Category: Light Bites & Snacks

Whipped Lemon Ricotta and Basil Courgettes

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This is a great dish to have as a sharing starter in the middle of the table with people dipping chunks of sourdough bread in, scooping up a delicious bite-sized piece of summer.

Serves 4

Ingredients

  • 3 courgettes, around 600g, sliced into rounds about the thickness of a pound coin
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 250g ricotta
  • 1 lemon, juice and zest
  • 15g chives, finely sliced
  • 30g flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
  • 15g basil

To serve

Method

  • In a large pan, cook the courgettes in the olive oil, seasoned with a little salt, till slightly soft and golden brown.
  • Meanwhile, whip the ricotta with the chives, parsley and lemon zest.
  • Once the courgettes are cooked, remove from the heat and add the lemon juice along with the basil. Stir to combine.
  • Plate up with the herby ricotta on the bottom of the plate, and courgettes piled up high on top, with slices of bread to dip in.
Lemon Basil Courgettes on Whipped Ricotta

Per serving of dip: 330kcal/ 24g fat/ 12g saturated fat/ 5.4g carbohydrates/ 1.9g fibre/ 22g protein

Preserved Lemon Courgettes on Garlic Yoghurt

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If you grow courgettes, you’ll know you can easily be overrun with them! As part of National Allotments Week I’m pledging to help you use up your courgettes this year in a series of dishes all revolving around the humble courgette. This is an effortless dish, requiring zero cooking, making it the perfect heatwave meal to prepare.

Serves 2

Ingredients

  • 2 medium-sized courgettes
  • 2 big pinches of salt
  • 1 preserved lemon, pips removed and diced
  • 10 mint leaves, finely sliced
  • 2 sprigs of dill, roughly chopped
  • 10g chives, finely sliced
  • 30g flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
  • 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 200g extra thick yoghurt
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 2 slices of sourdough bread, toasted
  • 2 pinches of sumac

Method

  • Cut the courgette into ribbons using a vegetable peeler or mandoline. Place in a bowl and sprinkle with all the salt. Massage the salt in and leave for 10 minutes to draw the water out.
  • Meanwhile, grate the garlic into the yoghurt and mix through.
  • Once the liquid has been released from the courgettes, rinse and then squeeze the excess water out before patting dry with a kitchen towel.
  • Add the preserved lemon, herbs and olive oil to the courgettes and mix well.
  • Spread the yoghurt over the sourdough before piling the courgette mix high over the top and sprinkling with sumac. Enjoy straight away.
Preserved Lemon Courgettes

Roasted Smashed Potatoes with Broccoli and Beans

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If you cook potatoes and then let them cool overnight you can create something called resistant starch, which, as the name suggests, is resistant to digestion. This means that you get to eat delicious-tasting food, and your gut microbes also benefit from the starches, which we are unable to digest, but they love!

Serves 3

Ingredients

  • 500g new potatoes, cooked and cooled overnight
  • 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 cloves of garlic, skin on
  • 1 tin of cannellini beans, drained, rinsed and patted dry
  • 250g sprouting broccoli
  • 200g thick strained yoghurt
  • 1 lemon, zest and juice
  • 10 sprigs of mint, leaves finely sliced

Method

  • Preheat the oven to 180°C fan/200°C convection
  • Smash the potatoes using a large flat item so they are around the thickness of a pound coin. Place on a baking sheet and brush with 1 tbsp olive oil. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes
  • Flip the potatoes over to crisp up the second side, adding the cloves of garlic and brushing with more olive oil. Bake for another 30 minutes, or till the potatoes are golden brown and crunchy.
  • Meanwhile, run your beans with the remaining olive oil and spread out over a second baking sheet, tucking the broccoli down the centre. Roast for 20 minutes.
  • Once the potatoes are cooked, remove the garlic cloves from their skin and mash into the yogurt along with half the lemon zest and juice. Mix well and season with pepper to taste.
  • Plate up with all the elements, and finish with the remaining lemon zest and juice and a sprinkle of mint.
Roasted Smashed Potatoes with Broccoli and Beans

Per serving: 350kcal/ 11g fat/ 2.5g saturated fat/ 38g carbohydrates/ 12g fibre/ 18g protein

Sausage Rolls

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These sausage rolls come together really easily with minimal effort, but maximal taste. Perfect to rustle up ready for a picnic when the weather looks promising without unnecessary additives in them! Get the kids involved with mixing, rolling and supervised cutting.

