Oooh I have exciting news! Exciting and rather yummy... We've had our delivery of onions, shallots and garlic fresh from France! Yay!
They smell and taste amazing, so get here quick before they're all gone!
Here are just a few simple recipe idea's to get you inspired...
Caramelised Shallots With Spinach Salad
Ingredients
For the shallots...
Onions or shallots. I used shallots because I like the mild, sweeter taste and I didn't want the salad to be too heavy. However if you're having a BBQ caramelised onions would be wonderful!
Brown sugar
Salt
Oil
Balsamic vinegar
For the salad...
Spinach leaves
Cherry tomatoes
Red kidney beans
Toasted pumpkin seeds
Pine nuts
Sun dried tomatoes
Olive oil
Chopped chilli's or cayenne pepper
How you make this yummy food...
Slice the shallots very thinly, I prefer to not chop them up into pieces but instead leave them in thin strips.
Pop them into a saucepan with a good covering of your choice of oil, a good helping of salt and some sugar. How much sugar you add depends on how many shallots you're cooking, but I usually put in about two teaspoons if I'm cooking for two. Remember you don't need a whole load of sugar because the shallots are quite sweet anyway.
Stir in a good glug of balsamic vinegar and leave on a low heat. Let it bubble and caramelise away gently until the liquid has gone and the shallots are soft.
Whilst the shallots are caramelising, put big bunches of spinach leaves into a mixing bowl, I like to tear and scrunch up about half of the leaves.
Halve the cherry tomatoes and add them along with the red kidney beans and pine nuts.
Whilst you chop up a handful of sun dried tomatoes, pop the pumpkin seeds on a baking tray and toast them in the oven before adding both to the bowl.
Drizzle on a small amount of oil, olive works well, but I prefer to use a bit from the jar of sun dried tomatoes!
Add chopped chilli's, or sprinkle on cayenne pepper to give it a kick!
Season well and then mix it all together.
If it's a quick lunchtime salad then you can serve the caramelised shallots on top of the salad or mixed through. Or if you have longer they can be baked into sourdough bread, which can then be sliced and lightly oiled before being put in the oven again to be turned into croutons!
Roasted Vegetable Couscous Salad
Ingredients
Sweet potatoes
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Red/green/yellow peppers, whichever you fancy! I like yellow, because they're quite sweet once roasted.
Cherry tomatoes
Red kidney beans
Chickpeas
Shallots
Garlic
Chopped chilli's
Salt and pepper
Paprika
Wholemeal couscous
Spinach leaves
Rocket
Pine nuts
How you make it yummy...
This is such an easy, simply gorgeous recipe, I love it because you can have it as a salad for lunch, or it can be a side to have at a picnic or BBQ.
Grab your favourite large baking/roasting dish.
Peel the sweet potato and cut into chunks, don't cut the broccoli and cauliflower florets too small either and pop them into the dish.
Remove the stem and seeds from the pepper and roughly rip into pieces. Add it into the dish along with the kidney beans and chickpeas. Give it all a stir.
Now, roughly chop the shallots, leave the cherry tomatoes whole because they'll turn so juicy! Add them to the dish with the chopped chilli's. You can also add the wonderful garlic whole, no peeling it or chopping it, just simply add a few cloves straight into the dish.
Season it all well, add a generous sprinkling of paprika and olive oil and mix thoroughly.
Pop it into the oven, about 200c for at least 40mins, until all the vegetables are soft and roasted. Do keep stirring every 10mins or so, to make sure everything is kept coated in the oil so it doesn't burn.
Whilst that's in the oven, pour boiling water over the couscous (enough so there's about 1cm of water on the top) and set aside.
Once couscous is fluffy, season with salt and pepper and add it to the roasted vegetables, mix it in well so the couscous is completely covered in all the yummy juices and spices, we don't want any dry bits of couscous!
Now simply throw in a few handfuls of spinach and rocket, a sprinkle of pine nuts and give a quick mix.
I promise you the roasted French garlic will be wonderfully soft and sweet!
Millie
