Cannellini, Green Bean, and Tomato Salad

At the local vegetable market, I buy these long beans. They are sold coiled up in a bunch and are usually about 40 cm long when laid out. Fortunately for me, they are easy to use: in all the same ways as Western green beans. So I usually cut them into bite-sized pieces and stir-fry them or blanch them for salad.

Beef with Parley Pesto and Sauteed Vegetables

People are always asking me how I eat complete meals with no carbohydrates. First, I answer by pointing out that vegetables are carbohydrates, and actually I only avoid starchy carbs such as pasta, bread, and grains. Secondly, I make meals like this: full of veg and filling, too, thanks to the protein and fats.

Courgette, Corn, and Tomato Sautee

Fresh corn looses its sweet flavour soon after harvesting. I read (in The Vegetable Bible) that corn is past its best only a few hours after it is picked. I guess this explains why frozen corn often tastes so good. It is frozen immediately after harvest, thus preserving both nutrition and taste.

Cherry Tomatoes with Asian Greens and Garlic

I was having the kind of work day which I wished would end. I love my job is so many ways--I'm a teacher and I love my students and my subject. But I really don't like marking student notebooks. It's an essential part of my job and so I do it a lot. But I was having the kind of day in which success at marking had to be be achieved by comfort eating chocolate at the same time. Ugh.

By the time a class set of books were marked, I think I had eaten four mini bars of mint chocolate and three mini packs of M&Ms. My stomach felt awful but I was so relieved to be finished. I packed up and left from a twelve hour day. Dinner could be simple, since my husband was not going to be present. In the end, all I wanted to eat was a bowl of vegetables. Do you have days like this?

Tomato, Basil, and Red Wine "Risotto" with Aubergine

I am learning how to make vegetable "risotto". It is so simple and I feel myself getting healthier while eating it.

Real risotto requires minimal preparation time but quite a patient, long cooking time. Veggie risotto takes more preparation time but a fraction of the cooking time. Overall, I'm really happy with the "risotto" that I made out of turnip, which is pictured here.

First I used my spiralizer to make turnip noodles. (Here's my first spiralizer post and you can see which one I own by looking at the pictures and the links.) Then I took the turnip noodles and pulsed them in the food processor for about five seconds in total. I did this in batches, until all the turnip was turned into bits the size and shape of rice.

Caramelised Cherry Tomatoes

Caramelised cherry tomatoes, otherwise known as my new easiest side dish. I have started a new job and I am working much longer hours than before. I have to admit that I gave up on cooking for a while. I bought fast food from the train station and enlisted the nearby delivery restaurants to keep us fed for a month. But too much food cooked outside my own kitchen starts to taste strange after a while. Enter: this laughably easy dish.

I bought some white fish to pan fry since that's a fast main dish. Then I added this Donna Hay recipe for caramelised cherry tomatoes. The idea is really that you pan fry some chicken or fish and remove it. Then deglaze the pan for two minutes with balsamic vinegar and halved cherry tomatoes. Then serve. That is all! Cooking the tomatoes add only two minutes to the overall time of making dinner. I served it on some courgette noodles (they were raw, and the balsamic juices warmed them a bit). That's the kind of fast food I need right now.

Pastrami Wraps with Cherry Tomato Salsa

This is a simple dinner or appetizer. I used soft but crunchy butterhead lettuce for the wraps, but you could use pitta bread or flatbread. The pastrami and cherry tomato salsa would also make an intriguing sandwich filling.

But I encourage you to try these pastrami wraps without the bread. I feel passionately about helping people eat more vegetables. This is the perfect time to try it! Since you're going to eat with your hands anyway, get in there and make some lettuce wraps. If your lettuce leaves are pretty small like mine, you will end up making about twice as many lettuce wraps as you would with bigger bread wraps.

Mexican Tomato and Garlic Soup

Sometimes I feel as though I don't have a particularly innovative food item to share, but I just want to remind myself and others that it is OK to eat simply. This is one of those dishes that is stupendously easy. It feels strange to revel in its simplicity. But this soup is both simple and outstanding.

There were four of us eating on a plain, calm Saturday. We were just enjoying being together and having a good old chat. This soup and a salad were the lunch we sat down to together. And it fit perfectly into our ordinary day, while amazing all four of us with its richness of flavour. This soup's motto is "store cupboard staples turned to sunshine." It is made with ingredients you probably already have in the pantry and it will bring a warming dose of Mexican sun to the table.

Baked Fish Fillets with Tomatoes

Last weekend was spent organising our new flat. It feels so good to have all the boxes gone now. (Except four that I have been avoiding sorting through.) Our new bookshelves are full; the cookbooks have a shelf all to themselves.