Makes 12 sausage rolls

Ingredients

  • 1 red onion
  • 1 tsp rapeseed or olive oil
  • 500g lean pork mince
  • 10-12 sage leaves, finely chopped
  • 1/2 tsp white pepper
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 tbsp cornflour
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1 sheet of ready-made puff pastry (option to use gluten-free pastry if needed)
  • Seeds for sprinkling e.g. nigella seeds, sesame seeds

Method

  • Fry the onion in the oil over a low heat till soft and translucent. Allow to cool.
  • Preheat the oven to 200°C fan or 225°C convection
  • Mix the pork, herbs and spices, bicarbonate of soda, cornflour and half the beaten egg with the cooked onion.
  • Cut the pastry sheet into half to create two smaller rectangles. Divide the mixture in two and create a log down the centre of each pastry rectangle.
  • Brush one edge of the pastry with the remaining egg and fold the other side of the pastry up and over to tuck the meat in. Repeat with the other half.
  • Cut each log into 6 equal pieces, making 12 in total, and spread them out on a lined baking tray.
  • Brush with the remaining egg and sprinkle seeds over the top before baking for 20 minutes till golden brown.
  • Allow to cool slightly before eating.
Easy Sausage Rolls

Per sausage roll: 198kcal/ 13g fat/ 5.1g saturated fat/ 10g carbohydrates/ 1g fibre/ 10g protein/ 0.42g salt

Griddled Manouri & Fig Salad

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I know a lot of people love feta, but I’m afraid for me it’s one of my least favourite cheeses. I personally find it too salty, but when I saw this cheese I knew I needed to try it because I love goats cheese. For me this wasn’t as salty in taste as feta, as well as being much milder. What I didn’t realise till I had gotten home, made this dish, and thoroughly enjoyed it, was that manouri cheese is made as a by-product of the feta production, which is something I can definitely get on board with!

I also think this would be a great salad to serve at a barbecue, grilling the cheese and figs before plating up, should the UK weather start to actually resemble summer…

This salad is light enough to work as a side salad or a starter, but substantial enough to also work as a larger portion for a main meal when served with some good bread on the side.

Serves 4 as a starter or 2 as a main

Ingredients

  • 1 block of manouri cheese
  • 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 8 figs, or around 230g, cut into halves and quarters
  • 120g rocket
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 1 tsp black sesame seeds

To serve

  • Sourdough bread
  • 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Method

  • If serving with sourdough, brush the sides with extra virgin olive oil and griddle till crispy with charred lines across the surface. Keep warm.
  • Brush the manouri with the olive oil and griddle for a few minutes on each side. Add some of the figs, brushed with any remaining olive oil – you can cook as many or as few as you like.
  • Once cooked through to your liking, add the rocket to a large serving dish and dot pieces of the cheese and figs over the top, drizzle with honey and sesame seeds.
  • Best enjoyed hot.
Griddled Manouri and Fig Salad

Lemon Asparagus Barrata Toast

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June 21st marks the end of British asparagus season, so I’m celebrating it in the same way I started – griddled and on toast with cheese.

It’s a simple yet satisfying flavour combination which is the perfect brunch or light dinner.

Serves 2

Ingredient

  • 2 slices of sourdough
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 200g asparagus
  • 1 ball burrata
  • Zest and juice of a lemon

Method

  • Brush the sourdough with olive oil on both sides before riddling in a hot pan till golden and crispy.
  • Brush the asparagus with olive oil and griddle for a few minutes each side.
  • Assemble the burrata on the toast with grated lemon zest over the top and pile the asparagus up high. Finish with a squeeze of lemon juice and any remaining olive oil.

Smoked Mackerel Potato Salad

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Smoked Mackerel Potato Salad

This potato salad is for all those mayonnaise haters out there! I’m using lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil and Dijon mustard as the base of the sauce, and keeping it light by using a load of chopped herbs, capers and gherkins.

