Salad for brunch?

I love a brunch on the weekend but sometimes I really crave a big pile of veg - this may or may not be linked to the wine consumption of a Friday night! Since I hadn't managed to get up until quite late on Saturday I thought I may as well create exactly what I was craving - the brunch elements of smoked salmon and a poached egg went perfectly into a huge bowl of salad leaves. The photo is missing avocado as I totally forgot to put it in until I'd taken a few bites and realised - to my horror!!! - that my favourite ingredient was missing :)

I won't lie this is definitely more of a suggestion than a recipe but the ingredients worked well together so I've included them here. You can of course substitute any vegetables you have hanging around in your fridge. The 'recipe' below serves one but can easily be doubled, tripled etc.

Weekend Brunch Salad

Spinach
Kale, briefly steamed then cooled
Roasted red pepper, cut into strips (as always I used jarred)
Smoked salmon
Toasted pumpkin and sunflower seeds
Half an avocado spooned out in chunks
1 large, free range egg
Lemon juice
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
Goats cheese, optional extra

I'm lazy so I used one pan for all the cooking - start by toasting your seeds in the dry pan, then steam your kale in a tiny bit of water with a pinch of salt.
Once you've done this use the same pan to poach your egg.
While the egg is poaching you can assemble your other ingredients, toss everything together with a good squeeze of lemon juice and drizzle with olive oil, season to taste.
Once the egg is cooked and drained slide it on top of your salad and grind over some black pepper - if you're like me you might need a pinch of salt as well.
Serve up your delicious, protein packed and super filling brunch salad - enjoy!

NB: I added a bit of goats cheese to this as I had some hanging round in the fridge but its not needed so totally optional.

Lunch with a difference

Having met the lovely owner of Dhaba Lane at an event we ran recently she was kind enough to let me try some of the delicious healthy curries they offer as a lunch delivery option - after all you never know when we might need a working lunch in the world of food tech startups.

Here is the menu we were treated to - a normal portion of each easily went round between three of us for lunch with a little to spare so I had a number of grateful colleagues too!

Menu from Dhaba Lane

Kadai Paneer: Peppers, Onions and Paneer in a thick tomato gravy. The fresh peppers add spicy and sweet flavour to the spices.
Dhaba Chicken: Chicken curry as found on Indian highways. This is simplicity at its best, with freshly ground spices.
Paneer, pepper & gobi paratha: Hand rolled stuff flatbread, its like Paneer pizza flavours stuffed in a paratha, without the grease! We use wholemeal flour.
Salad: Fresh mix leaves tossed with yellow split lentils, spinach, minted courgettes and oil free roasted cauliflower & broccoli. Served with home-made dry mango chutney.

The Dhaba chicken curry and stuffed paratha were my favourite dishes and the ones I would go back to order again. They were both nicely spiced - as you'll remember from previous posts I'm a bit of a chilli fiend - and were even better when pimped up with a bit of the super hot chilli sauce that accompanied the dishes.

The salad made a tasty side and, although I'm not a lover of yellow split peas, they went really well with the rest of the dish a made a filling side to share or even a salad in its own right. The paneer curry was delicious but a bit on the mild side for me. My colleague who prefers to steer clear of spicy dishes loved it.

It made a lovely change for lunch and everything was really clean and fresh tasting. Its hard to find healthy options to eat at work and a healthy curry is an even more unusual find so well worth checking out!

A Cheeky Italian

I was lucky enough to be invited to lunch at Clapham-based Donna Margherita on Friday to check out the menu for their Napoli in Clapham event. The food was amazing and it was great to hear the owner, Gabriele's, passion for Neapolitan food and culture.

As we ate our way through the bruschetta, parmigiana, calamari, pizza margherita (which I learned to fold like a true Italian), gnocchi and two of the most delicious cakes I've ever tried, we chatted about food - of course!! Gabriele is passionate about the difference cooking methods and the resulting food between Southern Italy - especially Napoli - and the rest of the country. You'll have to come to the event to learn more but one of the things he did tell me about was the importance of al dente pasta - apparently those from Napoli like a bit more bite than the result of the country. He was kind enough to send me on my way with a packet of spaghetti so I felt like it was only fair to share the results!

To get the best taste of the spaghetti itself I decided to do a simple tomato sauce but this evening I couldn't resist eating even more pasta so cooked a 'meatier' version with prawns. I'm sure its not remotely authentic Italian food - you'll have to head to Clapham for that! - but it was delicious and the bite of the pasta definitely made a difference. I think I may have even been converted to Rummo.

 Spaghetti with slow cooked tomato sauce

1 red onion, roughly chopped
2 large garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
Punnet of good quality tomatoes, organic if possible
Dried basil
Dried chilli flakes
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
Marsala wine, if needed

Fresh basil to finish

Fresh grated parmesan to finish

Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the onion and garlic with a good pinch of salt, fry until soft.

Add the tomatoes, dried basil, chilli flakes and cover.

Leave to cook down for a while, if the tomatoes are not that ripe add a small splash of Marsala to sweeten them, if not using wine then add a splash of water.

Cook on a low heat with a cover on for as long as you can bear, I cooked these tomatoes for about 40 minutes whole then blitzed and returned to the pan with a bit of water and cooked for a further hour.

When you're happy with your tomato sauce you can get your pasta on - cook according to packet instructions (9 minutes in this case). I've been strictly told you need to time this to get true al dente pasta and it did work perfectly so I'm not going to deviate from instructions.

Once the timer has gone drain your pasta reserving a bit of water in case your sauce is too thick.

Add the pasta to the warm pan of sauce along with the fresh basil, adjust of flavouring and toss the pasta through the sauce ensuring everything is evenly coated.

Plate up and cover with lots of freshly grated parmesan cheese.

I also did another version of this dinner tonight, almost exactly as above but instead of fresh tomatoes I used tinned and I skipped the wine.
Once I'd blitzed the sauce and returned to the pan I added chopped roasted pepper and some big fat prawns - I always use frozen but if you can get good fresh ones then this will be even better!
Cover and allow the prawns to cook while you do your pasta.
Again the rest of the instructions would be as above - the perfect super fast recipe for a delicious midweek supper!