Salad | Canalside Community Food

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall describes this as a ‘River Cottage classic’, and it is easy to see why. The unctuous quality of roast squash combines well with the umami flavours of the mushrooms and cheese. It tastes rich and luxurious without being heavy or cloying.
You can also use other cheese such as shavings of parmesan, or a hard goat’s cheese in place of the blue cheese.

Warm Salad of Mushrooms and Roasted Squash
Serves 3-4

Ingredients
Salad
approx. 1kg squash
12 sage leaves
4 garlic cloves, thickly sliced
100ml rapeseed oil
large knob of butter
300g mushrooms, thickly sliced
Large handful of rocket or mixed salad
150g blue cheese, crumbled
Salt and pepper

Dressing
3 tablespoons rapeseed or olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
¼ teaspoon salt
a few grinds of pepper

Preparation
Preheat oven to 190C.

Peel halve and deseed the squash. Cut into 2-3cm chunks and put in a roasting pan along with the sage leaves, almost all the rapeseed oil and a generous seasoning of salt and pepper. Roast for about 40 minutes, stirring once, until soft and coloured at the edges.

While the squash roasts, prepare the dressing by combing the ingredients in a small lidded jar and shaking vigorously.

When you are ready to eat, put the last drizzle of oil in a frying pan with the butter. Heat over medium heat and then add the mushrooms, along with another pinch of salt and a grind of pepper. Fry for 3-5 minutes, or until they are cooked and any liquid they have released has evaporated.

Mix together the mushrooms and squash (in the roasting tin, or frying pan, say) and toss with the dressing. Array the rocket on a serving platter and then top with the squash and mushrooms. Distribute the cheese on top and serve it forth.

Recipe adapted from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, River Cottage Veg Everyday! (2011).

I tried a variation of this recipe tonight and it went down very well, it used a lot of Canalside produce and felt like an incredibly healthy meal! Feel free to adapt to what you have – I swapped the salad for boiled greens, the canned lentils for boiled red lentils and omitted the pomegranate seeds. I would be tempted to suggest some soy sauce on the lentils to cut through the sweetness of the other components (rocket probably does this job if you have it).

Roasted beets and squash with tahini

Ingredients:
2 large raw beetroots, peeled and chopped
1 medium squash, deseeded and chopped (no need to peel our squash)
Leaves from 2 rosemary sprigs, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp maple syrup (I used honey)
1 × 400g tin brown lentils, drained and rinsed
200g mixed rocket and other salad leaves
200g cherry tomatoes, quartered
4 tbsp sunflower seeds
Handful fresh parsley, finely chopped
4 tbsp pomegranate seeds
Salt and black pepper

For the tahini vinaigrette:
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp tahini
1 tsp maple syrup (I used golden syrup)
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1–2 tsp balsamic vinegar (to taste)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 200°C fan.

Place the beetroot, butternut squash and rosemary in a large baking tray or roasting tin and toss in the olive oil, maple syrup and some salt and pepper until evenly coated. Spread out the vegetables in a single layer and roast in the oven for 40–50 minutes, stirring once halfway through the cooking time, until tender and slightly crisp.

Meanwhile, combine all the ingredients for the tahini vinaigrette together in a bowl, seasoning to taste with salt and pepper.

Place the lentils and salad leaves in large bowl with the cherry tomatoes and a small drizzle of the tahini vinaigrette and toss until evenly coated.

Transfer the dressed salad to a serving dish and add the still-warm roast vegetables in layers with the sunflower seeds, parsley and pomegranate seeds. Finish with a generous drizzle of vinaigrette.

Adapted from: https://thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/roasted-beets-and-butternut-squash-with-tahini

We seem to have had a huge haul of beetroot this year, so I’ve been looking for recipes to make use of this. I tried this one last week, but my housemate had just moved out taking all the kitchen equipment with him so mine ended up a little strange with orange chunks instead of zest, and hand rolled pastry… It was still great though! I added a little wensleydale to offset the sweetness but leave this out and the recipe is vegan.

