This to me is pure heaven on a plate. Roasted butternut squash, carrot, with baby leaf salad and sous sous. This has become a go to meal for me these days. Butternut squashes are very in season now as are carrots. Very simple to make. Just cut up the butternut squash into bite sized pieces and along withe the carrots, drizzle olive oil over them and sprinkle sea salt over them and roast in a hot oven until you see the tips of the veggies begin to char. Couscous is even easier to make. One cup of couscous in a bowl and add one cup of boiling water and leave to stand for around five minutes. Then fluff with a fork. iv’e added cherry tomatoes, red onion and baby leaf salad to complete this recipe. Quite often I also drizzle some French dressing over the salad for even more of a flavour hit but it’s delicious on it’s own.
affordable
AFFORDABLE PESTO BUTTERBEAN SALAD
First of all, many thanks to Deliciously Ella for the inspiration for this recipe. She has an amazing food blog. I liked the look of her pesto butter bean salad right from the start but I also knew that with my tight family budget it was probably just a little out of the reach of my pocket so I set about making a few changes that would mean I would get to try this dish.
I think one of the main elements of her dish, the pesto was probably just too expensive for me to make fresh. Pine nuts and Parmesan cheese are quite expensive items to purchase. I know the cheese goes a long way but when you only have so much to spend in one week then you have to stick to that. I decided therefore that the first change to her recipe should be that I buy a jar of pesto. Now you can buy very cheap pesto which has little extra virgin olive oil in it or spend a little bit more on a jar that has better ingredients in it. Either way it will still be cheaper than making your own fresh pesto, though we would all love to have the fresh variety.
My second change to her recipe was to buy a packet of dried butter beans rather than tins of butter beans. I know they are a faff to prepare having to soak them overnight and boil them for what seems like forever but you rally do get so much more for your money. One 500g packet of butter beans will produce at least 10 portions for the same price as a single tin of ready made beans. I also bought a snack pack of pomegranate seeds for half the price of a single whole fruit and found it was enough to make the same dish again with or to use in another dish.
Finally I still had some organic carrots left over from my veg box scheme that I use from Riverford Organics so I decided to roast them and add them to the dish for two reasons really. First I felt they would add a sweetness to the dish that would contrast well with the other Mediterranean flavours and also if I’m honest I’m a hungry eater so I wanted more to eat for my evening meal.
All in all I think with these simple changes I have not compromised on the flavours of the dish and I reckon I have cut the cost of making the dish by at least half.
- 1 Jar of Green Pesto
- 100g Dried Butter Beans
- ½ Bag of Rocket
- 1 Lemon
- Drizzle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 2 tsp Pomegranate Seeds
- 2 tsp Pumpkin Seeds
- 1 Lemon
- 6 small Carrots
- Soak the butter beans overnight and then cook according to packet instructions. Usually Boil for 10 mins and then Simmer for 30mins.
- Toss the butter beans in half the jar of pesto and set aside for 30 mins to let the beans take on the flavour of the pesto.
- Meanwhile quarter the carrots length ways and drizzle over some olive oil and roast in a hot oven until slightly charred.
- Mix up all the other salad ingredients and arrange on a plate.
- Top with the butter bean mixture and scatter the roasted carrots on top.
- Squeeze a lemon over the salad to dress and season with salt and pepper.
Chargrilled Halloumi & Summer Vegetable Salad
Iv’e said this before but there is no harm in saying it again. “I love creating salads” It’s such a summery pastime for me and I shall be sad when the growing season for salads has moved on to more in the way of root vegetables. For now however I shall just keep on indulging myself. This chargrilled summer vegetable & halloumi salad I feel is one of my better creations and very substantial to boot.
I haven’t really been using alot of halloumi in my cooking until recently. I don’t know why that is because I have grown to absolutely love this “squeeky” cheese. For those of you that love your meat from a bbq this makes a brilliant substitute. Halloumi cheese originated in Cyprus, and has been traditionally prepared with cow, goat or sheep milk. This cheese is very versatile and has the unusual feature of not melting when heated. For this reason, it can be grilled or fried, in addition to being eaten fresh with fruits or vegetables, or grated on pasta. I have used it in so many dishes from salads to kebabs to part of a stack for vegetarian burgers.
Once again when constructing this salad I have paid particular attention to The Knobbly Plates ethos of affordable healthy vegetarian dishes. So when breaking the cost of this salad down it came to a total of £3.80 for 4 people which works out at an amazing price of just 95p a portion. We had it for dinner and it was quite substantial with plenty left over for lunch for the two of us the very next day.
There were a few nuts and seeds included in the salad to help with proteins but also to add the extra textures to the dish as well. I think when you make this salad you will agree that it made for a very satisfying meal indeed.
- 2 Handfuls of Baby Spinach
- 50g Cooked Cous Cous
- 100g Halloumi Sliced Lengthways
- 2 Tomatoes Chopped
- ½ Cucumber Chopped
- 50g Pumpkin Seeds
- 50g Pistachio Nuts
- 50g Walnut pieces
- 1 Orange Segmented
- 1 Red Pepper Sliced Thickly
- 1 Courgette Sliced
- On a chargrill cook the peppers, courgette and halloumi
- Meanwhile in a salad bowl mix together all the other ingredients and season with salt and pepper.
- top with the chargrilled vegetables and halloumi and dress with your favourite dressing.