Cooking and cooling potatoes allows for the starch to retrograde into something called resistant starch. Our bodies are not able to digest this type of starch, but instead, it helps to feed the microbiota living inside your digestive tract.

Serves 2 as a main, or 4 as a side dish

Ingredients

  • 500g new potatoes
  • 200g asparagus, trimmed and cut into short lengths
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 heaped tablespoon of Dijon mustard
  • 40g flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
  • 20g dill, finely chopped
  • 20g chives, finely chopped
  • 1 heaped tablespoon of capers, drained and roughly chopped
  • 2-3 gherkins, chopped
  • 1 packet smoked mackerel, skin removed and roughly flaked

Method

  • Boil the potatoes for around 15 minutes untill cooked through, adding the asparagus in for the last minute of cooking.
  • Meanwhile, prepare the sauce by mixing the lemon juice, olive oil, Dijon mustard, herbs, capers and gherkins together.
  • Drain the potatoes and asparagus and add to the sauce, mixing while hot.
  • Serve with flaked smoked mackerel over the top.
Smoked Mackerel Potato Salad
Smoked Mackerel Potato Salad

Mushrooms & Spinach on Toast

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Mushrooms on Toast

The Easiest Bank Holiday Brunching that’s perfect for my savoury tooth. It would also make the perfect light dinner, or post-gym meal thanks to the combination of carbohydrates, protein, and healthy monounsaturated fats in this dish.

Serves 1

Ingredients

  • 200g mixed mushrooms, roughly torn or chopped
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 clove of garlic, finely grated
  • 80g baby leaf spinach
  • 1 slice of sourdough
  • 2 eggs

Method

  • Heat a pan with half the olive oil. Tear the mushrooms into the pan and cook for 5-10 minutes till golden and crisp on some of the edges
  • Add the garlic and spinach, cooking till just wilted
  • Meanwhile toast your bread with some olive oil and poach your eggs to your liking. I cooked mine for 4 minutes to get a runny yolk
  • Stack the mushrooms and spinach on the toast and top with the soft poached eggs. Enjoy immediately
Mushrooms on Toast
Mushrooms on Toast

Lemon Orzo with Quick Pickled Onions

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I made these quick pickled onions for some friends when I recently visited them in Portugal; they absolutely loved them! This is a really easy and quick way to take the edge off raw onions, something I personally don’t always enjoy. I also love the pop of hot pink colour they add to the dish; the longer you leave the onions in the lemon juice, the brighter the pink.

This is the perfect meal you can double up the batch to make once but eat twice. It’s great as a cold pasta salad the next day, which, in addition, will allow resistant starch to form as it cools down.

Each serving provides you with 2.5 of your 5-A-Day, including 13g of fibre and 31g a protein. To make vegan or dairy free switch the feta for a vegan feta or use some crumbled tofu.

Lemon Orzo Pasta

Serves 2

Ingredients

  • 1 red onion, finely sliced
  • Zest and juice of 1.5-2 lemons
  • 150g orzo
  • 150g prepared asparagus tips
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • Herbs – I have used mint, oregano and flat-leaf parsley
  • 75g feta
  • 1 tin of drained and rinsed chickpeas
  • 80g rocket

Method

  • Start by pickling the onions by blanching in boiled water for 30 seconds before draining and covering in the lemon juice.
  • Meanwhile, cook the orzo in boiling water for 1 minute less than the cooking instructions. Add the asparagus for the last minute before draining.
  • Add the onions along with all the lemon juice to the hot pasta and stir to combine, followed by the lemon zest, olive oil, herbs and season with pepper to taste.
  • Crumble in the feta, along with the chickpeas and rocket and stir to combine.
  • Delicious served hot or cold.

Griddled Asparagus Ricotta Toast

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A really easy brunch idea that is light and refreshing, and perfect for late-morning spring brunches. Each serving provides you with a portion of vegetables, a portion of calcium, and fibre throughthe asparagus and seeded sourdough bread.

