Feta & Beetroot Tabbouleh - The Perfect Summer Side

With summer here (mostly in spirit, not in weather at the moment), we tend to look to lighter, fresher meals rather than warming & comforting meals. This very healthy, light and filling salad is one such example of how I'm lightening up my meals. Forget mash potato and roast root veggies!! This gem of a salad has it all. The Bulgar wheat is low in GI, the feta cheese gives a salty cheesy hit, and the beetroot adds nutrition and a wonderful colour. Finally the typical salad ingredients that make up a tradition tabbouleh of cucmuber, onion, tomatoes and herbs (flat leaf parsley & mint) add a fantastic freshness. 

This salad can be the main dish of a meal, serve with some flat breads and natural yogurt, or it can be a great side dish for a tagine, roast chicken/lamb, BBQ, or as I did here, Moroccan Meatballs.

Ingredients

• 100g Bulgar wheat
• 400g of chicken/vegetables stock
• Salt & Pepper
• Half a cucumber
• 6 cherry tomatoes
• 2 spring onions
• 1 lemon
• 2 tbsp Olive oil
• 1 tbsp of fresh mint
• 1 tbsp of fresh flat leaf parsley
• 1 cooked beetroot
• 50g of feta cheese

Method

1. Put the Bulgar wheat in a saucepan and add the stock. Cook on a medium heat for 15 minutes, or until all the stock has been absorbed. 
2. Remove from the heat and allow to stand for 10 minutes, before fluffing it up with a fork.
3. Meanwhile, prepare the salads. Half the cucumber length ways and scoop out the seeds. Then dice the cucumber. Quarter the tomatoes. Slice the spring onions very thinly. Cube the feta, and dice the beetroot.
4. Add all the salad ingredients to the Bulgar wheat along with the lemon juice and chopped fresh herbs. Season well with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. 
5. In my experience this tastes better when made ahead as the the flavours really develop.

 

Spicy Asian Beef Salad

The month of January is all about detox detox detox!! Gone are the mince pies, the selection boxes and the over indulging on Irish Cream Liqueur. Now tis the season to be healthy! Healthy for me doesn't have to mean boring. This Thai inspired beef salad is an exciting combination of fresh flavours, that is so tasty and satisfying you forget that its healthy.

The salad dressing is from Saba restaurant's cookbook. If you are ever in Dublin and in search of a great Thai/Vietnamese Restaurant, then you got to check Saba out. Everything on the menu is delicious. The recipe calls for 4 birds eye chilies in addition to everything else. I've left these out as I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to chilies, but feel free to add them. I'm content with my chili flakes.

Serves 2

Ingredients

Beef

• 1 steak, fillet or sirloin
• 2 tbsp of mirin
• 1 tbsp of palm sugar or brown sugar
• 2 tbsp of rice wine vinegar
• 2 spring onions, roughly chopped

Salad

• 1 stack of rice noodles
• 1 carrot
• 50g of chopped roasted peanuts
• 2 spring onions
• 2 tbsp of chopped coriander

Salad Dressing

• 2 shallots, peeled and chopped
• 1 tsp of chili flakes
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tsp of coriander stalks
• 3 tbsp of fish sauce
• Juice of 1 lime
• 1 tsp of sugar
• 1 tsp of chili sauce

To serve

• 1 tsp of chopped peanuts
• 1 tsp of freshly chopped coriander
• 1 lime cut into wedges

Method

1. Firstly, you must marinate the steak. Combine all the steak ingredients in non metallic bowl and place the steak in the bowl. Allow to marinate for at least 1 hour.
2. Pour Boiling water over the noodles and leave to soak for 30 minutes. Then drain and rinse in cold water and drain again.
3. To make the salad dressing, simply add all ingredients into a mini food blender and blend until liquidised.
4. Heat a frying pan on high, get it really hot then add the steak. Cook for 3 minutes each side and then set aside to rest for at least 10 minutes.
5. Pour the marinade into a small saucepan and cook on high heat until its thickened and reduced.
6. In a large bowl, combine the noodles with the rest of the salad ingredients. Pour over all the salad dressing and mix really well so that everything is coated.
7. Divide the salad into 2 bowls.
8. Cut the steak against the grain into strips as thinly as you can. Divide the steak pieces on top of each noodle bowl. 
9. Pour over the thickened reduced marinade.
10. Scatter with some more crushed peanuts, sliced spring onion and freshly chopped coriander. Serve with lime wedges.

