Category Archives: Salads

Lamb salad with eggplant & watercress

April 22, 2018 4:00 pm / 2 Comments /

Lamb salad

This is one of our favourite salads which I am sure, if you’ve been to lunch at our place in the Summer you have eaten.  Everyone loves it, this is an old Gourmet Traveller recipe from December, 1997 which I have altered a little and proves that a good combination of flavours never dates.  It is only a balsamic dressing but the combination with the chilli, eggplant and lemon really works.

A perfect salad for Australia Day or Anzac Day, use lamb backstraps and cook on the BBQ until just medium rare and rest for at least 15 minutes.  The Autumn weather in Sydney is so warm we are still enjoying more outdoor eating 🙂

Ingredients:  Serves 4-6

2 long lamb backstrap fillets, trimmed if necessary
Olive oil
2 tsp cumin
salt & pepper

2 eggplants, cut into 1.5cm thick slices, salted and rinsed
1 bunch watercress, leaves removed
1 bunch coriander
handful of baby rocket
½ cup halved cherry tomatoes
1½ small fresh red chillies, finely chopped and seeded if required
1 Spanish onion, thinly sliced
1 tsp chopped preserved lemon

Dressing:

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp olive oil
salt, pepper, chopped garlic and thyme leaves to taste

Method:

  1. Oil eggplant slices and cook on the BBQ until well coloured.  Remove and set aside.
  2. Bring lamb to room temperature.  Rub with salt, pepper and cumin and BBQ until just medium rare approximately 8 minutes.  Set aside to rest.
  3. For the dressing, put everything into a screw top jar and shake well.  Taste.  Set aside while you prepare the salad.
  4. Pick watercress off stems and combine with rocket, coriander, chilli, onion and lemon rind.  Once the eggplant has cooled a little cut into chunks and add that to the salad.
  5. Toss with most of the dressing.
  6. Slice the lamb and place on the top of the salad and pour over the remaining dressing.  Garnish with fresh coriander and serve.

Fabulous served with fresh, crusty bread and a fabulous Pinor Noir, Stephanie The Gnome with Rose Tinted Glasses from d’Arenberg, McLaren Vale.

 

 

 

 

Posted in: Salads

Buckwheat salad with horseradish dressing

November 13, 2016 10:59 am / 1 Comment /

Buckwheat salad with horseradish dressing

Need to lose those extra kilograms that have ‘sneaked’ up on you over Winter?  Then the steam oven is fantastic for this.  Honestly, I use it everyday for all sorts of grains and ingredients to create delicious, light and healthy salads and basically, fat free cooking.  Yes, healthy because you are not adding fat or salt to most things but most importantly because the nutrients are retained, giving everything natural flavours and tastes.

I really appreciate and use my steam oven even more in the Spring and Summer.  It is great to be able to cook multiple levels all at once without heating up the kitchen and without being bogged down with heaps of saucepans to wash!  Look at my ‘Salad’ catagory on the right hand side of the home page and you will see why I love the steam oven so much 🙂

In this recipe you can substitute other vegetables you may have on hand.  The dressing really lifts the overall flavour which is needed for buckwheat.  For a more substantial meal try it with some steamed fish on top, another drizzle of dressing and some crunchy bread.

Ingredients:  Serves 4

1 cup buckwheat, washed
1¼ cups vegetable stock
1 bunch baby broccoli, stems cut into thirds and halved lenghwise
½ pomegranate, seeds removed
½ bulb fennel, thinly sliced
large handful of parsley, roughly chopped
Grated rind 1 lemon plus 1-2 tbsp lemon juice (extra)

Dressing:  3 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp lemon juice
heaped tbsp horseradish cream or freshly grated to taste
pinch sea salt & pepper

Method:

  1. Place washed buckwheat and stock into the solid steam oven tray.
  2. Cook @ 100°C steam for 20 minutes.
    While the buckwheat is cooking open the steam oven and add the baby broccoli in the small perforated tray and cook for 1-2 minutes depending on the size.  There is no need to adjust the cooking time of the buckwheat, just add the vegetables in the last couple of minutes.
  3. Remove baby broccoli and plunge into iced water.
  4. Stir the lemon rind and extra juice into the buckwheat and set aside to cool.
  5. Finely slice fennel on a mandolin into a large serving bowl & tap over pomegranate to remove seeds.  Remove any pith that may fall out.
  6. Mix together all other ingredients into the salad and add dressing before serving.
  7. For dressing:  Mix all ingredients into a small jar and shake well.

