Air Fryer Brussel Sprouts, Chestnuts, & Squash

I bought a pack of reduced 'Red Darling' brussel sprouts in Aldi a few weeks ago to decorate our Christmas wreath, but had quite a lot left over.

I'd bought Aldi Whole Chestnuts around the same time, and had half a small pumpkin that needing using too. So I thought I'd toss them all in the air fryer.

If you like kale crisps, this is definitely one for you, as the outer leaves go lovely and crispy.

Serves 2

200g ready to eat chestnuts

200g trimmed brussel sprouts, halved

200g cubed squash (butternut squash, pumpkin)

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling

A large pinch of salt.

Place all the ingredients into a air fryer liner, and toss well to coat in the oil.

Air fry at 180C for 8 minutes, stir everything around, then air fry for another 8 minutes.

I was going to make hummus to serve this on but ran out of time, so instead made a hot salad with some lettuce and thinly sliced onion.  I made a tahini dressing with 2 tbsp tahini, 4 tbsp kefir (or plain yoghurt), and crushed garlic.

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Pickled Red Cabbage Salad

Pickled cabbage is a sugar free alternative to traditional braised red cabbage served with the Christmas roast.  The mild vinegary tang works well with roast turkey, roast pork, or roast lamb.

Serves 4 

Half a red cabbage, cored, quartered & thinly sliced

Half an onion, quartered & thinly sliced

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

2 big pinches of salt

Put all the ingredients into a bowl and mix with your fingers, scrunching and rubbing the ingredients together.

Leave for as long as you can, ideally overnight, but it can be eaten within 10 minutes of making it you like crunchy vegetables.

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Greek Style Spinach & Feta Pasta Salad

This pasta salad was inspired by the flavours of Spanakopita, the less well known pasta bake Makaronopita, a big bag of freshly picked rainbow chard (which use like spinach), and the need to make a pasta salad in half an hour for a neighbourhood barbecue.

Fried courgette or roasted squash can be used instead of spinach.

Serves 10 as an accompaniment 

500g spinach or chard

500g pasta

200g feta

4 heaped dessertspoons plain yoghurt

1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed

4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp dried mint

1/2 tsp chilli flakes (optional) 

Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions.  Drain when cooked, and rinse with cold water to cool and prevent sticking.

Wash the spinach and steam in the pasta pan. The water on the leaves from washing should sufficient to steam it in.  Cook over a medium high heat with the lid on for about 5 minutes until the spinach has wilted.

Whilst the spinach is cooking mash the feta with a fork in a small bowl to the consistency of cottage cheese.  Stir in the yoghurt, garlic, mint, and chilli if using.

Drain the spinach and squeeze the water out.  Spread it out on a chopping board and chop in it fairly finely.

Tip the pasta back into the pasta pan, stir through the olive oil, then mix in the feta mixture and chopped spinach.

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Lettuce Soup

Lettuce glut recipes Part 2, Lettuce Soup (Part 1 is Maroulosalata, Greek Chopped Lettuce Salad).

Lettuce Soup can be found in both French and Chinese cooking.  My recipe is based on European/French recipes, using potatoes and cream for a 'velouté' (velvety) soup, and is very simple and quick.

Makes 4 big bowls

1 tbsp light olive oil

1 onion, peeled and diced

250g lettuce, washed and roughly chopped

400g white potatoes, roughly chopped

1 garlic clove, peeled and roughly chopped

1 litre vegetable stock 

100ml double cream (optional)

In a large saucepan, fry the diced onion in the olive oil over a medium heat for a few minutes.  

Stir in the chopped potatoes followed by the chopped lettuce and fry gently for a few more minutes.

Add the vegetable stock and garlic.  Bring to the boil then cover and turn down to a simmer.

After 20 minutes remove from the heat, add the cream, and liquidise. Can be served hot or cold.

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Maroulosalata, Greek Chopped Lettuce Salad

The Greek Salad most of us think of is generally tomato, cucumber, onion, feta cheese, and olives.  However, much to my delight with a lettuce glut at the allotment, I have learnt there is Greek lettuce based salad, Marousalata.  

All the recipes I looked at online just used lettuce, spring onions (scallions), and feta. I don't know if these are traditional Greek ingredients, or have been adapted to US tastes.  I personally prefer to use red onion, add cucumber, and sometimes use halloumi instead of feta.

