Wednesday 22 April 2009

Summery food

It's been so warm and sunny the past few days all I've been craving salady type foods, I made a really yummy salad platter today! A HUGE lunch! Mike didn't think I would manage it all but I did (with only a teeny bit of help from him hehe...didn't want any til he saw it!!). I love a plate of food which has lots of variety on it! This plate had spicy couscous (shop bought), penne vodka (from vcon, homemade minus the vodka), roast veg, mixed seasonal baby leaf salad, and tabouli, everything was homemade except the couscous.


Penne Vodka


Roast veg and baby leaf salad


Spicy couscous


Tabouli (recipe follows)


Tabouli
My tabouli recipe is based on the one my local vegetarian restaurant cooks and doesn't have mint or spring onion as other, perhaps more traditional recipes do but it is really yummy, Mike doesn't like tomatoes and he ate loads hehe
1 cup bulgar wheat
1 cup boiling water
1 scant Tbsp lemon juice
1 small red onion
3 smallish cloves of garlic
3 big vine tomatoes
big bunch of parsley
salt to taste

What you do!
Measure out a cup of bulgar wheat into a large mixing bowl, pour over the boiling water, a teaspoon of salt, crushed garlic and a few drops of lemon juice. Next finely chop your red onion and pour over the rest of the lemon juice, the acidity in the lemon juice will cook off the red onion a little bit and take the edge off. This step is not necessary but I don't like a strong onion flavour so I like to do it this way. Leave the bulgar mixture to soak up the water for about half an hour and the onion to cook down in the lemon juice if you are using this step. When all the water is absorbed and the mixture has cooled add in your chopped up vine tomatoes and parsley, check the seasoning and add more salt and lemon juice if necessary, enjoy!

Mango, Pineapple and Strawberries = yum!


Closeup!


It's competition time at Life, love violin's blog for a yummy bar and peanut butter giveaway so head over to enter and have a read of a fellow musicians blog!

7 comments:

  1. Thanks for the giveaway mention and comment on my blog! My giveaway is definitely open to readers in the UK, and I don't mind shipping overseas if you win! :) You totally got 2 entries! :)

    Tchaikovsky piano concertos are beautiful! And I love the clarinet! Have you played the Brahms clarinet quintet? One of my ALL-TIME favorites to play!

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  2. Definitely feeling the same way on the summery food cravings! Only a few more months before summer is heeeree! So exciting. I wanna be able to go to the farmers market & get all the local fresh fruits & veggies. Thank you for the recipes :)

    I hope you have a wonderful day!

    Love, Meg

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  3. I'm loving the grain salads! they are so much more filling and satisfying!

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  4. I love a salad platter - yours looks so yummy! I don't like a strong raw onion taste either, so what I do if I'm making coleslaw or a mixed salad is cure the onion in a splash of vinegar, about a tsp of sugar and a shake of salt. leave it while you're chopping the rest of your ingredients and by the time you've come back to it, voila! no longer raw and no longer giving you heartburn!

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  5. Hey! I noticed your comment on Internal Peace's blog. I'm a a musician, too (clarinet), and I've played a lot of Weber, among other things! :-)

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  6. I bet I'd love your tabouli recipe because I'm not a fan of mint! I totally agree about wanting warm weather food...it's too hot to crank up the oven!

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  7. ooh, let me know if you find a way to veganize that potato cake! You could just maybe omit the ham and replace with vegan meat or tempeh or something, but I thought cheese played a great role in there!

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