Roast Pumpkin, Semi Sundried Tomato, Chickpea & Pesto salad

Wow. I never realised how little i'd be cooking or blogging once uni returned. Life has gotten hectic! Now my cooking revolves around what is in the fridge, can be eaten as lunch the next day or is quick to prepare (and preferably all of the above.) I can't actually remember the last time i followed a recipe - i've been winging it most nights.

Tonight i did wing it again, but i can recall it well enough to type it out and i'm pleased with the result. Initially i was planning on making roast pumpkin, spinach and semi-sundried tomato risotto but that got scrapped in favour of this salad. I love salads because you can add whatever you have on hand. I was going to use couscous until i realised we had none, so used the last bit of some israeli couscous (why does it always go so gluggy?) and some pearl barley that had been in the pantry for who knows how long. I really should use that more - i loved the chewy texture!

The idea for a pesto sauce came from the sheer amount of basil taking over the backyard at the moment. If you don't have an overabundance like me you can always buy some ;)

Roast Pumpkin, Semi Sundried Tomato, Chickpea & Pesto Salad
Makes 4 serves.

1/4 japanese pumpkin, chopped into 5cm cubes
Approx 12 semi-sundried tomatoes, roughly chopped
400g tin chickpeas, drained
100g baby spinach leaves
1/2 cup uncooked israeli couscous
1/2 cup uncooked pearl barley
1/2 cup basil pesto, see recipe below

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Place pumpkin on a baking tray and roast for 30-40 minutes or until slightly browned.

Meanwhile cook the couscous and pearl barley according to instructions and set aside (if you place the hot grains on the spinach it will wilt it slightly and therefore be easier to manage.)

Once the pumpkin is cooked, place everything in a large bowl and stir gently to combine, making sure there are no lumps of pesto.

Enjoy! (and have drool-worthy leftovers for lunch tomorrow!)

Sarah's Basil Pesto (using the random things i could find - i love pesto, no matter what you do it it always tastes good!)

About the equivalent of 1 bunch basil
1/3 cup shredded parmesan
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup chopped almonds (or whatever nut you have... we love protein!)
1/2-1 tbsp white vinegar (i swear this is the secret to good pesto)

Chuck everything in a blender, food processor, Thermomix, whatever - use a mortar and pestle if you're muscly! Just try and make it as smooth as possible. Because mine was a bit thick and i needed to incorporate it into the salad i added a bit of water - not traditional i know but i didn't want to add more oil!

Sarah xx

New Years Eve Nibbles

Happy New Year!!! I hope the year brings happiness, health and excitement to you all!

Sundried Tomato Dip (left), Chunky Basil Dip (right), Za'atar Labneh (front)

Last night my friends and I gathered at a friend's for NYE. Considering the heat i decided to make a platter of nibbles to go with our drinks.

The sundried tomato dip is from EDC and it's super easy to make. Just place 1 clove of garlic, 160g unsalted cashews, 1 small deli tub of semi-sundried tomatoes, 2 tbsp grated parmesan, 1 red capsicum (chopped), 40ml olive oil and 40ml vinegar into a food processor or Thermomix and pulse 3-4 times until roughly chopped. It is so quick yet so delicious!

For the chunky basil dip i placed 80g pinenuts, 80g unsalted cashew nuts, 100g basil leaves (a big bunch), 1 clove garlic, 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese, 40ml vinegar and 40g olive oil into the Thermomix and turbo-ed (pulsed) 3 times. You may need to add an extra tablespoon or two of olive oil however i didn't need it. Adding extra olive oil will also help the basil leaves to stay a vibrant green and not discolour so quickly.

Speaking of which i get so annoyed when i make pesto and it goes brown. I've tried putting a layer of oil on top and completely covering the surface with cling film but nothing seems to work! It's so frustrating! Over on the Taste forums it was suggested that pesto could be frozen so i've given it a shot. I placed some in a small ziplock bag to use tomorrow. Hopefully it will be as good as fresh. It looks like it's gone a bit of a duller green but it's definitely not brown.

Any other ideas how i can keep pesto a nice colour?  Or other suggestions on what i can do with basil? My basil plants have gone crazy this year!

Sarah xx

Dips

Sorry for the lack of posting recently - work has gotten hectic and i barely have time to eat let alone cook! Hopefully things will calm down soon and i can spend some quality time in the kitchen!

