Spiced Sweet Potato and Lime Salad

Lately, my lunches have had a painful habit of consisting of cereal, heinz tomato soup, or baked beans. I will always stand by the fact that there's a time and a place for these comforting gap-fillers, but not every day, every lunchtime. In a brave attempt to steer away from these, I have been trying to concoct some interesting salads, without recipes, just what came to mind. This may work for some, but it appears I am not yet at this stage. I trialled and tested and, after a particularly disgusting avocado and sun-dried tomato failure, I stopped. I turned back to my recipe books and decided that, for me, creativity comes most easily (and successfully) when it can bounce off something else, and that's what I did here. By having a recipe at hand for inspiration, I could use it for flavour-combo advice (much needed judging by the avo/tomato mishap!), whilst still being able to add personal tweaks and additions.

Recipe inspired by 'Roasted Butternut squash with lime, sweet spices and green chilli' recipe in Ottolenghi's Plenty

Ingredients:

Serves 1 - 2

1/2 sweet potato

1 lime

2 tbsp natural yogurt

1tsp hummus (moroccan spiced if you can find it)

About 5 cardamon pods (or 1/4 tsp seeds)

1/4 tsp cumin seeds

Pinch of salt

1 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

A large handful of salad leaves

A few coriander leaves

1 spring onion

Method:

• Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees c.
• Slice the sweet potato (skin on) into 8 reasonably thin wedges - I cut my sweet potato in half horizontally then sat it flat-side down so I could slice down from the top, making it very easy to divide into 8 wedges.
• Use a pestle and mortar to crush the cardamon pods, then remove the papery 'shells'.
• Add the cumin and salt and grind to a rough powder.
• Add the oil and mix again.
• Brush this spiced oil onto your sweet potato wedges and place on a baking sheet.
• Cook in the oven for about 20 minutes until soft on the inside and crispy on the outside.
• Whilst they're cooking, stir together the juice of half a lime, the yoghurt and the hummus and set aside.
• Finely slice the spring onions and set aside.
• Using the remaining half of the lime, cut off the peel and slice into small wedges.
• Once the wedges are cooked, arrange on the plate with the salad, lime wedges and spring onion slices.
• Drizzle over the yogurt mix and top with the coriander leaves.

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Quick Maple and Pecan Granola

I've been determined to jazz up my breakfasts recently and, still on my 'baking but healthier' attempt (a very weak lent effort), pancakes were off limits. But that didn't stop me craving those warm maple flavours, if anything I wanted them more. So there arose this idea. It's a really quick granola, adapted from Olive's Skinny Granola recipe. I swapped honey for maple syrup and then added a few 'maple buddies'... pecans and pumpkin seeds.

Ingredients:

Serves 6

100g rolled oats

75g pecan nuts (or 50g pecans and 25g almonds - as shown in the pictures)

25g pumpkin seeds

2tbsp sunflower oil

2tbsp strong maple syrup

Method:

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
• Combine everything and scatter onto a baking tray.
• Cook for 10 minutes until crisp, reduce heat if pecans brown too quickly.
• Serve with yoghurt and extra maple syrup (you only get quite a mild flavour in the granola, so I add a little extra on top if its a treat)
• Store leftovers in an airtight container for up to a month.

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Summer Fruit Puddings

Ok, so I know it's not really summer. But when it comes to store-cupboard essentials, frozen berries are pretty high on my list - adding a bit of much needed freshness in these cold months of heavy food. For those of you who read my Bircher Muesli post, you'll be aware that I'm trying (for now anyway) to seek slightly healthier recipes. So you may be thinking "pudding, really? You've crumbled quickly!" However, you'll be pleased to know that, as puddings go, these are pretty good for you - having a much greater quantity of fruit than anything else, no butter and only a little bit of sugar. I've adapted the recipe from Angela Nilson's version on BBC Good Food and I've actually used quite a large amount less sugar than she has, but I personally still think they're plenty sweet enough. However, I used a frozen fruit mix with a high proportion of sweet fruits like raspberries, blackberries and strawberries (and a few currants), so you may find it too sharp if your mix contains mostly red/blackcurrants as these are naturally much sharper.

Ingredients:

Serves 2

30g caster sugar

150g frozen mixed berries

1tbsp creme de cassis

2 slices of white bread (or a slightly wholemeal type), crusts removed

Method:

• Dissolve the sugar in a pan (on a low heat) with the creme de cassis.
• Once dissolved, add the berries and stir until they have defrosted and released their juices.
• Press the bread into your chosen moulds - around the edges and on the bottom. Press with your fingers to help them to stay together. I shape them so that there's a little extra over hang on the sides so that you can fold this over the fruit to form a lid.
• Spoon the fruit into the bread 'casings', fold the overhang over the filling, press down and pour over the fruit juices. 
• Cling film the tops and place something on them to press them down. Leave in the fridge for about 5hrs or more.
• To serve, run a knife around the edge of each mould to loosen them, then invert onto a plate/bowl.

