BANG BANG Cauliflower!!

Gorgeous,sweet, sticky, spicy and easy!!

This took just over 20 minutes, start to finish!

super easy.

before I give you the oh so easy instructions to my take on 'Bang Bang cauliflower' let me just take a moment to BIG UP the big white cruciferous in question!

I am a huge fan of the Colly, in all its forms, thin raw slices in a salad, straight up steamed, cauliflower rice, curried cauliflower, cauliflower mash, cauliflower buffalo wings, this big bundle of floretty loveliness is a versatile hero indeed!!

And to add to this is the fact that it is positively brimming with nutrition.

High in fibre, great for digestion, serious levels of vitamin C, vitamin K (essential for helping blood to clot properly to heal a wound) magnesium,manganese, folates and plenty of other health giving essentials to offer you all the more reason to make this veggie a solid part of your regular intake.

This recipe is an absolute gem, but it is a little sugary, so not something I would have too often, but as a weekend treat this really hits the spot.

Right, enough of my babble, and on with the actual reason you're reading this!!

Ingredients:

-a few small to medium florets of cauliflower.

-yakisoba sauce (or similar sweet sticky sauce, hoisin may work although I haven't tried it - just be sure to double check the ingredients if you're Vegan)

-sriracha sauce (available in most super markets).

-mayonnaise.(I've gone for a vegan mayo)

-sliced spring onions.

-sesame seeds

Method:

so, get your oven nice and hot.

smother your florets in the yakisoba sauce.

bake them for about 20 minutes, they will got soft and a little sticky and caramelised in places.

now make a 50/50 mix of sriracha and mayo, and toss the sticky florets in this gooey orangy pink sauce,

now you have sticky, glossy, saucy florets, toss a load of sliced spring onions and sesame seeds into the mix and BANG, there you have it.

scatter a few more sliced springers and sesame seeds over the top to serve and get that good stuff down your neck!

See? easy! and soooo delicious.

As always, I appreciate your feedback, and any questions are welcome.

Let me know what you think guys! I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I do.

TTFN.

Health, Love and Happiness.

Claire Xx

Gorgeous luxuriously creamy Baba Ganoush

The flavours here are rich and deep, so simple to make, with only a few ingredients.

This feels and tastes decadent, and unbelievably creamy!

I served these with some home made smoked paprika flatbreads.

(I will put the recipe for these up in a separate post)

This dip is fabulous, served as a starter, for lunch or just as a 'chips and dips' kinda thing.

The quantities in this recipe will make the amount pictured, which would be approximately the size of your average shop bought hummus or dip pot, the amounts pictured would serve 2 people.

This tubular fruit comes in all sorts of different shapes and sizes, the most common of which is the dark purplish black colour which we see most often adourning our supermarket shelves.

So I was very pleased to find this unusually marked one in my local frut & veg section.

No difference in taste, but gosh isn't it pretty!

so lets get down to the nitty gritty!!

---

Ingredients:

- half a large aubergine

- the juice of half a lemon

- 1 small clove of garlic

- half a teaspoon Himalayan rock salt (or any good rock salt)

- 1 tablespoon tahini

- 1 tablespoon coconut milk yoghurt (I have gone for the vegan option here,but you can use a good plain greek yoghurt if you prefer.

- 1 tablespoon rapeseed oil (olive oil will also do)

method:

preheat your grill to its highest setting.

chop your aubergine into chunky slices, and then pop the under the grill.

Again, some recipes call for oil at this stage, but I've never found it to improve the flavour much and health wise the less high heat your oils come into, the better.

This is how my slices looked after around 8-10 minutes grilling and turning.

we want slightly charred edges to add to that lovely smoky flavour.

Now depending on which blender you own, you may not need to leave these to cool, if you have a blender which tolerates heat, then go for your life, I need to use cool ingredients in mine, so I leave them to cool for around 10-15 minutes.

Although on another note, the heat may kill all the lovely gut healthy probiotics in the yoghurt, so maybe cooler is better.

Once they are cool though, simply pop all the ingredients into your blender and whizz until smooth, or even leave it a little lumpy if you prefer.

for a little extra Pazazz, I drizzled the finished product with some extra virgin olive oil, another sprinkle of rock salt and a dusting of Aleppo flakes (these are a mild smoky chilli flake), normal chilli would also work here.

and now, dollop, dip, spread, devour! eat and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy !!

As always I love to hear about your experiences of my recipes, and any questions are always welcome.

Tata for now.

Health & Love.

Claire Xx

Beautifully bejeweled lemon and garlic rainbow salad with turmeric Infused giant cous cous

This is a super powered bowl of nutrition right here!! 

I had some lovely wholegrain giant couscous (also known as Israeli couscous or pearl couscous).. just begging to be used and I was craving all the colours and lightness in this glorious bowl of sunshine!!..

..... and so this beauty was born 💚.

I actually like the term pearl couscous, that's what came to mind when making this dish, beautiful little bouncy golden pearls..

Everything in this dish is incredibly nourishing... it's high in fibre, contains protein, iron, fatty acids, potassium, magnesium, antioxidants and a whole host of essential vitamins and minerals.

It's really quick to make too! This took me around 10 minutes, and once cooled can be used as a  packed lunch or travel meal. 

Ingredients (serves 2)

• approx 60g giant cous cous

• 1 heaped teaspoon ground turmeric.

• 2 spring onions

• half an avocado 

• 1 large cooked beetroot

• 1 large tomato

• handful supershoots

• handful sesame seeds

• small handful sunflower seeds

• half a fresh red chilli (deseeded)

• large handful fresh coriander

• half a tsp garlic powder 

• lemon juice (half a lemon).

• tablespoonextra virgin olive oil 

• salt & pepper for light seasoning

Method

Cover the couscous in cold water and add the teaspoon of turmeric powder.

Bring to the boil (keep an eye on it as it bubbles over more easily with the turmeric).. once boiling turn down to a simmer for around 6 to 8 minutes.

While your couscous is cooking, chop all of your whole ingredients ( (spring onions, beetroot, tomato, avocado) into small pieces and transfer to a bowl, add your sesame seeds, olive oil, lemon juice, chilli, coriander, garlic powder, supershoots and sunflower seeds and toss together.

Once the couscous is ready, strain and mix in with other ingredients, season to taste & serve 💚

Enjoy!! 💚

As usual any feedback or questions are welcome and I always love seeing your pictures and hearing about what you thought 😊.

Much love

Claire 💋