Serves 4 as a side

1 Cos or Romaine lettuce

1/2 small cucumber (optional)

4 spring onions or 1/2  medium sized red onion 

100g feta or halloumi cheese

2 tbsp chopped fresh dill or mint

4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp lemon juice 

Slice the lettuce into 1cm strips, turn through 90 degrees and slice again so you have little squares of lettuce and place in a salad bowl.

Chop all the onion, and cucumber if using, to a similar size and place on top of the chopped lettuce

Crumble the feta over the top, followed by the olive oil, lemon juice, and herbs.

Toss the salad before serving.  As feta is quite salty, I prefer to let everyone season their own to taste once served.

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Roasted or Grilled Peppers

Warning, home roasted/grilled peppers are addictive, and a lot of peppers roast down to a not enough.  They are just so tasty and moreish.

Serves 4

4 large red, orange, or yellow peppers (green peppers aren't as sweet so I avoid them)

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 clove of garlic, peeled and crushed

A large pinch of salt

1 tbsp chopped broad leaf parsley

Place the peppers in an ovenproof dish or tray and grill under a medium high heat until the skins starts to blister and blacken.  This could take 5-10 minutes depending on your grill, possibly even more.  They can be roasted in a hot oven with other dishes, but this takes longer.  Grilling on a barbecue also works well.

When blackened on one side turn them over with tongs and repeat on the other side.

Once blackened on both sides, and collapsed, place the hot peppers into sealable pot, ideally once you can store and serve them in.  Seal the pot and leave for 20 minutes or so to cool enough to handle.

When cool enough, peel the skin off the peppers, remove the stalk, slice in half lengthways,  remove the seeds and slice into thin strips.

Toss in the olive oil, crush garlic, salt, and parsley.  Leave for about 20 minutes for the flavours to mingle if you can.

Serves as an accompaniment, or on bruschetta.

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Chilli Bean Salad

A very quick healthy canned bean salad, inspired by a reduced to clear pack of coriander.

Serves 2

340g tin of sweetcorn, drained
390g tin of black beans, drained

400g tin of kidney beans, drained

1 small onion, peeled and finely diced

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Juice of 1/2 a large lemon

30g coriander, chopped

1 tsp ground cumin 

1/4 tsp chilli flakes

Salt & pepper 

Simply mix all the ingredients together.  Ideally this salad should be left for 20 minutes to overnight for the flavours develop.  But it is still great even if eaten straight after mixing.

I ate mine as lunch with nothing else.  It is surprisingly filling, thanks to all the fibre.  But you could add 200g cooked pearl barley to bulk it out for a more filling lunch.

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Air Fryer or Oven Roasted Vegetable Salad

Now it is Sunday Roast season, I am putting a tray of mixed vegetables in the oven whilst the roast is cooking if there is space, or after.  These vegetables are then a potted up with some pulses, seeds/nuts, and a dressing as a grab and go midweek packed lunch.

Last Sunday I roasted half a cauliflower and half a squash, and mixed in a can of drained chickpeas after roasting the dish.  As the spice mix (leftover from my son making southern fried chicken) I tossed the veg in before cooking was really quite spicy, I made a cooling tahini dressing with a few spinach leaves whizzed in just for colour. It filled three takeaway containers.  A few weeks before I roasted 500g beetroot and 750g sweet potato

Firm vegetables roast well; squash, sweet potato, cauliflower, beetroot, carrot, parsnips, celeriac, fennel. But softer vegetables (aubergine, courgette, onion, peppers, cabbage) work well too, just with less cooking.

Toss the vegetables in a few tablespoons of olive oil and roast for around 45 minutes at 200C in a fan oven, or 20 minutes in an air fryer at 180C. You can add a little salt, paprika, cumin, or harissa as you wish. Toss/stir around halfway through the cooking time. 

Add a tin of drained green lentils, beans, or chickpeas, sprinkle over some mixed seeds, add some cheese (feta, goats cheese, cottage cheese) if you like, and a dressing like tahini dressing, vinaigrette, chermoula, chimichurri, zhoug, or salsa verde.

