This one pot rice dish is a staple for fall cooking in my home. Sauté onions and garlic, add in the other ingredients, cover, and let sit for 45 minutes. After that, all that’s left is to eat! The original version of this dish is based on this paella recipe but I’ve morphed it into a stove-top casserole dish as an easy adaptation. Rice and tomatoes cooked together can leave you with al dente rice but the secret is to make sure the rice is well coated with oil before adding the tomatoes. As a side note, our toddler also loves this one pot rice dish (as long as I use a mild curry powder)! Read more and see the recipe.
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At first, it was a coincidence. When we looked at the vegetables we had brought home from the market this weekend, many of them just happened to have purple, violet and dark lavender tones. We talked about how that huge bunch of purple kale could make a beautiful salad base together with the rainbow chard, mint flowers and purple sugar snaps. It was at that point my obsessive side took over. “Let’s ONLY DO purple ingredients!” I shouted into Luise’s ear. She turned her head towards me with that hesitant look she always has when I get one of my “brilliant” ideas: “Ok, slow down now, let’s talk about the flavours first”. Of course I didn’t hear her as I was already writing a list with all the purplish ingredients I could think of: “aubergine, purple cauliflower, plums, figs, olives, blackberries, grapes, beetroot, red onion, …”.
Some recipes are born out of genius flavour combinations or new preparation methods, this one simply started out as a colour. Luise did however quickly gain back control and started shifting focus to the flavour and combination of vegetables as well.
In the end, I think we managed to combine both flavour, colour and texture in a great way. We roasted aubergine and purple spring onion in warm spices until soft and sweet. Massaged the kale with a flavourful dill, mint, lemon and honey dressing to round off its flavour and make it less sturdy. Cooked black lentils were added as a filler, along with rich and creamy avocado (even though it’s more black than purple – and green inside!). Hazelnuts are not purple at all but they added a nice crunch to the texture. Juicy blackberries made a perfect topping.
The result was beautiful, a true harvest salad. Maybe not as purple as I originally imagined it (basically because most vegetables loose their colour when they are cut/baked/cooked), but still with lovely deep hues and so many interesting flavours – a mix of herby, sweet and tangy.
When the salad was assembled it still felt like we missed a creamy element, so we tried the honey roasted feta that we had seen on New York Times Cooking last week. It was perfect. Burnt and caramelised on the outside and almost melted on the inside. It completely ruined the dark purple theme but flavour- and texture wise, it was worth the sacrifice. You’ll notice that I smudged it in mashed blackberries as a poor attempt to camouflage it.
We should perhaps add that this wasn’t our kids favourite dish. They picked out the blackberries, avocado and feta cheese from the salad, leaving the raw kale to us. I guess purple isn’t their colour…
Purple Kale & Blackberry Salad with Roasted Honey Feta
Vegans can just skip the feta cheese or replace it with hummus. And replace honey with maple syrup.
Baked vegetables 1 aubergine / eggplant 4 spring onions or 2 red onions 2-4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon ¼ tsp ground cumin 1 pinch ground cayenne 1/2 tsp sea salt 1 handful hazelnuts
Cooked lentils ½ cup uncooked lentils (we used black lentils) 1 ½ cup water 1 pinch sea salt
Dressing 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil 1/2 lemon, juice 2 tsp honey or more to taste sea salt & pepper 1 large handful mixed fresh dill, parsley and mint
Other salad ingredients 4 stalks curly kale, green or purple 4 stalks rainbow chard or spinach 2 avocadoes 1 small handful snap peas 1 punnet fresh blackberries, halved
Start by preparing the baked vegetables.Preheat the oven to 400°F / 200°C. Wash and cut the aubergine into large cubes and trim and slice the onions, then place in a mixing bowl. Stir together oil and spices in a small bowl, pour the oil mixture over the aubergine and onions and toss to combine. Transfer to a baking tray covered with baking paper. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until very soft and golden, check every now and then to prevent from burning, the baking time depends on the size of the vegetables. Add the hazelnuts halfway through.
