

This is out of Dennis Cotter's amazing book "for the love of food", however there are a number of additions and substitutes one can make.  This makes a lovely little starter or a light lunch.

At the moment in my garden I have a huge abundance of french breakfast radishes so they go into the salad as well, and alfalfa and sprouted mung beans are a good addition too.
 
For 4
1 tbsp olive oil
300grm millet  (one could also use couscous or bulgar wheat)
4 spring onions-finely chopped
150 grms sugar snap peas-strings removed and halved
2 hass avocados
1 handful of micro salad or water cress (or any small salad leaves you can find!)

The dressing:
150g pumpkin seeds-toasted
juice of one lemon or lime
2 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 tbsp runny honey
125 ml olive oil

First prepare the dressing: set aside 2 tbsp of the pumpkin seeds and chop them coarsely.  Put the rest into a food processor and grind to a fine powder.  Add 150ml water and blend to a paste.  Add the lemon juice, ginger, honey and olive oil and briefly blend to get a pouring consistency.  Season with salt and pepper.

Heat the olive oil in a heavy sauce pan over low heat.  Add the millet and toast for 7-8 minutes, stirring often.  Add 600ml/1 pint of boiing water and a pinch of salt.  Lower the heat, cover the pan and simmer the millet for 15 minutes, until all the water has been absorbed.

Stir the spring onions and sugar snaps into the millet, spoon this into shallow bowls and drizzle some dressing over.  Peel the avocado, remove the stone and cut the flesh into thick dice.  Toss with the salad leaves and a little of the dressing.

Spoon some of this salad on each portion of the millet, and drizzle some more dressing over and around the sald.  Scatter the reserved chopped pumpkin seeds on top and serve.

techni-colour quinoa salad

I made this for lunch and it was heavenly.

1 cup quinoa-boil until soft and fluffy
thinly sliced firm tofu-marinated in soy sauce, thai chili sauce and a dash of Bragg liquid amino's-fry until dark.

Vegetables-any others can be substituted in:
Avocado-diced
Baby sweet corn-sliced, raw
Sugar snaps-raw
Baby broad beans-steamed
French beans-sliced and steamed
broccoli florets-steamed

Herbs: (you could use whatever you have available)
Basil
Spearmint
Oregano
Lemon Thyme

Mix in all the vegetables and herbs with the cooked quinoa and lightly dress with the below dressing.
Dressing:
olive oil, lemon juice, 1 tsp honey, 1 tbs soy sauce.  Put in a screw top jar an shake-adjust according to taste.  Serve with the tofu, and a simple raw spinach and pecan nut salad.