Quick Mexican tomato salad (or salsa)

We are having grilled fish tonight so I threw together a quick salad to go on the side. The glut of tomatoes from our garden continues and this has used up a few more...

In a bowl combine:

4 large tomatoes, chopped

125g can of sweet corn kernels (drained)

2 spring onions, chopped

4 leaves Thai (sawtooth) coriander chopped fine

1/2 teaspoon raw sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

 a pinch of cumin

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

juice of one lime

shake of tabasco (optional)

Tonight we are serving this with 200g barramundi fillets and 240g boiled new potatoes dressed with light sour cream with a teaspoon of this taco seasoning (thanks to the4Blades podcast for the heads up) mixed through

Total Weight Watchers ProPoints for the entire salad 1, for the whole meal 9

Zingy thermomix cauliflower salad

I was walking by the river tonight and I took inspiration from the 4 Blades Podcast who accompany me when I am not listening to the Verity Podcast 

Verity's influence is anything but healthy - I feel inspired to make Doctor Who themed cupcakes and biscuits but first I needed dinner.

Rather than come home and make poached egg on toast for tea I put a steak in a pan and mixed me up this salad

The method is based on their Simple Summer Salads episode

The finished product

Chop 60 grams of pecans at Speed 4 for 6 seconds
Set aside

Put 1/4 bunch of parsley in the bowl with 2 cloves of garlic and half a long red chilli deseeded
Chop 4 seconds Speed 10

Add 250 grams of cauliflower broken into florets, a carrot, chopped roughly, a capsicum, chopped roughly and half a red onion, peeled
Chop Speed 4 for 4 to 5 seconds

Add 1 tablespoon cider vinegar, juice of half a lemon and 100g fat free yoghurt We are loving this one from the Tamar Valley because it is delicious and reminds us of home

Mix on reverse speed 4 for 5 seconds.

Is that steak done yet?

No? It must be time for a glass of something then

Crunchy curry coleslaw

Are you all looking for interesting salads to include at mealtime over the Christmas period?

I was inspired to make this little gem by the 4 Blades Podcast episode 27 Simple Summer Salads If you aren't listening to these guys cook their hearts out while you stroll around the river of an evening then you really should give it a go. They are in hot competition with my favourite Doctor Who podcasts and that is a sad addiction I should not even mention on a cooking blog

So anyway I read Bec's ideas here as well as the show notes and the original recipe mentioned which is here

And then I made it up as I went along (which is usually what happens here at Cafe Disarray)

Take: a handful of parsley (stalks and all), some coriander (I used 4 leaves of sawtooth coriander from the garden) and 40 g green onions (I only used the tops)

Chop 4 seconds at speed 10 and scrape down the sides

Add what Bec calls the "choppy bits"

I like to put carrot and apple in the bottom because big chunks of cabbage don't bother me so much. So I put in a medium carrot in chunks and a small red apple.

 Top with 1/4 small cabbage - up to about 3/4 full. Cabbage is in chunks too like this:

Chop at speed 4 for 6-8 seconds - watch carefully and stop chopping if necessary so it is only chopped not blended

Add the other ingredients: 

80g sultanas

80g frozen peas

60g almonds (I used whole because that is what we had but slivered would be nice)

4 tablespoons mayonnaise

3 teaspoons curry powder (I used Keens)

Stir on reverse speed 4 for 4 - 6 seconds

That's it. Done. Have a glass of wine while the man does the barbecuing.

Thai Beef Salad

This has become one of our favourite meals, especially since we got the Thai basil and mint well established in the garden.

so for us step one is go outside,  enjoy the sky, and pick mint, coriander, thai basil, limes and chilli.

Then come in, fill a glass and do this:

Make the salad base:
2/3 cup Thai basil
2/3 cup mint
1/3 cup chopped Thai coriander
1 bag salad leaves
1 punnet cherry tomatoes (halved) I am looking forward to picking our own again soon

mix these together using your hands in a large bowl or on a platter

Top with
1 lebanese cucumber cut into ribbons using a vegetable peeler
3 spring onions chopped on the diagonal
1 large red chilli de seeded and sliced

Then slice your beef into thin strips. I buy skirt steak especially for this kind of recipe as it is beautifully tender when cut right. I used 400g skirt steak

put all the meat in a bowl and top with the marinade ingredients:
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
1 teaspoon chopped ginger
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
juice of one lime
1 tablespoon oil (I used rice bran oil)
Mix through.  I use chopsticks to mix, as it helps build strength and dexterity when using them. All the marinade stays on the meat too, I find if you use a spoon the marinade sticks to the spoon rather than the meat.

For the dressing shake these ingredients together in a jar.
2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons fish sauce
juice of one lime
2 tablespoons palm sugar (chopped finely)
A shake of sesame oil

Cook the meat in batches in a fry pan or on the barbecue

this is Taff's hand, not mine

Assemble at the last minute

pile on the meat then pour on dressing then sprinkle 1/2 cup fried shallots (from an Asian supermarket) over the salad

Enjoy. This is another 6 propoint meal, if you use a Chef's toolbox pan and only brush a teaspoon of oil over it for cooking. And it's OK to go back for seconds...