Meanwhile, cook the lentils in a saucepan with the water for 15 minutes or until tender and can be mashed easily between two fingers. Add sea salt towards the end of the cooking time. Drain any excess water and leave to cool.
Prepare the dressing by mixing oil, lemon juice, honey, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Chop the herbs finely and add to the oil mixture. Taste and adjust to your liking.
Remove the stems from the kale and coarsely chop the leaves. Finely slice the chard. Place all in a large mixing bowl, add 2 tbsp of the dressing and massage for a couple of minutes until soft. Transfer to a large serving bowl. Mix the lentils with the remaining dressing and pour them over the kale and chard mixture. Cut the avocado into cubes, slice the snap peas and roughly chop the hazelnuts. Add to the salad bowl together with the roasted aubergine, onions and hazelnuts. Toss slightly to combine and then scatter blackberries on top. If you like to serve the salad with the baked feta cheese, follow the instructions below.
Keep the oven at 400°F / 200°C. Place the feta cheese in a small ovenproof dish covered with baking paper and cover with oil. Bake in the oven for about 8 minutes, until soft but not melted. Melt the honey. Remove the cheese from the oven and turn the heat to broiler. With a baking brush, paint the cheese with the melted honey. Place back in the oven and broil until the top starts to brown. Use a spatula to immediately and carefully transfer the cheese to the salad, or serve it on the side.
Broccoli is one of my favorite vegetables for grain bowls. It cooks quickly and tastes amazing when roasted. Additionally, it pairs well with many different flavors. As a result, I’ll be making these broccoli bowls often this fall. In fact, the hardest part of this recipe is waiting for the broccoli to roast. Read more and see the recipe.
The post Roasted Broccoli Bowls with Freekeh appeared first on Naturally Ella.
Whew, what a whirlwind start to September we’ve had! Between home renovation setbacks, caring for a sick toddler, and the launch of my new cookbook, things have sure been lively. But I’m happy to say Oh She Glows Every Day has now hit shelves across North America (why is releasing creative projects into the world so darn scary?), the little one is in good health, and the reno situation is…well, a typical reno situation, hah. But all of that aside, we’re super excited for this month as Adriana turns 2 in a couple weeks and my due date is just days after. There’s no doubt that this month promises to bring some big changes in the Liddon household. I’m basically feeling every kind of emotion you can imagine right now.
Before I get to this week’s Friday FAQs, I’d like to let you know about some retailers carrying Oh She Glows Every Day. In the US, you can currently find the book at Barnes & Noble and Sam’s Club. In Canada, you can find the book in Costco, Chapters/Indigo, and Loblaws! More to come soon.
Last but not least, I’d like to share this week’s #osgeveryday blog tour posts. I can’t thank these lovely bloggers enough for their kind words. Be sure to check out the links below for some recipe sneak peeks, giveaways, and Q+As!
Mandy’s Healthy Life
The First Mess
Oh My Veggies
Yum Universe
Cookie + Kate
Carrie on Living
Wholehearted Eats
Detoxinista
My Darling Vegan
Vegan Crunk
Q1. Hi Angela. These new veggie burgers look great. I have a question about the sweet potato—in the directions you write that it works out to about 4 cups, but when making the patties you only use 2 cups of cooked potato. Is this because you are accounting for some “shrinkage” during the cooking process? Hehe. Thanks in advance!! I love your first book and can’t wait to buy the second.
A. Thanks, Melanie! Yes, you are totally correct…there’s shrinkage! Haha. 4 cups raw sweet potato (or squash) translates to just over 2 cups cooked. I hope this helps clarify. Feel free to make extra and serve it alongside the burgers!
Q2. Wondering—will your Oh Em Gee Veggie Burgers hold up on the grill??? I’m looking for something that can hold up to grilling as my parents love making hamburgers and I need an alternative for my husband and myself. 🙂 Thanks!
A. Hi Becky, I haven’t tried it yet, but I think they would! I’d suggest prebaking in the oven for 15 minutes, and then grilling on each side for a few minutes over medium heat. If you give it a try, please let us know how it goes!
