Raw Beetroot & Orange Salad

After a little break yesterday (departmental lunch at work so no need for a packed lunch) where I substantially re-vamped my site (very pleased with it now!), I'm back here for the last day of the week with an outrageously colourful, vitamin-filled raw beetroot & orange salad.  This is a salad my mother made for me a few months ago and when she said beetroot with orange I thought she'd really gone mad - it sounded revolting!  But, I tried it and I loved it so I lovingly re-created it for hubbie for lunch. 

I think I'm slowly getting him into beetroot - when he asked what was for lunch, I rattled it off very quickly so that he might not hear the beetroot part and pull a face but he surprised me by saying that he remembered the beetroot &pink grapefruit salad from the other week (see 27 August post) and really liked that.  Let's see how he takes to raw beetroot now...  In hindsight, I think I should have rattled off the part mentioning lettuce and cucumber which he did pull a face at - it sounded a little too salady for his liking I think.  Lucky I put in some leftover cheesy spinach muffins from the other day (which he loved) and mango which is always a treat!  So now onto the recipe...

Raw Beetroot & Orange Salad

1 beetroot (peeled and grated - I always use a foodprocessor for the grating - quicker and less messy!)

segments cut from 2 oranges & their juice (actually it could have done with 3 or 4 oranges but I only had 2 - feel free to add more to your liking)

a little lime juice (due to my lack of oranges I needed to add a little more acidity - unnecessary if you have the requisite number of oranges)

a drizzle of flavourless oil

salt and pepper

Stir together... et voila!  It's that easy!

Falafel & Humous

Mini Baked Falafels (gluten-free)

I absolutely love falafels but I noticed that all the recipes on the internet included flour and varied hugely on their ingredient list so I decided to play around with the ingredients and make a gluten-free version instead. I like my food to pack a punch with flavour so the amounts of spices may need to be reduced a little if you like a more delicate tasting falafel. Under normal circumstances I would make these in the food processor but sadly mine died a death last night so I used my trusty hand held blender instead which seemed to work just fine except that the result was a smoother consistency falafel. Once I get a new food processor I think I'd go back to that to get a little more texture in the falafels.

350g chickpeas (I actually used beans instead - a mixture of white beans & black-eyed beans because I had some leftover in the freezer)

3 garlic cloves

1 small red onion

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp coriander

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp baking powder

3 tsp fresh parsley (finely chopped)

5 tsp polenta

1/4 lime (flesh & juice) (lemon would be more appropriate I think but I only had limes in my fruit bowl)

salt and pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 200˚C. Place a lightly greased baking sheet in to warm. Throw all the ingredients into a food processor and whizz until well mixed. Season well with salt and pepper. Take teaspoonfuls of the mixture and shape into little balls. Shape all onto a chopping board before putting on the baking sheet*. When they are finished, remove the greased baking sheet from the oven and quickly place all the little falafel balls on then put it back in the oven to cook. Bake for 30-45 minutes (depends on the size of the falafels) turning occasionally. The best (and yummiest) way to check whether they are done is to bite into one and see whether the inside is completely cooked.

* I did this so that the oil on the sheet wouldn’t cool while shaping the mixture and then make the mixture soggy and oily instead of being a quick burst of heat that cooks the mixture and makes it crispy.

Humous

Purists avert your eyes now please... this is not an authentic recipe – it’s certainly different to the humous you find in the shops here in Muscat – but it’s my recipe and I love it. I’m not rigid with amounts for making humous – I usually just throw things in the food processor and keep tasting and tweaking until it tastes just right. I do like quite a loose consistency and quite a bit of lemon. This is what I used for today’s humous:

1 tin chickpeas (400g)

2 cloves garlic

½ lime (flesh & juice)

1 tsp cumin

½ tsp paprika

Salt & pepper

2 dollops of tahini

Olive oil (pour in enough to bind into a smooth paste)

Water (enough to loosen the mixture up to the desired consistency)

Whizz the chickpeas, garlic, lime & spices first until it’s all chopped up finely. Then add the tahini and whizz again until well mixed. Then slowly pour in the olive oil, little by little and whizzing in between, until it is a smooth paste. Finally add the water, little by little, until it looks and tastes just perfect!

