Lentil & Quinoa Salad

Hello Foodscape Followers!

We've got another salad recipe to feature this week. With only a few weeks to go before bikini season starts, this is a simple, healthy option packed with protein and essential amino acids. We used ingredients that were already in our fridge, however you can try different variations using what you like. Here we used quinoa and green lentils, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, an onion, fresh mint and feta cheese. For the dressing we kept it simple, olive oil and lemon juice as it goes very well with the fresh mint.

Lentil & Quinoa Salad

Ingredients (3-4 people)
1 cup uncooked lentils
1 cup uncooked quinoa
10 cherry tomatoes
1/4 large cucumber
1 small onion
crumbled feta for topping

Dressing: juice of 1 lemon mixed with 4 generous tablespoons olive oil, salt & pepper

Preparation:
1) Cook the lentils in 2 cups of boiling water for about 20 minutes or until soft. Once cooked, drain excess water and set aside to allow to cool.
2) At the same time, separately cook the quinoa in 2 cups of boiling water for about 15 minutes. Once cooked, drain excess water and rinse with cold water. Set aside.
3) While the lentils and quinoa are cooking, finely chop the onion, the mint and the cucumber. Cut the cherry tomatoes in quarters and place all the ingredients in a large bowl.
4) Once the lentils and quinoa have cooled off, add to the ingredients and drizzle with the dressing.
5) Optional: we topped off the salad with crumbled feta to give it extra flavour

Torta de Frango (chicken tart)

Spring time !!!! Does that mean picnics and brunch “al fresco”?

Here is a great tip for a quick and easy homemade delicious chicken tart that you can prepare in just under 40 mins. Once ready, just cut in small pieces - it’s a great snack that you can easily take out on a picnic,  at your friend’s house or serve with other bites. 

This recipe is tasty, practical and it goes down like a treat.  The good thing about this mix is that you can get as creative as you like with the filling: either by adding ingredients of your choice or simply by turning it into a vegetarian snack. 

If you prefer, you can also serve it as a meal with a fresh salad on the side, the combination works beautifully.

Enjoy it

Ingredients :

For the dough:

- 2 eggs

- 2 cups milk

- ½  cup vegetable oil

- 2 cups flour

- 1 tbsp (tablespoons) baking powder

- Salt to taste

- 125gr parmesan cheese (grated)

For the Filling:

-  Shredded chicken

- 3 tomatoes, chopped

- 1 can of peas

- Olives (handful)
- 1 red pepper (optional)

- Mushrooms (handful)

- 2 tablespoons of olive oil

Preparation 

For the dough:

Mix all ingredients in a blender until smooth and set aside.

For the Filling:

Heat the olive oil in pan and toss in the shredded chicken (already cooked and seasoned). Stir for a couple of minutes and add the rest of the ingredients (tomatoes, peas, onions, olives, mushrooms, etc). Don’t cook it for too long, all you need is to give it a little bit of colour, then set aside.

Mounting:

In an ovenproof baking dish (greased and floured), pour half the dough and cover with all the filling.

Pour the remaining dough on top and sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese. Place in a preheated oven at 180C temperature and cook for 45mins or until golden/brown.

Serve warm or cold

Tip : if you want to serve it as snack bites, make sure the pie cools off before cutting it. 

i-phone Food Journal by Stuart Tarrant

Hello Bloggers and Friends  

Below are some pictures taken by our friend Stuart of his adventures in the kitchen with his family. When we first started the blog, it inspired him to compile a food journal through his phone. How amazing is that roasted tomato tart? Food is beautiful and as you can see from these pictures, you don't need big cameras or fancy equiment to make your dishes look like a work of art. Share your passion for life and share your passion for food, send us your pictures too!



Summer salad & Fettuccine Alfredo

Hello food lovers,

We had the most amazing weather over the past week, quite unusual for this time of the year in London. This has inspired us to make simple, yet very colourful dishes using seasonal ingredients. We had a great time putting this meal together, you'd be surprised how easy it is to make. A simple rocket salad with red fruits and vegetables (pomegranate, tomatoes and radishes) and for the main course, Fettucine Alfredo with Kalamata olives and fresh basil.  

Summer Salad:

Simply mix together thinly sliced radishes, cherry tomatoes and pomegranate seeds on a bed of rocket leaves. Season to your taste, balsamic vinegar and olive oil works very well for this. Another alternative is a dressing I make for Fatouche (a popular Lebanese salad), which is the juice of 1/2 a lemon, 1 crushed garlic clove, 1 tsp pomegranate molasses, 3 tsp olive oil, 1/2 tsp Zaatar and 1/2 tsp sumac. Simply mix the sauce together, add salt and pepper et voila!

Summer Salad

Fettucine Alfredo 

Alfredo sauce: 
Alfredo is probably the easiest sauce you could ever make for a pasta dish but it doesn't come short on calories. So to reduce damage, I usually make it with half fat crème fraiche, a thick French style sour cream. Melt 50g of butter into a saucepan on low heat. Add 200ml of crème fraiche and stir until butter has melted. Add 80g of freshly grated Parmesan cheese and keep stirring until the sauce has slightly thickened and all the parmesan bits have melted (approx 20mins). Add salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately over pasta of your choice. Optional: add chopped Kalamata olives and fresh basil to give your dish extra flavour.  

Koh Lipe Island by Carla Muguiro

We're very pleased to post our very first 'special report' by Carla Muguiro who recently spent her holidays in Thailand. This is the story she brought us back... (well, we got dried guava with chilli as a bonus, loved it!) Thank you Carla! 

Koh Lipe Island in Thailand is a tiny piece of heaven on earth - it is so small you can walk around it in less than an hour. Without the buzz of cars or roads, the calmness is pure and life is lived strictly around nature’s curfews. 25% of the worlds tropical fish species can be found around the island. We were spoilt rotten when it came to choosing our meals, it was fish paradise.

Mellowmango bar and restaurant provided us with all of our best meals. We waited for the fisherman every night at 6pm to return from his expeditions.  He saved us the best pieces while we went to shower after a hectic day of sunbathing, drinking mango daiquiris and dipping into the sea. Around 9pm we were seated at our favourite table, some nights we were literally dining and the waves would reach our toes underneath the table. Pictured below was our leaving lunch and we made it a big one: the most amazing Prawn Red Curry with rice and Prawn Pad Thai with some prawn fritters for starters (we worried we might never eat prawns again!). To top everything off, I managed to wash the meal down with a choco/banana shake, a really bad habit I picked up on the island - their bananas are small and taste like no other banana I have ever eaten - the shakes were made with crushed ice and since the bananas were already very creamy, no milk was added. 



Pictured above: Prawn Red Curry - Prawn Fritters - Prawn Pad Thai
Banana & Chocolate Shake at Mellowmango's

The island's speciality is Chao-Le Style (Sea Gypsy) and as the saying goes: "an image is worth more than a hundred words", I leave you with these: 

Chao Le Style and prawn obsession at Mellowmango's

The merlin is a typical fish from the area and also a national symbol. The catch must have been amazing that day because it was the only time we saw those two enormous fishes in the trophy-dish pictured below. However, the dish that most impressed us was the shark, the meat was incredibly tender and juicy.The sauce had secret ingredients which included lime but there was another intriguing, intense flavour we couldn't identify. We were told it was all top secret! I guess we'll never find out...



The Merlin and the succulent shark meat, pictured above.