Tag: Original Recipes

Summer Salad In A Jar

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It’s Summer and we are in 2017! Happy New Year everyone! I hope 2016 has been good for you, but I hope even more that 2017 will be an amazing year with lots of opportunities for you to strive on, lots of love, happiness and that everyone will be in the best of health!

To start the year on the right note, I decided to change the way we eat, and steer it towards eating as healthy as possible! So when Croud Australia contacted me to send me a WW Freshbox that’s completely vegetarian by the Aussie Farmers Direct, I couldn’t say no!

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 It’s a box filled with fresh vegetables and beautiful produce! What’s great about each box is they come with recipes that you could follow too! How easy is that? I love the convenience!

When I saw what I had in my box ( 3 meals for 2 people, $64) a few ingredients jumped out at me and I really wanted to make a vibrant salad that we would be able to even have it on the go and with a salad “dressing” that would be exciting for the taste buds too.

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So I decided to make a kale & basil toasted walnut pesto and it absolutely binds all the ingredients together! The perfect dressing (and healthy too with a superfood in it!) for the salad and if you have people you’re making for that loves and needs meat (like the mr), you could easily grill some meat and pop it on as well! It’s a really versatile recipe, and you can add your favourite ingredients too!

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Don’t you just love the colour? It tastes absolutely amazing too!

So here’s the recipe for the perfect Summer salad!

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Summer Salad in A Jar (An original Food Made With Love recipe)

For the kale & toasted walnut pesto:

40g toasted walnut

80g kale leaves, stem removed

35g basil leaves

2 large garlic cloves

80g grated parmesan

1 tsp salt

150ml olive oil

Steps:

  1. Add the kale, basil, garlic cloves and salt in a food processor and pulse for 10 to 12 times, till you get a fine chop.
  2. With the motor running, slowly pour the olive oil into the bowl. Scrap the sides of the bowl.
  3. Add the walnuts, garlic cloves & parmesan, continue to pulse until the mixture is well combined. Set aside.

Note: I used this as a dressing for my salad, but you could use this in your pastas, or coat it with some grilled chicken!

For the salad:

350g butternut pumpkin, cut into cubes

1 red capsicum, sliced length-wise

1 can of chickpeas, drained

1 large handful of rocket leaves

1 large handful of baby spinach leaves

30g Greek style feta, crumbled

3 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp salt, and extra for seasoning

ground black pepper

2 tbs olive oil

Steps :

  1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Line the baking tray with some aluminium foil, drizzle with 1 tbs of olive oil, and place the butternut pumpkin and red capsicum onto the tray. Season the butternut pumpkin with the smoked paprika and season with some salt. Bake for 20 mins or until the pumpkin is tender. Set aside to let it cool down.img_1784-1
  2. In a small nonstick pan, heat 1 tbs of oil over medium heat. Add ground coriander, cumin & salt, and cook for a minute. Remember to keep stirring, so that it doesn’t burn. Add the drained chickpeas and stir for 5 minutes or until lightly toasted and the chickpeas are well coated with the spices. Set aside.
  3. To plate : In a large jar, place the rocket and baby spinach leaves into the base. Add the butternut pumpkin and the red capsicum then sprinkle with the crumbled greek feta. Top with the spiced chickpeas and finally the kale & toasted walnut pesto.
  4. You could shake it gently to coat the contents with the pesto dressing, or if you have access to a plate, pour it out and mix it gently. Enjoy on its own or with some grilled meats!

           ENJOY!

Remember to always cook and bake with love!

xx

PS: Thank you Croud and Aussie Farmers Direct for this opportunity to try and love the Freshbox! Will be trying some of the recipes that are on the website too! Stay tuned, more recipes to come!