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Speedy Bircher Muesli

I was in need of a 'healthy' recipe today. I have been blogging much more since christmas and, as a result, I've been baking much more..... and, yes you've guessed it, eating much more. This may seem like a good thing, but when I realised that it was not just the zip on one pair of trousers that was pulling, I knew I couldn't blame the washing machine. So I had a week without much cooking, feeling a bit disenfranchised by the whole business... how could my oven be so cruel? But this morning I was determined to cook. There are plenty of delicious, healthy recipes out there, I just had to find them (they always seem to get hidden behind a particularly alluring cake recipe.. I don't know how that happens!)

Many a time I have considered making bircher muesli, but I always think about it in the morning, about 20 minutes before I need to leave the house. Most recipes call for an overnight 'soak' of the oats and milk, so every time I had the urge to make it, I was forced to disappointedly return to my daily bowl of packet cereal. But today I was determined to find a solution, and I think I've got it. Instead of soaking the oats, I microwaved them like you would for quick porridge, then added cold milk to cool it down. I used less milk than normal when microwaving the oats so that I could then mix in the cold milk afterwards (to get it down to the right temperature, without making it too loose in consistency).

Ingredients and method:

Serves 1

Method uses jumbo porridge oats as I think they give a slightly nuttier flavour, but rolled porridge oats would work. However, these would need less milk and less cooking time so watch them carefully.

• Pour 40g jumbo oats into a bowl and add enough (skimmed) milk just to cover them.
• Microwave on high for 1 minute, stir and microwave for another minute (adding a little milk if necessary, but don't add lots - about 150ml in total).
• Finely grate in half a sweet apple, including the peel (but not the core).
• Add about 50-100ml of cold (skimmed) milk to loosen the mixture and add 1 1/2 tbsp natural yoghurt.
• Pour into a bowl, add an extra dollop of yogurt, a handful of raspberries (I used frozen ones which I defrosted in the microwave - giving them a slight sauce), a few chopped pecans and a drizzle of honey.

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Easy Chocolate Buttons for Mother's Day

When it comes to mother's day presents, I always think you're on pretty safe ground with chocolate (unless of course your's has the enviable will power to give it up for lent... something I have never successfully achieved - It's the first few days that always do it, I just forget all too easily... a selective memory I think!) But if you want to make it a little more special by making your own, but you haven't got time or ability to make anything too extravagant, these are a simple but effective middle ground. 

They're pure and simple, just melted chocolate spooned onto non-stick paper, shaped into circles and scattered with toppings of your choice. As a result, they're great to do with young kids, get them involved in the present making without the chaos of making something too complicated. (To shape them, use the back of the spoon: just place it on the middle of the chocolate blob and rotate it full circle). Then you can scatter on whatever you like, nuts, dried fruit, other chocolate... Here I've used chopped pistachios and dried cranberries (on a white chocolate base); toasted flaked almonds (on a dark chocolate base) and salted caramel (on a dark chocolate base) - the latter are not so suitable to make with young children. For the salted caramel I just dissolved 2tbsp caster sugar in half a tbsp of water (in a metal saucepan, not non-stick as it makes it crystallise) and stopped stirring once it had all dissolved (after about 2mins on a low heat). Keeping the heat low, I then let it bubble for 2-3 minutes, swirling the pan occasionally, until it turned a dark golden colour (golden syrup colour). Turn off the heat immediately, swirl it onto your chocolate disk and crack on some sea salt (before the caramel sets). Leave to cool at room temperature (the chocolate may get that cloudy 'bloom' if you rush them in the fridge).

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Pink Grapefruit with Honey and Pistachios

I'm afraid I'm going to be terribly British and discuss the weather, only briefly I promise. Today I'm back to looking out onto grey skies, but yesterday it was sunny, the sky was blue... I actually walked out of my door without my arctic style jacket. So with all these summer feelings, I decided I needed a suitably bright breakfast to match. I've been watching Yotam Ottolenghi's Mediterranean Feast programme on Channel 4 (Sundays, 7pm) and have fallen in love with all the jewelled colours of the Morroccan dishes he featured on last Sunday's episode. I've had Orange Flower Water in the back of my cupboard for  a while now, and discovering that it's used a lot in Morrocan cuisine, I decided it was time to experiment. I read on the bottle that it went really well with honey, and I had recently seen a recipe on BBC Good Food which combined honey (well, it was actually agave, but I decided to use some artistic license according to what I had in my cupboards), grapefruit and pistachios... so it seemed like a suitable place to start.

This recipe is really just a jazzed up version of having half a grapefruit in the morning, some may say it's unecessary, but I think it makes a sunny morning just that little bit more special... or perhaps it makes a grey morning a little bit sunnier!

Ingredients:

Serves 1

1 pink grapefruit

Half a tbsp clear honey

1 - 2 drops of Orange Flower Water

About 10 pistachios

1 - 2 tbsp yoghurt

Method:

Roughly chop the pistachios and lightly toast in a dry frying pan (no oil)

Use a knife to remove the grapefruit peel and white middle (the pithy bit!)

Slice the grapefruit into thin slices.

Mix together the honey and Orange Flower water.

Place the grapefruit in a bowl, top with yogurt, drizzle over the honey mix and scatter the top with the toasted pistachios.

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