Warm Spiced Chickpea Salad

I was pretty pleased with this for my work lunches this week. I made this recipe up myself. I drew rather heavily for inspiration on a Spiced Chickpea Salad recipe that I had clipped out of the Sunday paper in March. But it was a very summery sort of salad- cucumber, tomato, chopped and served cold. Even though I liked the sounds of it, and do want to try it at some time, it just didn't seem right for the very cold wintery weather that we have been experiencing this month. After all we had our first snowfall of the year two weeks ago! The earliest snowfall that I remember since living here. So I decided that I should have more of a warm veggie salad. And it worked pretty well. I felt frightfully virtuous eating this all week, and that's what it's all about.

I'd forgotten to add the zucchini at this stage- but you get the idea

Warm Spiced Chickpea Salad

1/2 packet of chickpeas, soaked overnight, drained, rinsed, then boiled til tender

1 large kumara/orange sweet potato, cut into bite sized chunks
1 punnet of grape or cherry tomatoes
1/2 head of broccoli
A handful of beans, trimmed
1 zucchini, cut into mouth sized chunks

2 tblsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
1 onion, diced
2 eschallots, diced
2 tsp garam masala

Heat oven to 180C/350F.

Place kumara in a roasting dish. Drizzle with some olive oil. Mix to cover. Roast until tender, and edges browning (about an  hour in my oven, but should be quicker in most). Place tomatoes on baking paper on a tray, drizzle with oil, and roast until tender as desired.

Steam or blanch broccoli, beans and zucchini.

Heat olive oil in a shallow fry pan. Add onions and eschallots. Fry until soft. Add garam masala and cook til fragrant.

Assemble chick peas, vegetables and onion  mix in a large container.

Notes
Of course you could easily use tinned chickpeas, they are just so much nicer if you do them yourself. There is a bit of lead time, but basically no work, so they're pretty simple, and quick really. I probably had the equivalent of two 400 gm cans of chickpeas here.

Broccoli isn't my most favourite vegetable any more. It is frightfully good for you, and I did have half a head of it in the fridge, so in it went. You could substitute any vegetable you liked. I'd keep the kumara though, it really worked well. I only used the eschallots because they were lying about too, they do add a nice sweetness though.

It was a bit fiddly cooking the vegies in different ways, but I was just puttering around on a Sunday afternoon, and hadn't really planned this as a tactical strike. I should have just chucked them all in the oven to roast together I suspect.

Garam masala is a beautifully fragrant Indian spice blend. It's well worth seeking out.

This post is linked to Weekend Cooking, a fabulous weekly meme at Beth Fish Reads.

Quinoa with Roast Cauliflower

I have been making this for about a year. I was rather unfamiliar with quinoa a year ago when I started making this. Now I've made it multiple times, and it's always delicious. This recipe makes a great, nutritious work lunch, and is very adaptable, as you can throw in whatever assortment of leftovers you have lying about the place- it's particularly fabulous with some leftover chunks of roast pumpkin.

Quinoa is a Bolivian seed that has taken the western world by storm. So much so that it is causing problems in Bolivia. It is even being adopted by New York Jews as a controversial new kosher food for passover.

I always feel conflicted about food miles when using quinoa. All the brands I've ever found have been grown in Bolivia. I've never found any grown in Australia, maybe that will happen sometime soon. When I made this today I was able to use a glorious cauliflower grown locally in Canowindra. Hopefully this can help combat the Bolivian effect.

Gorgeous local cauliflower

Quinoa with Roast Cauliflower

1 medium cauliflower, cut into small florets
olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
80gm red quinoa
300mL chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 small bunch chives, chopped
soft marinated goats cheese

Preheat the overn to 170C

Spread the cauliflower florets evenly in a roasting pan, do not crowd them. Drizzle with just enough olive oil to coat them lightly, and season well with salt and pepper. Roast the cauliflower for about 20 minutes, shaking the pan from time to time to ensure it cooks evenly, until it starts to caramelise and become tender.

Meanwhile rinse the quinoa and place it in a small saucepan with the stock (if using homemade stock add a pinch of salt). Bring the stock to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer, uncovered, gently for about 25-30 minutes until the quinoa is tender and the liquid has evaporated.

Place the quinoa in a bowl with the cauliflower, scraping the roasting pan to get all the crisp bits and any remaining oil. Add the chives, crumble in the goats cheese. Season to taste. Mix gently to combine and evenly distribute the cheese.

Serve the quinoa as a light meal or with braised lamb shanks.