Gingery & Coconutty Granola

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Gingery & coconutty granola

You and I both know I absolutely love brunch. But during the week, it’s impossible to have brunch due to work and more often than not, I end up having a slice of toast with either peanut butter or vegemite and out of the door I went! But I really wanted to have something healthy and good in the morning to keep me full for most of the morning before lunch so I decided to make my own granola to go with yogurt! Mmmm (:

Granola with greek yogurt

I also wanted to try using something I’ve never used before, but has been on my mind for a while now – Molasses. A dark and viscous by-product of the refining of sugar cane. The health benefit of molasses is its high mineral content. It’s wheat, dairy, lactose, gluten and yeast free! It smells and tastes quite similar to gula melaka hehe I like it!

Molasses

It’s not as sweet as honey, but still makes the granola yummy! (: Had to take that risk, but so glad I did. hehe I tried baking a cake with it, but I think I probably used too much and the taste over took the whole cake, so I’m sticking to sugar for my cakes. haha Or honey! But for granola, it was perfect! hehe

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The best thing about this recipe? You could pretty much add what you love and it will still work! hehe I ransacked my whole pantry and took out everything I wanted and tossed it in the mix!  There were a few things I really wanted in my granola this time : toasted coconut and crystalised ginger! It was a combination I came across at the awesome Borough Market in London during my recent trip! hehe So here we go! (:

Gingery & Coconutty Granola (A Food Made With Love original recipe)

1 cup shredded coconut (toasted till brown, set aside)

3 cups rolled oats

1 cup slivered almonds

1 cup roughly chopped walnuts

1/2 cup pine nuts

1/2 pistachios, roughly chopped

1/2 cup unsalted cashews, roughly chopped

1 tsp ground cinnamon

3 tbs olive oil

3 tbs molasses

1 cup raisins

1 cup goji berries

shredded coconut (before toasting)

Toasted shredded coconut

Steps :

1) Preheat the oven to 150 degrees celcius. In a large bowl, place the rolled oats, mixed nuts and cinnamon. Give it a good toss to so that they are well combined.

2) In a small pot, heat the olive oil and molasses on low heat till smooth. Drizzle over the oats mixture and mix till well combined.

3) Pour the mixture on a line tray and bake for about 35-40 mins, stirring every 10 minutes.

4) Remove from the oven and allow it to cool slightly. Pour it back into the large bowl, and mix in the raisins and goji berries. Once the mixture is completely cooled, stir in the toasted coconut.

Gingery & coconutty granola

Enjoy on its own (it makes a great snack!) or with your favourite yogurt! (:

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PS: Did you notice the new logo for Food Made With Love? hehe Hope you guys like it and I just want to thank you for your continuous support and love for my posts! I won’t be here if not for you all, so thank you heaps! x

Have a great week ahead! Till the next post, remember to always cook and bake with love! 

Shrooms Delish

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Shrooms Delish

Happy Mid Week dearest readers! (: I hope your week has been going well and we’re not too far from the weekend (and a long one for those in Melbourne & Tassy! Woohoo!) I’ve got some exciting news to share with all of you! I was recently contacted by Keep Left and was asked to be part of this fun recipe campaign with Bakers Delight! Without much hesitation, I agreed to it! Fortunately the time line wasn’t too rush, so I had the weekend to try out what I wanted to create.

Ingredients

We were allowed to create a recipe for lunch with our choice of any Bakers Delight bread and I decided to head to their website to see what they had to offer and the choices were endless! There were SO MANY different kinds of bread and I haven’t really said this before, but my weakness is definitely freshly baked bread! Mmmmm (:

Pipe loaf (wholemeal)

After much consideration, I decided to go with the pipe loaf! It totally got my attention cause it was my first time seeing a loaf in a shape of a cylinder! How cute is that??? I tried to think of what I could do with it, but couldn’t really visualise until the bread loaves were delivered! The moment I saw it, I knew exactly what I wanted to make!

