Category: Easy

For the times when you want something super simple to make.
Halloumi and Parma Ham Salad with a Peach Coulis Dressing

Halloumi and Parma Ham Salad with a Peach Coulis Dressing

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I admit to writing this a little jet lagged and sleep-deprived as I’ve just got back from a trip to the Austrian Alps with my Mum. After a week of stunning snow and sun it’s a surprise to see that the weather here is just as gorgeous as it is over there! The sun is shining, the sky is the lushest blue and all I want to eat right now is lots of salads (weird right?). I’ve always been more of a comfort food kind of girl than a healthy one, but I’m now trying to fuse the two by making tasty salads. I’ve found that the best way to do this is to accessorise a base of leaves with any meats, cheeses and fruits that appeal, and hey presto – delicious healthy salads!

Recipe

Serves 2

Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

  • 225g Halloumi
  • 3 Ripe peaches
  • 1 tbsp Olive oil
  • 1 tbsp Lemon juice
  • Salt and Pepper
  • A couple of handfuls of Bagged salad
  • 4 slices of Parma ham

Method

  1. Put a frying pan over a medium heat. Slice the halloumi into slices roughly 1cm wide. Place in the pan and fry for 30-60 seconds on each side until starting to go golden brown. Set to one side until needed.
  2. Cut the peaches in half and de-stone them. De-skin one of the peaches and put it into a small bowl. Use a hand blender to make it into a puree. Add the oil and lemon juice and pulse again to make a smooth dressing.
  3. To plate up scatter the salad leaves over two plates. Then slice the each peach into 8 and scatter the slices around the plate. Then arrange the halloumi and the parma ham around he plate. Finish with a drizzle of the peach dressing and serve!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Plum and Amaretto traybake

Plum and Amaretto traybake

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There’s this weird tradition in Oxford (and Cambridge) where once someone’s finished their end of year exams they get ‘trashed’ – aka they get pelted with whatever their friends can find at the local Tescos. Being Oxford based my whole life I’ve seen numbers of students crawling onto the high street covered in shaving foam, silly string and paint, but it wasn’t until the past few weeks that I got to do some trashing of my own. After a slightly surreal shopping trip we arrived at exam schools, belted up with prosseco, honey, ketchup, party poppers and confetti, ready to celebrate the freedom of some of our friends from the clutches of revision! This was the result… (RIP Nik’s sub fusc)…

Afterwards came the jumping into the river, the crash back to reality, and then a growing chorus of ‘food?’ being passed around. That’s where this fab amaretto plum cake came in. At uni I didn’t have the chance to bake as much as I would have liked as I was short on time, ingredients and equipment, so since coming home I’ve been going a little crazy in the kitchen and have been making way more than I can feasibly eat. Therefore when I headed back up to uni I thought something like this tray bake would be the perfect thing to share with lots of de-stressed students – and it was!

Recipe

Serves 16

Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

  • 200g Butter
  • 200g Caster sugar
  • 4 Eggs
  • ½ tsp Almond extract
  • 180g Self-raising flour
  • 85g Ground almonds
  • ½ tsp Baking powder
  • 100ml Milk
  • 2 tbsp Amaretto (optional)
  • 3 Plums

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C. Line a roughly 20 x 15cm cake tin with butter and baking paper.
  2. Put the butter and sugar into a bowl and beat together with a wooden spoon until pale and creamy.
  3. Add the eggs one by one and whisk them in. Then add the almond extract, flour, ground almonds and baking powder. Then add the milk and amaretto, and whisk it all  together to make a smooth batter. Pour the mixture into the lined tin and smooth it over so it evenly fills the tin.
  4. De-stone and then cut the plums into 1/8s. Then scatter them over the top of the cake, pressing them into the mixture a little. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until risen and golden brown.
  5. Leave to cool and then cut into 16 squares.

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Zoodles with Ricotta, Spinach and Pesto

Zoodles with Ricotta, Spinach and Pesto

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These past few weeks I’ve been comfort eating like crazy. It’s been one of those times where everything feels up in the air, I have no idea what I’m doing and every now and then I crash into a pile of Cadbury’s and cookies. I’ve never cared too much about my body image; I’m not the weight I’d like to be but in compete honesty I’ve got more to worry about than that! At the same time though I know that I’m getting to the point where I’m eating so much rubbish that it’s making me feel even more sluggish than usual. Therefore this holiday I’m going to do my best to go on a cleanse. More veg, less sugar. More salads, less cakes! Something I’ve found hard in the past when dieting is the conflict with running a food blog: I love making patisserie and I want to keep on baking, but it doesn’t do wonders for my waist line. Therefore I’m gonna start alternating between bakes and healthy things like this salad…

I’ve always wanted to try making zoodles – aka noodles made out of zucchini (or courgette if you’re English like me!) and so I thought this would be the perfect time to try them out. Traditionally they’re made with a spiralizer, but I don’t have one of those so I’ve experimented with a peeler and a knife and it’s worked fine! These are so much lighter than normal noodles and have they same kind of effect in a dish, so when put with some pesto and ricotta it makes a really light, fresh spring salad!