Baked cauliflower and harissa salad

I haven't posted for quite awhile - we have had a hectic time lately, a lot of travel for work and our food has been old reliables or other people's recipes.
This week I had an urge to clean out the vegetable drawer and found that the two must use things were half a cauliflower and some pumpkin so I made soup and two salads to have for an alfresco dinner with steak.
It's easy to moroccan up the steak part of the meal - just mix a couple teaspoons of harissa paste (I make my own) with some sour cream and serve in a bowl.

Anyway I created a salad that was too good not to blog about. Start with:

1/4 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon harissa paste

1/2 teaspoon salt

 Then cut up your cauliflower I only had 1/2 but this would work equally well with a whole cauliflower without doubling the quantities. Toss the cauliflower in the olive oil mixture

Spread the cauliflower on an oven tray lined with silicon. I just used my Chefs Toolbox silicon slice pan. Put the bowl aside - don't wash it up.

Bake at 175 fan forced for about 30 - 40 minutes until the cauliflower is tender and delicious.
While it is baking take:

1/4 cup sultanas

1/2 cup cider vinegar

pinch salt

 Mix together in a small bowl. Then leave to quick pickle while the cooking continues

 Place 1/3 cup slivered almonds, a pinch of salt and 2 tablespoons honey (I used some gorgeous Tasmanian unheated honey I have in the pantry) in a small non stick frypan

Heat gently while stirring until the nuts just start to change colour.

 Remove from the pan immediately

 Squeeze the juice of a lemon into the bowl you had the olive oil in and chop 10 -12 mint leaves
I found the almonds turned to toffee as they cooled so I spent some time drinking wine and breaking them into teeny pieces again

Drain the sultanas. Add cauliflower, mint, nuts and sultanas to the lemon juice and toss through.

The finished product was absolutely delicious

Thermomix Asian chicken salad

Thanks to Karen Martini for the inspiration ... here is the original recipe if you don't own a Thermomix.

I thought I would work through this, add some tweaks and calculate the Weight Watchers ProPoints and run with it at Cafe Disarray.

So for the salad:

1 cooked chicken

2 cucumbers sliced into ribbons

couple handfuls bean sprouts

couple handfuls sugar snaps topped, tailed and halved
two spring onions sliced diagonally

handful mint 

handful Thai basil

Ribboning the cucumber is actually quite challenging. I used a good sharp vegie peeler but if you are a bit of a control freak and expect symmetry, then you should give up before you start. The ribbons are very pretty though. After eating it I have decided that next time I will use cucumber batons and wombuk cabbage.

And for the dressing I went off to the Aladdin's cave that is my local Asian supermarket, we came home with a heap of other random stuff, noodles with no English on the packet, a butter size tub of chili paste and steamed pork buns (yum!) You don't need any of my impulse buys to make this salad.

For the dressing:

1 clove garlic

a thumb of fresh ginger

6 kaffir lime leaves sliced finely

green chilli halved and seeds removed (this is so more people in my house will eat it, you can leave in if you like)

Put these all in TM31 and blitz at speed 7 for 3 seconds

Scrape down and add:

2 teaspoons Tom Yum paste

Juice of 2 limes

2 teaspoons fish sauce

60g light coconut cream

30g almond paste (my newest fetish)

Mix speed 5 for 15 seconds, or longer if you want a smoother consistency. Eew my fingers smell like fish sauce.

Assemble the salad on a platter - greens and some herbs on the bottom and chicken pieces on top. Scatter remaining herbs over the salad.

Pour dressing over, garnish with 4 tablespoons fried shallots (more goodness from the Asian store)  and enjoy!

This has a total of 60 Weight Watchers ProPoints and will serve about 6 people. Ten ProPoint dinner - what's not to like?

Sixty second salad

Actually I think it took less than that...

I wanted something not too boring to have with cos lettuce.

So I wizzed one clove garlic for 3 seconds at speed 7
(Non thermomixers could chop it finely)
Add:   

2 ripe tomatoes (halved)

good handful of fresh basil

2 tablespoons of tomato sauce (from the EDC)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

large pinch salt

wizz for 4 seconds at speed 7

At this point it is really not very pretty. Mum was  quite rude about it.
Tear your washed cos lettuce into large pieces and pour dressing over. Mine looks drowned because we only put enough out for three but I think a big bowl of baby cos would look lovely
Sprinkle with  about 40g feta cheese. We use danish feta because it is creamy and delicious.

Tonight we are having barbecued chops and sausages, marinated mushrooms, chat potatoes with harissa cream and sixty second salad.

check out the gorgeous BBQ plate one of my kids made in kindy!

NB - harissa cream is just light sour cream with a spoonful of harissa paste stirred through (I will post the harissa recipe another time)

Easy tomato salad

Sorry about the long break folks

We have had a really hectic month with one child completing Year 12, illness, performance rehearsals and general all round busy-ness

So although I have been cooking I have reverted to some old favourites, like macaroni cheese made with my special awesome cheese sauce and Jo Whitton's chicken soup

I have taken some photos but simply have not had time to blog

So tonight we have a quickie for everyone who has ever had a tomato glut.

