Waldorf(ish) trout, potato and walnut salad

Back in May, I was lucky enough to spend a day trout fishing.
Let’s just say trout fishing isn’t my forte (yet) but it was a beautiful day and in an ode to making the most of it, I took myself on a foraging walk around the lakes.
This Waldorf (ish) salad is a combination of ingredients that could be found in the vicinity of the fishing lake. (Plus some potatoes because carbs are a requirement.)
It’s a beautiful play on flavoursome ingredients that is reminiscent of Waldorf salad, except this version is clearly much better.

On a nutritional note, the salad is fantastic for Omega 3s since both trout and walnuts are great sources of this essential fat. Plus there are tonnes of vitamins, minerals and fibre to boot.
The science links Omega 3s to everything from skin health, cognition to cardiovascular health and much more.
Moral: we aren’t really getting enough Omega 3s and this recipe is a tasty way to capitalise on this much-needed nutrient.

Serves 2 as a lunch or 4 as a starter

Ingredients
2 trout fillets, steamed, poached or roasted
1 crispy lettuce such as little gem or cos, washed and separated into leaves
10 new potatoes/ small potatoes, boiled in salted water until soft then halved
1-2 sticks of celery depending on how much you like them, sliced
1 eating apple, cored and sliced
1 large handful of walnuts, 60g approximately
A large handful of a sharp fruit such as gooseberry, blackberry or 1 stick of rhubarb - halve the gooseberry or blackberry or if you opted for rhubarb then finely slice it
2 handfuls of watercress
Sea salt and black pepper to season

For the herby dressing
4 heaped tablespoons of Yeo Valley Greek Recipe yogurt, full fat (aka 5%)
1/2 teaspoon of wholegrain or dijon mustard
Juice of 1/4 of a lemon (optional)
Leaves from 2 sprigs of mint, finely chopped
Leaves from 5 sprigs each of tarragon and dill, roughly chopped
A pinch of sea salt

Method
Get your ingredients ready as per the cooking/ chopping requirements above.
To make the herby dressing, combine all of the ingredients aside from the lemon juice in a small bowl.
Season generously with sea salt.
Taste the dressing. If it needs more acidity then add the lemon juice, if you are happy with it then leave it as is.
To assemble the salad, pop all of your ingredients on a platter and flake the fish over it.
Season well with sea salt and black pepper.
Dot teaspoons of the herby dressing all of the salad.
Enjoy!

Chicken enchiladas and a herby slaw

During 2021 I ran a few online cookalongs with teens.
The idea was to introduce them to more whole foods and help them to stop relying on processed foods.
Herein lie some of the issues.
The flavour profiles of vegetables and other whole foods can be a steep slope unless those foods have been introduced during early childhood. Quite literally, we are biologically programmed to think that vegetables are poisonous, unless, of course, we learn that they are ok.
When children first start to crawl and walk, they’ll notoriously go through a fussy phase. Think about this way, they are learning about food, they are also picking things up and tasting them. Most poisonous things have a bitter undertone so evolution got clever with this and decided that anything bitter would be an instant nope.
Sadly vegetables also fall in the bitter undertone category but if they are introduced by a trusted guardian a child soon learns they are ok.
IF they are introduced.

So anyway, here I am, trying to encourage teens to get more veggies in. I had to pick a good medium as a vehicle for the introduction.
I had to start with something that they’d universally agree on as being delicious.
And that is how this chicken enchilada recipe was born.
I sold it to them as a pizza pie but the deal was it had to have a side of slaw.
They loved it and I think you’ll like it too.
So here is the recipe:

Ingredients for 4
2 chicken breasts, sliced
1 large bottle of passata, 600 - 690g
8 corn & wheat tortillas
spices: paprika, ground coriander, ground cumin
2 cloves of garlic, peeled & crushed
1 large red onion, peeled & sliced
1 red pepper, sliced
1 red chilli (optional), sliced
100g of spinach
1 block of cheddar cheese, grated

For the slaw:
1/4 of a red cabbage, finely sliced
1 tin of sweetcorn, drained
1/2 bunch each of fresh parsley, coriander & chives, roughly chopped
1 lime
1 teaspoon of agave or maple syrup
sea salt and black pepper to season
rapeseed oil for cooking
olive oil for drizzling

Method:
To make the sauce, pour the passata in a saucepan.
Add 2 crushed garlic cloves, 2 big pinches of sea salt, lots of black pepper and a heaped teaspoon each of ground coriander, cumin and paprika.
Leave this to bubble on a low-medium heat until you make the rest of the dish.

