Non boring salad & veg side dishes

[sprinkleofsunshine]

Hi all.

Sounds silly but I struggle with thinking of just basic salad and veg dishes to go with this.

This week I'm planning to do cous cous stuffed peppers with feta & sundried tomatoes one night & salmon another. With the peppers I want to do a simple side salad and with the fish a lot of veg as I'm trying to avoid too many carbs at the moment but need them to be filling and a bit of taste to them.

Anyone got any recipes that I can just use time & time again? Other than buying a bag of chopped salad I'm at a loss!

I would never have thought to do this without Jamie Oliver’s input but watermelon in a salad is amazing. Watermelon, radishes, coriander, bit of mint and some balsamic- delicious. Goes nicely with salmon.

I’m a big fan of coleslaw right now and have a rapidly expanding range of recipes depending on what I’m cooking. Salmon could go with this Asian slaw fussfreeflavours.com/asian-slaw/

This courgette gratin is good too www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/courgette_gratin_04270

Asparagus wrapped in Parma ham
Green beans with almonds
Chickpeas, Sun dried tomatoes and chopped rosemary
Guacamole
Pico de gallo

Broccoli salad with nuts, mayo, vinegar, cranberries, honey and bacon bits if you eat meat is great.

Just google broccoli salad and it comes up.

Homemade coleslaw is also super easy.

I would also be a bit more adventurous with a plain salad. Throw in whatever you fancy. Fruit, particularly Grapes or orange work great in a simple side salad.

Sliced fennel bulb and sliced apple also go great together and would work well with fish

m.independent.ie/life/food-drink/quinoa-courgette-and-feta-salad-29617116.html

I actually had a dukkah roast veggies, falafel and red pepper and chilli houmous for dinner 🥰

I've done this with salmon, really yummy
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2162/green-beans-and-mushrooms-with-tangy-soy-dressing

Funny im going through a coleslaw stage, I make a really good one with grated apple, carrot, celery and beetroot. I make it and a fat free yoghurt dressing to keep it low cal.
Also, loving the first of the summer tomatoes, simply with a bit of basil, finely sliced red onion, finely diced gherkin, rock salt and black pepper.
Depends how much you are limiting carbs but roasted butternut squash with nigella seeds with spinach, red onion and cherry tomatoes.

Veg wise stir fried broccoli with garlic and chilli
Cauliflower dusted with Cajun spice mix and sprayed with frylight then baked.

Large cos lettuce, shredded
Cucumber peeled and chopped (1/2)
Yellow pepper
large handful coriander
large handful mint (both chopped)
Chives if you can get them

Dress with juice of two lemons and equal quantity of virgin olive with salt and pepper.

Separately you could serve mozzarella pearls, cherry toms, black olives and shredded basil leaves with just a drizzle of good oil.

If serving hot veg - is there anything better than asparagus? Sugar snaps and frozen peas work. Roasted veg: red onion, aubergine, courgettes, red pepper, bit of fennel with cherr\y toms thrown on at for the last 10/15 minutes. Serve in glass bowl with leaves and a harissa dressing - oh an bung in a bit of goats cheese.

I tried roasting broccoli the other day and it was really delicious, I used this recipe.

I'm trying to avoid too many carbs at the moment but need them to be filling and a bit of taste to them.

I remember reading a column by an American cookery writer on her website "Smitten Kitchen" from whom I first found out about cauliflower cheese.

Think of cauliflower cheese as a delicious low-carb version of mac'n'cheese. This is her description of it, the recipe is also in the link:-

cauliflower cheese

What, you’ve never had cauliflower cheese before? Why, it’s right up there on the American Heart Association’s recommended diet, above the kale and below the oat bran. Okay, well, maybe just the cauliflower is. I realize this dish may sound strange if you’ve never heard of it. The first time I saw it on a menu in the UK last fall, I thought a word was missing, perhaps “with” or “and.” I mean, you cannot make cheese out of cauliflower or vice-versa, or at least I hope not. And then I tried it, bubbling and brown in a small ramekin aside my roast* at a tiny Inn in the middle of nowhere that looks like something you’d see in a Bridget Jones Diary (basically where I learned everything I knew about the UK before I got there, well, that and Morrissey songs) and I stopped talking. I stopped thinking. My heart may or may not have stopped beating for a moment, though I’m sure it was love, not fibrillations. How could it be anything but, when cauliflower florets are draped with a sharp cheddar cheese sauce spiked with mustard and a bit of cayenne and then baked in the oven until bronzed and, wait, what were we talking about again?

This is a British dish, if the sharp cheddar, mustard powder, cayenne and charmed name didn’t give it away. I realize that British food has long been a punching bag for other supposedly superior world cuisines, but I found this to be anything but the case. Even if I had, the awesome names of national dishes — toad in the holes, bubble and squeaks, spotted dicks, singing hinnies, jam roly-polys and doorstop sandwiches — would have more than compensated for any failures in the flavor department.

I understand you’re very likely thinking, “But I like cauliflower. I can eat it roasted with just salt and pepper! Why would I bury it in a thick layer of cheese sauce?” But I think you’re going about this wrong. Do you know what cauliflower cheese really is? It’s basically low-carb mac-and-cheese. I mean, look what a valiant effort you’ve made in reducing the pasta count in your life! That means you can definitely have it more often. And let’s say you’re shivering in the midst of the 11th cold rainy day of the 23 so far in October, well, I think you owe it to yourself to start right now, for dinner tonight.

I really like a mix of salad leaves just with oil and vinegar and some Parmesan shavings on. Bit of salt and pepper and it's lovely

I like plain green salad too.

Roasted aubergine dip:

www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetable-recipes/aubergine-dip/

You can replace the olive oil with mayonnaise, or the aubergine with cauliflower.

Carrots glazed in a small amount of butter and honey.

A low calorie one-thin rounds of courgette dry fried in a non stick pan.

Have a look at Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s book Veg. Or Yotan Ottolenghi always has loads of vegetable recipes.

Adding some herbs and a good dressing really livens up a salad. Just some leaves, avocado and spring onion really comes alive if you dress it with really good olive oil, sea salt, lemon juice and a good quantity of finely chopped fresh dill.

Middle-eastern style salads that use loads of fresh herbs are great, like tabbouleh and fattoush. From Italy, panzanella and caponata are both lovely too.