Tabouleh

Ingredients:

• 1 cup bulghur wheat
  
• 2 tomatoes, diced.
  
• 1/2 green bell pepper, diced
  
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
  
• 1/4 cucumber, diced
  
• 1 onion, minced
  
• minced fresh parsley and mint leaves
  
• 2 Tbsp. chopped kalamata olives
  
• juice of one lemon
  
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil

Directions:

Place wheat in a bowl and cover with water.
Set aside until water is absorbed (approximately 20 minutes).
Combine all ingredients and mix well.
Chill salad two hours before serving.

Curried Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon tomato/tamarind based curry paste (such as Patak's hot)
  
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
  
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable stock
  
• 1 cup raisins
  
• 340 grams dry pasta shells or rotini
  
• 1/2 red pepper
  
• 1/2 green pepper
  
• 1/2 red onion
  
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley
  
• 1/2 cup pine nuts

Directions:

Cook pasta, drain, and set aside to cool.
Combine curry paste, olive oil, stock and raisins in a saucepan.
Bring dressing to a boil, simmer for five minutes, then remove from heat and allow to cool.
Slice peppers and onion thinly.
Chop parsley.
Toss pasta with dressing.
Mix in vegetables, parsley and nuts.
Serve chilled.

Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Soup

Ingredients:

• 3 red bell peppers
  
• 4 - 5 large tomatoes
  
• 6 jalepeño peppers
  
• 1 yellow onion
  
• olive oil
  
• 2 heads oven roasted garlic
  
• 1 sweet potato
  
• fresh basil
  
• 3 cups herb broth

Garnish:

• seasoned croutons
  
• feta cheese
  
• fresh basil

Directions:

Remove stem and seeds from peppers.
Remove stem from tomatoes.
Peel onion.
Cut peppers, tomatoes and onion into large chunks.
Coat large baking pan with olive oil.
Add peppers, tomatoes and onion. Toss to coat with oil.
Roast in oven at 350°F for 1 hour.
Peel and cube sweet potato.
Boil until soft.
Strain off water.
Purée peppers, tomatoes, onion, garlic, sweet potato, basil and juices from roasted vegetables in food processor.
Add broth.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes to allow flavours to blend well.
Serve topped with seasoned croutons, crumbled feta cheese and fresh basil.

Gazpacho

This cold tomato soup is the perfect dish for a hot summer day. Full of flavour and fresh-from-the-garden goodness.



Ingredients:

• 5 large tomatoes
  
• 1 red bell pepper
  
• 1 green bell pepper
  
• 1 red onion
  
• 1 garlic
  
• cilantro
  
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
  
• hot sauce such as Susie's Calypso
  
• 2 cups cold vegetable stock
  
• seasoned croutons for garnish

Directions:

Dice tomatoes, peppers and onion.
Mince garlic and cilantro, reserving some cilantro leaves whole for garnish.
Toss vegetables and minced cilantro together.
Pour oil and vinegar over vegetables and mix well.
Fire it up as desired with hot sauce.
Mix in cold vegetable stock.
Cover and refrigerate 2 hours to allow flavours to blend.
Serve cold, garnished with croutons and whole cilantro leaves.

Jambalaya

A little bit of everything adds up to a whole lot of wonderful!



Ingredients:

• 1 garlic
  
• 1 large yellow onion
  
• 1 green bell pepper
  
• 1 red bell pepper
  
• freshly ground black pepper
  
• ground cayenne pepper
  
• ground oregano
  
• 375 g Cajun smoked sausage
  
• 1 lb skinless, boneless chicken breasts
  
• 400 ml clam juice
  
• 1/2 pound shrimp
  
• olive oil for frying

Directions:

Mince garlic.
Cut onion into eighths and separate layers.
Remove stems and seeds from bell peppers and cut into bit-sized chunks.
Toss onion, garlic and bell peppers together in a large bowl.
Season vegetables generously with black pepper, cayenne and oregano.


Fry chicken in olive oil until cooked through. At this point, the chicken should be soft enough to cut easily into small pieces with a plastic spatula.

Remove chicken from heat and set aside.

Slice sausage 1/4 inch thick and fry until browned.

Remove cooked sausage from pan, placing between sheets of paper towel to absorb excess fat.

Stir fry seasoned vegetables in olive oil until onion becomes soft and translucent.


Add cooked chicken & sausage to the pan with the vegetables.
Add clam juice and bring stew to a boil.


Continue cooking Jambalya until most of the liquid has evaporated/been absorbed.
Add shrimp during final 6 minutes of cooking.


Serve over hearty whole-grain rice with a side of Garlic & Hot Pepper Corn Bread.

Firey Fajitas

A splash of hot sauce adds a spicy twist to my take on this favourite dish. These fajitas are simple to prepare and ready to eat in under ten minutes. Fast food can be flavourful!

Ingredients:

• 10 inch diameter whole grain tortillas
  
• yellow onion
  
• cooked chicken breasts, cut into strips
  
• red bell pepper
  
• avocado
  
• feta cheese
  
• Dan T's WhiteHot Inferno sauce
  
• olive oil for frying

Directions:

Heat oil in a skillet.
Slice onion lengthwise and stir-fry until soft and translucent.
Add strips of cooked chicken and continue cooking until chicken is heated through and onion begins to carmelize.
While the chicken and onions are cooking, slice pepper and avocado into thin strips and crumble feta.

