Mushroom salad

On Saturday I was in a magazine shop leafing through some issues and in the French food magazine Saveurs I came across a mushroom salad with such an appealing photo. I knew it wouldn't leave me alone so I decided to serve it with dinner that evening. I didn't understand every word in the recipe but I took a mental note of the ingredients and here you have my version of it (the proportion in the magazine was much larger as they used 1 kilo of mushrooms). Making the salad couldn't be simpler but keep in mind that the mushrooms need to marinate for two hours. I served the salad with grilled chicken and couscous for dinner and, as my husband phrased it, it was surprisingly delicious in its simplicity. I totally agree.

MUSHROOM SALAD

INGREDIENTS

• 300 g mushrooms (to save time you can use pre-sliced)
• 1½ tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• juice from about ⅓ of a lemon
• sea salt
• a handful of freshly chopped coriander

METHOD

1. Slice the mushrooms (or safe time and buy pre-sliced) and let them marinate in a large bowl with olive oil, lemon juice and some sea salt for two hours. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and if possible, stir occasionally
2. Before serving add the handful of chopped coriander

Rice with indian spices and sultanas

This rice recipe is very similar to the one I posted recently, called rice with Indian spices. The main difference is that there are no cloves and peppercorns in this side dish. Actually, cloves and peppercorns are parts of the garam masala spice blend but it contains many other ground spices and here we are only using ¼ teaspoon. You can skip the sultanas if you like but I think their natural sweetness and the Indian spices complement each other very well. As I said when I posted the other rice recipe, you can experiment with the spices as you like if your taste buds are calling for something different. If you want the rice saltier then sprinkle some Maldon sea salt on top.

RICE WITH INDIAN SPICES AND SULTANAS

INGREDIENTS

• 1½ cup (300 g) basmati rice
• 3 cups (750 ml) boiled water
• 1 organic vegetable stock cube
• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil (or ghee)
• ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
• ¼ teaspoon mustard seeds
• pinch of chilli flakes
• ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
• ¼ teaspoon garam masala
• ¼ teaspoon ground coriander
• handful of sultanas/golden raisins

METHOD

1. Rinse the rice in a sieve under cold running water. Let the rice sit in the sieve until needed
2. Pour the boiled water needed (I boil it in a kettle) into a large glass jug and let the vegetable stock cube dissolve in it while you prepare the spices
3. Heat the oil in a saucepan (make sure the saucepan is big enough for cooking the rice) on medium heat and add the cumin seeds, mustard seeds and chilli flakes. Gently fry the spices until the seeds start to pop. As you are only using two teaspoons of oil, you don't have to move the spices around in the saucepan. Just make sure all the spices and oil are in one place
4. As soon as the seeds start to pop, add the vegetable stock, rice and the other three spices and stir gently
5. Increase the heat and keep it on the highest setting until the water starts boiling (takes just a moment), then reduce it to the lowest and cook the rice for about 12-15 minutes. Use a lid but let it tilt slightly to allow the steam to escape
6. About three minutes before the rice is ready take a handful of sultanas and spread them over the rice without stirring (just stir them into the rice before serving)

Rice with indian spices

The other day we were having a barbecue - grilled chicken - and my husband asked me if I could make one of my rice dishes to go with it. In the past, I have been making all kinds of versions of rice with spices and/or herbs, so this time I decided to write down the things I threw in for the blog. When we have a barbecue we tend to keep things rather simple. I'm not really keen on heavy sauces with grilled meat or too many side dishes. I'm fine with a simple salad, a couscous salad or rice. Sometimes I just grab the tamari sauce for the rice, but I like using Indian spices to turn a simple meal into something a bit more special. As with all other recipes on the blog, this one is not holy. You can experiment with the spices you like to find your own version if this one doesn't appeal to your taste buds. If you want the rice saltier then sprinkle some Maldon sea salt on top. I recommend removing the cloves and peppercorns before serving.