 

 

 

 

Posted in: Gluten free, Healthy eating, Salads, Steam Oven

Thai beef salad

June 19, 2015 12:43 pm / Leave a Comment /

 

Thai beef salad

Traditionally, the meat for a Thai beef salad is seared on the bar-b-que and cooked rare so the meat is tender and juicy.

Now, with a steam oven you have another great way to cook beef so that is will be the best, most tender steak you have ever eaten!  This recipe calls for the more expensive eye fillet steak but would also be fantastic with Sous vide steak here.

I have given you two options for the dressing.  One quick and one that I have been using for years from Charmaine Solomon’s Thai cookbook.  The lemongrass needs to be sliced paper-thin.  I think that the extra effort involved in using a traditional recipe such as this is worth it if you have the time.

Ingredients:  Serves 4-6

650g beef eye fillet
oil
200g baby green beans
2 spring onions, sliced finely
1 red onion, thinly sliced
2 Lebanese cucumbers, thinly sliced
1 punnet cherry tomatoes, halved
2 cups baby spinach leaves or spinach & rocket mix
½ cup coriander leaves
½ cup Thai basil leaves
½ cup mint leaves

Dressing 2, Quick option

1 birds eye chilli, finely chopped (leave the seeds in for a little heat)
1 clove garlic, crushed
2-4 kaffir lime leaves, very finely shredded into super thin strips
2 tbsp. lime juice
2 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. sweet chilli sauce
1 tbsp. fish sauce
1 tbsp. palm sugar, finely grated

Dressing 2, Traditional version

1 tsp chopped garlic
1 tbsp. chopped coriander roots and stems
black pepper, ground
1 tbsp. palm sugar
2 tsp Golden Mountain Sauce (or Maggi ‘Seasoning’ sauce)
2 tbsp. lime juice
2 tsp fish sauce
2 small purple shallots
1-2 red chillies seeds removed or to taste
1 stem lemongrass, sliced paper-thin

Method:

  1. For Traditional dressing:  Pound or crush the garlic, coriander roots, pepper and palm sugar.
  2. Stir in the sauces and juice.
  3. Slice the white part of the lemongrass, chillies and shallots very, very thinly.  Start with one chilli, you can always add more.
  4. For the Quick dressing:  Just mix all ingredients together in a jar.  Shake.
  5. For meat: Brush beef lightly with oil.  Sear in a hot pan until browned on all sides.
  6. Place beef in solid stainless steel tray.  Steam @ 100°C for 15 minutes.  If you have a smaller fillet, about 340g then 7 minutes was perfect.  Don’t overcook it, better to be under done than over.
  7. Place beans & snowpeas in perforated tray.  Steam @ 100°C for 2 minutes.  Refresh in cold, iced water.  Don’t steam with the beef on this occasion as your timing will be extended and the beef may overcook.
  8. Remove beef from steam oven and rest for 10 minutes.
  9. Just before serving, slice the beef.  Toss salad ingredients and dressing, leave a little to pour over the meat.

Serve with a small bowl of steamed rice here.

 

 

Posted in: Gluten free, Healthy eating, Salads, Steam Oven, Thai

Roasted pumpkin & curry leaf salad

February 25, 2015 5:47 pm / Leave a Comment /

Roasted pumpkin & curry leaf salad

Adam Liaw cooked a dish like this on his show on SBS TV so I thought I would use the same combination of flavours and turn it into a salad.  I guess we can call it an Indian salad with the addition of the curry leaves.  It would certainly be delicious served as part of a shared table with Indian inspired curries or roasted meats.

Roast the pumpkin in a hot oven and let it come to room temperature before adjusting the dressing and adding the leaves.  You can also add some other green vegetables if you wish.  Remember to steam those quickly to retain the nutrients.  You can find the steaming timing here for vegetables.

You could steam the pumpkin too but the flavour is better roasted.  I have done other salads with steamed pumpkin which you can find in the salad category.

Ingredients:

Large chunk of pumpkin, diced into medium size pieces
Handful shallots, peeled
2 tsp fennel seeds
1 bulb of garlic, broken into cloves and left whole
2 tbsp. Olive oil
4 branches of fresh curry leaves, removed from the stalk
Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp sherry vinegar
Handful of baby spinach to serve
½ tin chickpeas, rinsed
¼ cup pumpkin seeds

Extra sherry vinegar and oil to taste

Method:

  1. Toss everything together except leaves, chickpeas, pumpkin seeds and extra vinegar & oil in a large bowl.
  2. Place a large piece of baking paper on a flat oven tray and pile on the vegetables.
  3. Roast @ 200°C Fan forced for 45 minutes.
  4. Remove to cool to room temperature.
  5. Mix in leaves, chickpeas, seeds and other steamed vegetables if you are using them.
  6. Taste and adjust seasoning, adding more sherry vinegar and oil to dress the salad if necessary.