Place onion, chicken, pepper, avocado, feta and hot sauce across the centre of a tortilla, leaving one edge bare.


Fold the bare side of the tortilla up over the fillings.


Fold the near edge of the tortilla up over the fillings and folded bottom edge.


Beginning with the side you have folded over, roll the fajita away from you until it is fully wrapped.


Enjoy!

Double Garlic Chicken Crêpes

These crêpes are wonderfully tasty with sweet, well-blended flavours that even the finicky eaters on my guest list enjoy. The double dose of garlic comes from sweet oven roasted garlic and thick, rich Skotidakis Tzatziki.



Ingredients:

• 1 batch crêpe batter
  
• 150 g chèvre
  
• 2/3 cup tzatziki
  
• 1 oven roasted garlic
  
• 7 sun-dried tomato halves
  
• 1 large yellow onion
  
• 1 red pepper
  
• 1 lb cooked chicken breast
  
• olive oil for frying vegetables
  
• butter for frying crêpes

Directions:

Roast garlic.
Prepare crêpe batter.
While batter is chilling, prepare the filling:

Dice the sun-dried tomatoes.
Remove oven roasted garlic flesh from the skin.
Beat together chèvre and tzatziki until smooth.
Add garlic and tomato and mix until well blended.


Finely slice onion and red peppers.
Stir fry onion in olive oil until onion turns soft and translucent.
Add red pepper and continue stir frying until peppers are cooked through and onion begins to carmelize.


Dice chicken.
Add chicken and sauce to the pan with the vegetables.
Mix well and cook gently -- just enough to warm the filling through.


Cook crêpes as per recipe.
Spoon chicken mixture onto crêpes, roll and serve.

Jalepeño Cheddar Soup

This recipe makes a hearty, delicious, brightly coloured winter soup. The jalepeños give the soup a nice flavour, but are not the hottest peppers available. Add some of your favourite hot sauce or a few habeneros for a spicier soup.



Ingredients:

• 2 x 796 ml tins no salt added tomatoes
  
• 2 red bell peppers
  
• 3 cups carrots
  
• 9 jalepeño peppers
  
• 1-2 yellow onions
  
• 2 heads oven roasted garlic
  
• 1 lb aged cheddar cheese
  
• basil
  
• oregano
  
• olive oil

Directions:

Peel onions and carrots.
Remove seeds and stalks from peppers.
Cut onions, carrots and peppers into large pieces.
Toss with olive oil in a large oven proof dish.

Roast at 400°F for 40 minutes.
Transfer roasted vegetables to a large pan or stock pot.
Add tinned tomatoes and their juices.
Add flesh of oven roasted garlics.
Season generously with basil and oregano.
Stir all ingredients together and heat to a gentle boil.
Simmer until vegetables have softened.
Purée soup in a food processor or blender.
Return puréed soup to the pan.
Finely grate cheddar cheese.
Stir cheese into soup and heat until melted.

Enjoy this soup as a meal on its own, or with a salad or a flavourful bread such as my Ancient Grains Focaccia.

Crostini à la Dragon

My own take on garlic bread with the works. This is a favourite appetizer at my dinner parties, but the recipe is hearty enough to serve as a meal in itself!



Ingredients:

• 1 fresh baked, hearty whole grain baguette
  
• 1 oven roasted garlic with roasting oil
  
• 140 g chevre, room temperature
  
• fresh basil leaves, torn into small pieces
  
• sun dried tomatoes, thinly sliced
  
• roasted red pepper, cut into small pieces
  
• feta cheese, crumbled
  
• fresh grated parmesan

Directions:

Slice baguette in half and place both halves, cut side up, on a baking tray.
Drizzle oil from the oven roasted garlic over the bread.
Spread bread with chevre.
Pile on basil, tomato, pepper and feta.
Top with parmesan.
Place under broiler on low heat until parmesan turns golden brown.
Enjoy immediately.

Spicy Vegetable Juice

I have been staying at my parents' home the last couple of weeks. My father has a brand new 1000 watt Breville "Juice Fountain Elite" and my mother an enormous refrigerator which is perpetually stocked with more produce than they can eat (and crammed so full that my mother can seldom find what she has hidden away in there!) I felt this was a good combination for experimenting with some new juice recipes *. Here is the first:

Ingredients:

• tomatoes
  
• carrots
  
• red pepper
  
• celery
  
• cilantro
  
• hot sauce **

Notes:

* I did a fairly good job of cleaning out my mother's fruit and vegetable drawers during the course of these experiments, but they were chocker-block full again the next day!

** I used Dan T's Inferno White Hot Cayenne Pepper Sauce. If it's heat level is not to your liking, any cayenne/tomato-based hot sauce would make a suitable substitution.