Beetroot & red onion tarte tatin

Ingredients:

400g beetroot, cut into wedges

1 red onion, cut into wedges

3 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp rice wine vinegar

2 tbsp soft brown sugar

2 star anise

flour, for rolling

500g block puff pastry (there is a vegan Jus-Rol)

1 orange, zested

peppery green salad, to serve

Method:

Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. In a bowl, toss the beetroot and onion in 2 tbsp of the oil, the vinegar and sugar. Add the star anise and season well. Heat the rest of the oil in a large, ovenproof non-stick frying pan (normal ceramic dish worked fine for me), then nestle in the veg so that they cover the surface of the pan. Cover with foil and cook in the oven for 45 mins.

On a well-floured surface, roll the pastry to a thickness of 0.5cm and cut out a circle the same size as your frying pan. Carefully take the pan out of the oven, remove the foil and wiggle the beets and onion around in the pan to make a compact layer. Put the pastry on top, tucking it in all around the edges, then return the pan to the oven and bake for 35 mins or until the pastry has puffed up and is a deep golden brown.

Slide a palate knife around the edge of the tart, then put a plate on top of the pastry, serving side down. Flip the pan over to turn the tart out onto the plate – be careful not to burn yourself with the handle. Top with the orange zest and a sprinkle of sea salt, then serve with a peppery salad on the side.

From https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/beetroot-red-onion-tarte-tatin

Several people have been asking for things to do with kale, pak choi, and other robust greens. Among other things you can make them into excellent salads. In all cases, it’s a good idea to manhandle the greens a bit to soften them up. Shred them fine and, using your hands, scrunch them up as hard as you can for a few minutes. Confronted with this vigorous treatment, they will become much softer and more tender. Pak choi does not need as much scrunching as kale or cabbage, but it will benefit from a bit body English.

Once you’ve scrunched your salad, you need an oomphy dressing to stand up to these greens. I thought I would offer a compilation of some of the salad dressings that I’d recommend to complement these hearty greens. All three are incredibly simple: you just whizz them up in a blender or mix them with a fork. And if you don’t mind doing your scrunching after you’ve dressed the salad, the tenderising effect will be even more noticeable. Once you’ve done that, you can add anything else you like: leftover boiled potatoes, toasted pumpkin seeds, shredded white or black radish, olives, chick peas….

(I was intending to present a fascinating but somewhat weird recipe for a beetroot-based vegan brownie, using a recipe I tore out of an Air France inflight magazine. Extensive testing on my colleagues at work led me to change my mind. The consensus was that the recipe must be part of a plot to denigrate vegans!)

Miso-Tahini Dressing

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 tablespoon miso paste

1 tablespoon tahini

1 tablespoon soya sauce

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

Preparation

Combine the ingredients and blend well, using a fork. Taste to see if it would benefit from a little more vinegar. The mahogany-dark dressing is now ready to use. This makes enough for half a small cabbage, shredded, together with several grated carrots. It is also good on other greens.

Spring Onion and Tahini Blanket

Enough to dress a large 2-person salad

Ingredients

4 spring onions, including the green bits

2 tablespoons tahini

2 tablespoons rapeseed oil

2 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons water

Salt and pepper, to taste

Preparation

Roughly chop the spring onions.

Place everything in a blender, Nutribullet, or the container for an immersion blender. Blend everything until smooth. Check to see if it needs more salt, pepper, or lemon juice. If it’s too thick for your liking you can add a little more water to thin it out, and then serve either as a salad dressing, or as a dip.

Super Turmeric Sauce

serves 2

Ingredients

2 tablespoons cashew butter

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

juice of 3 clementines

2 inch piece of fresh turmeric, peeled

5 tbsp olive oil

Preparation

Combine the ingredients in a blender and whizz until smooth.

Our resident Recipe Meister, Rebecca Earle, is having a break during July, and so newly joined member Pip Smith has stepped forward to tantalise our tastebuds in Rebecca’s absence. Here’s this week’s recipe:

Lemony potato and courgette salad with garlic greens

I’ve always been a fan of garlic greens and when I realised you could use the leaves of the Kohlrabi and that they are a good source of b vitamins and carotene it all seemed to come together. In this recipe the courgette is boiled whole then sliced, which is a nice quick way to add it to a warm salad.

