04Nov

Organico Ouinoa Salad with seeds and feta; Quinoa Stuffed Peppers

In CategoryOrganic Recipes, Salads, Simple Healthy Meals
ByOrganico
For 4 as a light main course.
1 large cup Quinoa
1.5 cups water
I handful each pumpkin and sunflower seeds and a little soya sauce
Dressing: a simple vinaigrette made from cider vinegar, olive oil, honey, lemon juice, zest, minced garlic, salt, pepper.
3-4 cups of a selection of the following:
Chopped cherry tomatoes, diced cucumber, peppers, fennel, radishes, carrots, grated courgette, finely chopped onions, thinly sliced mangetout peas, green beans,  roasted hazelnuts, dried cranberries, crumbled feta or cubes of mature sheep’s or goat’s cheese, and most importantly herbs – as many as you like – parsley, mint, chives, basil, coriander and even dill and fennel are lovely.
Quinoa is easy to cook, just remember to rinse it in a sieve first to get rid of the slightly bitter coating, add the water and cook on a medium heat with a lid on for 15 to 20 minutes, adding a little more water if needed towards the end.
Allow the quinoa to cool in a bowl before adding the rest of the ingredients.
While the quinoa is cooking, toast the seeds in a dry pan until popping, then put them in a bowl with a little soya sauce and mix well. Make the salad dressing and allow flavours to mingle; and chop the vegetables, herbs and cheese you have chosen.
Mix everything together, dress to taste and serve.

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers with St Tola Goat’s Cheese

Allow 1/2 large red or yellow pepper per person.
To make an easy main course, you can use a version of the quinoa salad as a stuffing for peppers. Leaving out the dressing and using some roasted or sautéed vegetables instead.
Simply cut the peppers in half and de-seed, steam them for 10 minutes until slightly soft and allow to cool. Fit the halved peppers snugly in a dish that can go under the grill and on the table. Fill the peppers with the dry quinoa mix, adding some roasted/sautéed onions and courgettes for extra moisture and sweetness. Place half-inch slice of St Tola goat’s log on top. Grill until the cheese is melted and bubbling and the filling is warmed through. Serve with a fresh green salad for a delicious, light, nutritious lunch.
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17Oct

Savoury Pancakes filled with Roasted Butternut Squash and Feta with a Sage Butter.

In CategoryOrganic Food, Organic Recipes, Organico Cafe, Simple Healthy Meals
ByOrganico

This is a very popular main course in Organico Café. The pancake batter is adapted from Dennis Cotter’s Café Paradiso cook book ‘A Paradiso Year’ and the filling is my own. The pancakes are light and the filling is rich, tasty and nutritious.

Serve with a mixed green salad and a combination of grated fresh courgette and carrots dressed with light lemon juice and olive oil dressing.

Pancakes:
120g fine maize meal
80g spelt flour
Pinch smoked paprika
Black pepper
Large pinch salt
3 eggs
450mls milk
Olive oil

Method:
Sift flours, spices and salt together into a bowl. Whisk the eggs in a jug, add the milk, then whisk them into the flour to get a smooth pouring batter. Heat a frying pan, preferable a crepe pan but if not then a good non stick one will do (I just treated myself to a great ‘healthy’ non-stick pan from the CookShop in Bantry – it’s a great addition to the kitchen). Brush with olive oil and pour a ladle of the mix into the pan, swirl around to evenly coat the pan and cook for a minute or two before flipping over for the same time on the other side. This batter will make approx 12 pancakes (you won’t need that many but it leaves room for a few trial runs!!) The quantities for the filling are rough as you can use more of any of the ingredients that you like or you simply have more of!

Filling:
1 medium butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and diced
1 big onion, sliced
Olive oil, for roasting
200g to 250g feta cheese
small bunch fresh sage, chopped finely
70g butter
Salt & Pepper

Toss the squash and onion in oil and roast on 200 degrees until soft approx 25 minutes (you can leave the oven on as you will be using it again to reheat the filled pancakes). Melt the butter and add the chopped sage, heat through for a few minutes. Crumble the feta into the squash, adding the sage but keeping back a little of the butter to brush over the pancakes. Season after tasting the filling as the feta can be very salty.

Assemble:
Divide the filling roughly into 6 in the bowl. Spoon 1/6 of the mix into the pancakes, spread it out across in a sausage shape and roll up. Brush the tops with the rest of the Sage Butter and place in the oven (medium heat) on a baking tray on a sheet of parchment paper for 10 minutes. Serve when piping hot!

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29Sep

Meal Idea: Warm Puy Lentils and Brown rice served with roasted vegetables and feta cheese

In CategoryNews, Simple Healthy Meals
ByOrganico

I’d like to start a new section of the website devoted to Simple Meal Ideas, meaning not quite recipes but more inspiration to help you decide what to eat at those times when you just can’t think! I’m planning to invite customers and friends to add theirs also so we all get to share each others’ tasty, quick and easy meals.

Tonight I made a warm Puy lentil rice salad with caramelised onions and loads of herbs, with veggies and feta cheese. The veggies could be roasted (for example peppers, aubergine, onions, courgette) or sauted (leeks, kale, cherry tomatoes and butternut squash) or any combination you have to hand – it’s nice if they are juicy and seasonal. If you wanted to dress it up you could make an aubergine gratin in a rich tomato sauce…it goes really well with the lentils and rice. You could leave out the feta then.

For the lentils and rice I cooked 1 cup of brown rice (with 2 cups of water in a pan with a lid for 35 minutes) and 1/2 a cup of puy lentils (in lots of water until al dente) and mixed them together with some caramelised onion (4 small red onions with a little oil over a low heat for 20 minutes). You drain the lentils before mixing them, and the rice should be cooked through. Then add a few handfuls of chopped parsley and corriander, a glug of olive oil, a little balsamic and lots of soya sauce and pepper.

Serve with a generous amount of crumbeld feta. The salad is great the next day also, just check the seasoning. Enjoy! By Hannah

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