If feeling the need for some more carbs, adding some cooked quinoa, pearl barley, pasta, couscous etc

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Roasted Beetroot, Sweet Potato, & Chickpeas

With children back in college, and OH working back in the office more days a week I have been trying (and usually failing) to meal prep a couple grab & go lunches so they can be alternated throughout the week.

My son made Lentil Bolognese on Sunday night, and had four pasta dishes that he didn't need to worry about keeping cold until lunchtime.

On Thursday night I finally got round to roasting some vegetables I bought on Monday to bake.  And this dish would have had some kale in it, had I not used is as a Super Green Pasta Sauce last night

500g beetroot

750g sweet potato (I took 2 sweet potatoes out of the 1kg bag to make soup)

1 can of chickpeas, drained

3 tbsp olive oil

Wash but do not peel the vegetables and chop into bite sized pieces.

Toss in the olive oil with the drained chickpeas.

Bake for 40 minutes at 180C, stirring around halfway through the cooking time.

This quantity made three portions.  Today, for a fry filling lunch, I microwaved a portion and added halloumi, za'atar, and tahini dressing. Other ideas of ingredients to add are feta, goats cheese, cottage cheese, quinoa, pearl barley, Chermoula, Chimichurri, Zhoug, or a good old Italian Salsa Verde.

A single portion could be made in an air fryer with one beetroot, one sweet potato, and about a third of a tin of chickpeas.  Cook for 20 minutes at 180C, mixing halfway through the cooking time.

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Samosa Potato Salad

Digging up over a kilo of salad potatoes, and having a vegetable samosa for lunch from a family butcher, gave me the idea of a samosa potato salad. OH thought it a bit dry to have for lunch at work, so I added a cashew and tamarind cream. It is ideal for a packed lunch as nothing in it needs to be kept cold.  And for those following Zoe Health, the plant count is over 20, with 10 in the garam masala alone!

Serves 4

Samosa Potato Salad

1kg cooked salad potatoes

1 tbsp light olive oil

1 large onion

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed

2 medium carrots, grated

200g frozen peas

100ml recently boiled water

1 tbsp curry powder

1 tbsp garam masala

2 tbsp mixed seeds (optional)

Cashew & Tamarind Cream

50g cashews

100ml recently boiled water

1 tbsp tamarind sauce or lemon juice

1 small garlic clove

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Boil the salad potatoes whole for 10-20 minutes, drain, and leave to cool.

Fry the onion in the light olive oil a large saute pan over a medium heat until golden brown.

Stir in the garlic and grated carrot and fry for a few minutes.  

Add the peas and hot water.

Simmer gently whilst you cut the potatoes into bite sized pieces into the pan.  Sprinkle over the seeds if using and mix well.

If making cashew cream, soak the cashews In 100ml boiling water. Once cool enough to handle, place all the cashew cream ingredients into liquidiser cup and blend until smooth and pourable like single cream.

Serve hot or cold.

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Green Puy Lentil Salad with Tahini Dressing

This was mostly a bottom of the fridge salad, but was so tasty I'm writing it down.

Serves 2

150g bag of mixed salad leaves 

Can of puy or green lentils, drained

100g tenderstem broccoli, chopped 

1 avocado, cubed

4 spring onions, chopped 

2 tbsp mixed seeds 

1/2 tsp chilli flakes

2 tbsp tahini 

Juice of a lemon

1-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Clove of garlic, peeled & crushed

1-2 tbsp hot water

Salt & pepper

Microwave the broccoli in a few spoonfuls of water for a few minutes until tender.

Mix the tahini, lemon juice, 1 tbsp olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper together in the bottom of a salad bowl.  Loosen with a little more olive oil and hot water until you have a suitable dressing like consistency.

Add the rest of the ingredients and toss together until everything is well coated in the dressing.

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Chilli Bean Wholegrain Salad

On a cool damp spring day a chilli is definitely called for, rather than a salad.  But I'm not cooking a chilli for lunch, so have just added many of the raw Chilli con Veggie ingredients to some warmed up grains.

Serves 2 as a light lunch

200g cooked pearl barley, quinoa, or brown rice

1 can black beans, drained 

1 pointed red pepper, diced

2 fat spring onions, sliced (or half a small red onion)

1 tbsp chopped picked jalapeños 

1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp dried oregano (optional)

2 tbsp mixed seeds (optional)

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

A sprinkle of chopped fresh parsley or coriander (optional)

Dice all your ingredients whilst your grains are cooking, if you do not have any pre-cooked (I have begun batch cooking grains at weeks and freezing it in single portions for such an eventuality).  Diced tomato and avocado could be added if you have any to hand.

