Broccoli (4)

Salad with quinoa, vegetables, mushrooms and cottage cheese

All of us sometimes too lazy/have no time to cook but want to eat right now and preferably useful. This dish is a tasty and convenient option. Like all without exception, even those who don’t like certain ingredients;)

This salad designer, it can put quite a diverse set of products, so I will describe rather than prescription, and technology and list of ingredients.

Ingredients.

Binding: quinoa, sweet tasty tomatoes, ripe avocado, salad mix/spinach, lemon juice/balsamic vinegar, olive oil, sea salt, freshly ground pepper.

Optional: cream cheese/feta/goat cheese, any kind of mushrooms (I usually stir-fry them with the onions until it will turn brown), roasted vegetables (zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, broccoli, etc.), sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, herbs (especially parsley appropriate here), various nuts and seeds, herbs (Basil, Italian, thyme).

Technology.

I often make blanks for this salad for a few days, then for 2 minutes to prepare it at any time.

Quinoa is best to cook a little less time (cooking time for each specific type of seeds look on the package), so she definitely kept the form for a few days. This is true more for white quinoa. Inarenou cereal I keep in the fridge up to 3 days. Can mix it with a small amount of vegetable oil, so it does not stick together.

I cook quinoa as directed on the package, since the method of cooking depends on the variety.

But usually so: thoroughly wash barley, soak it for at least 30 minutes or for a few hours, the seeds swelled, and trash spil, and it can be removed with running water. And most importantly, even after a short soaking, the quinoa will taste bitter.

Then fill it with water in a ratio of 1к2, bring to boil and cook under the lid for 10-15 minutes on medium heat. The idea is all the water should soak into the grains, if this has not happened, and the quinoa is tender, simply drain it in a colander.

Vegetables I usually bake a lot. They can always be used in such salads, as a garnish in sandwiches. Recipe baked vegetables wrote here.

Mushrooms also fry a whole pan, because they are also great for many dishes: for Breakfast from eggs, to sandwiches, to pizza, to pasta.

Feed.

For 1 serving, I usually put half an avocado, a handful of salad mix/spinach, 5 cherry tomatoes, no more than 100g. prepared quinoa 1-2 tbsp mushrooms, cheese, roasted vegetables, greens, sun-dried tomatoes, lemon juice/balsamic. Salt/pepper/nuts/herbs to taste. Oil sometimes do not add if it is enough of roasted vegetables and mushrooms. Mix everything and eat.

And such food can be taken by wrapping the salad in a rice paper in spring rolls. Very happy with it!

Green salad with apples, pecans and ginger-mustard dressing

This is my new favorite salad! Cook for 5 minutes (not counting the nuts stage)!

Recipe for 2-3 servings:

1. a handful of pecans. Rinse and fry in the oven at 160C until crispy. If the nuts are old or bitter, then soak them in clean water until they taste sweet, then dry iteratively at low temperatures (method wrote herePecans can be replaced with walnuts or almonds.

2. refueling. Carefully beat 3 tablespoons of olive oil, 2 tablespoons of honey or syrup (maple, Jerusalem artichoke), 2 tablespoons of apple/grape vinegar, 1 tsp of Dijon mustard, salt/pepper to taste, 1 h.l. ginger (grated or passed through a garlic chopper). I like the second method even more, because in fact you need ginger juice, and not the fibers themselves. Or replace it with a pinch of dry, but it will not be as fragrant as with fresh.

3. other ingredients.

Half a head of broccoli is divided into small inflorescences, rinse well and pour the dressing, mix so that the inflorescences absorb the sauce as much as possible, it is advisable to leave for 15 minutes.

1 avocado, 1 sweet and sour apple wash, peel, cut arbitrarily, add to broccoli. Toss a couple handfuls of fresh spinach, pecans and an optional handful of dried cranberries/raisins in a salad bowl, stir and serve immediately (until spinach is dull).

If the Berry is very dry, then leave it to soften along with broccoli and dressing. Vegetables can be changed at your discretion. Try it with zucchini, with asparagus. The main thing here is a combination of sour – spicy dressing, sweet notes from apple/berries and a nutty shade of pecan.

Just a bomb, not a salad!

Baked chicken with broccoli and garlic sauce

I love these dishes, when its main part, garnish and sauce are prepared at the same time. Very convenient!

This is an example of one of them (recipe for 2 chicken or 1 chicken. I prefer pet chickens, but the chicken too tasty):

0. Soak chicken in salt water.

This item is number zero, because it can be omitted if too lazy to bother. But after brining the meat becomes tender and very juicy. Brine to do so: on 1 l of water 50 g of salt and any spices at your discretion. That put, this fragrance and will smell ready chicken. For my taste to the chicken fit a few cloves of garlic and lemon. The brine should completely cover the surface of the product. This can be done in any deep container or in a sealed plastic bag.

The time salting depends on the weight of the product. On 1 kg of weight needs time pickling for about 2 hours. Take into account the weight of each unit of the product, not the total weight. That is, if you salted 2 chickens weighing 1 kg, then you need to keep them in salt water for 2 hours and not 4. It is important not to overdo, and then the fibers become too loose and unpleasant.

Just for information. This type of refinement of taste and texture of meat suitable for any lean meat, any fish and seafood.

1. My 5 sprigs of rosemary, thyme, parsley and 8-10 heads(!) garlic (clear is not necessary). Herbs can be changed at your discretion and can be replaced with dry (1 tbsp each), but fresh is much more fragrant.