Got Leftover Chicken? - Low Fat Chicken & Avocado Salad Mexican Inspired

Still trying to maintain the low fat vibe (whilst I secretly snack on breakfast muffins and leftovers from the bun display), here's a really quick salad I threw together in 2 minutes flat, using leftover roast chicken and my neighbours Peter and Betty's amazing lettuce fresh from their garden. (Best lettuce ever tasted).

Serves 1

Ingredients

• Good lettuce
• 1/2 avocado, sliced
• 1 tomato, deseeded and cut into strips
• 3 inch piece of cucumber, deseeded and cubed
• 4 tbsp of chopped coriander
• 1/2 a deseeded red chilli
• 1 tsp of olive oil
• 4 tbsp of red kidney beans from a can, rinsed
• 2-3 slices of leftover chicken
• 1/2 lime

Method

1. Wash all your ingredients well and dry.
2. Its a simple assembly job of everything on a plate, scatter with the chilli, drizzle with the oil and lime juice.
3. Simple, yet fresh and tasty.

Quinoa, Chickpea & Carrot Herb Salad

I’m really on an middle-eastern inspired buzz at the moment. It’s so spicy and fragrant and fresh though, it’s quite easy to get carried away with middle-eastern inspired dinners every night of the week.

I BBQ’ed a butterflied leg of lamb over the weekend and I had lots of small sides, such as hummus, cous cous, herb salads, honeyed carrots etc. It was divine to say the least. This salad really was a chance to use up all the leftovers in fridge from the ingredients in making all those sides.

So that is how I came up with my Quinoa, Chickpea & Carrot Herb Salad w/ Cumin Squash Wedges!!!!!! Fresh and invigorating, not to mention extremely healthy. I made extra for lunch the following day. It can be stuffed into a pitta pocket with some feta and natural yogurt and be the envy of all work colleagues with their limp ham salad sambos…..

Ingredients

Serves 4

·         1 drained tin of chickpeas

·         75g of quinoa

·         2 carrots, cut into batons

·         1 lemon

·         1 small carton of natural yogurt

·         1 tomato, deseeded and cut into strips

·         3-4 spring onions, sliced

·         2 tbsp of chopped flat leaf parsley

·         2 tbsp of chopped coriander

·         2 tbsp of chopped mint

·         2-3 tbsp of hummus (shop bought or from this blog)

·         ½ red chilli, sliced thinly

Cumin Squash Wedges

·         ½ a butternut squash, cut into thin wedges

·         2 tbsp of ground cumin

·         Low cal spray

Method

1.       Firstly make the wedges and get the quinoa on the boil.

2.       Preheat the oven to 220 degrees

3.       Lay the wedges on a baking tray and sprinkle with the cumin powder, and spray with low cal spray.

4.       Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes

5.       Boil the quinoa according to packet instructions (normally 15 minutes)

6.       To assemble the salad get a large bowl and add the herbs, carrots, spring onions, tomatoes and chickpeas.

7.       When the quinoa is cooked, rinse under cold water and drain, removed excess moisture with kitchen paper before adding to the salad.

8.       Stir well to distribute the quinoa.

9.       Place some hummus in centre of salad and top with the chilli strips and wedges of lemon.

10.   Serve with natural yogurt (low fat is fine), and the wedges.

Low Fat Carrot & Cumin Falafel

I'm finally in my new kitchen (even though its on it's last legs), so I've been busy cooking up some dishes to make up for the time I lost moving [ and trying to get the stove to work]. It's my last day before I go back to work and start the commute so I thought I'd set some time aside and make a lunch today, that will do nicely for lunch tomorrow also to take to work.

