Category: Vegetarian

Spicy Lebanese potatoes (batata harra)

.Reading time 1 minute.
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Get over it and eat more potatoes.

 Serves: 4 – 6

There is something great about having a repertoire of potato dishes. Because people inherently like people who cook good potatoes, especially when they can do more than mash and baked potatoes.

These potatoes are awesome and would go well with so many things; steak, chicken or maybe some marinated and grilled pork. We had them with some really great Middle Eastern Beef and Parsley kebabs.

We substituted sweet paprika for the cayenne so that the boys would eat them and they were still delicious. And the boys hoovered them up.

Ingredients

1kg white potatoes, cubed 2cm
2 tbsp olive oil
1 ½ tsp salt
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
5 cloves garlic, crushed
¼ c finely chopped coriander
1 tbsp lemon juice
¼ tsp cayenne pepper

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 200c.
  2. In a large bowl, toss the potatoes with the olive oil and the salt. Divide potatoes among 2 baking paper-lined oven trays and roast for 40 minutes or golden.
  3. Place a large frying pan over a medium heat; add the extra virgin olive oil, garlic and coriander and cook for 1 – 2 minutes until the garlic changes colour. Add the lemon juice and the hot potatoes to the pan and toss to coat. Season to taste and sprinkle with the cayenne pepper.

Nigella’s smashed avocado

.Reading time 1 minute.
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Oh yeah! 

Serves: 2

I type this recipe up on Valentine’s Day morning and so you can guess what I have just eaten and been made for breakfast!

This is better than any Hallmark card. In fact, it is better than any smashed avocado and tomato number that you’ll likely get at your local breakfast haunt, what with the addition of the chilli, ginger, dill, a squeeze of lemon and the radish sprinkled on top.

I added a few slices of tomato to my plate as well.

This is my new healthy breakfast favourite. Except for Nat’s incredible Mexican Eggs, reserved for my once-a-year birthday.

Happy Valentine’s Day turtle. You are the one.

(Thanks also Nigella!)

Ingredients

1 avocado
Juice of half a small lemon
Half a bunch of dill, chopped
Good pinch chilli flakes
2 good pinched of grated ginger
Rock salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste
2 thinly sliced radishes
2 – 4 slices of toasted soy and linseed bread
1 tomato, sliced 

Method

  1. Mash the avocado together with the lemon juice, dill, chilli flakes, ginger and salt and pepper.
  2. Spread the avocado mixture liberally on the toast.
  3. Throw a few radish slices on top and the tomato if using.
  4. Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Protein Balls

.Reading time 1 minute.
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This man – John Cena – is a result of protein. But probably has small balls as a result. P.S. I only know about this guy because of my boys.

Serves: At least one muscly chick for a week

Who would have ever thought I would type up a protein ball recipe?

Times are a changing here at Chez Robert and among chopped carrots, chopped salads and salmon dinners, we now have homemade protein balls.

They taste bloody great – like cookie dough – and they’re not expensive to make unlike the stuff you can buy in the supermarket and fitness shops.

Chop and change the accouterments to include anything from walnuts, coconut and chocolate chips or go with my additions of raisins, flax and oats.

Just don’t over-protein yourself and explode in protein flames.

I tripled the recipe to make 12 balls of power and suggest you do too muscle girl.

Ingredients

96gm (3 scoops) vanilla whey protein powder
6 tbsp honey or maple syrup
6 tbsp natural peanut butter
2 tbsp flax seed flower (ground)
2 tbsp raisins
2 tbsp oats

Method

  1. With sweat dripping down your forehead, combine all the ingredients, shouting ‘Come out and face me John Cena’.
  2. Make into golf-size balls.
  3. Refrigerate, consume and fight.

Smashed Broad Bean Spread

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 4 snacking adults

This is a great spread. Use low fat feta and it’s plenty healthy too.

Subtle, mediterranean flavour – a dark horse amongst other more popular spreads if presented as part of a share plate.

Peeling broad beans is a little bit of a pain though just get on with it; the end result is more than worth it, served with toasted pita or other crackers.

Yumo.