Cut garlic into 2 parts across the cloves, place it on a baking sheet cut up, spread on top with 3 sprigs of each spice. If the garlic in the process was not cut or collapsed, it’s OK, you still spread it.

With the rest of the greens, separate the leaves and finely chop them, add to it 2 pinches of salt, pepper to taste, 2 tbsp olive or other vegetable oil and stir.

2. Chicken.

Opolaskivaniem the bird dry with paper towels. If you are using a frozen bird, then fully defrost it in the fridge, wash and dry.

Gently separate the skin on the breast meat under it and put 2-3 tsp of butter. Try to distribute the butter evenly, but not to break the skin.

Next, RUB the entire surface of the chicken (inside too) with a mixture of herbs, spices and oil, which we did in claim 1, stuff the chicken with lemon and cut into 4-6 pieces (I recommend even just to suppress it to the juice separated) and bind legs with cooking string. The contraction of the carcass twine is optional, but it would look more presentable at the end of cooking. Leave the carcass alone for 30-40 minutes, so it’s getting a little marinated and warmed up (in principle it is possible for a few hours set aside to marinate). So the heat will be distributed more evenly. And while it is possible to turn on the oven to heat up to 180C.

Place the chicken breast down on the garlic with the herbs and bake it in the oven for about 40-50 minutes, then turn breast up and bake until ready. Cooking time I expect based on the weight of chicken (1 kg takes approximately 1 hour). In the process, you can periodically pour the chicken resulting juices. A mixture of lemon juice and the chicken juices and fat is something magically delicious.

When the chicken is done is verified by the piercing of the carcass at its thickest point (where the thigh connects to the breast). If the juice is transparent ready.

3. Garnish.

About 30 minutes before end of roasting hens start to garnish. For poultry you can use any green cabbage (broccoli, Brussels sprouts), asparagus or fennel. In this case, I have broccoli (2 heads). Disassemble on inflorescences, my. In a saucepan boil water, and drop in there potseluem broccoli for 3-5 minutes, no more. This is to ensure that the cabbage was subsequently baked, not turned into a biscuit (in broccolini flowers little moisture, so they’re just dry). Frozen cabbage previously blanched (boil) is not necessary. It simply wash. After these manipulations throws the cabbage in a colander and then spread on a baking sheet for the chicken is almost ready, sprinkle with olive oil and spices to taste. Leave until tender (about 10 minutes). During this time, the broccoli to soak up the flavors of herbs and grilled well enough, but do not lose the crispness.

4. Sauce.

Remove the pan from the oven, prepared the chicken with a side dish leave to rest while we make the sauce. In any case, do not cut the meat immediately, and then all the juices will flow out, and do not cover it with anything, otherwise the crispy delicious skin will become sluggish and unpleasant.

For the sauce take all the garlic from the roasting pan, squeezed from skins, add 50 ml. dry white wine, 100-150 ml water/milk/cream, salt and pepper a pinch. All blenderis (better to do this immersion blender in the saucepan, because then the sauce should be slightly warm to evaporate the alcohol from the wine). Warmed up the sauce for 5 minutes over medium heat. Ready.

5. Feed.

Chicken should be very juicy, but with crispy crust, cabbage, as described above, the sauce is viscous and very fragrant. Pour the sauce and garnish the chicken or serve it separately. I’ve got a little bit of Parmesan cheese on the Kale, very fine shades of its taste.

Green zucchini soup with shrimps

How I do it:

I take zucchini (2-3 medium size) you can add other vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, spinach) + onions are exactly 2 times less than the number of basic vegetables.

In a saucepan, heat the oil for frying (ghee, olive oil of low acidity, avocado oil) and pass the onion, which I cut into cubes. You can add some carrots and celery to it, if you like. I do not add carrots to green soups so as not to spoil the color.

When the onion is ready (golden and smells delicious), add 2-3 cloves of garlic very finely chopped, actively mix and after 30 seconds throw all the other vegetables, cut into cubes or divided into inflorescences. I add water so that it covers all the vegetables and the carcass until the vegetables are ready. If I put spinach, then right at the very end (2 minutes before cooking). By the way, I do not use potatoes in cream soups, because I do not like the consistency of the paste, which it gives when whipping with a blender.

With an immersion blender, beat the contents directly in the pan, add water/milk/cream (it depends on the mood and the desired caloric content of the soup). I add it gradually so that the soup is not too liquid. As soon as I am satisfied with the density and consistency, I start adding spices, not before, so as not to make a mistake in their quantity. Usually I put salt, pepper, nutmeg, Provencal herbs. It can also be ginger, chili pepper, hops-suneli, etc. (this depends on the specific soup). Once again I warm up the soup and it’s ready.

Important.

In such soups, more than half of the success is competent topping.

For soups of green vegetables, like this, cheeses (Parmesan, blue cheese), shrimp/crab, fried with herbs and onions mushrooms+parmesan+baked garlic will do.

For cauliflower soup, red caviar is very cool.

For tomato soup: poached egg something meaty like chorizo / fried bacon+ricotta, Parmesan.

Pumpkin soup will garnish (to taste) with olive oil+balsamic sauce+roasted pumpkin seeds, cheeses (ricotta, goat cheese, blue cheese, strachatella).

Oh, yes, croutons are always appropriate for mashed soups.

P.S. for satiety and increase the amount of protein in the dish, you can add a couple of handfuls of White already cooked beans to the soup. The main thing is not to overdo it, and then the taste will not be so bright. But do not worry, it can be balanced by adding a little more spices;)