Recipe

Serves 2

Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 Courgette/zucchini
  • A squeeze of Lemon juice
  • ½ tbsp Olive oil
  • A Handful of Baby spinach
  • 4 tsp Ricotta
  • 4 tsp Green pesto
  • ¼ tsp Paprika (optional)

Method

  1. Take a medium pan, fill it with water and place it over a medium heat. Leave covered with a lid to bring to the boil.
  2. Meanwhile take a peeler and peel even strips out of the courgette. Layer these strips up in piles about 1cm tall and cut thin strips out of them using a sharp knife.
  3. Place the zoodles into the boiling water and take the pan off the heat. Leave them to sit for 1 minute (more if you want them to be softer). Then drain the zoodles and leave them to dry on some kitchen towels.
  4. Put the zoodles into a bowl and add the lemon juice and oil. Then tear up the spinach into small pieces and add them to the mix. Carefully toss everything together.
  5. Portion out the zoodle mix between the plates, then scatter the ricotta over the top. Finish with a few spoonfuls of pesto and a sprinkle of paprika. Enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Almond, Apricot and Ginger Bars

Almond, Apricot and Ginger Bars

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There’s something beautifully ironic about writers block becoming the key topic I seem to be writing about on here. For the past 3 weeks my tongue’s been as tied as my headphones after a day of being in the bottom of my bag and there’s no sign of that changing. Maybe it’s because life has taken over a bit recently, but there are very few things I can think of to say about snack bars.  It actually feels pretty inane to talk about a recipe through a long, sensual description in order to encourage you guys to make it anyway. Of course I can see the general point of it all, but when ice caps are melting, plastic is flooding the ocean, and God knows what is going on in my brain right now I’m just going to leave it at the classic: these are pretty tasty and pretty easy to make – so I’d recommend making them!

(Also small side point: since leaving veganuary I’ve decided to return to the land of vegetarianism and refined sugar-free-ness. That’s one of the reasons I love these so much – if you make them without the icing they’re 100% refined sugar free, and so even though they’re really sweet (and probably aren’t that good for you) they make a great treat whilst on this diet!)

Recipe

Serves 16

Time: 10 minutes, plus cooking time

Ingredients

  • 7 tbsp Unsalted butter
  • 155g Ground almonds
  • 200g Flaked almonds
  • 3 tsp Ground ginger
  • 130g Runny honey
  • 75g Dried apricots, roughly chopped
  • 1 Large egg
  • A large pinch of salt
  • 100g Icing sugar

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C. Line a 25cm square tin with butter and baking paper.
  2. Melt the butter in a small pan. Put the almonds into a bowl with the ginger, honey, chopped dried apricots and egg, and then pour in the butter.
  3. Mix until everything is combined and then pour into the tin and smooth over to make an even layer. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until starting to go golden brown. Leave to cool whilst you make the icing.
  4. Put the icing sugar and ½ tsp water into a bowl and mix together to make a pourable icing. If you need more water add a little bit at a time until perfect.
  5. Drizzle the icing over the tray bake, slice into 16 squares and serve!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x
Vegetable Korma (Vegan)

Vegetable Korma (Vegan)

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It’s over! 2 terms of hard-core Made in Dagenham drama came to an end last night in spectacular fashion and so now I’m heading back to the land of normality and degree stuff. There’s always a bit of a withdrawal after finishing a big show and so I’m trying to find lots of other things to keep me occupied (namely other shows, more art and a lot more baking!)

I’m not a very spicy gal, but I do love a good korma. There’s something charmingly subtle about the creamy blend of aromas flooding out of a dish like this. They flow out into the kitchen and like a culinary alarm clock let you know that wonders are soon to be coming out of the pan (I confess to being a little sleep deprived at the time of writing – I apologise). I normally go for a chicken korma, but since vegaunary I’ve found a strange fondness for vegetable curries like this one, and so now it’s my new fave!

Recipe

Serves 8

Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

  • 1 Small butternut squash
  • 2 tbsp Sunflower oil
  • 1 Medium sized potato
  • 1 Small cauliflower
  • 1 Corgette
  • 1 Red pepper
  • 1 Large onion
  • 1 thumbsize piece of Root ginger
  • 4 Garlic cloves, crushed
  • 100g Chopped tomatoes
  • 1 tbsp Tomato paste
  • 1 tbsp Curry powder
  • 1 tbsp Garam masala
  • 5 tsp Ground cumin
  • 5 tsp Ground coriander
  • 5 tsp Ground turmeric
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • ½ tsp Ground cloves
  • ½ tsp Chilli flakes
  • 400ml Coconut milk
  • ½ cup Cashews
  • 2 tbsp Lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp Brown sugar

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C. Cut the squash in half and then place on a baking tray, cut side face up. Brush with a little of the oil and then put in the oven for about 30 minutes until soft.
  2. Now prep the other veg. Peel the potato and cut it into chunks. Then take the leaves off the cauliflower and break it up into florets.
  3. Bring a large pan of water up to the boil and add the potato and cauliflower chunks. Simmer for 10-15 minutes until soft but not mushy. Drain and then leave to one side until needed.
  4. Take the ends off the courgette and pepper. Take the seeds out of the pepper and then cut it into small strips. Halve and then quarter the courgette lengthways and then cut into chunks.
  5. Put the oil into a large pan and place over a medium heat. Add the pepper and courgette and fry for 5-10 minutes until the courgette is starting to go translucent and soft. Tip into a bowl and leave until needed.
  6. Next start making the sauce. Peel the onion and then finely dice it. Add it to the pan you cooked the pepper in and fry for a few minutes until starting to caramelise.
  7. Meanwhile peel the ginger and garlic. Then grate the ginger and crush the garlic and add it to the onions. Fry for another 2-3 minutes.
  8. Add the chopped tomatoes, tomato paste and spices to the mix and simmer for a couple of minutes until starting to reduced. Then add the coconut milk, lemon juice and cashews and leave to simmer for another 5 minutes until the cashews have softened.
  9. Take a hand blender and blend the sauce until smooth. Then add the brown sugar, salt and pepper to season, and the vegetables. Stir to combine and then serve with rice and naan bread!

Thanks for reading!

Emma x