Set the oven to 180 degrees C.
Put a frying pan on a medium-high heat.
Add a splash of oil and cook the chicken until it turns fully white.
Add the peppers, onion and chilli (if using) and cook for a further minute.
Season well with sea salt and black pepper.
Pour in half of the sauce and the spinach. Let it cook until the spinach wilts.
Divide the mix between the tortillas, roll them up to form wraps and put them on a baking tray.
Pour the remaining sauce over the top and sprinkle on the grated cheese.
Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes until the cheese has melted and the tortillas are golden brown.

To make the slaw, put the cabbage, roughly chopped herbs and sweetcorn in a bowl.
Unless the stems of the herbs are particularly woody then there is no need to take the leaves off the coriander and parsley, just roughly chop the whole lot.
Season with a generous pinch of sea salt and some freshly ground black pepper.
In a smaller bowl, combine the juice of 1 lime with a teaspoon of agave and 3 tablespoons of good-quality olive oil. Pour this over the slaw and mix it well to combine.

To serve, divide the enchilada between 4 plates, serve with a generous helping of slaw and some extra fresh coriander if its your thing.

Warm Hummus Bowl

Yes, warm hummus as a base for meals is a thing and yes it is super tasty.
Here is why I utterly adore this recipe:
- The warm hummus base provides a good dose of plant-based protein
- You can use up any veggies that are past their best for the topping. Just roast them up.
- It’s a bowl of goodness that’s utterly brimming with nutrients. A friend once described it as ‘you can feel the goodness filling up your body with every mouthful’.
- The price per portion is definitely on the very affordable end of the scale. Aka it is very cheap to make.

Feel free to use shop-bought hummus if you are short on time but I do think it’s worth making the fresh version featured here. The spices used give the homemade version a little something extra.

Ingredients for 2 portions:

For the hummus
1 tin of chickpeas, drained but the water reserved
2 teaspoons of tahini
2 tablespoons of oil (i.e. olive oil, rapeseed oil or sunflower oil)
1 teaspoon of ground coriander
1/2 a teaspoon of cumin seeds
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
Salt & pepper

For the topping
This part is entirely your choice, here is what I went with:
Any vegetables for roasting: I used a mix of red onion, butternut squash and cauliflower
Potatoes - simply cube and boil these then pan fry them using some garlic, paprika, smoked paprika, sea salt and black pepper
Salad veggies: I went with lettuce, parsley & cucumber dressed with olive oil and lemon juice but anything goes
Pickles if they are your thing: I went with some pickled rose petals but only because I was testing this recipe for a retreat and it needed to have something fancy. Pickled beetroot or pickled gherkins will do the trick just as well.
The toppings aim to bring elements of sweetness (roasted veggies & potatoes) and elements of sour (the lemon juice on the salad and the pickles) as well as working with different textures (think crunchy salad and soft potatoes). Aiming for this variety makes everything taste good.

Method:
Roast your veggies & boil some potatoes.
Chop up the salad vegetables.
To make the hummus, put a small saucepan on a medium heat.
Add the oil and sliced garlic. Cook for 1 minute.
Add the cumin seeds and coriander and cook for a further minute. The oil should be very fragrant.
Set the oil aside to cool slightly.
Put the chickpeas, 1/3 of the chickpea water, tahini and lemon juice in a blender.
Season with two very good pinches of sea salt and a generous amount of black pepper.
Pour in the warm oil and spices.
Blend the hummus until it is smooth, adding a bit more of the chickpea water if needed.
Check the seasoning and add more salt and pepper if required.
Transfer the hummus to a saucepan and gently warm through. You don’t want it to boil, merely to take on some of the heat.
Divide the hummus between two bowls and top it with the roasted veggies, salad and potatoes.
Enjoy!

Green mole

I was deep into researching Spanish food for the Ibiza retreat held last April when I stumbled across a recipe for mole.
It turns out the Spanish conquered a bit, leaving their influence on the food culture of whole swathes of South America. I was thankful for this discovery because the Ibiza retreats are fully vegetarian and Spanish cooking is anything but.
Cue hours of South American food research and the discovery of green mole.
Mole, arguably one of the shining stars of Latin American cuisine, is a sauce made from a combination of onion, chilli, nuts, seeds and fruit. It has a rich, sweet and sour flavour profile with a mild chilli kick that forms a flavoursome base for anything that is added on top.
I’m underselling it here, it’s actually super tasty.

Mole comes in MANY varieties. I’m semi reliably informed by an episode of ‘Somebody Feed Phil’ that every family has their own secret recipe.
The one that appealed to me the most during my research was a recipe for pistachio green mole. It’s a half-cooked, half-raw combination finished with lime and balanced with earthy nuts.
Long story short, I ended up reworking the recipe because unsurprisingly, we aren’t into chilli varieties as much as the Mexicans so it was hard to obtain 30% of the ingredients needed for the authentic version.