Directions:

Cut the stalk out of the red pepper and scrape out the seeds.
Wash the cilantro, squeeze into a bundle.
Stuff red pepper with cilantro bundle.
Juice carrots and celery on high speed.
Juice tomatoes and cilantro-stuffed red pepper on low speed.
Add a dash of hot sauce and mix well.
Enjoy fresh-squeezed or chilled same day.

Chicken Curry

This recipe is a favourite at my dinner parties as a crêpe filling. It is also excellent served over rice. I take it wilderness camping, preparing the curry ahead of time and freezing it in airtight plastic freezer bags. The curry then serves as an ice pack for the rest of my food during the first couple of days of my trip. Once it has thawed out, it is time to enjoy it. Cook the rice over an open fire, then stir curry mixture into cooked rice and heat through.



Ingredients:

• 1 coconut
  
• approximately 1 cup hot water
  
• olive oil for frying
  
• 1 garlic, peeled and diced
  
• 1 yellow onion, peeled and diced
  
• 1 inch ginger root, peeled and diced
  
• 1 lb chicken breasts *
  
• 2 tablespoons hot curry paste **
  
• 1 red pepper, seeded and diced
  
• 1 yellow pepper, seeded and diced
  
• 1 mango, peeled, pitted and diced
  
• fresh cilantro leaves
  
• freshly squeezed juice of one lime
  

Notes:

* I often work with chicken breasts pre-cut into strips for stir frying. This makes for quick, even cooking throughout without drying the outside of the chicken, and speeds up the work of dicing the cooked chicken.

** I favour Patak's Madras curry paste, but there is a wide variety of excellent prepared curry pastes available for those of us without the time to prepare our own.

Directions:

Drain and reserve water from coconut.
Bake coconut at 400°F for 15 minutes.
Break coconut open and pry flesh away from shell.
Peel brown skin off coconut flesh.
Purée coconut flesh in blender or food processor with reserved coconut water and enough additional water to make liquid up to 1.5 cups.
Allow pureéed coconut mixture to stand for 15 minutes.
Press coconut mixture through a fine sieve to extract milk.
Stir fry onion, garlic and ginger in olive oil.
Add chicken and continue stir frying until chicken is cooked through.
Dice chicken with spatula while continuing to cook. (Once cooked, it should slice easily with a plastic or rubber spatula.)
Add curry paste and mix well.
Add peppers, continuing to stir fry.
Add coconut milk and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer.
Add mango, chopped cilantro leaves and freshly squeezed lime juice.
Continue to simmer curry until flavours are well blended.

To fill crêpes:

Prepare crêpes.
Spoon curry mixture in a line across crêpe, 1/3 of the way in from one edge.
Fold near edge up over curry mixture and roll up crêpe to surround curry.
For best results, serve crêpe immediately.
When large quantities are required, place filled crêpes in a singler layer in a large baking pan (such as a lasagna pan) and warm in oven to heat through just before serving.

Budget Bean Salad

When time and/or money are tight, this hearty salad is a great choice. Taking only minutes to prepare, this recipe makes a LOT of flavourful, nutrient-packed food!

(If you have time to start preparing this salad a little earlier, you can save even more money - and have greater control over quantity - by working with dried beans and soaking them overnight to rehydrate before use.)

Ingredients:

• 1 can chickpeas
  
• 1 can black beans
  
• 1 can red kidney beans
  
• 1 can white beans
  
• 1 red onion, thinly sliced
  
• 1 red pepper, seeded and diced
  
• 1 yellow pepper, seeded and diced
  
• fresh cilantro leaves
  
• a favourite vinaigrette (a tomato-based dressing works well)

Directions:

Mix chickpeas, beans, onion, peppers & cilantro together.
Toss with vinaigrette.

Sunshine Salad

Ingredients:

• mixed salad greens
  
• cooked chicken, diced *
  
• avocado, sliced
  
• mango, cubed
  
• red bell pepper, sliced
  
• feta cheese, crumbled
  
• roasted cashew nuts (unsalted)
  
• pumpkin seeds, shelled
  
• sunflower seeds, shelled
  
• dried cranberries
  
• golden raisins
  
• citrus vinaigrette **

Options:

* If you prefer a vegetarian salad, simply leave the chicken out. My diet isn't overly high on protein, so I tend to throw some chicken breasts into any dish they will suit for some nutritional balance, but this salad is loaded with plenty of other goodness!

** Kraft's "Mandarin Orange wtih Sesame" works wonderfully with this salad!

Directions:

Line plate with mixed greens.
Sprinkle chicken, avocado, mango, peppers, feta, nuts, seeds & dried fruit over greens.
Drizzle with vinaigrette.

Curry Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

• cooked chicken, diced
  
• "Sweet Mild Jakarta Curry Dip" *
  
• red bell pepper, diced
  
• yellow bell pepper, diced
  
• red onion or bunch of spring onions, diced
  
• mango, diced
  
• fresh mint leaves, chopped
  
• fresh cilantro, chopped
  

Substitutions:

* This is a "Compliments" brand dip, available from Sobey's. If you cannot acquire it, try your favourite curry paste mixed with a little mayonnaise and/or sour cream.

Directions:

Toss all ingredients together.
Enjoy on a sandwich or on salad greens.