Ingredients:

800g potatoes
2 courgettes
The leaves from one Kohlrabi
200g french beans trimmed if you prefer
Salad leaves
2 cloves garlic
1 – 2 unwaxed lemons
3 tablespoons Olive oil (not extra virgin for cooking)
1/2 tsp Black pepper
Salt to taste

Method:

Bring a pan of water to the boil, add the washed potatoes and simmer for 8 – 12 mins. Add the washed whole courgettes one minute before the end. Once cooked drain the potatoes and courgettes, and place in a large bowl.

Toss with 2 table spoons of olive oil and the zest of 1 – 2 lemons.

While the potatoes cook, steam the French beans adding the kohlrabi leaves a little later until tender.

Gently heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil and add two cloves of crushed garlic, heat for about a minute gently fizzing and being careful not to burn the garlic.

Toss the garlic mixture with the steamed veg.

Finally top the potato and courgette with the garlic greens and sprinkle with 1/2 tsp of cracked black pepper.
Sprinkle with salt to taste.

This recipe was inspired by several recipes in Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s ‘River Cottage Veg Everyday’.

One of the wonders of the modern culinary world is the discovery that we can eat raw squash. Thin spiralised ribbons of raw courgette, butternut squash and carrot started to appear in cooking blogs some time around 2013; and now they’re everywhere. But you don’t need a spiraliser to make Canalside squash into a quick salad for lunch. Here’s how.

Squash, Avocado and Pumpkin Seed Salad
Serves 1.

Ingredients
1 tablespoon blackberry vinegar, or any other fruit vinegar, or, failing that, cider vinegar
salt and pepper, to taste
1.5 tablespoons rapeseed oil
100g raw squash
all the salad from your Canalside share
1 small, ripe avocado
a big handful of pumpkin seeds

Preparation
First prepare the dressing: in the bowl out of which you wish to eat the salad place the vinegar, salt and pepper. Slowly drizzle in the oil, whisking all the while with a fork. Taste and see if you’d like to add a little more vinegar, or oil, or seasoning. Then set aside while you prepare the salad.

Peel the squash, using a sharp knife. Then, using a vegetable peeler, shave off thin strips of squash until you’ve shaved it all, or you’re left with a piece that is too tiny to manipulate any further. Eat this tiny piece while you prepare the rest of the salad.

Put the washed salad leaves in the bowl. Top with the shaved squash ribbons. Open the avocado and scoop out the flesh. Cut it into generous chunks and add them to the salad.
Heat a small frying pan over medium-high heat (you don’t need to add any oil). Add the pumpkin seeds and toast them, stirring frequently so that they don’t burn. They will soon start of pop and jump about in the pan. As soon as they do, tip them onto the salad. Toss and eat.

Perhaps—could it be?—you’re ready for a break from root vegetables. Here is just what you need: a tomato-garlic soup. Serve it with a nice bread and the salad greens from Canalside for an extremely quick and satisfying dinner. If you’re feeling energetic and would like a bit more protein, you could dress the salad with Alexandre Dumas’ salad dressing.

Tomato-Garlic Soup
Serves 6.

Warm herb-coated salmon in a winter salad of potatoes, beetroots and sharp greens, with hard-cooked eggs. The fish is cooked in a way that makes it extra-moist.

The recipe has a lot of separate steps but it’s very easy and you can prepare almost everything in advance. The result is delicious and beautiful, so it’s a fine choice if you’re entertaining. The only thing you need to do after your guests arrive is put the fish in the oven 30 minutes before you’d like to eat.

Serve with lots of good bread and a bottle of white wine for a luxurious weekend lunch. When I made it last week we had poached pears for pudding, which rounded things off nicely.

Wild Salmon Salad with Beetroot, Potato, Egg and Mustard Vinaigrette
Serves 4.

A US cup measure is 8 fluid ounces.

