Quick Lunches: Salad

What do you usually have for lunch?

I'm quite partial to a lunchtime salad, it's my favourite way of using up left over meat from the previous night's dinner or getting rid of those annoying bits and pieces lying around in the fridge. Also because I'm lazy and salads are easy.

Here are some I've made recently....get yourself a cup of tea, there are lots of pictures!

Grilled chicken breast (marinated in paprika, honey and lemon) with parsley, dill, chives, capsicum, avocado and tomato.

Shredded chicken, asparagus, salad leaves, tomato, red onion, goat's cheese and guacamole.

Sliced kangaroo fillet, baby spinach, red capsicum, basil, coriander, pepitas, pine nuts and cherry tomato with a tahini and maple 'mayo'.

Lettuce, apple, peach, parsely pepitas and quinoa.

Lamb kofta, quinoa, red onion, parsley, cherry tomato and sweet potato crisps.

Honey mustard glazed chicken with watercress.

Watercress, goat's cheese and pine nut.

Chicken, pasta, chives, watercress and pine nut with mustard mayo.

Donna Hay's Thai Beef Salad (recipe here)

Lettuce, cucumber, avocado and red capsicum.

Lettuce, dill, asparagus, cherry tomato, avocado, walnut and goat's cheese.

Roast beef, red onion, cherry tomato, lettuce and pine nut with a maple mustard dressing.

Roast beef, coriander, lettuce, red onion and avocado.

Chorizo, asparagus, cherry tomato, parsley and quinoa.

Zucchini 'spaghetti', chicken, rocket, avocado and pesto.

Smoked salmon, fig, lettuce, red onion, pear, avocado and hazelnuts. 

Quinoa Crusted Chicken

Are you a quinoa fan? I am. It's quite a nifty little seed, high in protein, fibre, iron and lots of other good stuff. I usually buy the seeds for salads and the flakes to wizz into flour, however it came to my attention recently that the flakes also make a rather good substitution for breadcrumbs. Naturally chicken schnitzel was on the cards...because, let's be honest who can resist a good schnitty!

So here is my recipe for quinoa crusted chicken, it's gluten/wheat free, clean, kind of paleo (if you dabble in the odd pseudo-grain) and most importantly, crunchy!! While nothing can ever trump the traditional crumbed schnitz I think this is a pretty good alternative if you're into the whole gluten free thing or simply enjoy trying something different.

Here's what you need (this will give you 6 medium sized schnitzels)...

3 chicken breasts (preferably free-range)
2 cups quinoa flakes
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
2 eggs beaten
2 tbs fresh thyme leaves
zest of 1 lemon, grated
1 large garlic clove, minced
salt and pepper
Coconut oil for frying (or olive if you prefer)


- Give each chicken breast a good bash with a meat tenderiser then cut in half so you have 6 pieces. Dredge each piece in buckwheat flour until lightly coated.

- Combine quinoa flakes, thyme, lemon, garlic, salt and pepper in a large dish. 

- Dip each piece of chicken in egg and then in quinoa mixture. Make sure each schnitzel is evenly coated in quinoa (gently shake off excess) to ensure a nice crunchy crust. They should look like this.

- Heat oil and fry over medium heat (if the pan is too hot they will burn on the outside before chicken is cooked through so keep an eye on the heat). 

I served mine with a simple garden salad of lettuce, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, red onion, blood orange and pear. A quick, healthy and tasty dinner!

Homemade Curry Pastes

I've been getting a few requests over on Instagram for my curry paste recipes.....so here they are! Thai curries are awesome because not only are they easy to make they can be adapted to paleo/vegetarian/vegan with just a few quick tweaks. 

Making your own pastes from scratch is really easy, all you need is a decent food processor and it's just a matter of chucking everything in and giving it a good wizz. The best thing is you know exactly what's in it! No weird additives! In fact the trickiest thing is finding all the spices needed, but I've found most of them are available in the supermarket. More obscure things like galangal powder or shrimp paste can be found at the Asian grocer. Don't let the smell of the shrimp paste put you off, it adds an incredible depth of flavour to the curry! 

Green Curry Paste
1 green chilli (or 2 depending on how much heat you like, remove the pith and seeds if you prefer a mild curry)
1/2 tsp black peppercorns crushed
1 medium brown onion chopped
2 medium garlic cloves crushed
2 heaped tbs fresh coriander (1 of stalk, 1 of leaves)
1 tsp chopped lemon rind
1 stick lemongrass stalk roughly chopped
1 kafir lime leaf thinly sliced
1 tsp salt
2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp galangal (Laos) powder
1/2 tsp shrimp paste
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 cube palm sugar crushed (paleo: substitute with coconut sugar)
1/4 cup oil (paleo: substitute the oil with a little water and then fry the paste off in coconut oil)
 

Red Curry Paste 
2 long red chillis 
1 medium red onion chopped
2 medium garlic cloves crushed
2 heaped tbs fresh coriander (1 of stalk, 1 of leaves)
1 tsp chopped lemon rind
1 stick lemongrass stalk roughly chopped
1 kafir lime leaf thinly sliced 1 tsp salt
2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp galangal (laos) powder
1/2 tsp shrimp paste
1 tsp tumeric powder
1 cube palm sugar crushed
1/4 cup oil 

These recipes will make enough for a curry to serve 4. 

To make the curry.....

Fry off paste in a wok or heavy based saucepan on high heat until fragrant.

Add around 800g of whatever thinly sliced meat/tofu/vegetables you fancy and combine with paste.

Add a large tin of coconut milk. Turn heat down to med-low. Give it a stir every now and again until just meat/veggies are just tender, don't cover saucepan as coconut milk will separate. Add lemon juice and fish sauce to taste and a little extra palm sugar if needed. The key to a good Thai curry is a balance of sweet, salty and sour. Sprinkle on a bit of chopped fresh coriander to make it look pretty and you're done!

Note: The red curry paste is amazing with duck! Fry off the paste with a few star anise pods and add coconut milk, lemon and fish sauce as above then add sliced, cooked duck breast and fresh lychees at the end. Amazing!

Green Chicken Curry

 

Red Duck and Lychee Curry

 

Heirloom Carrot Salad

Heirloom seems to be all the rage in restaurants of late. I didn't really take much notice until I was wandering around Boroondara Farmer's Market one weekend and came across some cheerful bunches of organic heirloom carrots at one of the stalls. So I decided to see what all the fuss was about. After much agonising I ended up roasting them and chucking them in a salad. Here's what I used.

heirloom carrots (I had one purple bunch and one of cream/orange)
- roast these in the oven until soft with some olive oil, cumin, cinnamon, paprika and a bit of salt. Leave to cool.
bunch of watercress
pomegranate seeds
good quality goats cheese crumbled
fresh mint leaves torn
toasted pine nuts
lemon zest grated


dress with extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice and salt