Gourmet Salad with Mango

This is my first salad creation of the summer, and a follow-up on my post about the 5 rules for making a full meal of your salad!

My salad consists of some lettuce from my very own roof-top veggie garden, and the usual culprits: ripe tomatoes and carrots. But the extra protein and fruit I added are what really made it special!


Color:
The bright summer colors did a lot to make this salad visually appealing and beautiful!


Protein:
I added a mix of walnuts and almonds as my protein #1, and cubes of feta cheese as protein #2.

Fruit:
I added juicy, ripe mango as my fruit -- it added an unexpected sweetness to this savory salad and balanced out the salty feta cheese really well!

Texture:
Crispy fresh lettuce, juicy soft mango, the crunch of the nuts and the dry crumbliness of the feta made for a great variety of textures that kept this salad interesting and exciting!

Homemade Dressing:
I made a simple oil and vinegar dressing for this salad, but the key was using balsamic vinegar. This type of vinegar has a natural sweetness that went really well with the mango flavors and really enriched the salad!

This colorful salad had enough variety to make for a full meal, and the protein kept me sated even though it was all relatively light.

Let me know if you have experimented with any delicious salad combos of your own! Post comments and recipe suggestions in below and I will be sure to follow up. Happy eating!

Roasted Veggies Day 2: Arugula salad with roasted veggies and nuts

This is a hearty salad that can definitely make up the main course for a light evening meal during the week!

I simply washed some fresh arugula and served some of my roasted veggies over it, adding some walnuts for the crunchy texture and for the protein. I tossed it in a little olive oil and vinegar, since the veggies are already flavored and salted. With a slice of good, whole-grain bread as a side, I went to bed very content!

This easy salad can be ready in minutes once you have your veggies ready!

Roasted Veggies Day 1: Mediterranean Pita Sandwich

Simple, delicious and healthy!

For lunch today I packed my little bento box with some of my roasted veggies and a side of my homemade Greek yoghurt. I brought some pita bread to work and, voila, a delicious, mouth-watering, tasty, happy-dance worthy meal in under 3 minutes.

A gourmet meal in minutes!

I didn't even warm up the veggies since I don't mind them cold, though that would be an options. I simply warmed up the pita in a toaster oven, opened it up and spread the yoghurt onto the bread with a knife, and added a drizzle of olive oil before putting in the veggies -- divine!

For good, affordable yoghurt in Shanghai, visit the Avocado Lady or learn to make your own by reading one of my earlier posts, here.

If you missed my post about prepping roasted veggies in advance, read it here.

Master Cleanse Day 6: Veggie Puree

Feeling good, albeit hungry! I ate a lot of my veggie puree today, and spent the time in-between meals on mint tea. I guess I shouldn't be calling these posts "Master Cleanse" anymore since I am officially off it, but now I do not know what else to call them.

The veggie puree is still good and tasty though I have been craving some fat and protein. In the afternoon I had a few almonds to get me through until dinner. I also added a tiny bit of olive oil to my veggie puree in the evening.

Feeling good, though really craving something sweet, like fruit! Might have to introduce some to my diet tomorrow...

Master Cleanse Day 5: My Vegetable Soup Transition

I decided to transition back today. I feel bored with the lemonade and I've lost a lot of weight, though that wasn't my primary goal. My husband remarked that my skin was glowing, and the dark circles I normally have under my eyes are gone!

I started the day with the lemonade, mostly because there was basically nothing else to eat at home. After yoga class, I stopped at the farmer's market for fresh produce. I decided to break my fast with a vegetable broth and then puree the veggies into a soup I could consume for the next couple of days.

Ingredients:
3 carrots
1 onion
2 tomatoes
1 large bunch of spinach
1 small head of broccoli
1 small cauliflower
4 cloves of garlic
1 large thumb of ginger
2 lemons, juiced
1 bay leaf
1 sprig of rosemary
1 small sprig of mint
sea salt
cayenne pepper

1) Wash and chop the veggies into 1-inch chunks, so they cook faster. For the garlic cloves, just peel them. Slice the ginger. Quarter the onion and leave the tomatoes whole.

2) Add the tomatoes, onion, garlic, ginger and carrots to a large pot of water and bring to a boil. Add some sea salt to taste, and a bay leaf. Once the tomatoes start to loose their skin, remove the tomatoes to peel them and return them to the pot. Simmer.

3) After about 10-15 minutes, add the broccoli and cauliflower, including stems and leaves.

4) Once the toughest ingredients are soft, add the spinach, mint and rosemary. Turn the heat off and cover the pot so the leafy ingredients steam. Add the juice of two lemons, cayenne to taste, and adjust the salt.