Ingredients
For the Salad
500g beetroots, more or less
6 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 lemon, zest grated first
500g potatoes, more or less
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
3 extra-large eggs
½ cup shallots, minced
2 tablespoons dill, minced
1 tablespoon tarragon, minced
¼ cup parsley, minced
1kg salmon fillet in one piece. The recipe calls for wild salmon and if you can find that it is indeed tasty.
200g salad leaves, or more if you like a very leafy salad. Rocket and other sharp-tasting greens are best. In the summer you can use dandelion.

For the Dijon Vinaigrette
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1½ tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
¾ cup olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation
Preheat the oven to 200C.

For the vinaigrette
Whisk the egg yolk in a small bowl with the mustard, vinegar and lemon juice. Slowly whisk in the olive oil. Season to taste. You might not use it all; the extra can be kept in the fridge for at least a week.

For the beetroot
Toss the beetroot with 2 tablespoons of oil and some salt and pepper. Place in a roasting tin with a splash of water, cover with foil, and roast until tender then poked with a fork. How long this takes will depend on the size of your beetroot. Small ones will cook in about 30 minutes; very large ones could take over an hour. When they’re done, let them cool, and then peel them, and cut into bite-sized chunks. Season with 1 tablespoon of oil, a squeeze of lemon juice, and some salt and pepper.

For the potatoes
While the beets are roasting, prepare the potatoes: cut the potatoes into 3cm chunks (approximately), or leave whole if they are tiny. Toss in a roasting tin with one tablespoon oil, the thyme, and some more salt and pepper. Cover with foil and roast for about 30 minutes, or until tender. Leave to cool and then mix them with some salt and 2 tablespoons of the Dijon mustard vinaigrette.

For the eggs
Bring a small pan of water to the boil and carefully lower the eggs into it. Turn the heat to low and simmer for exactly 9 minutes. Remove the eggs and plunge them into cold water to prevent their cooking any further. When they are cool, cut them in half. Season them with a little salt and pepper.

For the salmon
Mix the lemon zest with the shallots, herbs and 2 tablespoons of oil in a small bowl.
Put the fish skin-side down on an oven-proof rack set over a baking tray or roasting tin. Pat a little of the herb mixture onto the non-skin side of the fish, turn over, and pat the remainder onto the skin side. Season with salt and pepper. You can now leave the fish in the fridge until you’re ready to cook it. Just take it out an hour before you’d like to eat, so that it comes to room temperature.
When you are ready to cook the fish: Preheat the oven to 120C and boil a kettle of water. Pour the water into a shallow pan in the bottom of the oven, to create a humid environment in your oven. This will make the fish moist and custard-like. Put the fish, on its rack and tray, into the oven and bake for 20-30 minutes. It’s done when it starts to separate into flakes. The centre should be slightly translucent. Try not to overcook it.

To assemble the salad
Scatter the salad leaves over a large serving platter and drizzle with ¼ cup of vinaigrette. Nestle the beetroot and potatoes amongst the greens. Arrange the eggs on top. You can do all this in advance, so that all remains to be done is add the warm salmon.
Once the salmon is cooked, use your hands to pull the warm salmon into chunks over the salad. Drizzle with another ¼ cup of vinaigrette, season with a squeeze of lemon juice, and serve. The additional vinaigrette can be served at the table in case anyone wants more.

Recipe adapted from Susanne Goin, Sunday Suppers at Luques: Seasonal Recipes from Market to Table (2005).

This week’s share contained generous quantities of lettuce and peas again and if you can bear to use the delicious peas in a cooked dish (I never can) you might like to try this recipe for pea and lettuce soup – ideal for anyone who struggles to get through lots of lettuce! I’ve forgotten where this came from, so I can’t credit it to anyone, but there are loads of similar recipes online if you wanted a different variation.

Lettuce, pea and mint soup:
300g green lettuce, shredded
1 medium onion, finely sliced (at this time of year I’d use spring onions instead!)
300g peas
50g butter
750ml hot veg stock
small handful fresh mint
50ml single cream – some recipes suggest using creme fraiche instead, added as a dollop on top to serve

Fry the onion until soft.
Add the peas and stock. Simmer for 5 minutes.
Add the lettuce and mint. Cook for a further 2 minutes.
Add the cream. Blend until smooth.
Season well with salt and pepper.