Q3. Hi Angela! Love your site and cookbook. It’s helped me a ton since I met my (vegan) boyfriend almost 2 years ago. I’ve been dying to ask, do you have any more specific suggestions for using the 10-Spice Blend? I see you’ve written “pasta, potatoes, soups” but any other recipe besides your 10-Spice Vegetable Soup?? Thanks!!
A. Hi Kayla, This is such a great question! The wonderful thing about the 10-Spice Blend is that it’s so versatile; you can get really creative with how you use it in your kitchen. Aside from the 10-Spice Soup (which is an OSG cult fave!), you could use it to kick scratch tomato sauce up a notch, or add a new twist to roasted potatoes or Lightened-Up Crispy Baked Fries (The Oh She Glows Cookbook, p. 203), kale chips, Crispy Baked Onion Rings, Pan-Seared Garlic Tofu (OSG Cookbook, p. 197), or Perfect Roasted Chickpeas (OSG Cookbook, p. 220). I love adding a tablespoon or so to Endurance Crackers, and sprinkling it over toast topped with avocado and hummus. You can also try it in my Oh Em Gee Veggie Burgers and Metabolism-Revving Spicy Cabbage Soup (Oh She Glows Every Day, p. 139).
Q4. Hi Angela, great suggestions for make-ahead meals! One question…what do you mean by a ‘smoothie pack’??
A. Hey Allison, By a smoothie pack I mean that I freeze some of the non-liquid smoothie ingredients in a freezer bag. It’s a fun little trick for make-ahead smoothies! For example, you can turn my Green Tea Lime Pie Smoothie Bowl into a freezer pack. Simply place the spinach, banana, avocado, and matcha into a small freezer bag, then press out the air and seal. This can be stored in the freezer for 1 to 2 weeks. When you’re ready to use, simply add the coconut water, lime juice/zest, and maple syrup into the blender along with the contents of the bag. Blend on high until smooth (adding ice only if necessary).
Q5. I loved your homemade Bailey’s recipe, but I think I messed up somewhere by using normal coconut milk in a carton for the “light” coconut milk. Do you think that’s why it wasn’t as thick as it should have been? Thank you though, for this amazing recipe!!!
A. Hi Sierra, If you mean the cartoned coconut milk (the kind typically found near soy or almond milk in the grocery store), I do think that’s the likely culprit! Like soy and almond milk, this type of coconut milk is really more of a dairy milk replacement that is best consumed as a beverage or used in smoothies, over cereal, and so on. It’s typically watered down and contains other additives as well, and so it tends to be lighter/thinner than even the “light” canned coconut milk. In my recipes I will specify canned coconut milk, and also indicate whether I used full-fat or light. Another possibility as to why it was thin is that the liquid needed to be cooked down longer than it was. So you could always try throwing it back on the stovetop and simmering it a bit longer until the volume reduces. I hope you still enjoyed the Homemade Bailey’s, though, even if it wasn’t quite as rich!
Comment of the week:
With the release of my new cookbook, I’ve received so many warm, enthusiastic messages that I can’t pick a single one to highlight. Some of them seriously brought me to tears. Thank you to everyone who’s picked up a copy of the book, placed it on a wishlist, signed it out at the library, or simply shared their support for this latest adventure. You helped make Oh She Glows Every Day a reality and I couldn’t be more grateful. 🙂
PS—That cute little spice mix at the top of this post is the Pumpkin Pie Spice Mix! It takes minutes to throw together and you’ll be sprinkling it in everything from oatmeal to smoothies to pies and more.
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Last weekend we went to a crayfish potluck party in a friend’s garden. Vegetarians at a crayfish party might sound awkward but the crayfish are actually just an excuse to spend an evening with your friends, sitting outside until dark, drinking, eating, singing songs and wearing silly hats. Life in its very essence.