I drank the light broth for lunch and pureed the rest of the soup for later. Notice there is no fat or any processed ingredients in the soup. I could taste the pure veggie goodness and not shock my body after the days of fasting.

Throughout the afternoon, I sipped mint tea as usual. In the evening I had a bowl of the veggie puree.

I felt hungrier on this diet than drinking the lemonade, but it felt good to taste something different and enjoy the new texture!

Rapid Risotto: the leftover miracle

Transforming leftovers!

I had some leftover rice, and some veggie soup I was tired of eating... I blended the soup into a nice creamy compote and added it to the rice over low heat. As soon as the rice was hot and the extra moisture was absorbed, I had a great single portion of risotto that I sprinkled some parmesan over and enjoyed with some red wine. A great way to reimagine leftovers I was tired of eating, and a luxurious meal in just 10 or so minutes!

Definitely recommend it for those lazy weeknights!

I think this is doable with any leftover veggie (or meat-based!) soup, as long as it's not too starchy. I have also done it with leftover pasta sauce -- works really well!

Enjoy!

Brazilian Black Bean Soup with American Characteristics

As the weather begins to cool and the leaves begin to fall, it's wonderful to sit down to a warm and filling meal. Soups are some of my favorite dishes of the season, and I love how they can be used to deal with leftovers of all sorts. This black bean soup is hearty and healthy soup that is most accommodating of anything you want to throw in it!

I added fresh tomatoes and a dollop of plain yoghurt along with a drizzle of olive oil to my bowl, something distinctly un-Brazilian ;)

Usually, I make my black bean soup with the leftover black beans I have on rice, Brazilian style. All it takes is adding some broth and tossing the beans in a food processor or blender. It's up to you whether you want to puree the whole thing, or varying proportions of it, to achieve the desired blend of whole beans and thick soup.

Cooking Black-Beans:
Soak the desired amount of beans overnight. (I usually make a whole kilo at a time since the cooking process is so lengthy, and the beans do well frozen. Once cooked, you can use them in salads, stews, etc.)
Bring the beans to a boil in plenty of water, some salt, and a couple of bay leaves. It will take 1.5-2 hours to cook all the way through or, if you use a pressure cooker, just 45min. or so.
Once the beans are cooked, you can do a lot with them. You can also vary the amount of water you leave, to achieve the desired brothiness. The important thing now is to get the flavoring in!

Flavoring the Black Beans:
(I am sure you can do this in an infinite number of ways, but this is just a basic recipe you can vary.)
Sautee a finely chopped onion and 8 finely chopped cloves of garlic in some vegetable oil.
If you are not vegetarian, you can add a nice piece of Canadian bacon or fatty pork here for a delicious flavor boost!
You can also add diced carrots or cubes of squash/pumpkin here, for a vegetarian dish!
Sautee until the veggies begin to turn soft.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Add the cooked beans to the sautee mix!
Add cumin (around 2 teaspoons) as well as Cayenne to taste.
Add a bit of orange juice! I swear it is delicious.
And feel free to experiment with other stuff as well. Like last time I tossed in some red bell peppers to the sautee.

Once these beans are ready, they can be served over rice or you can make them brothier and serve as soup. Either way, I usually put at least a couple of cups into the blender, and then mix that back into the beans so you have a heartier broth.

You can also add cooked pasta to the soup once it's ready, and I often add chopped tomatoes and plain yoghurt (instead of sour cream) to mine, along with a drizzle of olive oil. At lunch today I even added some fresh avocado. DELICIOUS.

Farfalle al Sugo: a meal in 15min

Just came home after a 2 day company retreat (aka meetings) and there was nothing in my fridge... So I made a quick meal using the tomato sauce recipe I posted before :)

Ready by the time the pasta was done cooking!

Roasted Bell Peppers (the stuffed of legend!)

My dinner tonight was divine if I should say so myself...

I have made stuffed bell peppers myself before, mostly intuitively, putting in them rice, veggies, and anything else I found lying around. But tonight was different. Against my better judgment, I followed a recipe by Jamie Oliver after downloading his app, Jamie's Recipes for the iPhone. Now, I say against my better judgment not because I do not like Jamie Oliver but because I do not like recipes, nor do I ever really follow them. But I decided to download Jamie's app because it has good reviews, I have seen and enjoyed hi TV shows, and his app has a whole recipe package for tray bakes, my favorite way of cooking!

The finished product looked colorful and was absolutely delicious!

