Lentil and Veg Crumble

This delicious concoction is based on a similar one that Clea posted recently on her blog. I added lentils, and changed a couple of other ingredients, to make the dish a meal in itself. The result was scrumptious: the juicy veggies and lentils contrast with the crunchy hazelnut topping, which also adds a perfect touch of sweetness. My version also adds a bit of mugi miso, to play off of the sweetness. It's very easy to make and you can try with a variety of vegetables (I might even try a chickpea version soon).

Lentil and Veg Crumble Recipe
Ingredients:
3 carrots, grated
1 zucchini, grated
1 cup cooked lentils
1 strip kombu (cooked together with the lentils)
1 teaspoon mugi miso
1/4-1/2 cup lightly roasted hazelnuts, coarsely milled with a mortar and pestle
2 tablespoons breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon almond powder
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pinch salt
a few tablespoons rice (or other) milk

Sauté the grated veggies in a wok with the olive oil and a pinch salt, until tender. Add dried basil. Remove from heat and add the cooked lentils and kombu (cut into pieces).
Pour everything into a baking pan and press a bit with a wooden spoon.
In a bowl, mix the roasted and milled hazelnuts, breadcrumbs, almond meal and rice milk until it all comes together.
Sprinkle this mixture on top of the vegetables.
Bake at 180º for about 40 minutes or until the top is golden brown. Can be served warm or cold the next day, when all the flavors have set.

Another Colorful Summer Salad

Here's one more salad, just before the summer turns to fall (the farmer I buy produce from just sent an email saying that last weeks cherry tomatoes were the last of the season, boo hoo):

Colorful Summer Salad Recipe
Ingredients:
fresh green beans
cherry tomatoes
arame seaweed
roasted hazelnuts
cooked haricot beans
chopped parsely
a few small radishes, sliced paper thin with a mandoline
ume plum vinegar
dressing: juice and rind of 1 lemon, olive oil, apple juice concentrate, 1 pinch sea salt

Soak the arame in water for 10 minutes. Drain.
Blanch the radishes in boiling water for a few seconds. Drain and pour a few drops ume plum vinegar to keep the color.
Top and tail the green beans. Boil for just 3 minutes. Drain and pour cold water over them to stop cooking. Drain again.
Chop the cherry tomatoes in half and sprinkle some drops of ume plum vinegar on them.
Mix together all of the ingredients in a bowl.
Prepare the dressing by mixing all of the ingredients, to taste, in a separate small bowl. Serve on the side.

Couscous and Chickpea Summer Salad

Made a delicious salad today. So delicious, in fact, I wolfed it down before I even remembered to take a picture to post here. So you'll just have to take my word for it: this salad is a happy, nourishing treat on a hot summer day. I ate a huge bowl and savored every bite.
This salad is a spin off of a recent post from Heidi Swanson's blog 101 Cookbooks, Cherry Tomato Couscous. I wanted to go for a bit less grain and more veggies. I also added some ingredients (seaweed, pine nuts, radish, green onion, alfalfa sprouts) to make it a nourishing meal in itself. As my teacher Montse Bradford insists, I macerated the tomatoes and cucumbers to make them a bit less yin and more yang. You don't need to do this, but the added saltiness (even though the vegetables get rinsed) tastes great, especially on a sweaty day like this one in Barcelona.

Couscous and Chickpea Summer Salad Recipe
Ingredients:
1 cup cooked couscous (whole wheat, preferably)
1 cup cooked chickpeas
1 small cucumber, sliced paper-thin with a mandoline
1 small green onion, sliced paper-thin with a mandoline
a couple of radishes, thinly sliced
a handful cherry tomatoes
a handful alfalfa sprouts

dressing:
juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
a pinch fleur de sel
garnish:
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
toasted nori seawead, cut into bits
1 tablespoon toasted pine nuts

First prepare the couscous. (Have the chickpeas already cooked from the day before.) Let couscous cool while you prepare the other ingredients. Slice cucumber and place in a colander with a teaspoon of salt. Let drain for 20 minutes or so. Rinse and pat dry. Slice tomatoes and sprinkle a few drops of ume plum vinegar. Let set for 20 minutes or so. Rinse. Slice radish and onion. Put couscous into a large bowl. Add sliced vegetables and chickpeas. Dress with lemon juice and zest, olive oil, and vinegar. Mix carefully. Add pine nuts, chopped parsley and seaweed. Serves 2 as main course or 4 as side.

Aromatic Tomato Eggplant Tart

This savory summer tart combines different recipes I have been repeating at home lately: one is Clotilde's Easy Olive Oil Tart Crust from Chocolate & Zucchini, and the other is a perfumed tomato spread from a cookbook I bought used recently and got hooked from start to finish as if it were a novel: The Unplugged Kitchen by Viana Laplace (out of print but easy to find used online). It is made with lots of cilantro and garlic: your kitchen (and maybe even whole house) will smell amazing as it bakes and for a while after.

