All together again! Because I’m always on my travels I haven’t seen my bestest friends for a couple of years, so today three of them came over, I made a big celebration lunch for our reunion; we even Skyped in the missing one in Australia which was fun – it’s Saturday night over there so she was a bit far gone on the gin!
I really love brown rice; short grain, cooked a little too long so it goes a bit claggy. I was once told by an Ayurvedic doctor that I should eat rice for bliss and I realised that she was not wrong at all: put me in a room with a rice pudding and a spoon and I’m not coming out until it’s done. Also ‘Special Rice’ is my favourite comfort dish. it’s basically rice with loads of stuff in it. Remember rice salad that used to get served at buffets in the 80s? Like that but with more than just frozen peas and tinned sweetcorn. When I was working in the veggie cafe in Crete, I had special rice on the menu, sometimes just a simple salad dressing, a handful of chopped herbs and a few jewels of pomegranate was all it took to make it special. Continue reading “Rice, rice baby.”
I’m moving to Morocco in a couple of days so, to get me in the mood, tonight I felt like making a little mezze from the random contents of the cupboard and fridge. It ended up looking like this. In case you are wondering what is in all those little bowls we have, from left to right, caramalised balsamic onions, roasted red peppers and squash, giant couscous, celery, sweetcorn and beetroot salad, vegan sushi, hummus, mung bean and coriander dip and mini toasts. Yes, I am aware that most of these dishes are not even slightly Moroccan, and in fact there are influences of Japan, France, India and Italy in there, what can I say, my palate is well-travelled.
Continue reading “Mini mezze for tea (supper/dinner – whatever, I’m northern and it’s ‘Tea’)”
Each week I trot alo
ng to the Mercredi morning market here in Morzine (allez l’alliteration!) to do my food shopping. There is a fabulous bio/organic stall at the back that sells these little spinachy type leaves called tetragonia. They also give you a little bunch of parsley and basil for free because they’re very nice.
So this salad is based on what I bought this week
Also, I’ve got too much rice in my cupboard so I decided to chuck that in there too.
And because I’m in France – I may as well give the french names for it all. Continue reading “French farmers’ market salad”
Most health-conscious individuals will have at some point been asked, about one aspect of their lifestyle choices, “Why bother?” usually followed by “We’re all going to die anyway, might as well enjoy ourselves while we’re here. The more I question myself about why I bother, the more it comes down to one basic premise… that surely prevention is better than cure.
The potential negative consequences of ‘enjoying’ oneself in the context of excessive drinking, smoking, eating processed food etc are too concerning for me to ignore. Although I do agree in principle that life’s too short for regrets, I’m pretty sure that if I were diagnosed with lung cancer I would suddenly regret every cigarette I’ve ever smoked (actually I already do regret that). Continue reading “Am I Bothered?”
So I don’t profess to having much of a knowledge of Ayurveda. I’m definitely in the novice category when it comes to doshas and whatnot. But I’m reading and learning and trying to follow it, to see if it makes me feel balanced and healthy. I figure it can’t hurt.
So here is today’s supper…
I always said that one day I’d write a vegetarian cook book called ‘Not another @*&%ing goat’s cheese salad’. It’s the restaurant default vegetarian option of choice and for a while I was sick to death of eating it. But this has an italian twist with the addition of sun-dried tomatoes and pesto (two of my favourite flavours ever) and is inspired by the only sandwich I’ve ever really enjoyed from a place called Appetite in Leeds.
Continue reading “Mega Salads #1: Italian inspired goat’s cheese salad”