Our tomato plant is currently so tall that yesterday I tied the top of the plant to the carabiner which connects the shade sail to the back of the house I kid you not! And our home is not a hobbit hole it is a regular height house.

Anyway the recipe. I used grape tomatoes tonight but this looks fantastic if you mix up some yellow, sriped or black tomatoes.

Halve the tomatoes, about 250g, chop a generous bunch of parsley and mix through then pour over 1 tablespoon olive oil, 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar, 2 teaspoons red wine vinegar and a generous grind of fresh salt and pepper. That's it. Easy.

Tonight we are serving this with greek lamb fillet, baby potatoes and green beans (green beans and tomatoes are a match made in heaven if you have not eaten them together you must try some time.) And yoghurt mint sauce. Fresh mint and parsley from the garden, yum!

Steak and salad

Actually we had steak and four salads. And we ate outside because it was heavenly - this is what it was like:

How lovely is Townsville this time of year?

So anyway FOUR salads - I was on such a roll this afternoon!

Salad 1: French Cabbage Salad

This is fantastic for people who are a bit over coleslaw. 

You need:

1/4 white cabbage

1 red apple (I used a pink lady)

1/2 cucumber

1-2 sticks celery

a big handful of garlic chives or spring onion tops

Slice the cabbage thinly (you can use a mandolin for this if you like) 

Peel the cucumber but leave a tiny bit between each strip of peel you remove because it is just prettier that way. Slice thinly (again with the mandolin) and halve the slices

Slice the celery thinly too

Cut the apple in four, core it and then cut each piece into 8-10 depending on the size of the slices

chop the garlic chives

Throw it all into a bowl - a bigger bowl than you intend to serve in nd toss together. Hands are the best tools for tossing.

Then mix the dressing in the high tech dressing machine (a vegemite jar)

3 tablespoons cider vinegar

1 tablespoon olive oil (I used the lemon infused oil)

pinch seasalt

pinch raw sugar

Shake well and pour over salad - this one is fine to be dressed in advance

French Cabbage Salad

Salad 2: Fennel salad with mint

one head baby cos, washed and dried

one baby fennel

1/2 cup mint

Let me just say that any salad that treats mint as a vegetable rather than a garnish will be worth a try

Chop the cos roughly into pieces that are bite size

tear the mint from the stalks and add

Slice the fennel as thinly as possible

Mix dressing in aforementioned hi tech gadget

1/3 cup lemon juice 

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon baby capers

seasalt

fresh ground pepper

Pour over salad just before serving

Fennel salad with mint

Salad 3: Baby spinach with citrus

1/2 bag baby spinach leaves. If you have time to pick the stalks off this makes it a whole lot more appetising

1/4 red onion sliced very thinly

1/2 can mandarin segments

1 lebanese cucumbers cut into batons

Mix spinach, cucumber and onion together in a large bowl. Tip into serving container and top with drained mandarin segments.

Serve with a lemon and balsamic dressing - I used the one from here 

Check out the vintage Tupperware - this is a relic from my wedding shower in 1982

Baby spinach with citrus

Salad 4: Balsamic asparagus and tomato 

2 bunches asparagus

1 punnet grape tomatoes

2 dsp parmesan (15 ml spoon size)

Grind the parmesan in the Thermomix if you have one or grate it finely

Halve the tomatoes

Snap the woody ends off the asparagus and cut into 3-4 pieces. Cook in boiling water for 3-4 minutes then plunge into iced water and drain.

combine vegetables in a bowl and mix your dressing

100ml orange juice

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

a pinch of seasalt

Pour dressing over and sprinkle with parmesan. This one can be dressed in advance too.

Balsamic Asparagus and Tomato

Find a man to barbecue the steak for you 

There are 12 ProPoints in the four salads combined - 5 each in the salads with oil in the dressing and 2 in the parmesan. We served three and had lots of leftovers so I think you could eat your fill and track 2 PP plus your steak. And of course this knocks over the vegetable part of the Healthy Checks!

Just YUM!

Weight Watchers Tuna and White Bean salad

Tonight we tried a tweak on this recipe

Variations? Of course - I don't think I am capable of following a recipe to the letter.

I spread a bed of mixed spinach and rocket leaves on a large platter - some salads just look fabulous on a plate rather than in a bowl

Because there were only two of us and we were keeping one serve for lunch tomorrow I reduced the tuna - I used one 85g can and one 185g can. I also didn't measure the lemon juice - just squeezed in a whole nice juicy one I had nearby.

Dill and parsley from the garden - put them on the plate after the beans - the flavour spreads through so much better - next time I will chop the dill even though this recipe said tear it.

Only 6 Weight Watchers Pro Points in less than 10 minutes - how good is that?

Pretty isn't it?

PS Weight Watchers says it is in one of their books - can anyone tell me which one? I can link to the book then too. I have not managed to locate it in any of the seven Pro Points books I have here.