I love dips. On a hot night i'd much prefer to eat dips with vegie sticks than a proper meal.

These are my 2 of my favourite dips and they are so quick and easy to make. Normally i'm all for making something with the longest ingredients list, method and time spent in the kitchen but these are an exception.

Eggplant dip is everywhere and i have made many, many versions but this is my favourite and it's also the easiest with only 2 ingredients plus salt & pepper. I don't like mayo but this dip doesn't taste of mayo and it makes it delicious!

Eggplant Dip

2 Eggplants
2 tbsp good quality mayonnaise
salt & pepper

Barbecue the eggplants until the skin is blackened and the eggplant is floppy. Leave to cool. When cool remove skin and blend with mayonnaise (10 seconds speed 4). Add salt and pepper to taste.

This dip is also tasty and very, very moorish. It has a secret ingredient - pomegranate molasses. If you've never tried it you should! It is a tangy syrup and is available from delis and middle eastern stores. It makes awesome salad dressings too!

Roast Capsicum and Walnut Dip

3 red capsicums
75g roasted walnuts (you can have raw but they taste better roasted!)
1 clove garlic, crushed (optional - i'm not the biggest fan of raw garlic)
1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp ground cumin
salt and pepper

Barbecue the capsicums until the skins are completely black (alternatively bake in the oven or hold over a flame.) Leave to cool. When cool, remove the blackened skin and place in a Thermomix/food processor/blender along with all other ingredients. Turbo 3 times. Enjoy!

Sarah xx

Smoky Eggplant Hummus

I'm always stuck with random vegies and leftover bits and pieces in the fridge. In winter these usually become soup but as the weather warms up they are more often becoming dip. So what happens when you find 3/4 eggplant and a cup of chickpeas in the fridge? You turn it into eggplant hummus of course!

Smoky Eggplant Hummus

1 small eggplant

1 clove garlic

1 tbsp olive oil

1 cup chickpeas (cooked or tinned)

1 tbsp tahini

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp pomegranate molasses

salt and pepper to taste

sumac to sprinkle on top

Cook your eggplant over a naked flame or in a barbecue until the skin is black and the inside is soft and squidgy. When cooled remove flesh from skin and set aside. Place garlic and olive oil into the Thermomix bowl and chop for 5 seconds on speed 7. Scrape it down off the sides then cook for 2 minutes at 100C. Add remaining ingredients and blend for 20 seconds on speed 5-6. Depending on how runny you like your dip you can add a bit of water to thin it out if desired. Scrape into a bowl and sprinkle with sumac. Enjoy!

Sarah xx

Finally got my hands on it!

Greetings! Guess what got delivered yesterday? I'm so excited. I think i'm in love just a little. So far i do not regret parting with $1939 one bit! I just wish i had some more mouths to feed so i could cook more. So far i have made mango sorbet and watermelon & lime sorbet

It took all of 3 minutes to make sorbet. I used the recipe from the EDC. The only thing extra i did was after it had been in the freezer for about 4 hours i re-churned it just to make it super luscious. 

The next thing i made was the vegie stock concentrate. I didn't exactly follow the recipe identically - i used the random vegies i had in my fridge which included swede and fennel in addition to the vegies mentioned in the recipe. I didn't take a photo considering the outcome although great, looks a lot like baby poo. I can't believe how much the recipe makes and it's so cheap. Those stock companies must be making an absolute fortune...

Then because i had this fantastic stock i thought i'd test it out by making risotto. It was delicious! I followed the mushroom risotto recipe in the EDC however i didn't use mushrooms, instead i used asparagus, peas and homegrown snowpeas. I also halved the recipe as it was just me at home for dinner. Surprisingly it still took 16mins to cook. There are leftovers for tomorrow - gotta love gourmet lunches!

Like the broccoli flowers on top? I thought they were cute!

Finally i made some capsicum and sundried tomato dip. Again from the EDC. I promise once i get the hang of the thermomix i'll start posting my own recipes up on here.  The dip is fabulous and i highly recommend it. I can't believe all it took was 4 pulses to turn all the ingredients into one fabulous dip. 

Well that's the end of my first day of cooking using the thermomix. Hopefully tomorrow i'll be able to have a bit more of a play.

Sarah xx