I think hubbie will be very happy with his lunch today as, even though it's veggie (he moans and groans about veggie food), it's a little more meaty than his normal lunches. - and he loves falafels and humous! I also threw in some chopped carrot to dip into the humous and a little green salad (you can just about see it underneath the falafels). Snack for today was mandarin.

Note: This was tasty but the falafels were a little on the dry side - I need to amend the recipe I think... maybe adding a little oil would help. Also, it was a fairly substantial lunch - next time I might just add a minty yoghurty sauce for the falafels instead of the humous.

Red Pepper & Feta Salad and Cheesy Spinach Muffins

Well I had a little baking frenzy today making some delicious gluten-free chocolate brownies (not quite healthy enough for the lunchbox though!) and tasty little cheesy spinach muffins.  I feel very virtuous - how good a housewife am I?  However, I'm already feeling that I made a mistake with the brownies as I can't seem to go 10 minutes without popping back to the kitchen for another nibble...  this is not good for the old "losing a few pounds" quest that I'm on this month.  Hmmm, why did I make chocolate brownies you ask?  Because they taste SO good!!!

Anyway, as the brownies weren't in the lunchbox they don't quite qualify for inclusion in this blog but the pepper salad and cheesy spinach muffins are so good that you're really not missing out.  Here are the recipes...

Red Pepper & Feta Salad

This is a recipe which I've been meaning to try for ages from Nigella Lawson's "Nigella Bites" book (click here for the recipe). I only wish I'd tried it sooner - it is divine and I think will be oft repeated in my lunchtime scavenges. I had a few red peppers in the fridge so grilled and peeled them all then chopped the leftovers into strips and put into a sterilized jar covered with olive oil so that I can easily replicate this delicious salad whenever I like... that is, unless I eat them all in the next 24 hours which is highly likely!

Cheesy Spinach Muffin

Ok, a bit of a feta overload but I thought the pepper salad could do with a little starch to add some bite so I decided to play around in the kitchen and create a new gluten-free savoury muffin. The result was a little flat as I had to use a roasting tin that was far too big for the amount of mixture (my muffin tin is currently residing in someone else's kitchen - it reminded me I must go and get it back!) but the flavour was excellent. They could do with being a little less stodgy though so next time I think I'll use less polenta and be a bit quicker with my mixing and throwing in the oven.  Here's the recipe in case you want to replicate it...

1 cup gluten-free flour

1 1/2 cups polenta

1 pinch baking powder

200g chopped spinach

1 cup grated cheddar (about 45g)

1/2 cup chopped feta cheese (about 60g)

1 cup milk

1 egg

a scattering of pine nuts

1 pinch nutmeg

fresh black pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 210˚C. Combine flour, polenta, baking powder, milk & egg. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix. Pour into a greased muffin case (fill full) and sprinkle with sesame seeds to decorate (if you like). Bake for 30-40 minutes (until a skewer comes out clean). I think next time I make this I will be using less polenta, perhaps more flour, a bigger pinch of baking powder, more feta and perhaps a little pinch of paprika to liven it up a little.

Snacks for today were some sliced mango and a peeled mandarin - yum!

Bejewelled Quinoa Salad

Well it's the start of a new week and I have some exciting new recipes in mind! Starting off with a delicious quinoa salad using dried fruits and nuts and lots of fresh herbs to add heaps of flavour. The little pieces of fruit and nut looked so pretty in the quinoa that I decided to call it "bejewelled quinoa salad" - sounded a little more exotic than fruit and nut salad which sounds like some sort of chocolate confection! The cumin in the dressing and heaps of fresh mint and parsley add an arabian flavour to this tasty little lunchbox meal - fitting for where I'm living now.