RICE WITH INDIAN SPICES

INGREDIENTS

• 1½ cup (300 g) basmati rice
• 3 cups (750 ml) boiled water
• 1 organic vegetable stock cube
• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil (or ghee)
• ¼ teaspoon mustard seeds
• ¼ teaspoon coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 4 black peppercorns
• 3 whole cloves
• pinch of chilli flakes
• ½ teaspoon ground turmeric

METHOD

1. Rinse the rice in a sieve under cold running water. Let the rice sit in the sieve until needed
2. Pour the boiled water needed (I boil it in a kettle) into a large glass jug and let the vegetable stock cube dissolve in it while you prepare the spices
3. Heat the oil in a saucepan (make sure the saucepan is big enough for cooking the rice) on medium heat and add all the spices, except the turmeric. Gently fry the spices until the seeds start to pop. As you are only using two teaspoons of oil, you don't have to move the spices around in the saucepan. Just make sure all the spices and oil are in one place
4. As soon as the seeds start to pop, add the boiled water with the dissolved vegetable stock cube, the rice and turmeric and stir gently
5. Increase the heat and keep it on the highest setting until the water starts boiling, then reduce it to the lowest and cook the rice for about 12-15 minutes. Use a lid but let it tilt slightly to allow the steam to escape
6. Before serving the rice it is advisable to remove the cloves and maybe also the peppercorns, especially if you have children at the table

veggie chilli

Veggie chilli is one of my favourite meals; I never get tired of it. I usually serve it with sour cream, guacamole and organic tortilla chips. Home-made bread is also fine. This is a recipe I put together in 2009 (I made chilli yesterday so I decided to share the recipe with you today). I had wanted to make my own recipe for a long time because I had tried various ones and always felt something was missing. This one isn't too spicy because of my children and because I don't really enjoy eating chilli that only burns my tongue; I want to be able to enjoy the taste of the other ingredients. As the name indicates, the recipe contains no meat. I have actually served it to meat eaters who didn't even realise that there was no meat in it.

VEGGIE CHILLI

INGREDIENTS

• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 4 large cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• 2 green peppers or 1 green and 1 red, seeded and diced
• 1 green jalapeno or chilli, seeded and finely chopped
• 1½ tablespoons light olive oil
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• ¼-½ teaspoon chilli powder*
• 1 tablespoon blackstrap molasses (or unrefined cane sugar/agave syrup)
• 2 tablespoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 can black beans or kidney beans (400 g)
• 1 can pinto beans (400 g)
• 1 can tomatoes (or 2 cans and skip the tomato purée)
• 2 tablespoons, heaped, tomato purée
• 100-200 ml water (½ cup = 125 ml)
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• optional: small can sweetcorn

* Use more or less, depending on how hot your chilli powder is. A very hot variant I once bought called for halving the does in all recipes. I like it when the chilli has a bit of an edge, but not when it sets the tongue on fire and makes it hard to actually taste the food. (When I first put this recipe together I used 2 tbsp of a very mild version which was some sort of a chilli mix.)


METHOD

1. Before you start cooking, rinse and drain the beans and keep them in a colander until ready to use. Mix all the spices in a small bowl (not the salt) and set aside. Make sure you are using spices of good quality.
2. In a large saucepan over low to medium heat, fry the chopped/diced vegetables in the olive oil until soft
3. Add the spices and mix together
4. Add the beans, tomatoes/tomato purée, water, molasses and salt and blend together
5. Put a lid on the saucepan, turn up the heat and bring to the boil. Then turn the heat down again and let the chilli simmer on the lowest heat with the lid for 20-30 minutes and without it for another 10 minutes. If using sweetcorn: Rinse and drain and add before serving.

You can use another can of either black, kidney or pinto beans but then you may want to add some tomato paste and water as well.

You can serve the veggie chilli with sour cream, cheddar, (home-made) guacamole, bread, organic snack (blue corn tortilla chips are my favourite) or whatever. Please make sure that you do not spoil this healthy recipe with unhealthy side dishes.

Chilli even tastes better the day after so it is perfect for the lunch box if you can heat it up at work. It's also excellent to make a grilled sandwich with chilli and cheese. It's also excellent to put chilli on a baguette with cheese and spring onion and grill/heat in the oven. If I'm serving it to guests and have plenty of time, I cook it in the morning and let it sit in the pot. Then I simply heat it again right before the guests arrive.