Serves 1

  • 1 slice of sourdough bread
  • 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 bunch of asparagus, woody ends snapped off
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 50g ricotta cheese
  • Zest of 1 lemon

Method

  • Preheat a griddle pan over a medium heat. Brush the bread with most of the oil and cook on each side till crisp.
  • Add the asparagus into the same pan, and brush with the remaining oil.
  • Once the bread is toasted rub the garlic clove over the surface of the bread to impart flavour.
  • In a bowl combine the ricotta cheese with the zest of a quarter lemon, season to taste and spread over the bread.
  • Pile the asparagus on top high and dust with a little extra lemon zest.
Asparagus Ricotta Toast

Wild Garlic Chicken Slaw Sandwich

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I couldn’t get the thought of this sandwich out of my head, so I had to make it! I thought the green of the wild garlic running through the mayonnaise would be much brighter, but I do love the way the purple and orange colours of the slaw still shine through.

If you don’t eat meat this would be delicious with some crushed chickpeas, or some slices of tofu crisped up in a pan or in the oven.

For the mayo

  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 tsp dijon mustard
  • Juice of half a large lemon
  • 100ml extra virgin olive oil
  • 50g wild garlic, roughly chopped

For the slaw filling

  • 1/2 an onion, finely sliced
  • 100g red cabbage, finely sliced
  • 1 large carrot, finely sliced
  • 2 chicken thighs, cooked, cooled and torn into strips

Method

  • Make the mayo by adding the egg yolk, mustard, lemon and around 25ml oil and mix together using an emersion blender. Slowly add the remaining oil to make a thick emulsion. Add the wild garlic and blend in.
  • Mix the slaw ingredients together with 2/3 of the mayo and then layer thickly into slices of sourdough to make 2 deep-filled sandwiches.
  • Wrap the sandwiches in paper to hold while you cut them in half.
Chicken Slaw Sandwich

Wild Garlic Sourdough Focaccia

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I’m still trying to savour the wild garlic season, and I love baking it into bread. You can freeze the bread and use it in the months to come so further preserve the flavour of it.

For more information about making sourdough and the various stages visit my page on sourdough bread.

Makes 2 x 9″ square tins, but you could bake one large, or make a very deep focaccia

Ingredients

  • 150g levain, refreshed 8-12 hours earlier
  • 15ml extra virgin olive oil plus extra for later
  • 150g wholemeal bread flour
  • 600g white bread flour
  • 12g salt plus extra to top
  • A big bunch of wild garlic, roughly chopped – the more you put in the more garlicky the flavour
  • A few sprigs of rosemary (optional)

Method

  • Mix the levain, 500ml water and 15ml olive oil together before adding the flours and mixing to make a shaggy dough. Leave for 30 minutes covered.
  • Mix 12g of salt with 75ml water till dissolved, and pour over the dough, scrunching the dough with your hand to mix it in. The dough should look very rough and almost broken into small pieces. Cover and leave for 45 minutes.
  • Over the next few hours complete 4 sets of coil folds, adding the wild garlic in during the 2nd coil fold, allowing the dough to rest for 45-60 minute between each fold.
  • Grease two non-stick baking trays with olive oil (if not using non-stick line with baking parchment and add olive oil to the parchment). Tip out don’t the work surface and divide the dough into two. Gently transfer to the baking tray and push the dough over the surface so it reaches the corners as best you can – there will be some resistance so don’t force it.
  • Cover the dough and leave in the fridge to slowly rise overnight – anywhere between 8-24 hours depending on your schedule
  • The next day preheat your oven to maximum temperature, add a small empty tray to the bottom of the oven for steam later, and remove the focaccia from the fridge.
  • Once the oven is up to temperature, uncover the dough and drizzle with a little olive oil. Using wet fingers, press your fingertips through the surface of the dough to create plenty of dimples. Add rosemary to the dimples, sprinkle with a little extra salt and then flick water over the surface of your dough with your fingertips. Adding extra moisture will give a softer crust, so if you want a very crispy top omit this step along with the steam.
  • Place the focaccia in the oven, adding water into the hot tray to create steam, closing the door as quickly as possible to trap the steam in, and reduce the oven temperature to 225°C fan/ 245°C convection for 20 minutes.
  • Remove the tray with water and bake for another 5 minutes* till the crust is golden.
  • Remove from the oven, and allow to cool on a wire rack.
Wild Garlic Sourdough Focaccia

*if baking a thicker focaccia you may need an extra 5-10 minutes to fully cook the dough.