salad

Throw it all in!

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The Story of this dish is that I was out of inspiration and still wanted to ‘whoop’ something up. I started to work out more again and wanted to have something filling and also healthy with out much fat in it. Greens was one of the condition, so lettuce, cucumber and arugula. The second condition a colourful dish so I added capsicum and corn. The third was it needs to be filling so I threw in some chick peas and kidney beans. Next was to add some flavour to it so some goat cheese. Then I thought honey goes great with goat cheese, but it would be too sweet. The thought-process was ‘Ok, lets make it mustard-honey and add a little bit of lemon juice too for some acidity and freshness.’ By then it was this piece of hideous art.

Below are the Ingredients for one person, but I made more than the amount specified below and had some leftovers. Because I used mostly whole products or packages.

Ingredients: For 1 person

70 grams of Lettuce
35 grams of Arugula
1/2 Red bell pepper
1/2 Cucumber
70 grams  of Crispy corn
70 grams of Chickpeas
70 grams of Kidney beans
100 grams of Goat cheese
100 grams of Wall nut
1 tablespoon of Mustard
2 tablespoons of Honey
1/2 Lemon

To make it, is simple just cut everything up into bite size. Throw it all together and plate it like how you want to serve it. Rinse some of the vegetables before cutting it.

The Honey-mustard sauce, is made by heating a sauce-pan and add two spoon of honey first and then add the mustard. The honey will turn more liquid when heated. Stir the honey and mustard. Do not let it cook just make it warm enough for the two ingredient to mix. Finally add some lemon juice to the pan. Stir again and add it to the salad.

Have fun with it and Keep Experimenting!

Missing inspiration… The salad story.

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I am sitting in a coffee franchise, drinking a grande caramel latte and not knowing what to write about. Inspiration has been missing for the last two weeks. I have been pretty much settled in Amsterdam, working part-time, having social events and going to the gym two times a week. However at times I feel unfulfilled with what I have now. I know I am starting a new chapter of my life story, but I am a bit impatient to get where I want to be. This feeling of not going forward tends to occur when I’m having lots of free time to spare. I shouldn’t bitch about, because a lot of people are to busy to have time to spare.

First world problem, right? We should be more grateful for the things we have and I am grateful for having a warmhearted family, good friends and a good life up till now.

I have the future in my own hands and by being active and trying, I can create things that I like. So this dish was something I wanted after a Monday-morning in the gym. Something healthy and some ingredients that I still had stored in the kitchen.

Ingredients: (for 2 portions)

1 Lettuce
1 Red pepper (capsicum)
Halve a Cucumber
1 sweet and fruity Apple
200 grams of Feta cheese
50 grams of Cashew nuts
Quarter of a Lemon
20mL of Extra virgin Olive oil

(optional)
200 grams of Sliced Turkey breast meat
Some salt and pepper
Some oil or butter

Preparing the Salad

Take the sliced turkey meat and season it with salt and pepper. Heat up a fry or grill-pan, when it is hot enough add some oil or butter on the pan. Add the turkey breast in the pan and grill it till it is done. When ready put the turkey aside on a plate.

Get the lettuce and cut it in half from top to bottom and cut up each half of the lettuce from the top end to the bottom end in stripes. Throw away the bottom part. Take the Red pepper and cut it also in half from top to bottom. Remove the insides and the green top of the red pepper. Cut the red pepper also into stripes from top to bottom. Get the cut up veggies and rinse it in a colander. Wash the cucumber and slice it into disks. Take out the feta and cut it into cubes. Wash the apple and cut it in half from top to bottom. Remove the core, the top and the end. Julienne (a french name of cutting technique) the apple parts. Grab a big bowl and mix all the lettuce, red pepper, cucumber, apple, feta and cashew nuts all together. In a separate bowl add some Extra virgin olive oil and agitate it with the lime juice. Mix it well and the two liquids thickens.

Plate up, add the turkey and the salad mix. Give it a few spoons of the dressing-like mixture and it is done.

It is easy to make and I hope you like it. Like, share and Keep Experimenting!

The BLT Pasta Salad

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Who ever thought that Salads are just for people losing weight are surely mistaken.

Every once in a while I like to make a meal-time salad. When I want something not that heavy on the stomach, but also delicious and easy to make. This recipe is something I consider as a balanced meal, almost everything what you need is in it.

Ingredients: (for 1-2 person)
100-150gr of Pasta (Penne)
75-150gr of Greens (Lettuce, Arugula or any lettuce types)
200gr of Tomato (Cherry)
200gr or 20 pieces of Mini Mozzarella
250gr or 1 pack of Bacon bits
5-10gr of Pine nut
1 pinch of Salt
2tbls or 30ml of Honey
1 whole Lime
1 clove of Ginger

Take a pan large enough to cook the pasta in it. Fill the pan with enough water for cooking the penne. Average 1L per 100gr pasta. When the pan with water is boiling add the pasta and a pinch of salt. Cook for 20 min until it is ready. When ready drain the water from the pasta and set it aside.

While the pasta is cooking, take a frying-pan and heat it up. Once warm put the fire on low-heat and roast the pine nuts until golden. This takes just a few minutes. Set the roasted nuts aside and bake the bacon bits. I like my bacon to be a bit crunchy, so it take at least 5 minutes to have a crunchy outside and soft inside. When the bacon is ready drain the oil from the bacon and set it aside on a plate with a paper towel to absorb some of the fat still on it.

Wash the Greens and Tomatoes, fling of the water on the greens. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half. When done add everything in a bowl, the pasta, the greens, the tomatoes, the mini mozzarella, the bacon bits and the pine nuts. It is almost done, only the sauce or dressing left before tossing it. The salad or better shake the salad up.

The sauce is easy to make. Only the juice of the ginger is needed to give it a nice zing to the flavour, it’s optional.

Peel the ginger clove, grate the ginger in to pulp and sieve the juices out of the pulp. Take a sauce pan warm it up, add 2 tablespoons of Honey (add more if you like it sweeter or stickier), squeeze out the lime juice into the honey. Optional add ginger juice to the pan and stir the mix till it becomes fluid.

Now add the dressing to the Salad mix and mix it up so everything is drenched with the sweet, fresh and spunky sauce.

Serve immediately.