Cath Claringbold. Good Weekend 15/5/2010

Notes
My oven is always slow. It takes much longer than 20 minutes in my oven to roast the cauliflower.

While it is better if you add some cheese to it, sometimes I've run out and it's still delicious. It's fine with or without chives too.

My 10 year old son is even happy eating this! For some reason cauliflower is his favourite vegetable and he even like quinoa- although he prefers to call it worms.


I often throw in some other veggies when roasting the cauliflower- such as parsnip, carrot and pumpkin. This then makes enough for a whole week of nutritious tasty low GI work lunches.

Rhubarb Maple Porridge

I do love porridge. It's so warming, so filling, so delicious. I look forward to the winter months and frequent porridge. Happily I've got my 10 year old hooked on porridge too. It took a bit of work when he was younger but now he sees it as a definite treat.

I know some people eat it year round, but I just can't do that. For many years I didn't experiment with my porridge too much. I tinkered with the grains a bit, and occasionally made a dried fruit compote to put on top.  I just love Bill Granger's Banana Porridge- it's magic, but I usually only make it once or twice a year. I generally made standard porridge with brown sugar and milk on top. But now I'm branching out, and becoming more adventurous in my old age. One day I just happened to have some of my famous Baked Rhubarb in the fridge. I'm sure this is how most new recipes are made- you're making something, look around, see another ingredient, and think "why not?".

Porridge is a low GI superfood. Porridge made from traditional rolled oats has a GI of 42. But you need to be wary of the packs of instant porridge- the GI soars to 82. There are many other health benefits to porridge too- lots of fibre, good for intestinal health, it's rich in beta-glucan which is a soluble fibre that helps lower cholesterol re-absorption.

Porridge is so quick and simple to make. You can even pop it on the stove on a low heat, get in the shower and it's ready when you get out, perfect for a getting ready for work breakfast- there is no need to use the instant packets, which never taste as good anyway. This is my current favourite porridge incarnation.

Rhubarb Maple Porridge

1/2 cup oats per person
1 cup water per person (sometimes I put in a splodge more, if you like it thicker or thinner then adjust the fluid)
Baked rhubarb, warmed or your favourite topping
A drizzle of Canadian maple syrup
Milk of your choice to top

Add oats and water to a small non-stick pan. Stir. Put over a low heat (if you want to go have your shower), or a medium heat if you can give it any attention. Stir as frequently as your showering plans allow.

When done to your desired consistency, tip porridge into a bowl, added warmed baked rhubarb, a drizzle of Canadian maple syrup and some milk.

Porridge doesn't photograph all that well, I'm happy to admit, but it does taste delicious

Notes
I currently use either soy or goat milk usually, the goat milk doesn't go well with the rhubarb

Bircher Muesli

On a recent trip to Sydney, The Professor offered to make me some bircher muesli. Now, I've never been a fan of bircher muesli, it's a textural thing mostly, but I haven't really had any for years, and have probably only ever had awful supermarket versions and didn't think I'd ever had any homemade especially for me by a bircher fan. And I must admit to being somewhat intrigued by the process.

What follows is more a process than a recipe. But it is a rather low key way to enjoy a low GI breakfast. No cooking, just a bit of swishing about in a bowl and adding fruit.

Traditional rolled oats are a wonderful low GI (42) source of nutrition. You do need to be careful and generally avoid the instant oats as these are quite high GI.


Rolled oats
Cloudy apple juice
Slivered almonds
Grated green apple
Handful blueberries
Plain yoghurt to blend
A drizzle of pure floral honey (not a blended honey, which is higher GI)

Place rolled oats into a serving bowl. Add cloudy apple juice to soak. Cover. Leave overnight.
In the morning, add fruit, nuts and yoghurt to taste.

Apple juice is low GI (but energy dense). Cloudy apple juice has more antioxidants than regular apple juice. Which is I'm sure why my sister had it on standby.

Grated homegrown apple

The finished result

So. Am I a convert? No. Not really.  It wasn't awful by any stretch, and I'm very glad to have had the opportunity to try it again, but still, I have an issue with the texture of bircher muesli that I just don't think that I can overcome. I think I'd stick with regular muesli or porridge any day. 

Sonoma Spelt Maple and Almond Breakfast Muesli

I have long been on a quest for the perfect muesli, and after eating this fabulous example I'm left wondering if I've found it! I stumbled on this accidentally on a recent trip to Sydney. It was lurking in a rather humid and murky health food shop in Randwick. I was immediately intrigued. But vaguely disconcerted by the $14 price tag, for the 500gm bag.