Ingredients

200gm frozen broad beans
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
100 gm feta, crumbled
1 Tbsp mint leaves, finely chopped
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
Salt and pepper

Method

  1. Boil the beans for 2 minutes and then drain, refresh in cold water, and peel off the outer skins.
  2. Combine the beans, garlic and olive oil, smash to a rough puree, and then stir through the remaining ingredients.

Champ

.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Serves: 4 – 6 as a side to a stew

Champ is as good as it is unknown in Australia; Ireland’s take on mash potatoes.

You can happily substitute spring onions for red onions or (French) shallots as I often do.

Or become a real champ warrior by adding bacon and ham.

Ingredients

100gm spring onions, sliced thinly
150ml milk
100gm butter
1kg potatoes
Salt and pepper

Method

  1. Make your mash potatoes as you normally would; plenty of butter and seasoning. If you have a ricer, use that you get perfectly smooth mash, if not, buy one.
  2. Stir through the spring onions.
  3. Try not to keep sampling to check the seasoning for the 20 minutes that your braise is finishing off!

Spanish Potato Salad

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 4 – 6 as a side

This is another Bobby Flay recipe and is a great and very colourful – thanks to the saffron, tomato and red onion – addition to my repertoire of potato salads.

I served it with Jamie Oliver’s spice crusted BBQ leg of lamb and it was fabulous.

Ingredients

¼ c red wine vinegar
1 tbsp honey
1 pinch saffron threads
1 c good cup quality egg mayonnaise
1 tbsp minced garlic
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1kg new potatoes
1 large tomato
½ c finely diced Spanish onion
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
¼ c coarsely chopped flatleaf parsley

Method

  1. Combine the vinegar, honey and saffron in a small pot. Bring to a boil over a high heat and immediate remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.
  2. Combine the mayonnaise and garlic with the saffron mixture in a medium mixing bowl and season to taste with salt and pepper.
  3. Cook the potatoes in a large pot of boiling, salted water until tender. Drain and slice 1cm thick. Place in a large serving bowl and immediately fold in the mayonnaise mixture, tomatoes, onion, thyme and parsley. Season again and enjoy!

The Best Green Salad with White Wine Dressing

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 4 – 6

Doesn’t any lunch – pasta, BBQ, seafood – just say its Saturday when there is a big green salad on the table?! It says pour a glass of wine, grab a piece of bread and relax.

This is my go-to green salad. It is a Valli Little recipe and you can of course adjust the dressing with say Dijon mustard or maybe some diced shallots.

Ingredients

1 small frisee lettuce (curly endive)
2 baby cos lettuce
2 cups wild rocket leaves
1 handful chervil sprigs (Harris Farm your best bet)
2 handfuls of baby green beans, blanched for 1 – 2 minutes in boiling water
Bunch of chives
1/3 c white wine
¼ c lemon juice
1 tsp honey
¾ c extra virgin olive oil

Method

  1. Remove the outer leaves from the frisee and cos. Wash the inner leaves with the rocket and dry in a salad spinner or with paper towel.
  2. Pick the chervil leaves and place in a serving bowl with the lettuce and the beans. Hold the chives over the bowl and using kitchen scissors, finely snip half the chives into the bowl.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk the wine, lemon juice and honey and season with salt and pepper. Slowly whisk in the oil until you have an emulsified dressing. Toss the salad and dressing together, then garnish with the remaining (long) chives and serve.

Bobby Flay’s Grilled Eggplant Dip

.Reading time 4 minutes.
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Handsome and a good cook. Both things I aspire to!

Serves: 8 as part of a share platter

Bobby Flay isn’t a household name in Australia though the reverse is true in America where he is a superstar of cooking.

I first heard about him on Iron Chef America and despite his good looks and cool swagger, this is not a man you want to challenge in the kitchen. From memory, he never lost a challenge.

Anyway, this is his eggplant dip and whilst there is a little effort to it, it has a subtle, sophisticated and really fine flavour to it. I grilled some Turkish bread brushed will olive oil and served that with the dip and that Oliver had five in quick succession tells you volumes.

Impress your mates and serve this up fresh next time they’re around. Better still if you have good looks and cool swagger.

P.S. I didn’t oil the vegetables to cut down on calories and I saw no downside. Except less calories! Oh, and really do try to serve this fresh or if refrigerated, allow time to come back to room temperature and give a good stir to combine.