I love tray bakes because, in Jamie's words, "it's basically just an assembly job." Yes, I enjoy throwing things together and then just allowing the oven to do its thing while I do my thing. That's what cooking reluctantly is all about!

So anyways, the point is, Jamie's recipe was pretty mind-blowing. It was absolutely DELICIOUS and I  kind of felt sad that no one was around to share it with me, but happy it worked out and I can maybe impress some friends with this sometime. I don't usually cook for others when I am trying to make something for the first time... takes the pressure off ;)

These were the ingredients:

• 1 Red Bell Pepper
• 1 Yellow Bell Pepper
• 1 Ripe Tomato
• 1 Eggplant (Jamie's recipe said 1/2 but Chinese eggplants are so small... plus, what the hell am I going to do with half an eggplant in my fridge?!)
• 1 Red Onion
• 1/2 Head of Garlic
• Fresh Parsley, Mint and Thyme
• Lemon
• 1/2 Tablespoon Coriander seeds
• Kalamata Olives (I just used regular black olives in mine)
• Sun-dried tomatos
• 100g. (about 4 oz.) Feta Cheese
• Pine Nuts
• 1/3 cup of couscous
• 1/2 cup of chicken broth (Jamie says vegetable, but I was out!)
• Salt & Pepper to Taste
• Olive Oil 

Beautiful, fresh ingredients just for me :)

1. I chopped up the zucchini and eggplant into bite-sized pieces. I quartered the tomato and peeled half of the onion, cutting it into wedges. I put all these ingredients straight onto the roasting pan.
2. I picked the thyme leaves off the stems and discarded the stems. Then I ground up the coriander seeds using the mortar and pestle, separated the garlic cloves from each other, leaving the skins on, and setting 2 of the garlic cloves aside for later. I added the thyme, coriander and garlic cloves to the veggies on the roasting pan, added some salt, pepper, and a few glugs of olive oil and mixed everything up so the veggies were all evenly coated. I set this aside.
3. I preheated the oven to around 200 degrees Celsius (400 Fahrenheit). Meanwhile, I put the pine nuts in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat and moved them around until they were a nice golden brown (just a couple minutes).
4. I heated up the chicken broth in a saucepan and added it to the couscous in a large mixing bowl, which I then covered with a lid. While the couscous was doing its thing...
5. I minced the remaining half of the onion really fine and sautéed it in olive oil over very low heat, allowing it to get really soft but not brown. While it was heating up I minced the remaining 2 garlic cloves and added those in too. 
6. When the onion and garlic were done, I chopped up the olives and sun-dried tomatoes, picked the leaves off of the parsley and mint stems and chopped them up finely. Then I added the onion, garlic, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, pine nuts, parsley, mint, and the crumbled feta cheese, to the couscous. I mixed everything up with a fork and seasoned with juice of half the lemon, some lemon zest, salt and pepper.
7. I cut the bell peppers in half lengthwise and removed the seeds and the white foamy bits on the inside with a spoon (mostly my fingers to be honest.) Then I stuffed them with the couscous mixture and lay them over the veggies on the roasting pan. I wrapped everything in aluminum foil and put it in the oven!
8. It was in the oven for about 45min and then I removed the foil and allowed it to cook for another 20min. uncovered.
9. My house was filled with the most divine, citrusy-peppery-feta-cheesy smell EVER as I took the time to wash up the dishes and watch some TV...

This experience has taught me a few things:

• Pine nuts are amazing little things. I have not often cooked with them, except in the odd pesto sauce when I am feeling inspired (which is not often), but these little guys were an AMAZING complement to this dish. Their nuttiness was a great addition to the flavor but, more importantly, their texture did wonders for this dish, which can be a little mushy otherwise! If I ever make stuffed bell peppers again, even if I am not following this recipe, I will try to add some kind of nut to the dish, for the crunch :)
• I have totally undervalued thyme in my cooking. This zesty, lemony little herb deserves more of my attention! I will try to get some for my herb garden, so I use it more often.
• If there was one thing that could be improved, it was the fact that a lot of water was left in the veggies... I like my roasted veggies a bit dryer, so I would uncover them a little earlier next time, to dry the dish out a bit more.
• More roasted garlic in my life, please! The soft, white garlic, slipping out of its silky skin with the slightest pressure from a knife or fork, YUM! I hadn't added this to my roasted veggies in way too long and it's time to bring it back!
• I remember the value of recipes! Even if I don't follow this to the letter ever again, I learned a lot about combining some of these mediterranean flavors and ingredients, and feel more confident I can make something awesome on my own next time ;)

Hmmm... my plate was full and now it's empty :D