Sunday salad and iced latté

After going for a 90 minute power walk this morning I needed a nice fresh salad for lunch. I made it with quinoa and prawns, Indian herbs, lettuce, lambs lettuce and tomato. My friend added pineapple to hers. There’s nothing better than an iced coffee on a hot day- I’m taking it easy today!

Après avoir fait 90 minutes de “power walking” ce matin j’avais besoin d’une salade bien fraiche! Je l’ai faite avec du quinoa, crevettes, des herbes indiennes, la laitue,de la mâche et des tomates cerises. Mon amie a rajouté des ananas dans sa salade à elle. Il n’y a rien de mieux qu’un café glacé quand il fait chaud- aujourd’hui je me régale!

First days of Summer

It’s been a while since I’ve been on here, busy with Cleopatra’s Bling, but have many ideas of new posts for you coming up. Summer is finally upon us here in Paris and I’ve been celebrating with fresh salads, light dinners. My orchids finally flowered after one year.

Ca fait bien longtemps que je n’ai pas mis à jour mon blog, j’ai été très occupée avec Cleopatra’s Bling, mais j’ai beaucoup d’idées d’articles à vous écrire prochainement. L’été est enfin arrivé et je fête cela avec beaucoup de salades et des repas légers. Mes orchidées fleurissent enfin après un an.

Warm Beetroot and Raw Kale Salad with Tahini Dressing

This salad is a great simple one that doesn’t take long but feels great and keeps well for the next day.

You’ll need to boil and peel a beetroot and slice it up.

For the salad dressing I used three big tablespoons of tahini mixed with a dash of olive oil, salt, pepper, crushed garlic and some grated ginger.

Chop up the kale finely and mix it with the warm cooked beetroot, two cooked carrots and one zucchini.

Add the dressing.

Once it’s all evenly mixed, sprinkle chia seeds over the salad for extra protein and fiber and you’ll all done.

Enjoy!

This weekend we were in the north of France enjoying the (much) cooler weather. Upon arrival I discovered my unicorn cookie cutter that had arrived in my letter box and boy am I excited to make unicorn shortbreads! Magical.

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Raw Kale and Beetroot salad with Tahini Dressing

This salad is just divine. So earthy and refreshing. When I finally got my hands on some kale thanks to The Kale Project here in Paris, I went a bit kale nuts. Kristen from The Kale Project and I made this last week for a big vitamin boost.

You’ll need:

• 1 bunch of curly, green kale
• 2 spring onions
• 1 large golden beet (or two medium) You could also use regular red beets
• 2 carrots
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 -2 cm (1 inch) of ginger
• 1 Tbsp Tamari
• 3 Tbsp Tahini
• 3 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 3 Tbsp of Coconut Oil
• 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• Juice from 1/2 lemon or lime

Wash and cup up the kale into very small pieces, otherwise it’s a bit too leafy.

Peel the beets and grate them.

Grate the carrots.

Mix everything up.

Blend the salad dressing in a blender and pour it over the salad.

Enjoy it! My J enjoyed it which is really saying something.

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A grilled vegetable salad in Erbalunga.

Erbalunga, which is in the “Cap Corse” region of Corsica stole my heart. It feels enchanted. You really can imagine Napoleon in these parts of the world. To make things even more magical, the weather was perfect.

Our week in Corsica followed the coast. We went from town to town, each as charming as the next.

In Corsica most of the houses are covered in some kind of vine.

How sweet is the life of this Corsican cat?

The grilled salad was so fresh, and was a perfect accompagnement to the sun. The feature of the salad was the crumb fried mozarella. I am going to teach myself how to do it to recreate this mind-blowing salad.

My lovely little friend Zoé. She had a hot goat’s cheese salad.

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My very own mean guacamole

I have to say, I make a goooooood guacamole. It’s all about the seasoning. When you get the quantities of herbs, salt and lemon or lime right, it’s like heaven on a plate!

You’ll need:

2 avocados
Lots of herbs, any herbs you like. (I’m herb mad)
A lime
Paprika for seasoning
Olive oil
2 tbsps of crème fraîche or sour cream.

Mash it all up and add half of the herbs in the actual guacamole, and half on top as decoration. You can also add a diced tomato, I would have, but I didn’t have any in the kitchen.

I like my guacamole chunky, I don’t it to be a smooth paste. I like tonnes of herbs and seasoning, so that the smell and flavour transport you to another place.

Thanks to Meg for the last two photos, you should check out her lovely blog here.

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Warm Zucchini and Beetroot Salad with a Grilled Vegetable Side

We had unlimited access to a glorious garden two weekends ago. I was in heaven. I invented this recipe to celebrate the fact that we had sun, great company, fresh vegetables and lovely conversation.

For this recipe you will need:

2 round zucchini
2 regular zucchinis
2 beetroots
big bunch of fresh basil
big bunch of fresh parsley
2 eggplants
olive oil
crème fraîche

Cup up everything like in the photos below.

You will use the round zucchinis for the warm salad part, and the regular zucchinis for the grilled side.

Put olive oil (I also use coconut oil to cook) in a pan and start pan cooking the round zucchinis. Add in salt and garlic and onion, but don’t put in the herbs until the very end or else they will burn.

Put in the small pieces of beetroot. You will see, they make the dish a wonderful colour and give it such an earthy flavour.

You can now put in all the herbs.

When serving, dollop on about 3 tablespoons of crème fraîche while still warm. Serve this dish warm, it is more tasty.

In other news, I am loving this video, despite it being über cheesy.

J and I did a great tour of the Saint Ouen flea markets with Charlotte from Haute Curiosité.

Tomorrow I am going to Corsica until next Tuesday.

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Carrot, Lime and Coconut Salad

There are only 3 main ingredients in this salad. Simple, yet very affective. I made it up when it started to warm up here in Paris and we were having friends over for a dinner and I needed a light accompagnement.

This recipe serves 4 people:

4 carrots, either grated or sliced very finely.
1 zest of lime
a cup of dessicated coconut
olive oil
balsamic vinegar

After either grating of slicing the carrot finely with a vegetable peeler, add the coconut and lime and mix.

To serve simply drizzle enough olive oil to take away any dryness and balsamic vinegar to taste.

Bon appétit!

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Mango and chilli salad to celebrate the sun

There is nothing like a big salad on a sunny evening. We were in the country last weekend so we made the most of the local produce around us. Yes, mango is certainly not local, but all the other ingredients were- I promise! 😉

This is my mango and chilli salad. I have never met anybody who had eaten this kind of thing, but it always goes down a treat. This recipe feeds 4 hungry people.

You’ll need:
– 3 mangoes
– 1 lettuce
– 1 teaspoon of Cayenne pepper
– 1 chilli (depending on the spice-factor you like)
– balsamic vinegar and olive oil
– flowers to garnish (I’m such a girl!)

You cut up the mangoes and lettuce and mix them up.
For the dressing, you simply cut up the chillies in small pieces and mix them with about 4 tbsps of extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. Drizzle this over the salad just before serving and then pour over the balsamic vinegar.
Finally, add a flower and Bob’s your uncle! (Australian expression?)

Of course, these Mojitos went down a treat with it. Mmmm.

Let me know what you think! x

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