Month: November 2014

Simple Pumpkin and Spinach Salad

So the weather is warming up, the nights are getting longer and the last thing you want to do when you get home is stand around and slave over a hot stove.

Here is one of my favourite salads – it’s super easy to make and it can be made in advance and just thrown together at the last minute. I store the prepared ingredients separately then just toss it all together at the last minute. The roasted pumpkin will easily last in the fridge for 2-3 days or even a week depending on how often you use your fridge.

You’ll notice that I haven’t given measurements for this salad. That’s because I am leaving it all up to you. You can use as much or as little of each ingredient as you like. This works well as a main salad – I love it for work lunches – or as a side salad. The choice is yours.

 

Pumpkin & Spinach Salad

Butternut Pumpkin
Baby Spinach
Feta Cheese ( a creamy style, I really like Danish Feta)
Pine nuts
Walnuts
Balsamic dressing – optional

1. Pre-heat oven to 180c and line a baking tray with non-stick paper.

2. Cut your pumpkin into small cubes around 1.5cms each and place them on the tray. Drizzle with a little olive oil to help them go crispy. Roast for 20-30mins until the pumpkin is tender but still hold its shape. Once roasted set aside to cool.

3. While the pumpkin is roasting you can toast the pine nuts.
Place a fry pan on a medium heat and add your desired amount of pine nuts. Don’t add any oil as you want to dry toast them to bring out the slightly nutty flavor. This will take a couple of minutes maximum to do. Just keep moving the pan around to evenly toast the nuts. Set aside to cool.

4. In a large bowl, place your spinach and add the pumpkin, pine nuts and walnuts. Cut up the feta into pieces similar size to the pumpkin and add this to the salad. Mix all together and serve.

It’s as simple as that

You can dress it with balsamic of you like, I prefer it without the dressing as the creamy feta ends up coating everything as you mix it, but the balsamic adds another layer of yummy flavor.

 

Enjoy xoxo

 

p.s There was meant to be a pic, but out of all the food photos I take can you believe I’ve never taken one of this salad. I’ll update it the next time I make it.

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Best in Show Part 2

It’s well and truly over for another year, and the results are in. No prizes for me, but it was so exciting to see my entries on display.

My jam was too thick, as I had gone against my gut and added pectin which I don’t normally do and my ANZACS,  I believe were slightly underdone. The first prize ones were a deeper golden colour than mine. My lemon tart was entered in the wrong category. I took the meaning of creative cookery to mean that you could enter whatever you liked, whereas it was more they type of category to get experimental. I’ll be more prepared next year.

It was such a great learning experience though,  after speaking to some people and listening in on a few sessions in the IGA Demo Kitchen, I was amazed at the lengths that some of the contestants will go. Want that perfect sponge to wow the judges? Well you can put your chooks on a specific diet so their yolks will come out the perfect shade of yellow for your cake. Talk about extremes!

All of my entries were on display besides the jam (not sure why) and that made it worth it.

Here is my lemon curd – in jar in the middle. And below is my plate of ANZACS. Well I’m assuming they are mine, they look like it but I couldn’t quite see the exhibitor number to know for sure, so lets just call them mine.

 

Lemon Curd

Lemon Curd

 

ANZACS

ANZACS

 

I can’t wait for next year. I’ll still be entering but I think I will focus on only one entry, that way I can perfect my skills in one area instead of focusing on different ones all at once.

 

Until next time xoxo