top view : shrooms delish

Many of you would know that brunch is no doubt my favourite meal of all time so of course, I decided to make something that could be enjoyed for both brunch or lunch. I walked along the aisles of the supermarket (and thankfully I was given a $20 Coles voucher to get ingredients! hehe) and I decided on something a little different from my usual choices, I decided to go meatless! Don’t get me wrong, I still love my smoked salmon and crispy bacon, but I decided to try something a little different, plus I was craving for some mushrooms!

top - fried egg and crispy enoki

Instead of just the usual white button mushrooms, I decided to buy a whole variety of them! I didn’t stop at just shiitake mushrooms, I wanted to have some asian influence in the dish as well. It’s amazing how many varieties there are in the mushroom area at all the supermarkets now, and even the asian ones! I couldn’t be happier! (:

middle - mushroom ragout and avocado salsa

To add a little freshness to the dish, I decided to top with some avocado salsa as well!

bottom - wholemeal pipe loaf

To top it all off, I added a fried egg (with a runny yolk) and some crispy enoki mushrooms for some crunch! I am one who loves dishes with different textures, so the crunchy enokis were a must! hehe And of course, all these sat on a nice thick slice of the wholemeal pipe loaf which was so soft in the middle, and had a good crust after being toasted for 5 minutes in the oven! Of course, you could easily do this on any other thick toast, but I thought the round dimensions made the presentation a little prettier. hehe and yes, the plate from Made In Japan helps too! I’m really lucky that the Mr bought me some during the recent sale.

So here’s my recipe for my creation : Shrooms Delish ! Hope you all will enjoy it as much as the family did! (:

Shrooms Delish (a Food Made With Love original creation, serves 4)

For the mushroom ragout :

6 fresh shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced

150g pearl mushrooms

8 white button mushrooms, quartered

1/2 leek, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

50g butter

2 tbs water

5 sprigs of fresh chives, finely chopped

2 tbs creme fraiche

salt & pepper, for seasoning

For the crispy enoki mushrooms :

100g enoki mushrooms

vegetable oil, for deep frying

For the avocado salsa :

1 ripe avocado, roughly chopped or mash

1/4 red onion

4 pieces of sundried tomatoes, finely chopped

1 tbs olive oil

4 eggs, fried sunny side up

Pipe loaf, sliced into 1-inch slices

1 clove of garlic, peeled and left whole

Truffle oil, for garnish (optional)

Steps :

1) For the mushroom ragout : In a heavy-based pan, melt half of the butter over medium heat. Add the garlic and leeks, and allow them to sweat and soften, stirring continuously. Do be careful not to burn it, as it will turn bitter. Add the mushrooms and fry till they get soft and tender. Add the rest of the butter and water, allow the mixture to simmer for 10 minutes and until the flavours have developed, and the sauce has thickened. Season with salt and pepper, then turn the heat off. Add in the chives and creme friache and stir it till well combined. Set it a side while preparing the other components.

2) For the crispy enoki : In small pot, add the vegetable oil and heat it over medium-high heat. Add the enoki mushrooms (in batches) and fry till they are golden and crispy. Remove from the oil, and place them on some paper towel to absorb the excess oil.

3) For the avocado salsa : In a large bowl, add the avocado, chopped red onions and sundried tomatoes with the olive oil and give it a good stir. Season with salt and pepper and set a side.

4) For the toast : In a preheated oven, toast the bread for 5 minutes, or until the bread is nice and crispy on the outside with a little golden brown on top. When you take it out of the oven, rub the clove of garlic on the bread, so that you have an instant garlic bread base!

5) To plate : Place the thick toast on a plate, then add the mushroom ragout, followed by the avocado salsa. Slowly place the fried egg on top of the stack, and top it off with some crispy fried enoki mushrooms. I garnished with a sprig of chive and season with salt & pepper. Just to be a little more indulgent, I drizzled a bit of truffle oil on top, but it’s totally optional.

Shrooms Delight

Hope you enjoy my creation! (: Have a great week and weekend ahead!

Remember to always cook and bake with love! 

PS : I want to thank Bakers Delight & Keep Left PR for this amazing opportunity!