For those of you that know me, I'm a big fan of the high protein, low carb approach to my food, especially mid week. It's because of this that I had decide to make carrot and cumin falafels which are made with predominately chickpeas. Chickpeas are a great source of protein and are very filling and low fat.
Falafels are basically deep fried pattys made from chickpeas and usually used as a filling in a pitta bread or as part of a salad originally from the Middle East.

My falafels are not deep fried [heaven's forbid no!!), they are instead baked in the oven for 20 minutes or so. My falafels will be used in a salad, but please yourself. Falafels are absolutely divine in a pitta with crispy lettuce, tomato slices and cumcber with a tahini dressing.

Makes 20 mini falafels

Ingredients

• 400g can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 red chili, deseeded
• 1 carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 garlic clove, quartered
• 2 tbsp of cumin powder
• salt and pepper
• Juice from 1 lemon
• 2 tbsp of flat leaf parsley
• 1 egg white
• 2 spring onions, chopped

Method

1. In a food processor, add all the ingredients
2. Whizz until smooth
3. Preheat the oven to 210 degrees
4. Place the whizzed mixture in the fridge to firm, while the oven is preheating.
5. Get a baking tray and line with baking parchment
6. Using a teaspoon, make 20 little balls from the falafel mixture and place on the baking sheet.
7. Bake in the oven, from 15 minutes and then turn and cook for a further 10 minutes.
8. Serve as part of a mezze or as the main attraction for a salad.

I'm serving mine falafels with 1 tbsp of cous cous, 1 tbsp of hummus, rocket leaves, and stuffed peppers. Falafels are not complete without some low fat natural yogurt and lemon juice.

Cumin Roasted Butternut Squash with Spicy Green Chickpea Salad

I love the fact that butternut squash is sooo tasty, yet extremely low in fat and a very healthy food. It can be boiled, roasted, baked, chipped, mashed and so on.... but my favourite way of eating it is when its roasted in the oven sprinkled with herbs or spices. It can easily be the main star on the plate.

This roast butternut squash salad is made by roasting the squash in large wedges in oven scattered with cumin seeds and just light sprayed with low cal oil spray. The heat in the oven sweetens and intensifies the flavours of the squash and the cumin seeds permeates the squash beautifully.

The accompaniment for these fragrant wedges is a spicy green chickpea salad. You really can't get much healthier than that, not to mentioned...tastier!! For the crunch element I've roasted a few pumkin seeds in the oven for the last 2 minutes. Pumpkin seeds are unbelievably good for you, which is an added bonus because they are just so darn tasty.

This salad is the perfect girlie lunch time salad with friends, or reduce the portion and it stands as an elegant dinner party starter. Also you could increase the chilli chickpea salad as a main course for a vegetarian friend.

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1/2 a butternut squash, halved down the middle
• 1 tbsp of cumin seeds
• 1 tsp of sea salt
• 3 sprays of low cal spray
• 1 tin of chickpeas, rinsed
• 1 spring onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp of chopped green chilli
• 2 tbsp of diced cucumber
• 1 tbsp of rocket leaves
• 1 tbsp of roasted pumpkin seeds
• 1 tsp of olive oil, white wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar and lemon juice whisked together.
• Balsamic syrup to decorate

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees
2. Cut the halved squash into wedges, either 4-5 pieces
3. Lay the wedges on baking paper lined tray
4. Sprinkle with cumin seeds and sea salt and spray with low cal spray
5. Roast for 20-25 minutes
6. Meanwhile, combine the chickpeas,spring onion, cucumber, chilli, rocket leaves in a bowl.
7. Pour over the whisked dressing and let to infuse.
8. Put the pumpkin seeds in the oven for last 2 minutes of cooking.
9. Remove the tray and allow 2-3 wedges on a plate per person.
10. Add the spicy salad to the plate, scatter with the toasted seeds and decorate with some balsamic syrup.