It sounded great. Had a wonderful ingredient list full of recognisable stuff! Oats, spelt, maple syrup, almonds, raisins, sunflower oil, vanilla. Wow. All actual foods. All low GI ingredients. I must be in heaven. Made by an artisanal bakery, Sonoma, in Sydney. I've had their breads before in fancy restaurants and been very impressed.

So how is it? It smells fantastic- full of warm, caramelly aromas- such a shame blogs aren't scratch and sniff

Not stingy with the nuts either

I was lucky the week or so I was eating this (and I think their serving size of 125gm is just crazy, I would have eaten half that- making it almost cheap) in that I had an abundance of figs and blueberries to have on my muesli, making it even more delicious.

Life imitating art, or at least packaging

I'm looking forward to stocking up on more of this on a future trip to Sydney, and also checking out their Honey Spice Muesli.

Couscous and Vegetable Soup

It's heading into autumn in Australia, so this post is about a soup I last made a few months ago now. Actually I've been making this soup regularly for over 10 years. I usually tweak it a bit, but it always smells fragrant and fabulous. I've tried it as a Quinoa and Vegetable Soup, but it wasn't as good, so I think I'll stick with using couscous. 

I've always made this with regular couscous, but have recently discovered that it has a medium GI of 61-65. Israeli pearl couscous is lower GI (52), so I'll have to try it with that next time. I've only used pearl couscous once, it was quite a few years ago, and don't remember liking it very well, but it should be fine in a soup, where it is more a textural component.

Couscous and Vegetable Soup

Looks like I used a kumara this time as well

2 tblsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 chicken breast fillets, cut into 1cm pieces

2 cinnamon sticks

1/2 tsp ground cardamon

1/2 tsp paprika

2 tblsp tomato paste

425gm can diced tomatoes

1.5L hot chicken stock

1 carrot, peeled and chopped

1 zucchini, chopped

4 yellow button squash, quartered

90gm (1/2 cup) couscous

2 tblsp coarsley chopped coriander

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan, add onion and cook over low heat until soft, then add chicken and cook a further 3 minutes. Add cinnamon sticks, cardamon and paprika and stir over low heat for 3 minutes until fragment.

Add tomato paste, tomato and chicken stock and season to taste. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook over low heat for 10 minutes.

Add carrots, cook for  5 minutes, then add zucchini and squash and cook a further 10 minutes, or until vegetables are just tender. Gradually pour in couscous and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Remove cinnamon sticks and serve in warm soup bowls sprinkled with coriander.

Serves 6

Notes

Adapted from a recipe in Australian Gourmet Traveller August 1997

The original recipe includes 1/4 tsp chili powder with the other spices. My family don't like chili heat, so I've never added it, but I'm sure it would be nice.

I love pumpkin, so often add a chunk of that with the carrots.

The quinoa wasn't awful in the soup, but there just wasn't as much compared to the couscous and it changed it somehow. It might be worth trialling adding more quinoa.

Cross posted from Soup, Soup, Glorious Soup

Poiscamole

I've made this delicious dip several times now. It's always tasty, and always slightly different. I've made it with thawed frozen peas, or cooked peas, which changes the texture and consistency of the final result somewhat. Uncooked peas give a slightly drier result.

The recipe is from the wonderful Clotilde Dusoulier's amazing Chocolate and Zucchini blog.

Peas are a wonderful, delicious, low GI (48) vegetable.

Poiscamole

300 gm frozen peas ( raw or cooked)
A bunch of coriander, washed, dried, leaves plucked (as much as you want, I love corainder  and usually use a decent sized bunch)
2 tblsp nut butter (almond butter or ABC, almond brazil cashew, butter)
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 tsp sweet chilli sauce
salt to taste

Place peas, coriander, nut butter, garlic, sweet chili sauce and salt in a food processor.

Whizz to desired consistency (I like leaving mine a bit chunky).

Can easily be made the day before you need it. Keeps well in the fridge for a couple of days.

Notes
The original inspiration is here. I'm very excited because I managed to find a packet of the Dr Karg Seeded Spelt that Clotilde has with her Peacamole on a recent trip to Sydney. I'll have to make another batch soon. She calls hers Peacamole, but I prefer the name Poiscamole.

The first few times I made it I just used it in fairly traditional ways, as a dip with crackers or crudites. Which was delicious of course. Last time I tried a few new uses as well. Instead of pesto, on pasta for a simple dinner.

With a pasta salad for a work lunch.

All delicious. It's so versatile!