Stir everything into the warm grains, season to taste, and tuck in.

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Tahini Dressing

I've been meaning to make Tahini Dressing for ages. I finally got round to it this week, to dress a feta, roast squash, chickpea, kale, and quinoa salad bowl.  It's quick and delicious.

Serves 2

2 tbsp tahini 

Juice of 1 lemon

2 tbsp water

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 

1 small garlic clove, peeled and crushed 

A pinch of salt

Break down the tahini with the lemon juice, water, and salt.  Once smooth, stir in the rest of the ingredients, adding more water if needed to make a pourable dressing consistency.

This dressing goes well with many roast vegetables; beetroot, parsnip, carrots, cabbage/sprouts, aubergine, and is great on a warm salad (I microwaved my salad bowl before dressing it).  

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Grab & Go Salad Jar

I've seen a few salads in a jar on Instagram. It seems to be a form of decorative food prepping in my opinion, but I guess the benefit is that if you layer your ingredients in in the right order, your grab and go salad stays fresh for several days than if you refrigerated a mixed dressed salad.

I had a few ingredients that needed cooking (beetroot, kale), so thought I'd experiment with a couple of large empty pickle jars.

I mixed up enough vinaigrette for 2 people and divided this into the jars first, then added the ingredients that wouldn't go soggy or would not be any the worse from marinading in the vinaigrette. 

So, in each jar on top of the vinaigrette I added 1) a handful chopped wilted kale, 2) 1/2 a can cooked drained puy lentils, 3) 1 small peeled and diced roasted beetroot, 4) 1 thinly sliced celery stick, 5) 1 tbsp mixed seeds, 6) a serving of cooked quinoa.

The salad was a filling success, and with the principle of some pulses + wholegrain + seeds + vegetables I'm already planning a Satay dressing based salad with white beans and roasted squash instead of lentils and beetroot, and maybe swapping cucumber for celery.  And then a Greek Salad (feta in first), probably a Ratatouille/Mediterranean roasted vegetable based salad, something with a Tahini dressing...

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Healthy Baked Beans

These 'baked beans' are so simple, and probably really quick with an air fryer although I have yet to experiment with one.

Serves 1

250g cherry tomatoes
1 tin white beans in water
1 small clove garlic, peeled & crushed

A few sprig of fresh parsley, finely chopped (optional)

2 tbsp extra olive oil

1/2 tsp apple cider or white wine vinegar

Pepper & salt to season

Roast the tomatoes at 180C with a little drizzle of olive oil for about 30 minutes, or until they burst.  In the interests of saving energy/money, I try to roast vegetables when the oven is on with something else.  These tomatoes went into the oven after I had finished baking bread, leaving the oven on for 10 minutes extra and then turning it off and leave the tomatoes to finish cooking in the still hot oven.  I'm guessing an air fryer would be better than turning the oven on if you don't have to.

Gently squish the tomatoes, then stir in the rest of the ingredients, including the liquid from the beans.

Serve hot or cold, with crusty bread.

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Mexican or Italian Bean Salad

Slowly moving into salad season, so I thought I'd experiment with a bean salad.

Serves 2

1 can beans in water, drained  (black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans)
1/4 cucumber, cubed 

1 beef tomato, diced 

1 red pepper, diced 

1 stick celery, diced 

1 small red onion, peeled & diced

Mexican dressing - small pack of coriander finely chopped, 1/2 tsp ground cumin, 1 small green chilli pepper finely diced, 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil,1 tbsp red wine vinegar, freshly ground pepper & salt

Italian dressing - 2 tbsp finely chopped broad leaf parsely, 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil,1 tbsp red wine vinegar, freshly ground pepper & salt

Mix all the ingredients together with the dressing of your choice. Leave to marinade for 30 minutes if you can.  

Spoon into mini pittas to eat.

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Purple Sauerkraut

I came across red cabbage sauerkraut (with beetroot) through @michaelmosely_official Just One Thing podcast on BBC Sounds. I did look a recipe up but it seemed to vary a little in every source, so now I’ve just made my own up.