 

Posted in: Indian, Salads, Traditional Ovens, Vegetarian

Spicy chicken & quinoa salad

January 9, 2015 10:15 am / Leave a Comment /

Spicy chicken & quinoa salad

It’s been hot here in Sydney this week.  I have probably mentioned this before but I tend to use the steam oven more in Summer and the combi more in Winter.  It is so easy to create a new salad like this one, just by combining a few ingredients that you have in the fridge.

After a massive New Year’s Eve dinner party I am not really feeling like cooking much at the moment, but that is the beauty of a steam oven; you can produce a fantastic dinner without really trying too hard!

Feel free to change the ingredients to use what you have on hand, just remember to keep the Asian theme.  Green beans, broccoli and red capsicum would work.

I cooked everything in this recipe in the same stainless steel steamer tray at different times as you can see below.  I also managed to cook some rhubarb as well with the pumpkin.

Ingredients:  Serves 4-6

1 cup tri coloured quinoa
1 large chicken breast, kept whole, but cut to flatten to similar thickness
2 cups chicken stock
juice and rind 1 lemon
1 cup steamed pumpkin, cubed
1 bunch asparagus, cut into thirds
handful fresh mint
handful fresh Vietnamese mint
few cherry tomatoes, halved
¼ cup dressing from mango salad here
1 birdseye chilli, seeds removed and diced finely
¼ cup macadamia nuts, toasted

Method:

  1. Wash quinoa, place in solid tray and add stock.
  2. Set steam oven to 20 minutes @ 100°C.
  3. When the steam oven has 7 minutes to go, add the chicken breast on top of the quinoa and the diced pumpkin scattered around the chicken.
  4. Now when there is 2 minutes to go, add the asparagus.
  5. Remove, put the asparagus into a bowl of iced water and stir through the lemon rind and juice.
  6. Set aside for everything to cool.  If you want to cook more pumpkin than is needed then use another dish.
  7. Sprinkle the chicken breast with a little sea salt.
  8. Slice chicken into bite-sized pieces then stir through with all the other ingredients once everything is room temperature.
  9. Drizzle over the dressing which has been mixed with the fresh chilli and top with toasted nuts.
Posted in: Chicken, Gluten free, Healthy eating, Salads, Steam Oven

Kale & salmon salad

November 13, 2014 9:51 am / Leave a Comment /

Kale & salmon salad

Had to join the health food craze and do a kale salad as it is really delicious with a Dijon mustard dressing and a bit of citrus.  A perfect excuse and another reason to have perfectly cooked salmon from the steam oven 🙂

You can alter the ingredients to what you have on hand.  I have used the baby kale leaves that you can buy now but if you use the large leaves, cut out the centre stem, wash well and slice thinly.

Of course, you can also substitute the lentils for cooked brown rice or quinoa.  This is really one of those delicious salads that is perfect for entertaining.

Ingredients:  Serves 4

2 pieces of salmon, skin and bones removed or 4 small pieces for individual serves
1 bag or bunch of kale, trimmed and sliced
2 blood oranges, rind removed from one and segmented
1 yellow capsicum, thinly sliced
1x 400g can lentils
large handful of green beans
½ cup roughly chopped dill
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds, toasted

Dressing:
3 tbsp. grape seed oil
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp honey
pinch salt and pepper

Method:

  1. Depending on the size of your salmon, steam @ 95°C for 2-5 minutes.  Set aside to cool.
  2. Put the green beans into the solid steamer tray, add the washed lentils and cook @ 100°C for 2 minutes.  Remove beans and drain any water from lentils.  Add the rind of one blood orange and stir through. Although the lentils are cooked they will absorb the flavours more if warmed.
  3. Mix the dressing ingredients in a small jar, taste and set aside.
  4. Toast the pumpkin seeds in a 140°C oven for about 10 minutes, they are so much nicer than straight from the packet.
  5. Mix most of the dressing through the salad, reserving a little for the top.
  6. Combine all the salad ingredients onto a large platter or individual plates depending on how you are serving.
  7. Flake or place the salmon on top, garnish with more dill, sprinkle over the seeds and serve.

Note:  This would be a delicious salad to serve for Christmas with its gorgeous colours!