Since we don’t eat crayfish, we made a couple of salads and baked a large, round version of this butternut quiche. We have been talking about making a butternut quiche ever since we first tried it, two years ago at a café in Bondi outside Sydney. Their version had large chunks of salty feta cheese and a slight tartness from vinegar that balanced the sweetness from the pumpkin perfectly, so we made ours the same way. We also used our favourite oat & almond pastry which added a nice nuttiness to the quiche. The addition of kale to the filling makes it a little greener and more substantial and the pieces on top crisps up into chips. I guess it’s not our most unique recipe but a really good one to keep up your sleeve for picnics and late-summer parties.
When we recreated the quiche the other day, we also shot this video below. It all came together in a rather stressful hour between soccer practice and dinner time and we didn’t have much light to work with either, so please excuse the blurry quality here and there.
You can probably veganize this by leaving out the eggs and replacing the feta cheese with tofu, a squeeze of lime and nutritional yeast. The pumpkin makes it very rich and creamy on its own, but since we wanted to recreate the butternut and feta quiche from our travels, we didn’t try a vegan version ourselves this time. Do let us know if you succeed with it!
Butternut, Kale & Feta Quiche
Pastry 3/4 cup / 100 g oat flour (or 1 cup / 100 g rolled oats mixed into flour in a food processor) 1/3 cup / 50 g rice flour 1/2 cup/ 50 g almond flour 2 tbsp potato starch or arrowroot 1/2 tsp sea salt 100 g / 3 1/2 oz chilled butter or solid coconut oil, cut into dices 3-4 tbsp ice-cold water
Butternut & Kale Filling 1 small butternut squash/pumpkin a drizzle of olive oil or coconut oil 2 sprigs fresh rosemary or 1/2 tsp dried rosemary sea salt & black pepper 1 onion 2 cloves garlic 2 large handfuls (100 g / 3 1/2 oz) tuscan kale / black kale or regular kale, remove stems and chopped (if you can’t get kale use spinach instead) 2 tbsp unfiltered apple cider vinegar (or balsamico) sea salt & black pepper 1 cup milk of choice (we use oat milk or almond milk) 2 eggs 150 g / 1 block feta cheese, crumbled
Preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C. Prepare the pastry: Add oat flour, almond flour, rice flour, potato starch and sea salt to a bowl and toss until combined. Add the diced butter to the flour and use your fingers to mix the dough into a rough breadcrumb consistency. (These steps can also be made by pulsing the butter with the flour in a food processor.) Add the water, little by little, and work it together into a dough. Flip it out on a floured workspace and shape it into a thick disk. If it feels crumbly, add 1-2 tbsp extra water. Gather the dough into a disk, wrap in clingfilm and chill for about 30 minutes. Meanwhile prepare the filling.
Prepare the filling: Line a baking tray with baking paper. Peel the butternut, discard the seeds and cut into 1 inch / 2,5 cm dices and place on the tray. Drizzle with oil, add the spices and toss to combine. Roast in the oven for approx. 20 minutes or until it starts to brown and soften. Set aside. This step can easily be prepared ahead and stored in the fridge for up to a couple of days before baking the quiche. While the pumpkin is in the oven, heat oil in a skillet on medium heat and stir-fry the onion and garlic for 10 minutes until transparent and soft. Add the chopped kale, stir around and stir-fry for a few more minutes, add the apple cider vinegar and season with salt and pepper and leave for two more minutes. Set aside.
Assembling the quiche:Place the chilled dough between two baking papers and use a rolling pin to roll out the dough until you got a rough circle, about 1/8 inch / 5 mm thick. Carefully transfer it to a 10 inch / 27 cm tart pan (or rectangular as in the video). You can also press out the pastry dough directly into the pan. Trim off any excess dough then use a fork to prick it a few times. Blind-bake for 10 minutes to prevent the crust from getting soggy. In a large bowl, whisk together milk and eggs. Add onion and kale, crumbled feta cheese and half of the baked butternut to the egg mixture and gently combine. Pour into the blind-baked quiche crust. Press extra roasted butternut into the quiche if there is still space (any leftovers can easily be used in a delicious salad or inside a sandwich). Place in the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes until golden. Serve the quiche warm with a light salad on the side.
PS. We have also been celebrating this little 2-year old smoothie maniac and kitchen helper throughout the week. Happy birthday Isac!