The end result is a nutrient-dense, amazingly flavoursome sauce that will elevate anything you may happen to throw on top.
For me, the toppings ended up being roasted courgette & leek, black rice, greens, edible flowers, pistachios and a Clarence Court egg (not pictured). BUT, you pop whatever you fancy on top. It goes just as well with proteins as it does with plant-based toppings.

Ingredients for 4 portions:

1 medium onion, roughly diced
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
1” piece of ginger, peeled and sliced
2x medium Bramley apples, roughly chopped & the core removed
1 yellow pepper
1 green chilli, roughly chopped, deseeded if you like less heat
2 tomatoes, roughly chopped
100g of hemp seeds - I used Good Hemp, available in most supermarkets
1 handful of coriander
1 handful of parsley
2 large handfuls of spinach
2 limes
Sea salt and black pepper
Cooking oil of your choice

For the top:
Black rice, cooked according to packet instructions
4x Clarence Court eggs, hard or soft boiled
4x small courgettes, sliced and roasted
Any soft herbs
A handful of roasted & salted pistachios, shells removed

Method:

Put the grill on maximum heat.
Slice the pepper down each side so it forms 4 flat pieces.
Put the pepper pieces on a roasting tray and put under the grill until the skin on the pepper has charred. This makes the pepper pieces sweet and smokey, adding extra flavour.
Set aside to cool.
Once cool enough to handle, remove the skin from the pepper pieces.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
Put the apple pieces on a roasting tray, drizzle with oil and roast until you make the sauce.
Put a saucepan on a medium heat and add a splash of oil.
Add the onion, garlic, ginger and chilli and cook until softened (around 5 minutes).
Add the tomato, pepper pieces and hemp seeds to the sauce. Add a couple of splashes of water and cook for 10 minutes or until the tomatoes have cooked down.
Throw in the roasted apple pieces and cook for another couple of minutes, adding a splash of water if it’s beginning to look dry.
Season well with sea salt and black pepper.
Transfer the sauce to a blender, add the coriander, parsley and spinach and squeeze in the juice of 1.5 limes.
Season again with sea salt and black pepper and blend until completely smooth.
Check the flavour and add more lime juice, salt or pepper as required.

To serve, divide the sauce between 4 bowls and top with the desired toppings.

Muhammara as a salad base

Muhammara is a Middle Eastern dip made with breadcrumbs, walnuts, charred peppers and pomegranate molasses. It is an utterly delicious combination of sweet and sour flavours with a hint of smokeyness from the peppers.
If you are a regular here or follow me on social, you’ll know my love of adding flavour bases to salads. Muhammara is one that I keep going back to.
Here I added crunchy lettuce leaves, chicken, parsley and toasted seeds to that base to create a wholesome salad that is packed with flavour.
Feel free to swap the chicken for eggs, chickpeas or halloumi. The same thing works with other protein combos.

If you are fond of salads, or are totally bored of them and need new ideas, there is a salad guide here: To the 5* salad guide.

Ingredients for 2:

For the muhammara:
1 slice of bread, toasted and left to cool completely
3 red peppers
1 clove of garlic, crushed
50g of walnuts
1 teaspoon each of ground cumin and sea salt
A pinch of chilli flakes
Juice of 1/4 of a lemon
2 tablespoons of olive oil plus a little extra for drizzling
1 tablespoon of pomegranate molasses plus a little extra for drizzling
Freshly ground black pepper

For the salad:
2 little gem or 1 cos lettuce
A large handful of cherry tomatoes
2 tablespoons of sprouted seeds (like this one, you can find these in most supermarkets on the salad isle)
2 tablespoons of fresh parsley, leaves only
3 tablespoons of toasted seeds, I used this one, it’s in most supermarkets
2 chicken breasts, cooked to your liking
Sea salt and black pepper

Method:
1. To make the muhammara, preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.
2. Put the peppers on a baking tray or ovenproof dish and roast in the oven for 30 minutes until the skin blackens and bubbles up. There is no need to drizzle oil on top and the peppers should be roasted whole.
Set them aside to cool.
3. Once the peppers are cool enough to handle, peel them and remove the seeds. Discard the skin and seeds and tear the pepper flesh into strips.
4. Cut the toast into cubes and transfer to a food processor or blender.
Pulse the toast to make breadcrumbs.
5. Add the remaining muhammara ingredients to the blender, season well with freshly ground black pepper and pulse again. Don’t over blend it, it should be chunky, not smooth.
6. Divide the muhammara between two plates, pressing everything down so it is flat on the plate.
7. Drizzle olive oil and extra pomegranate molasses over the top.
8. Divide the salad ingredients between the two plates.
9. Season with sea salt and black pepper and drizzle a bit more olive oil on top if desired.