A Three-Star Lunch at Caprice

My husband and I went for the set lunch at Caprice this weekend. It's a three Michelin-starred restaurant in the Four Seasons hotel in Hong Kong. The view looks out over Hong Kong harbour.

We had three courses with a glass of wine. Allow me to describe each in a bit of detail.

Starter: chilled tomato consomme with mozzarella and tomato cocktail

Beef Chilli

This is the dinner meal that is on rotation at my house more than any other. We eat it year-round; though I know some people who think chilli is a winter dish. Allow me to explain.

Dhal: Buttery Lentils with Garlic and Tomatoes

About a year ago I discovered that a friend of my brother had started a wonderful food blog called The Things I Eat. The author is Minh, a Canadian with a Vietnamese background. He started blogging as he was exploring his family history through food. I love reading his insights and the recipes usually entice me too. One of the very first things I bookmarked was this lentil dish: dhal. (It's not Vietnamese, just go with me anyway!)

A bowl of warm, buttery lentils is filling and satisfying. It's the kind of tongue- and heart-warming food that I almost cuddle. I like to hold the bowl between my knees as I sit on the couch. After eating dhal my toes are wiggling and there's a little smile on my face. The first time I served dhal I added turkey meatballs, the next time I just enjoyed it plain. 

Red and Green Salad with Chayote

Ms Hovey was my favourite teacher in elementary school. Her grade four class was the first place I tasted kiwi, and the first place I saw baking soda react with vinegar. I was a quiet, bookish girl with long, brown hair and glasses, and I wanted to please her. Perhaps because of this, she encouraged me to enter the school's public speaking competition.

Artichoke Bites

I have written about these artichoke squares before. They are a great side dish or party appetiser. My newest version of these delectable hand-held snacks, pictured here, taste a lot like pizza bites. I adapted my previous recipe by adding tomatoes, using sriracha to add some heat, and changing the ratio of artichokes and cheese.

rainbow salad with corn, carrots, and tomato

This salad is so brightly coloured you almost need sunglasses to look at the picture above! This gorgeous salad is my part of the Secret Recipe Club. All the blogger participants are assigned, secretly, to one another. This month I have been enjoying the food blog It's Yummy to My Tummy, and I've chosen a recipe from Heather, the mother behind the blog, to recreate here. She called it Shamrock Salsa, but I saw it as more of a side dish salad. I've renamed it in honour of its full spectrum of bright colours.

emergency sausage and beans supper

The stress is mounting at work--the Dreaded Exams are coming. Preparing extra revision materials for borderline students is taking up a lot of my brain power. There just doesn't seem to be much space left in my head for thinking of what to eat for dinner. And sometimes I forget to shop for food, too. It was one of those nights when we both came home tired and stressed. I was in a dyspeptic mood after a bit too much hassle from deadlines and even slack-jawed drooling seemed like an effort.

curried potatoes

Sometimes it's time for comfort food. For Anthony, my husband, potatoes are the best comfort food. He grew up in a "meat and two veg" household where potatoes were a daily enjoyment. I saw this recipe on Simply Recipes and knew that it would be a happy night when I made it for dinner for him.

caponata--a Sicilian aubergine relish

In case I ever run out of new things to try--ha!--I have joined a blogging group called The Velveteers. There were four of them to begin with, and they started by re-inventing red velvet cake. Now, several months later, Alessio, Aparna, Asha, and Pam have opened their ranks to new members, and I rushed in! Each month they try something new--an ingredient, or a theme--and each person is supposed to interpret it slightly differently.

weekend links #7

food links:
--A look into the military rations of the soldiers serving in Afghanistan (from The New York Times). It's fascinating to see what each country provides. For example, one country gives each soldier three mini toothbrushes with each day's ration package.
--WWOOF, an organisation that connects organic farms with people who want to visit them and work there.

recipe links:
--Kale chips (from Sugarlaws). I guess I am part of the "bulgur and quinoa set" that Katy describes.
--A lovely looking Indial lentil recipe: dal nirvana (from Steamy Kitchen).
--Two beautiful salads: succotash (from Kitchenist) and quail egg and gorgonzola salad (from Lucullian Delights).
--Pickled, spiced grapes (from The Kitchn). What a clever idea that sounds delicious. Make it before a party.

off-topic links:
--A really neat plate arrangement on the kitchen wall (from The Kitchn). I wish I wasn't renting at the moment because then I would be able to do this.
--A graph to use in teaching (from Indexed).
--A genius idea for organising kids' clothes so they can dress themselves in the morning (from I'm an Organizing Junkie). This also would make packing for trips dead easy.

curried aubergine and black-eyed beans

After a long day, I think, Oh, no! I forgot to plan my meals this week and I have no idea what to eat for dinner. With a nervously sad face, I look at which veggies are in my fridge. One evening I was faced with aubergine (eggplant) and an onion.