Apart from being very pretty, this beetroot salad tastes amazing. It’s from the fab cookbook Many Greek Kitchens by Tessa Kiros which is stuffed with brilliant recipes and pictures. I served this at a dinner party with other salads, fries and roast fish, but you could also serve it as part of a mezze. It’s fresh creamy sweet and crunchy, my favourite things.
This recipe is Spanish and it’s a really tasty way to cook cauliflower. It’s got lots of garlic and chilli so it’s a fantastic side dish to cook with baked fish or with other salads. It’s also got healthy lemon and parsley so it’s packed with vitamins and also very low carb. It can be served hot or at room temperature.
Beans make a smoother paler paste than chick peas, and I sometimes like that. I know versions of humus are everywhere. And bean humus can be served as an alternative to hummus and is a great healthy store cupboard standby. It’s also perfect if you are dairy free and want an alternative to butter that is healthy. They are now saying that margarines and damaged fats are really bad for you, so things like hummus are a much better and tasty alternative. I like to serve it with bread drizzled in a little olive oil, see my scorched bread recipe in the index, and dry fried in a frying pan till it’s got a slightly overdone crunchy chargrilled flavour with a nice thick layer of the bean humus and with salad and pine nuts on top. Its great with roast veg on it too or its fab with crudités or tortilla chips as a dip.
It’s the simple things that are the best and I love fries as much as the next person. No carb free living for me, and I don’t care if I have a muffin top, life’s too short to be eating just ‘clean food’. Food should be delicious, beautiful and sensual and a bit of what you fancy. I eat mostly healthy food which is unprocessed with lots of vegetables, fish and of course cake. I don’t have a microwave and am still mistaken for someone at least fifteen years younger so I must be doing something right.
This very colourful coleslaw is made without mayonnaise and with root vegetables, and it is a tribute to Ottolenghi’s slaw recipes. Although nice with Mayo it’s much fresher and healthier without and it tastes just as amazing. You can add other vegetables to it, what ever you have a preference for. It’s also great partnered with my nectarine salad, or any of my rice dishes. Super yum.
Recipe
Serves 2-4.
Ingredients:
1/2 small celeriac, julienned
1/2 small red cabbage, cored and thinly shredded, I use a mandolin
2 carrots thickly grated, I use a julienne peeler
1 beetroot thickly grated
1 lemon, zest and juice
4 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoon of vinegar
3 teaspoons of maple syrup
A bunch of parsley chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