1/4 large red cabbage (about 500g)

1 medium beetroot

1 turnip (optional)

1 small onion

1 tsp salt

Finely slice the cabbage and onion and place in a large mixing bowl.

Grate the beetroot, and turnip if using. I don’t bother to peel, and just discard any large bits of skin that won’t grate.

Add the grate vegetables to the mixing bowl together with the salt. Squish and mix the vegetables with your hands, taking handfuls and squeezing like you are trying to squeeze the liquid out, and pushing down with hands like you are flattening to the bottom of the bowl. I have heard of people using the end of a rolling pin, and pounding. 

Squish/squash/pound for a few minutes until the cabbage is limp and some liquid is collecting at the bottom is the bowl. 

Take small handfuls and cram them down firmly into a large jar, and pour in any liquid that has accumulated. Cover loosely so the fermentation gases can escape but no bacteria can get in, and leave out on the kitchen counter.

I start eating mine pretty much the next day when it tastes like a undressed red cabbage coleslaw, but ideally leave it a week or longer and it will start to taste like pickled cabbage.

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Red Cabbage Coleslaw

It's Christmas Eve, and with poor communication, we have ended up with 3 red cabbages.  Three quarters of the largest (about 1.5kg!) has been braised to have with our Christmas Day pork. A small one past it's best has been made into sauerkraut (recipe to follow), and another large quarter has been made into my favourite coleslaw.

500g thinly sliced red cabbage

1 large carrot, grated

1 medium onion, peeled, halved and thinly sliced

3-4 heaped dessertspoons greek yoghurt

1 levelish dessertspoon Dijon mustard

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt & pepper to taste

Simply mix together all the ingredients, seasoning to taste.  The longer you can leave this before eating, the flavours develop more. But it is still great straight after mixing. Not sure it tastes different to coleslaw made with green or white cabbage, but I think it looks nicer!

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Trampó, Majorcan Tomato & Green Pepper Salad

This Tomato & Green Pepper Salad is lovely and refreshing, made in a matter of minutes but is all the better for being left for a few hours for the flavours to develop.

Serve 4 as a side 

1 large ripe beef tomato, cut into 1cm pieces
1 green pepper, deseeded and cut into 1cm pieces

1/2 a sweet onion, thinly sliced

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Juice of 1/2 a lemon (optional)

Large pinch of salt  

Mix all the ingredients together and leave for a few hours for the flavours to develop if you can. 

The lemon juice was a mistake as my eyes flitted to the Moroccan Tomato & Green Pepper Salad above in my pdf of Mediterranean recipes to try, but it possibly made the salad more refreshing.

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Gado Gado, Indonesian Vegetable Salad with Spicy Peanut Dressing

Gado Gado is a Indonesian salad of raw or lightly steamed vegetables, hard boiled eggs, boiled potatoes, and friend tofu with a spicy peanut sauce. It makes a pleasant, but filling, change from heavier fried rice (Nasi Goring) or fried noodles (See Goring). 

Think of it like an Asian Salad Niçoise with tofu instead of tuna, and don't be fussy about the ingredients. Yesterday I made its with lettuce, celery, yellow pepper, cucumber, carrot, and red onion, but a lot of recipes include potatoes and tofu.  To me, the essential thing is crunchy colourful ingredients, and of course the spicy peanut sauce. Below is a suggested list of ingredients

Serves 4

400 g cooked new potatoes
4 large free-range eggs, boiled & shelled
400 g firm tofu, cubed & fried
½ Chinese cabbage or Romaine lettuce
2 ripe tomatoes, chopped into bite size pieces 
1 handful of radishes, halved 
½ cucumber, sliced into bite size pieces
2 handfuls beansprouts (ready to eat)

Chilli flakes (optional)

Gado Gado Sauce

4 tbsp crunchy peanut butter 

4 tbsp Kecap Manis (sweet thick soy sauce - use soy sauce plus 4 tsp sugar if you don't have any)

4 tbsp fish sauce 

4 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

1 large clove of garlic, crushed 

1 tbsp lime juice

100ml coconut milk (optional - some recipes add coconut milk, others don't. I didn't have any handy)

Mix all the sauce ingredients together then arrange the salad as takes your fancy.  Pour over the sauce. Mix well before serving.

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