Summer Kale and Pepper Pasta

July 4, 2017July 3, 2017 / thuddirect / Leave a comment

There’s not much we like more than a simple pasta and a good kick of garlic, oil and salt. When summer kale gets involved along with a sweet red pepper and invites parsley and lemon to the party it makes this a corker of a comforting mid-week meal.

Ingredients: 50g kale, 1 romero pepper, small bunch of parsley, 4 garlic cloves.

Larder: 200g spaghetti, generous glugs of olive oil, pinch of salt, pepper, juice of a lemon (optional extras: parmesan cheese).

Instructions:

Bring a large sauce pan of water to the boil.
Finely shred the kale, deseed and finely chop the pepper, mince the garlic and finely chop the parsley.
Add the pasta to the boiling water.
Meanwhile, add a generous glug of oil to a sauté pan and sauté the veggies, starting with the garlic for a minute and then add the pepper and kale for another 3-4 minutes.
Stir in the parsley, the juice of a lemon, a healthy pinch of salt, and pinch of pepper.
When the pasta is ready, drain, add a glug of olive oil and then combine with the veggies.
Serve in bowls with grated parmesan on top and add more lemon juice, salt and/or olive oil if desired.

Asian Noodle Salad

June 8, 2017June 21, 2017 / thuddirect / 1 Comment

A scrumptious Asian noodle salad packed full of beetroot, mouli, carrots and more. All combined with a gorgeous chilli dressing, it makes for an interesting and tasty summer salad.

Serves 2

Ingredients: 1 romero pepper, 1 carrot, 1/2 a beetroot, 150g mouli/daikon radish, 1 spring onion, 1 garlic clove, 1 red chilli, small bunch of coriander.

Larder: 175g rice or vermicelli noodles, 60ml vegetable oil, 2 tbsp soy sauce, juice of ½ a lime, 2 tsp honey (optional extra: cooked prawns and sesame seeds).

Instructions:

Deseed the chilli and then finely slice the chilli, garlic clove and spring onion. Cook in a small saucepan on med to high heat with the vegetable oil for about 3 minutes. Don’t allow to burn.
Cook the egg noodles for 4 minutes, drain and return to the pan. Pour over the chilli oil mix, toss and let stand.
Julienne the pepper, mouli, beetroot and carrot. To julienne your veggies, peel them if needed, and then cut into very thin planks, place the planks on top of each other and then slice them to create batons as close to matchstick size as possible.
Chop the coriander, including stems.
In a small bowl or glass whisk together lime, soy sauce and honey.
Mix sauce through the noodles and then add the veg and coriander.
Serve in bowls and garnish with optional sesame seeds and cooked prawns.

Moroccan Couscous

May 3, 2017May 3, 2017 / thuddirect / 2 Comments

The sweet and savoury combinations of cinnamon roast veg, fresh mint and dates is irresistible in this dish. Chop it all up and pop it in the oven: it couldn’t be simpler!

Ingredients: 2 shallots, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 romero or bell pepper, 1/2 a sweet potato, 1 courgette, 2 dates, small bunch or sprig of mint.

From the larder: 140g couscous, 1 tbsp honey, cinnamon, 2 dollops of plain yoghurt (optional: 2 salmon fillets).

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.
Roughly chop the shallots, garlic & pepper and chop the sweet potato & courgette into small chunks.
Place the veg in a roasting tin, drizzle with olive oil and honey, and mix in a pinch of cinnamon.
Season with salt and pepper and roast for 20 minutes or until soft.
If using salmon, place the salmon on top of the veg for the last 7-10 minutes of roasting.
When veg is almost cooked, prepare the couscous. Place in a bowl and pour over double the volume of freshly boiled water. Cover and leave to stand for 5 minutes. For added flavour stir in half or quarter of a stock cube.
Chop the dates and mint and add to the couscous when it’s ready.
When veg (and salmon if using) is ready, remove from the oven, and serve on top of the couscous along with a dollop of yoghurt.