Green Buckwheat Salad (Vegetarian)
This beautiful and flavourful Green Buckwheat Salad, bursting with fragrant herbs, is best eaten in the garden where you picked most of its ingredients; but it also makes an excellent picnic, should you be travelling! Happy Monday!
Ingredients (serves 1):
5 Garden Snow Peas
1/2 cup buckwheat
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
half a dozen large leaves fresh mint
2 fluffy sprigs Garden Parsley
1/3 of a green chili pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
half a small lemon
a pinch of salt and freshly cracked black pepper
1/4 large cucumber, rinsed
30 grams/1 ounce Feta Cheese
Bring a small pot or saucepan of water to the boil. Once boiling, add Garden Snow Peas, and cook, 5 minutes. Lift them out of the water and immediately plunge them in a bowl of cold water and ice, to stop them cooking. Set aside.
Rinse buckwheat under cold water, and stir into the boiling water in the same pot, and cook until just tender, about 10 minutes. Once cooked, stir in coarse sea salt, and allow to boil, 30 seconds more. Drain buckwheat thoroughly, and allow to cool completely.
Finely chop mint and Parsley, and add them to a medium bowl.
Thinly slice green chili pepper, and add to the bowl. Drizzle in olive oil. Thoroughly squeeze in the juice of the lemon halve. Season with salt and black pepper, and whisk well, to blend.
Cut cucumber into quarters, and then into slices.
Add cooled buckwheat, Garden Snow Peas and cucumber slices to the bowl, and toss well, to coat in dressing. Crumble in the Feta, and toss gently. Chill in the refrigerator, at least a couple of hours.
Serve Green Buckwheat Salad cold, with a glass of chilled white wine, like a Western Cape Chardonnay or a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.
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Hot Fried Beef and Sweet Potato
After a long, but interesting and rewarding arvo and evening at Auckland University, I wanted to cook something simple and tatsty for dinner. Something hearty and comforting too, for tomorrow we rise very early for an adventure, a day trip to Hibbiton and Rotorua. This Hot Fried Beef and Sweet Potato is exactly that, and plenty more!
Ingredients (serves 2):
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 red onion
350 grams/ounces Angus beef mince
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 sweet potato, thoroughly scrubbed and rinsed
1/2 green chili pepper
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel or sea salt flakes
1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
1/2 large, ripe avocado, to serve
In a large, deep skillet, heat olive oil over high heat.
Peel and thinly slice red onion, and stir into the oil. Cook, a couple of minutes, until tender.
Stir in Angus beef mince, and fry, stirring often, until well-cooked, about 5 minutes. Season with dried oregano and thyme.
Halve sweet potato and cut it into thick dices. Once the mince starts releasing its fat, stir sweet potato dices into the skillet, coating in herbs and fat until golden. Cook, a couple of minutes. Cover with a lid, reduce heat to medium, and cook, another 8 minutes, until sweet potato is tender.
Finely slice green chili pepper, and stir half into the skillet. Season with fleur de sel and black pepper. Cook, 3 minutes more.
Pit avocado halve, and cut into quarters.
Enjoy Hot Fried Beef and Sweet Potato immediately, topped with an avocado quarter, reserved green chili pepper, and a generous dollop of sour cream, if you wish.
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