Harissa Spiked Vegetables with Quinoa, Feta & Almonds

Harrisa is a hot smoky red pepper paste used in North African cooking to flavour meat and stews. Here I’m using it as a marinade diluted with lemon juice to give a wonderfully smoky heat to roast vegetables. This is a low fat supper which keeps well for lunch the next day also. However this a great marinade on meat and poultry as it really tenderises the meat , keeping it moist and succulent.

Serves 2

Ingredients

·         2 small sweet potatoes, diced

·         100g quinoa

·         1 red pepper, cut into chunks

·         1 yellow pepper, cut into chunks

·         2 red onions, peeled and quartered

·         8 mushrooms, halved

·         4 tomatoes, deseeded and quartered

·         1 lemon juice

·         2 tsp of harrisa paste

·         3 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

·         60g of low fat feta cheese, cubed

·         2 tbsp of toasted flaked almonds

Method

1.       Preheat oven to 200 degrees

2.       In a jug, mix the lemon juice and harrisa paste

3.       Add the chopped vegetables to an oven dish, spreading them out in one even layer

4.       Pour over the marinade and mix to ensure each and every piece of vegetable is cooked

5.       Roast for 30 minutes, turning halfway.

6.       Meanwhile, cook 100g of quinoa according to packet, drain and allow to steam dry.

7.       Add the quinoa, feta, almonds and coriander to the roasting dish to combine all the flavours and serve.

Warm Halloumi, Tomato & Walnut Salad

Halloumi cheese, the Greek non-melting cheese, is deliciously tangy and salty, and absolutely scrumptious when served warm. It’s best griddled or grilled, and when marinated it makes for an extremely tasty dish.

Halloumi cheese and tomatoes are a great match, and add a herby salad to the mix and you have a wonderful salad. Halloumi isn’t a very fattening cheese and as it has a powerful taste, a little goes a long way.

With salad, textures are always important. The dominant texture in this salad is the warm griddled cheese, which is really really smooth and the walnuts give a crunchy dimension to the salad and lifts the whole salad.

The marinade used in this salad is a wonderful Mediterranean combination of thyme leaves, dried oregano, lemon juice, black pepper, honey and balsamic vinegar and diced red chilli.

Ingredients

·         80g Halloumi cheese, sliced length ways

·         4-5 cherry tomatoes halved

·         Handful rocket leaves

·         ¼ of cucumber, sliced

·         Fresh mint and coriander

·         1 tbsp of chopped walnuts

Marinade

·         Thyme leaves

·         Dried oregano

·         Lemon juice

·         Black pepper

·         Honey

·         Red chilli, deseeded and diced

·         Balsamic vinegar

Quick Beetroot Relish

•       ½ a beetroot from vac packet, cubed
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
•     1 tbsp of chopped mint

Method

1.     Slice the Halloumi, mix the marinade ingredients together in a shallow bowl.
2.     Marinate the cheese slices with the tomato halves in the marinade for 30 minutes.
3.   To make the beetroot relish, add the chopped beetroot, balsamic vinegar and mint.
4.   Pre-heat a griddle pan and fry the Halloumi slices 1 minute a side.
5.   Meanwhile to make the salad, slice the cucumber thinly. Combine the rocket and herbs and the tomatoes and marinade juices and toss well.
6.   Place the grilled Halloumi on top of the dressed herby tomato salad, scatter with the walnuts. Serve with the beetroot relish.

Zesty Pink Summer Salad

Pink Salad

This is a really nice zesty salad that works great in summer months. It’s a really light salad, and if you’re a girly girl like myself, then you’ll appreciate the pinkness of the dish. This is a great accompaniment to fish or chicken.

Ingredients

• 1 fennel bulb, core removed and sliced thinly
• 1 carrot, grateful
• 1 red onion, grated
• 1 cooked beetroot, cubed
• 1 orange, segmented

Dressing

• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp wholegrain mustard
• 2 tbsp of white wine vinegar
• Juice of a lemon
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. To make the dressing, simply whisk all the ingredients together
2. Combine all the salad ingredients together, mixing well.
3. Stir in the dressing and combine so everything is evenly coated.
4. The salad can be kept for a day or two in air tight container.

