Tahini sauce salad- low fat!

Salads have become much more of a big deal for me in recent months. By salads I’m talking huge bowl salads, soup accompaniment salads and hot salads.... gone are the days when salads were only served in summer!

I love hot food, there is something so satisfying about a plate of hot home cooked food, but I also appreciate the virtues of raw and uncooked foods and try to eat raw veggie sticks and salads when I can. It’s a simple fact that regardless of how healthy a food is, it will lose some of its nutritional value during the heating process. So, for me a hot salad is a great compromise... the benefits of raw veggies whilst satisfying the ‘hot’ meal side of things.  I nearly always eat my spinach raw in what ever dish I make, partly because raw spinach is so much more bulky and visually substantial that wilted cooked spinach. You eat with your eyes, right?

Back to the point of this post....it’s not all about the salad but the dressing! The dressing is a low fat twist on a traditional tahini dressing and I credit Susan over at Fat Free Vegan for her great recipe.

The salad itself is up to you... I threw together a mixture of roasted and raw veggies...  iceberg lettuce with raw grated carrot and cucumber chunks, along with some leftover chickpeas and roasted cauliflower and courgette that I chopped small and sprinkled with a little salt and pepper and allowed to roasted whilst I blended the dressing and prepped the rest of the dish. 

Assemble your salad and then go crazy with the healthy tahini dressing until your hearts content! This could also be used as a dipping sauce- reduce the water by half when you blend together.

Recipe: Low fat tahini dressing

Ingredients:

1/4 cup chickpeas
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup water
1 tbs tahini
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tbs ground chia
1 tbs nutritional yeast
1-2 garlic cloves- crushed
2 tsp fresh ginger (or 1/2 tsp ground)
black pepper to taste

Method:

Blend all ingredients together until very smooth. Dressing will store in the fridge for up to two weeks.

I served mine over a raw-cooked combo salad!

For further guidance on making gluten free choices please see this post.

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.

Hot holiday salad bowl

I need some down time after all the chocolate and candy!

There still some more chocolatey posts to come just in time for your New Years celebrations, but I feel a little break is in order, otherwise I wont appreciate it. All the sweet food can get pretty overwhelming...healthy or not!  I'm actually looking forward to 'de-cluttering' the fridge and my baking supplies and stripping back to basics for a few weeks come January, though I wonder how long it will be before cake kicks back in :-)

On boxing day, my whole family went out for a walk, I did take my camera with me but to be honest is was cloudy and overcast so the resulting photos left much to be desired.  When we arrived home mid afternoon...a little cold and wet...a big lunch was in order to keep us going until supper time snacks and games.

A bowl of pan-fried christmas leftover salad made the perfect offering. My dad and I topped ours with leftover chestnut roast crumbles (pictured) whilst my mum, brother and sister topped there's with leftover chicken and bacons strips, this salad makes the perfect based for veggies and meaties alike.

The simple dressing and festive clementines gave a lovely sweet touch.  The dressing and the basis for this salad was originally inspired by this recipe and then I added some extras of my own not so dissimilar to my favourite sprouts recipe.

Recipe: Christmas salad

Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 cups chopped/shredded sprouts
3 medium white potatoes- cubed
1 onion or 4 small shallots- sliced
1 medium courgette- grated
2 packed cups lettuce leaves/spinach (I used a mix of both)
2 clementines segmented
handful of toasted walnuts/pecans
optional toppings of choice (see notes above)
dressing: 2 tbs each olive oil, balsamic vinegar, maple syrup, 1 tsp dijon mustard and the clementine zest.

Method:

Panfry the sprouts, potato and shallots in a little oil for approx.10 minutes (depending on size of chunks) until almost cooked. Add the grated courgette and continue to cook for a couple of minutes.

Meanwhile mix the dressing ingredients together well and decant into a small bowl or jug.

Assemble the salad bowls, dividing the lettuce/spinach between the bowls. When cooked through, add the hot salad mixture to the centre of each bowl.

In the same pan add a handful of nuts and toast them for a couple of minutes whilst you finish assembling the salads. Add the topping of choice i.e nit roast crumbles (these can be hot or cold) and then the clementine and toasted nuts.

Drizzle a little dressing to serve.

For further guidance on making gluten free choices please see this post.

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.

Pineapple salsa salad

Fruity salads seem to be a common theme for me at the moment. I posted this apple chutney salad a few weeks back and I have another couple on the cards just waiting for a better photo opportunity.

This particular salad dressing was closely inspired by the recipe in Levi Roots book 'Caribbean Food Made Easy' and I loved the simplicity of the sweet and spicy flavour contrast so was keen to experiment with jazzing up my colourful bowl of salad. This little jar made me about 4 servings worth although I guess that does depend upon how generous you are. 

Salads at lunchtimes are particularly satisfying to me at the moment, I made up two big tuns of salad to take with my to keep me going throughout the coaching course. When at home I often team up my salads with a bowl of soup on the side.... soup and salad, hot and cold, starter and ...er starter? I enjoy the salad bowl followed by the soup bowl or sometimes I eat them side by side....cos that's just the crazy way I roll! :-)

Recipe: pineapple salsa 

One large ramekin

Ingredients

1 tin pineapple chunks or 2/3 cup fresh pineapple

¼ tsp chilli flakes (or to taste)

1 spring onion- sliced

1 tbs chopped fresh mint

Squeeze of fresh lemon juice

2 tsp mild flavoured oil

½ tsp unrefined sugar (I used coconut sugar)

Method

Lightly blend to mix together and break up the pineapple. Allow the flavours to infuse for 15 mins before serving. Store in the fridge for 3-4 days.

Tastes great served over salad.  What other ways would you serve this dressing...sweet or savoury?

For further guidance on making gluten free choices please see this post.

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.