 

 

Posted in: Christmas cookery, Fish, Gluten free, Healthy eating, Salads, Steam Oven

Pomegranate & haloumi salad

November 3, 2014 1:39 pm / 3 Comments /

Pomegranate & haloumi salad

Time for some more healthy salads and this one has glorious flavours, lots of texture and is one of those salads that you really feel satisfied after eating.

As the weather heats up in Sydney the steam oven is the only appliance I am using at the moment.  Too hot for a conventional oven, this is the perfect appliance to use on a hot day as you can prepare all your base ingredients for a salad like this in just 20 minutes, anytime during the day.  If you want to serve it with a hot piece of salmon instead of the haloumi as we did on Saturday night then the steam oven was only on for 2 minutes for the fish.  With only that initial gush of steam at the end of cooking time, even on the hot 37°C day we had it didn’t heat up our kitchen at all.  To be honest, I use my combi as a steam oven more in the Summer than I do in the Winter.

I actually used a combination of cooked brown rice and red quinoa this time.  It is so easy to prepare a salad like this if you already have the main ingredient pre-cooked.  Remember, cooked rice can harbor bugs so only keep it for a maximum of three days.

Ingredients:  Serves 4

1 cup red quinoa, washed
2 cups vegetable stock
rind 1 lemon
½ cup mint leaves, chopped
½ cup parsley leaves, chopped
2 cups broccoli florets
½ cup chickpeas, washed and drained
1 x 250g block of Haloumi cheese, sliced
¼ cup mixed seeds & pine nuts
Olive oil to lightly fry

Dressing:
1 clove garlic, crushed
½ pomegranate, seeded and juice retained
1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
pinch sea salt
ground black pepper

Method:

  1. Cook quinoa in stock for 20 minutes @ 100°C.
  2. While this is cooking, pop in your broccoli for 2 minutes then refresh in icy cold water.  Drain.
  3. Remove the quinoa from the steam oven, add the lemon rind, stir and set aside to cool and absorb any remaining stock.
  4. Mix all the ingredients, except the Haloumi together and set aside.
  5. For the dressing:  Remove the seeds from the pomegranate and catch all the juice into a container.  Pick out any pith that may have fallen into the juice.  Mix in the other ingredients, stir well and pour over salad.
  6. Mix well together, ensuring that the seeds and nuts are well amalgamated.
  7. Heat a shallow non-stick frypan over medium heat.  Add a splash of olive oil and when hot fry the Haloumi slices until golden brown.

Serve over salad as a complete meal.  Delicious also with a piece of salmon here.

Just a REMINDER, have you cooked your Christmas Pudding yet?  See my steam oven Best ever Christmas pudding here or a Gluten-free option here.

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in: Gluten free, Healthy eating, Main Courses, Salads, Side dishes, Steam Oven, Vegetarian

Freekeh & pumpkin salad

July 25, 2014 11:00 am / Leave a Comment /

Freekah and pumpkin salad

I love all the grains that are available these days.  They are so versatile, can be served hot or cold, sweet or savoury and are enjoyable in any season of the year.  A great healthy way to thicken soup in the Winter or enjoy as a salad in the Summer.

Freekeh is the latest ‘superfood’ that is popular at the moment.  This is the first time I have cooked it and I have chosen the ‘cracked’ version.  It is in fact cracked, green wheat and as it is picked and roasted when the grain is green it has a higher percentage of protein, dietary fibre, vitamins and minerals.  It is not gluten free.  It is also available as a wholegrain which may take a little longer to cook.

Cooked just like rice or pasta it is yet another food that shines in the steam oven.   It is time that food manufacturers realised this so please, contact them and ask them to provide cooking instructions for a steam oven.  This is what happened when I did recipe testing and cooking instructions for Forbidden foods which was good for us all.  Have a look at that article here.  You may even want to cook some of those delicious recipes!

