New year, new blog.

Well – in truth it’s my first real blog, but now that the Christmas and newness-of-the-new-year dust has settled, I feel like it’s time to finally start writing about food. Minimal Christmas leftovers remain (some chocolate biscotti, a turkey carcass and some meats in the freezer, some raw potatoes and root vegetables I haven’t managed to get through yet…) and that idealistic healthy food for the new year mindset has crept in.

My mum is visiting for a couple of weeks at the moment; so in addition to keeping things healthier, I’m also having to make food which contains no yeast and no dairy! We made some banana muffins (a plain and simple family recipe that both hits the spot and makes me feel nostalgic for childhood breakfasts on the weekend) and I’m currently working on producing a sourdough starter so we can make some pizza (watching the bubbles appear out of nowhere is riveting, but more on that later…). However it is this quinoa tabbouleh, which we made a big container of to graze on for lunches and dinners, that is making us feel fresh and healthy at the start of our new year. Despite its shameful non-seasonality, it seems like a good way to perk things up all year round.

Quinoa Tabbouleh
recipe adapted from here

1 cup quinoa
1 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered lengthwise (about half a punnet is a good estimate here)
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped
4 spring onions, finely sliced
1 bunch of parsley, chopped
4 tablespoons chopped fresh mint (I usually use about half a handful of leaves here)
2 garlic cloves, minced
juice from 2 large lemons
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Cook the cup of quinoa according to package directions (a ratio of 2 parts water:1 part quinoa no matter what your quantity is), set aside in a wide bowl and then allow to cool completely.

Add all remaining ingredients and gently fold/stir/toss together until everything is well coated in fresh herbs and dressing.

Cover and chill in the fridge for at least an hour so that flavours can mingle further into heavenly freshness!

Yields about 8 servings.

One of my biggest pet peeves is buying an entire package of something that will perish relatively quickly and then finding it unused and wilted in the bottom of my fridge a few weeks later after using only a small amount in one recipe. In an ideal world, the categories on this blog will one day serve as a ‘cook by ingredient’ resource. So, in the meantime and in an effort not to add to what I dislike so much, here are some suggestions on how to use up some of the ingredients that I find so prone to this wilted fate:

spring onions – slicing and stirring into scrambled eggs (like big chives!), a scaled down recipe of these Momofuku ginger and scallion noodles which can be made as simple or complicated as you wish, a fancy mayo for cheese (and other) sandwiches with a thinly sliced spring onion and squirt of sriracha mixed in

fresh mint leaves – cocktails like mojitos and mint juleps, fresh mint tea (for one serving: small handful of torn leaves, freshly boiled water, steep for 5-10 minutes, remove leaves/strain, sweeten with sugar or honey to taste)