Aromatic Tomato Eggplant Tart Recipe
Ingredients:
For the crust:
250 g whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 teaspoon dried herbs (I used thyme in this one)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup cold water

For the filling:
6 tomatoes (organic, please), peeled, chopped and drained in a colander
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 generous handful coriander (cilantro), chopped
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 small (or 1 large) eggplants, sliced into thin slices
1 handful dried mushrooms, rehydrated in boiling water
1 tablespoon pine nuts, lightly toasted

Directions:
Combine flour, salt, and herbs in a bowl. Add oil and mix with a fork. Add water, knead a bit in the bowl until you have a ball of dough and put it onto a floured surface to roll out to a crust large enough to fit into a pre-oiled round tart pan. Let rest in the fridge for an hour.

Heat the olive oil in a deep sautée pan or wok. Add the garlic and chopped cilantro. Mix for a few minutes. Then add the tomatoes and salt, and cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes, until there is barely any liquid left. Add the slices of eggplant. Sautée for another 10 minutes or so, until the eggplant seems tender. Add rehydrated mushrooms. Carefully pour mixture onto the crust and distribute evenly. Sprinkle pine nuts on top. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature (tastes great the next day).

Let Them Eat Pizza

People tend to associate pizza with a greasy, oily, fatty meal. But pizza and healthy don't need to be opposite terms.

I make pizza once a week -it comes together in a few minutes, you can get as creative as you want with the toppings, and the whole family feels pampered. I buy the crust, there are some really good whole wheat organic pizza crusts on the market, which you can freeze and save for that night you don't especially feel like spending too much time in the kitchen.
On this particular pizza night I made two versions, a vegan one with diced smoked tofu, sautéed spinach with pine nuts, and a more traditional one with mozzarella, olives, and organic tomato sauce, but also loaded with spinach.
For the vegan pizza, instead of tomato sauce I used Montse Bradford's onion paté (she actually calls it a "marmelade"), one of my favorite recipes of hers, which I make every now and then, whenever I can find someone in the house willing to peel and slice 2 kg of onions! Other than that, it's really easy to make and goes well with everything -spread on toast for breakfast, or as a side with pasta, rice or other grains, or even in salads.

Summer Super Salad

This is a super nutritious and colorful salad, good as a meal in itself for these warm summer days.

It has so many ingredients in it, that what I did was arrange it on a wooden platter according to taste: my husband doesn't like beets (too bad for him), and the children don't like the onion or mint, so I put them on separate sides of the platter so everyone would be happy.

Summer Super Salad Recipe
Ingredients:
1/2 head broccoli, cut into bite-sized florets
1/2 red onion, chopped thinly
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
a few bunches alfalfa sprouts
1 medium beet, diced
4 vine-ripened tomatoes, cut in half
1/2 cup brown rice
a few mint leaves

Dressing:
1 tablespoon tahini
1 teaspoon tamari
1 tablespoon rice syrup
1 teaspoon mustard
a few tablespoons hot water

Rince the rice and place in a small pan with 1 cup water and a pinch salt, and boil for 45 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water.

Place tomatoes on baking tray and bake on low heat for about one hour. Let cool and chop.

Cut the broccoli into bite-sized florets and boil for 3-4 minutes (make sure it stays crunchy, don't overcook!).

Combine all the ingredients nicely on a serving tray or plate, leaving the sesame seeds, mint and sprouts for the top.

Serve the dressing on the side.

Hummus Quinoa Finger Salad

As the weather gets warmer, I crave salad for lunch and dinner. After having spent the entire winter without barely touching lettuce, now I want it in every meal. The problem is, for me an overdose on lettuce means possibly leaving out important nutrients. Sometimes it's an effort to cut down on the greens and include other stuff as more than just toppings.
Here's a fresh, crunchy salad I made for lunch that is -literally- packed with protein from both the chick peas and quinoa. You can wrap the lettuce leaves into rolls and eat it with your hands (make sure you have a plate underneath, so you can munch any escaping grains later).
Make sure to use a fresh, crispy lettuce with large leaves.

Hummus Quinoa Finger Salad Recipe
Ingredients:
For the Hummus:
1 cup boiled chick peas
1 strip kombu (presoaked and boiled with the chick peas)
juice of 1 lemon
1 generous tablespoon tahini
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon ume plum paste
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
a few tablespoons water, for extra creaminess (optional)
1/2 shallot, chopped (optional)

1 cup cooked quinoa
fresh lettuce leaves
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
toasted sesame seeds

Prepare the hummus by blending all the ingredients. Gradually add the water until you reach the desired creaminess.
Wash lettuce leaves carefully so they won't break. Place dried leaves on a wooden platter. Spoon the quinoa onto the leaves, and then spoon the hummus onto the quinoa. Top with some slices of red onion.
Sprinkle with some toasted sesame seeds and a few drops of olive oil.
Serve with enzymatic crackers.