Ingredients:

1 cup Roasted, cracked Wholegrain Freekeh
1¼ cups water
500g butternut pumpkin, peeled and cubed
¼ cup toasted pine nuts
¼ cup toasted sunflower seeds
4 spring onions, sliced
1 cup chopped, flat leaf parsley or coriander
Large handful baby spinach leaves
1 clove garlic, crushed
grated rind and segments of one orange

Dressing optional:
2 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. white balsamic vinegar
sugar, salt and pepper to taste

Method:

  1. Place nuts and seeds into oven @ 160°C for 5-8 minutes, stirring occasionally until the pine nuts are golden brown.  Be careful not to burn them.
  2. In the solid steamer tray add freekeh which has been washed with water with a pinch of salt
  3. Cook @ 100°C for 20 minutes until cooked but still has a bite to the grain.
  4. While the freekeh is cooking add another tray into the steam oven at a higher level with the cubed pumpkin.  This will take approximately 5 minutes.  Remove and set aside to cool.
  5. Remove freekeh from the steam oven when cooked, add orange rind and the crushed garlic clove and set aside to cool.
  6. Mix dressing ingredients together in a small jar.  This is optional, the dish has enough flavour with the orange rind in the freekeh.  We drizzled a little over the top rather than mixing it through.
  7. Stir in all other ingredients reserving a few seeds for garnish, toss through the dressing, if using and serve.

Delicious with steamed chicken breast or salmon.

 

 

Posted in: Healthy eating, Salads, Side dishes, Steam Oven, Vegetarian

Moroccan prawns with pearl cous cous

April 23, 2014 8:14 am / Leave a Comment /

Moroccan prawns with pearl cous cous

This is a variation of the pearl cous cous with dried figs previously posted here.  This time I have made it into a salad so allow time for it to come to room temperature before adding the leaves.

It is really very quick but you need to add the cous cous straight from the steam oven so it absorbs the flavour of the spices.  In my other recipe it was cooled first, then cooked again.

The prawns can either by cooked on the barbeque, pan fried or char-grilled.  Add the lemon juice to the marinade only 15 minutes before so it doesn’t cook them.

Ingredients:  Serves 4

1 cup pearl cous cous
1¼ cups water
pinch salt

2 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp tumeric
1-2 tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 red onion, sliced
1/2 cup toasted pistachio nuts, chopped
pinch chilli flakes
1/2 pomegranate, seeded & juice retained
handful mint and coriander leaves
handful of baby rocket leaves
1 eggplant sliced
juice half a lemon

Green prawns, peeled and de-vained with tails on
bamboo skewers, soaked for 30 minutes
1 clove garlic, crushed
1tbsp olive oil
juice half a lemon
1 tbsp. Raza Hanout

Method:

  1. Heat oil on medium heat, add onion and spices and cook slowly, stirring well until soft.
  2. Salt sliced eggplant to remove bitter juices for 20 minutes, rinse and pat dry.
  3. Cook cous cous in steam oven @ 100ºC for 10 minutes
  4. Tip cooked cous cous into onion mixture and stir well.
  5. Transfer into a bowl to cool.
  6. Add other salad ingredients once cooled.  Toss well.
  7. For the prawns:  Mix marinade ingredients together except lemon juice and toss through prawns.  Add the lemon juice for the last 15 minutes only and thread onto bamboo skewers ready to cook.
  8. Cook prawns and eggplant and serve hot over salad.
  9. Sprinkle with chopped pistachio nuts and serve with lemon wedges, hommus and warm Turkish bread.

Yum…..

Posted in: Main Courses, Salads, Steam Oven

Healthy Waldorf salad

April 3, 2014 4:17 pm / 1 Comment /

Waldorf salad

Without a hint of mayonnaise in sight and containing heaps of goodness this healthy Waldorf salad is bound to become a favourite.

If you pre-cook your quinoa in the steam oven and set it aside to cool to absorb the stock then it really is quick to assemble.   I arrived home from yoga, fluffed up the quinoa with a fork then prepped enough of the ingredients for a single serve in about 10 minutes.  Nice to think you can eat something delicious for lunch when your eating alone.  You don’t always have to prepare a massive quantity.

Remember it does have to be eaten straight away.

Ingredients:  Serves 6

1 cup quinoa, washed in a fine sieve
2 cups vegetable stock
2 large Pink Lady or red apples, grated.  Use a grater with long strands if possible.  Leave skin on.
2-3 cups finely sliced celery including inner leaves
Bunch baby radishes, sliced on a mandolin then sliced again into matchsticks
Rind & juice 1 lemon
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup toasted Walnuts, chopped roughly
Black pepper to taste

Method:

  1. Cook quinoa in stock in the solid steamer tray @ 100°C for 20 minutes
  2. Zest the lemon and add to the hot quinoa to absorb the flavour.  Set aside to cool.
  3. Once cool, fluff with a fork and add all the other ingredients ensuring you add the lemon juice over the grated apples immediately so they don’t discolour.
  4. Toss well and serve.  Add pepper to taste.

Delicious 🙂

 

Posted in: Gluten free, Healthy eating, Salads, Steam Oven