Ingredients

1 red pepper (capsicum)
¼ c canola oil
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1 large or 2 medium eggplant, ends trimmed and sliced lengthwise, 2cm thick
2 cloves garlic
¼ c tahini
¼ c Greek (fat-free) yoghurt
¼ c extra virgin olive oil
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1 tbsp chopped, fresh oregano
1 tsp hot smoked paprika
¼ c chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Pita breads or Turkish breads, brushed with olive oil, heated on the grill to serve

Method

  1. Heat a grill to medium. Brush the red pepper with some of the canola oil and season with salt and pepper. Brush the eggplant slices on both sides with more of the canola oil and season with salt and pepper.
  2. Grill the eggplant until charred on the first side; around 3 minutes. Turn and continue grilling until tender; around 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to a chopping board.
  3. Grill the red pepper, turning occasionally until charred all over and tender; around 15 minutes. Transfer to a bowl, cover tightly with cling wrap and let steam while you make the eggplant puree.
  4. Smash the garlic cloves, sprinkle them with salt and mash and smear them to a paste using the side of a knife.
  5. Remove the skin from the eggplant and transfer the flesh to a food processor. Add garlic paste, tahini, yoghurt, 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and the lemon zest, oregano and smoked paprika. Process until smooth and thick. Add salt to taste and transfer to a serving bowl and let sit for at least 15 minutes to allow the flavours to meld.
  6. Peel, seed and dice the red pepper.
  7. Drizzle the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil over the dip (I gave this a miss), top with the diced peppers and chopped parsley and serve with the warm pita, lavash or grilled Turkish bread.

Oliver’s Guacamole

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: Oliver

In a cooking blog that is meant to discover and inspire, it might seem a little odd to put up a guacamole recipe. According to Google, there are 2.380 million of the recipes out there and so it is safe to say that we don’t need another.

Except that it wasn’t until recently when I had a fresh guacamole and then made my own batch at home that  I remembered just how awesome guacamole is. It is so spirited and exciting and fresh. And so healthy that the top result about guacamole in Google describes it as almost ‘superfood’.

I’ll run with that!

Also, this blog being for my boys so that they have a bunch of tested recipes to cook for their friends and family, Oliver (8), the eldest who is really picky and plain about food, demolished this guacamole. By itself, he would never touch avocado, red onion or coriander… or any of the ingredients.

He would just eat the corn chips and be done with it.

But he will eat this guacamole by the bucket and that is a great way to get great foods into him.

It is also why it’s called Oliver’s Guacamole.

Enjoy it like he does and go all in with the flavour!

Ingredients

Avocados
Red onion, minced
Garlic, mashed with salt
Lime Juice
Cumin
Tomatoes, seeded and finely diced
Salt
Coriander leaves
Plain corn chips

Method

  1. Mash the avocados roughly with the lime juice.
  2. Mix through the remaining ingredients except the coriander and correct the seasoning.
  3. Garnish with the coriander.

Giada De Laurentiis’ White Bean Dip

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 4 – 8 snacking guests

Another fantastic recipe from Giada De Laurentiis; I recently wrote up her Linguini with Green Beans, Ricotta and Lemon and this dip gets the same superlatives I used for her pasta recipe:

    • Great
    • Unassuming
    • Simplicity
    • Clean
    • Healthy
    • Tasty

I’m really into dips at the moment and I did this one up on the week alongside a few others. It will easily last the week it will take to dip away at it and it is just so fresh to be able to have a few mouthfuls of dip anytime you get hungry.

As long as you’re not telling yourself that you are hungry all the time because then dip could become a problem!

Ingredients

4 pita breads, split horizontally and cut into 8 wedges
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Dried oregano
1 tin cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
¼ c parsley leaves
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 clove garlic

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 200 C.
  2. Process the beans, parsley, garlic, and lemon juice with salt and pepper until coarsely chopped, and then gradually mix in 1/3 cup olive oil until creamy.
  3. Brush the pita bread wedges with some olive oil, and then sprinkle with oregano and salt and pepper.
  4. Bake until crisp and golden.
  5. Serve the bean dip with the pita wedges.