Bejewelled Quinoa Salad

quinoa

dried cherries or raisins

dried apricots (chopped)

pistachios (chopped)

cherry tomatoes

fresh mint

fresh parsley

cumin

olive oil

lemon juice

This is so easy to make - simply cook the quinoa (in the same way as you would cook rice) then mix all the ingredients together.  Voila!  Snacks for today were a kiwi fruit sliced up to look pretty and a pear quartered and then doused in lemon juice to prevent it from going brown.

Smoked Mackerel Salad

Smoked Mackerel Salad

iceberg lettuce (shredded)
red onion
green beans
black olives
chickpeas (leftovers)
a little grated carrot (leftover)
grated lemon rind
fresh parsley
vinaigrette using rapeseed oil, a little walnut oil, white wine vinegar and garlic
black pepper
smoked mackerel fillets

This was a surprisingly tasty concoction of leftovers that needed to be used up before the weekend (green beans from dinner a couple of nights ago and shredded lettuce, chickpeas and grated carrot from previous lunches this week). I took inspiration from the french nicoise salad to make a tasty little salad replacing the tuna with smoked mackerel - something I adore! I was going to put a boiled egg in there too but it ended up being quite a big salad and since the aim was to use up leftovers, i didn't want to make so much that I was left with even more leftovers of the salad! Only one snack for today (big lunch) - a juicy plum.

Now, off to get ready for the weekend - hooray!

Vietnamese Cabbage & Carrot Salad

Vietnamese Cabbage & Carrot Salad

Another sublime Nigella recipe (click here to see the full recipe here). I removed the chicken from the recipe as hubbie wanted to go veggie (only at lunchtimes!) this month but it was still outrageously tasty! This is THE introductory salad to non-salad eaters. I had to make another bowl of this for my husband's secretary as she loves it so much!

Snacks for today were some sliced kiwi fruit and dried apricots mixed with pistachios.

Soba Noodle Salad & Broad Bean Salad

 Soba Noodle Salad

Nigella recipe with soba noodles, sesame seeds, spring onions, and a very tasty asian dressing. It is divine! Click here to see the full recipe on Nigella's website... yum!

Broad Bean Salad

This was really just to brighten up the brown of the soba noodle salad and add some greens to the lunchbox...

broad beans
peas
sweetcorn
spring onion
mustard vinaigrette
lemon juice
fresh mint
fresh parsley

This was very tasty with lots of fresh zingy lemon juice. The soba noodle salad went down extremely well with my Japanese obsessed husband! Snacks for today were chopped fresh pineapple and another juicy plum.

Chickpea & Salad Wraps

Chickpea & Salad Wraps

tortilla wrap
chickpea pate:
- chickpeas
- garlic
- cumin
- paprika
- olive oil
grated carrots
alfalfa sprouts
lettuce
olive oil
Hubbie turned his nose up at the idea of humous and carrot so (since I forgot to add the tahini anyway) I gave it a different name and disguised the carrot with lots of salad and, voila, he loved it! I'm also very excited about the new tupperware container I've bought that has different sections so I include the salad portion in one or two parts and the healthy fruit snacks in the other parts. Today the snacks were juicy plum cut into bite-size portions, dried apricots, cashew nuts and a wholewheat date snack (some sort of cakey biscuity thing...).

Beetroot & Pink Grapefruit Salad

Beetroot & Pink Grapefruit Salad

iceberg lettuce
alfalfa sprouts
grapefruit segments
beetroot (boiled then chopped)
tinned mackerel
bacon bits
rapeseed oil
white wine vinegar
grapefruit juice
salt and pepper


Well this was a strange one... I really didn't like it but hubbie loved it and came home raving about how good it was! So, try it if you like the ingredients (I'm not a big fan of beetroot or fruit in salads so don't know why I thought I might like it!). It's an adaptation of a Jill Dupleix recipe - I love her - she does does really tasty simple food.

p.s. hurrah, I've worked out how to post photos on my blog!

