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Quick Thai mango salad

April 18, 2020April 18, 2020
by Jono

Quick and easy, this Thai mango salad can be adapted in loads of ways, including your choice of protein, herbs, crunchy veg, depending on what you have lying around.

While most of this salad is thoughtless and easy, the trick is the mango – This isn’t a green mango salad, but at the same time try not to get mangoes that are gloriously soft and sticky – find the greenest mango you can of the ones the supermarket is selling, which should be pale yellow and slightly sweet and crunchy inside – skip any that feel soft when you pick them up, or have a sweet ripe odour.

The dressing is amazing and super versatile – works well as a dipping sauce for all sorts of things, and don’t be scared at all the fish sauce – it’s beautifully balanced out by the lime juice and sugar. Loads of super bold flavours here!

Fusion

Chilled cucumber, cauliflower and ginger soup

April 18, 2020April 18, 2020
by Jono

Another winner adapted from Yotam Ottolenghi’s fantastic book SIMPLE, this is our take on his chilled-out ginger, cucumber cauliflower soup.

This is actually a raw soup, more along the lines of a gazpacho – full of fresh flavours and exciting texture, it makes a fantastic light lunch on a warm day, or as a starter to a summer dinner outside.

I love how the texture plays together here – Yotam actually takes it to the next level by frying almond flakes in butter and using them for garnish, for even more texture contrast! We were lazy and so just used a sprinkle of sesame oil, but feel free to go all in, or substitute for some croutons.

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European

Chickpea fusilli with basil pesto and asparagus

April 17, 2020April 18, 2020
by Jono

Chickpea fusilli with a cucumber basil pesto and raw asparagus – this incredibly healthy dinner also happens to be oil free, sugar free, and vegan! Fusilli (and trofie) is the traditional pasta to eat with pesto, since the pesto fills the grooves in a very satisfying way.

We understand that Chick Pea (and other pulse based pastas) are still an expensive food item in some parts of the world, and if you can’t get it, feel free to use regular pasta. We chose to use it because of the nutritional benefit of the extra protein (and it’s cheap in Ireland!), so bear in mind that if you’re using regular pasta you’ll need to fortify with a protein source (adding tofu into the pesto etc) to make it more nutritionally complete.

This raw, fresh pesto smells incredible – no oil or animal products, just incredibly healthy, fresh ingredients. There are one or 2 slightly more offbeat ingredients, but these are definitely items that can be used to add fantastic flavour to all sorts of things, so worth seeking them out.

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European

Beetroot pappardelle with ricotta and spinach

April 15, 2020April 15, 2020
by Jono

Beetroot Pappardelle with Ricotta and Spinach – This is a “from scratch” recipe that also happens to be oil free, sugar free and vegetarian! This will work with shop bought pasta, of course, but the pasta is the hero of this dish – Spend a bit of time doing it properly.

This is one of those dishes that is truly spectacularly delicious, that you just close your eyes and get transported into gastronomic pleasure. We live for those moments of bliss, those memorable meals, and hopefully this will hit the spot for you too.

Homemade fresh pasta is truly one of life’s greats, one of those timelessly simple foods that are so, so much better when made by hand. Pappardelle means “to gobble up” in Italian (Or so I was told!) – and this is exactly what happens with this dish!

Bear in mind – Making pasta from scratch takes a bit of effort, so do this on a weekend when you have lots of time and want to make something special. This was done without a pasta machine (all you need is a rolling pin), but if you do have one lying around it’ll save you some work.

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Fusion

Broccoli and aubergines in a black bean sauce

April 4, 2020April 6, 2020
by Jono

Fermented black bean sauce is a staple of Chinese cooking, made from fermented black soya beans and soya sauce. Available from most Asian grocery stores, and sometimes even in the asian food section of your local supermarket, we discovered this delicious sauce recently and can’t get enough!

This recipe is classically done with beef, but works perfectly well with vegetarian protein sources like tofu or (what we’ve done here) – with black beans! Black beans in a black bean sauce – yum!

Also, get all your prep done here before you start, you don’t want to be frantically chopping stuff while your garlic is burning. Once the prep is done, the cooking only takes 15 mins or so.

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Japan and China

Hearty, satisfying congee bowl

April 2, 2020April 6, 2020
by Jono

Congee is a rice porridge which is served as a breakfast item all over China – very savoury, comforting and hearty, but it’s a bit weird the first time you taste it!

Think of it as a Chinese Risotto and you’ll be all set 😀 We’ve been meaning to make congee since our trip to China nearly 2 years ago (shocking eh) and never got around to it – Until now!

Congee is incredibly versatile, due it its basic flavour profile and agreeable texture, and can be topped with almost anything (the weirdest we had was fermented tofu!) – Works well with crunchy, savoury and salty toppings such as kimchi, salted duck egg yolks, tofu, fresh herbs, roasted peanuts, spring onions, eggs, and even other protein sources like pulled pork or mince.

Jamie Oliver’s brilliant new recipe book VEG has a neat recipe for congee, and this is adapted from there.

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European

Greek aubergine, sardine and olive salad

April 1, 2020April 1, 2020
by Jono

Our recent trip to the Peloponesse in Greece was a blissful haze of untouched Mediterranean beauty, great wine, and of course, loads of delicious Greek food!

Marna and I both agreed – if we’re going to eat one countries cuisine for the rest of our lives – it’ll be Greek! The delicious fresh salads, rustic barley breads and rusks, olives, wines, feta, luscious strained yoghurt, ahhh… I could go on forever.

This recipe was inspired by our trip, and serves as a fantastic centrepiece to a light lunch, or as a side to a more substantial dinner party along with other mezzes and greek goodies.

Plays well with others! Hummus, salad, wraps – whatever your have!

This is not a vegetarian recipe due to the sardines (Yes, I know, breaking from the usual) but we do feel that eating oily fish occasionally is a healthy part of a balanced diet, and if possible try source your fish from sustainable sources. The sardines can be left out or substituted for feta if you want to make it vegetarian/vegan.

Of note – we’ve specifically made this recipe oil-free – but if you like a little olive oil drizzled on afterwards, it certainly won’t hurt 🙂

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European

Pantry-staple aubergine parmigiano lasagna

March 29, 2020March 29, 2020
by Jono

It is what it says it is! Melenzane parmigiano meets lasagna in a glorious, vegetarian feast with pantry-staple ingredients. All you need have fresh is the aubergine.

This fed the 2 of us, but we eat a ridiculous amount – Would probably feed 4 as part of a dinner party with other stuff on the table. Scales up well. If you want to make it vegan then just swap the parmigiano for a vegan hard cheese, or a breadcrumb and olive oil crust, or just top with whatever you feel like.

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European

Marinated kale with avo and roast veggies

March 25, 2020March 25, 2020
by Jono

A glorious feast of a salad, this elevates the already fantastic kale to new heights. We added some smoked chicken for protein, but feel free to substitute for a poached egg or some chickpeas.

The idea of marinating kale comes from Yotam Ottolenghi’s fabulous book “SIMPLE”, and its a fabulous one – it takes away all the sharpness from the kale, and infuses it with loads of delicious flavours. And the bonus of eating it “raw” means that you don’t lose any of the vitamin C.

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Fusion

Red Thai aubergine, lime and tofu pasta

February 21, 2020February 21, 2020
by Jono

This was a crazy discovery, when we realised that adding turmeric and fish sauce in a tomato based Thai curry resulted in something very pesto-y and Italian, and very delicious.

I encourage you to set aside preconceived ideas here – Thai and Italian work together like old friends! I even dressed this on the plate with pecorino and truffle oil, and it sang in my mouth.

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Tag: easy