Spinach satay buckwheat pasta salad

So I was eating very basic things to save money, and I've been holidaying in Christchurch, for my mum's 60th, and celebrating Seder with my Jewish boyfriend... then all of a sudden it's the end of March and I haven't blogged in weeks.

Sorry kids, now I have a video camera (thanks, Sarah) AND a decent digital camera (thanks, Jay!) I have no excuse to post pictures of what I've been cooking.

Tonight is the committee hearing for the Marriage (definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill and I'm going to a little picnic down in the Parliament Gardens as part of a peaceful demonstration of our support.

I've baked a Vermouth Banana Grape cake to bring, and wanted something light but filling, so I'm making my satay pasta salad. I've made variations of this with and without peanuts, with brown rice, a myriad of vegetables, plain and spicy, vinegary (I love vinegar), salty... Play around with this recipe until it tastes how YOU like it to. I like using fully grown spinach plants because I slice up the stems for extra crunch.

Apple cider vinegar may even help prevent Type 2 diabetes!

I've made this with buckwheat pasta because it's delicious, but you could use rice pasta, brown rice, jasmine rice, spaghetti, zucchini sliced with a vege peeler and blanched, whatevs.

Ingredients (serves 4)

1 250g pack of Orgran Buckwheat Pasta

2 eggs

1 large onion, diced

3-5 Tablespoons olive oil/coconut oil/ghee/lard

2 small spinach plants (chopped), or a few handfuls baby spinach

2 fresh tomatoes, diced

2 Tablespoons peanut butter or nut/seed butter of your choice (I used Purebread almond & hazelnut butter)

1 Tablespoon tamari (or gluten free soy sauce)

1 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon honey/palm sugar/rapadura sugar 

1/4-1/2 teaspoon minced chili pepper, or chili powder 

3-5 Tablespoons homemade stock (for meat eaters chicken/beef stock, but for vegos vegetable stock)

1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar (or white wine vinegar, or malt vinegar if you like strong flavours)

Salt and white pepper to season (be generous here, peppery pieces of peppercorns are also good)

Preparation

Cook the pasta in plenty of boiling, salty water. I find buckwheat pasta takes a little longer than normal pasta to cook. Rinse, and cool in a colander.

While the pasta is cooking, caramelise your onion slowly in your oil/fat of choice. A low heat for a long time, with an iron frying pan is perfect for this.

Chop your grown-up spinach's stems and dice your tomatoes and add to the onion, cook a few minutes more.

Add your sweetener, nut butter, tamari, chili, stock and stir until combined. Add the vinegar, pepper, pasta and chopped spinach, and stir. Season and add more vinegar as necessary.

Hardboil your eggs, then add to the salad.

Serve outside, in the sunshine, or have a picnic under the moon and the stars.

Would you believe I have photos of this, but I can't quite get them off the camera, yet? My laptop is NOT behaving.

http://www.listofimages.com/

Chicken and kumara curry

Such a great Tuesday night dinner food, and pretty healthy. Read about why you may want to include more coconut in your diet, especially using coconut oil for cooking here.

But seriously, how comforting is a creamy curry in a bowl sound? This recipe is dairy-free, and would be vegan if you substitute chickpeas for the chicken, or vegetarian if you include some boiled eggs at the end of cooking instead of the chicken.

What's even better is the carbohydrate portion of this meal is low G.I. and included in the same pot so, less cleaning up!

Ingredients

1 large or 2 medium organic onions
2 cloves organic garlic
2 Tablespoons coconut oil
2-3 Tablespoons curry powder
2-3 Tablespoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons garam masala/cinnamon powder
750g chicken breasts, cubed
400g peeled kumara cut in 2-3cm chunks (potatoes or pumpkin is fine here)
400g can chopped tomatoes in juice (or 400g fresh tomatoes with skins removed with boiling water)
400g can coconut milk OR cream (I like Ayam because reasons)
1/2-1 cup homemade chicken stock (straight from the freezer is fine if you've frozen in cubes!)
200g green beans (spinach, silverbeet, whatever green vegetables you have in your fridge)
1 tsp salt (more to taste)

Preparation

Chop onion(s) and lightly brown in the oil in a fairly large cast-iron casserole or pot.
Add curry powder and cumin according to taste and cook uncovered, stirring often, until fragrant.
Add the coconut cream, tomatoes, and kumara (or potatoes or pumpkin), then cover and simmer until tender.
Add the chicken and stock and cook for 15 minutes.
Add the coarsely chopped green vegetables and simmer 5-10 minutes until cooked.
Add salt and adjust seasonings.
Test one piece of chicken is cooked by cutting into it and checking for pinkness. Cook longer if it's pink!
Serve in bowls, topped with plain yoghurt and chopped coriander/baby spinach leaves.

I like mine with poppadoms and maybe some cauliflower rice.