Vegetable & Halloumi Skewers

As mentioned previously halloumi is a non melting Cypriot cheese that can be made with a combination of goat,sheep and cows milk. Its really robust and salty, and it has an amazing tangy flavour. It’s a great ingredient to use if you are having a BBQ this summer and have a vegetarian dining with you. It’s great coated and grilled or fried, but even greater marinated, skewered and BBQ’ed. This recipe evokes memories of great family BBQ get together. The charred vegetables with the tangy, salty cheese has summer written all over it. Chop and change your vegetables according to what's available to you. 

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 200g of low fat halloumi cheese
• 1 red pepper, roughly sliced
• 1 courgette, cut into rounds
• 2 tomatoes, cut into quarters

Marinade

• Zest and juice of a lemon
• 1 tsp Chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 tbsp thyme leaves
• 2 tbsp of white wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp of olive oil
• 1 deseeded & diced red chilli
• 1 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
• ½ tbsp chopped mint
• Generous pinches of salt and pepper

Method

1. Firstly, if using wooden skewers, soak them in water for 20 minutes, and start up the BBQ, if using.
2. Mix the marinating ingredients together, and add the chopped vegetables and slice the halloumi into bite size chunks. Add the halloumi also.
3. Leave to marinate for 30 minutes, then skewer the vegetables and cheese onto the skewer, alternating between both.
4. If not using a BBQ, then get a griddle pan onto a high heat.
5. Place the skewers on the BBQ or griddle pan, turning occasionally until nicely charred on all sides.
6. Do not discard the marinade, reserve it for use as a dressing/dipping sauce

Roast Mediterranean Vegetable Salad with Roasted Garlic & Pesto Dressing

This is such a simple one pot dish, which is fantastic for those rushed mid-week suppers, and once it’s in the oven, its more or less leftalone, leaving you to get on with more important things. I usually make a big batch of this, as the vegetables are fab in a pitta bread the following day with some low fat cream cheese…….so it’s a case of 2 birds, 1 stone.

Ingredients

• 1 aubergine, sliced
• 1 red pepper roughly sliced
• 1 courgette, sliced
• 6-8 mushrooms, quartered
• 1 red onion, sliced
• 2 tomatoes, quartered
• 1 tbsp of thyme leaves
• ½ tbsp of chopped rosemary
• ½ can of drained and rinsed chickpeas
• 1 finely sliced deseeded red chilli
• 1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic
• Salt and pepper
• Chopped mint, basil and flat leaf parsley
• Rocket leaves
• dressing

Dressing

• ½ tbsp of basil pesto
• 1 tbsp of water
• Juice of half a lemon
• Salt and pepper
• ½ tbsp of balsamic vinegar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees
2. In a roasting tray, place all the chopped vegetables and scatter the fresh herbs on top, the red chilli, the balsamic vinegar and the oil, and season well.
3. Chop one of the cloves of garlic finely and add to the mixture and just place the other garlic clove in the mixture still with the skins on.
4. Toss the vegetables so that everything is evenly coated.
5. Roast in the oven for 20-25 minutes, turning once or twice
6. In the meantime for the dressing, whisk all the ingredients together.
7. Once the vegatables are cooked, remove from the oven and remove the garlic in its skin.
8. Add the chopped herbs and the can of chickpeas and toss well.
9. Squeeze the roast garlic out of its skin and mash with a fork. Then add it to the dressing mixture. Whisk well to break up the garlic.
10. To serve, place some rocket (or spinach) on a plate, lay the vegetable mixture on top, and drizzle with the roast garlic and pesto dressing.

This is one of my favourite low fat dinners, I’m surprised I haven’t blogged it before now actually. I mostly eat this as a main meal, but works really well as a side to a Sunday roast.

*Tip make sure when chopping the vegetables, to chop them all the same size to ensure they cook evenly.