Tuna and Bean Salad

This was a bit of a stodge lunch with all the beans. I think next time I make this I'll add some crunchy lettuce to lighten it a little! Hubbie complained that he didn't think beans were good for someone wanting to lose weight as he thought they were very calorific - I thought beans were super healthy though!?! Any opinions would be greatly received...

Tuna and Bean Salad

tinned tuna
cannelini beans
black-eye beans
sweetcorn
fresh parsley
lemon juice
olive oil
cherry tomatoes

Glass Noodle Salad

This was based on a Jill Dupleix recipe which I adapted a little. It is a mixture of glass noodles, salad veg and chicken in an asian inspired hot dressing. It was truly scrumptious and didn't feel like healthy heating at all! I've started throwing alfalfa sprouts into quite a few things recently as I'm told sprouting things are good for you (no idea whether alfalfa sprouts in particular are good for you but that's all I can find here in Muscat!).


Glass Noodle Salad


chicken
glass noodles
cucumber
tomatoes
red onion
red chilli
alfalfa sprouts
fresh mint
peanuts
asian dressing: thai fish sauce, sweet chilli sauce, rapeseed oil, sugar

Quinoa Salad

This is an easy salad to make and is utterly delicious. It is based on the traditional tabbouleh found all over the middle east but I have replaced the usual cous cous or bulghur wheat with quinoa - I just prefer it and have been hooked on it since I was introduced to it by The Optimum Nutrition Bible that I read some time ago. For those who have never used quinoa, do go and try it. It's fairly widely available in good supermarkets and health food shops and you can cook it in the same way that you cook rice.


Quinoa Salad


quinoa
parsley (chopped very finely)
cucumber
cherry tomatoes
olive oil
lemon juice
pine nuts
syrian spice mix (my friend brought it back for me from Syria - don't know what's in it but it's fab!)
salt and pepper

Lentil and Feta Salad

I must say this salad was scrummy. Hubbie specifically requested it as it's one of his favourites. It's based on my memories of the delicious lentil and wild rice salad I used to buy at Eat when I worked in London. Yum!


Lentil and Feta Salad

puy lentils
red and orange pepper (grilled and sliced)
red onion (soaked in vinaigrette whilst making the rest of the salad)
vinaigrette (rapeseed oil, white wine vinegar, a little mustard, a little sugar)
fresh mint (LOTS)
feta cheese (added to the salad and mixed until it melts and becomes part of the dressing)
freshly ground black pepper

Introduction

I am a British expat woman living in Oman. Previously very career driven and always busy, I am now getting used to a slower pace of life having recently moved to Muscat with my husband and not yet found paid employment for myself. I settled into expat life in Muscat very easily and into my new "job" as a housewife (for the time being...). Then ramadan came along and cafes and restaurants closed during the daytime. We were told that during ramadan all the non-fasting expats bring packed lunches in to work to surreptitiously eat in a small room in the office provided for that purpose. I quickly saw an opportunity for bringing a little more focus into my life and to re-light the old spark from my previous career in the food industry. My hubbie at the same time decided he needed to lose a few pounds so I decided to focus all my energies into devising interesting and healthy packed lunches for him to take to work each day (and making enough for me to enjoy at home every day too!). As neither of us are natural salad eaters and both of us are easily drawn to snacking, I had to come up with something a little more interesting and filling than a simple lettuce salad each day and yet healthier and more inspiring than the classic bread sandwich (we have far too much gluten in our diets as it is so I'm trying to eradicate it from the lunchtime meal).

So the challenge I have set for myself is to go through the whole month of ramadan making healthy inspiring lunches creating a balanced varied diet without once repeating a lunch and without making a single bread sandwich. Every day I will blog about what I have made and will try to publish photographs of each lunchbox to serve as a useful reminder for when I need inspiration for tasty and healthy packed lunches in the future. Hopefully it may also be a useful blog for anyone else looking for inspiration beyond the simple sandwich.