Wild garlic foraging and nettle pie
Every year between end of March and May, I look forward to the ‘hungry gap’ in Wales, when shaded areas under tall trees fill with wild garlic and tender nettle tops that beckon picking.
It’s nothing like a hungry gap for me. I fill my house and belly with greens and nourish myself in tune with the season. And as my knowledgeable friend Gaby tells me possibly help give my liver a bit of a break…
Being in Wales has not stopped me rediscovering and connecting to my Greek roots all these years. I looked around me to see many good raw ingredients here too. I started being more creative and appreciating what wonderful people produce and offer around me here, creating my own cuisine. And of course I keep bringing many treasures back from Greece when I can…or when I meet amazing people who source quality products from home no 1.
Here’s a video sharing how in my life when Greece meets Wales beautiful things get cooking. Enjoy and come on in my kitchen …
Poached eggs with avocado and chilli potatoes
You don’t need to wait for the weekend for this beautiful dish. It’s a great light midweek dinner or lunch as well as the perfect weekend brunch.
We live in the age of avocado craze so admittedly this is not the first time you see a recipe like this one. But I was asked to blog the recipe by one of my followers when I posted a photo on social media…and here it is.
I love using potatoes instead of bread but sourdough or other bread is a great alternative if that’s what you have handy.
Poached eggs are an absolute treat for me but if you like scrambled or fried don’t let me stop you.
And Dukkah, the Egyptian spice condiment the recipe for which is on my blog, lifts flavours and as another page follower said ‘makes everything taste better’. So maybe have a go at making it this week.
I love smoked salmon with avocado but you can easily omit it and replace with anything you fancy, for example sundried tomatoes work really well with this dish, as does chorizo and other spiced sausage if you are a carnivore.
Ingredients
Feeds 2
- 2-4 eggs, depending on your hunger
- 1 avocado, halved and thinly sliced
- 170g new potatoes
- 60g smoked salmon, half a packet
- Half a lime
- 1/4 tsp chilli and garlic paste or 4 drops of Tabasco sauce
- A few slices baby plum or cherry tomatoes
- Salt
- Olive oil
- White vinegar
- 1/2 tsp Dukkah spice mix
Preparation
30 minutes
- Wash and quarter the new potatoes (skin on) and simmer for 10 minutes, till cooked.
- Drain and mix in a bowl with the chilli sauce, a pinch of salt and a careful splash of olive oil.
- Squeeze the lime juice on top of the avocado slices and sprinkle carefully with a bit of sea salt.
- Slice the smoked salmon into thin slices.
- To poach the eggs bring a pot of water to the boil.
- Add a tablespoon of white vinegar.
- With a fork or spoon stir quickly in the middle to create a whirlpool and quickly crack an egg into its centre.
- Simmer for 3-5minutes for a runny poached egg or a bit longer if you like it firmer.
- Cook one egg one at a time.
- Serve the egg(s) on a bed of potatoes, topped with the salmon strips and the avocados on the side.
- Add sliced baby tomatoes on the avocado if that takes your fancy.
- Sprinkle the dish with the Dukkah spice mix or a bit of salt.
Lia’s Tips:
- You can also add more mild chilli sauces of your choice like Cholula or the coriander chilli sauce from Blaencamel market stall in Cardiff.
- A dollop of yoghurt is mighty fine with this dish too.
The Carrot and Cumin soup that stole your heart
MDuring Love Food Hate Waste Project 2016 (roadshows and workshops included) there was one soup that definitely stole everyone’s heart both in terms of taste and simplicity of preparation.
An easy recipe to help you use that bag of carrots you bought when you really only needed a couple. Nutritious, warming and satisfying it is versatile in its use of pulses, I actually make it with yellow split peas more often than with red lentils, but if you are in a rush lentils are a better option. If you do not have ras-el-hanout spice mixture you can increase the cumin dose, add some paprika, ground coriander, a pinch of chilli powder and a squeese of lemon. Fresh coriander or spinach complements the recipe very well. The use of almond milk is in my opinion what really makes this soup (use sweetened). And if you serve with toasted almonds it and coriander pesto you have a luxury version to indulge in.
Enjoy!
Ingredients
Makes 2.5lt soup or 6 portions for main
- 700g carrots
- 350g red lentils or split yellow peas
- 2.5 litres stock
- 250ml almond milk
- 2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 pinch chilli flakes
- 1.5 tsp Ras El Hanout spice mix
- Salt
- Olive oil
- Fresh coriander or spinach (Optional)
Preparation
45minutes
- Wash carrots well with a vegetable brush and chop finely.
- Coat the bottom of a pot with enough olive oil.
- When hot add the cumin seeds and chilli flakes and fry for a few
- Add the carrots, with a couple of pinches of salt and stir fry for
- Add the lentils and Ras El Hanout and stir well until well coated
- Add the stock, bring to the boil and simmer for 20-30 minutes.
- Remove from the heat, add the almond milk and blend to a creamy
- Add the chopped spinach and/or coriander for a soup that will make you as strong as Popeye!
Lia’s Tips: Mix parsnips or potatoes with carrots to use up leftover vegetable. This soup is great with split yellow peas. Served with pesto and nuts it is a very filling meal. Serve with savoury muffins or toasted stale bread or croutons.
Chicken Giouvetsi with Preserved Lemons and Orzo Pasta (Channel 4- The Food Chain)
One late autumn Friday afternoon, as I was writing recipes inspired by Welsh ingredients and my Greek home, I received a call from a lovely man called Jonathan, asking very specifically about my preserved lemons recipe. ‘Would you be willing to be filmed preparing preserved for our TV programme?’ he asked, ‘And what about sharing a recipe that uses preserved lemons?’ My answer of course was YES! And tonight, on 21 March 2016, you can see me do that at 8.30pm on Channel 4 when the first episode of The Food Chain kicks off starting with the ingredients of Apple & Salt, grown and produced in the UK and travelling to your plate through our stories and recipes.
It would suffice to say that coming from Greece I use only sea salt for cooking! So it has been a great relief that there are still some great businesses in the UK that produce fantastic sea salt for us. Using sea salt definitely adds to the flavour of food and I believe that its health benefits are much greater for all of us. So now you know what ingredient I will be using!
For those keen cooks who would like to try the recipe on the Food Chain Programme, you can find my preserved lemons recipe here, and below is an adapted version of my Παππού/Pappou’s (Grandad in Greek) Giouvetsi recipe which uses preserved lemon and my beloved spice of cinnamon.
Enjoy! And Καλή Όρεξη/Kalee Oreksi!
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Ingredients (feeds 4-6)
- 1kg chicken thighs and drumsticks (skin on)
- 2 onions, finely chopped
- ½ preserved lemon, flesh removed and finely chopped
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- 1-2 tsp sea salt
- 1-2 cinnamon sticks
- 500g orzo pasta/κριθαράκι
- 5 whole allspice or pimento berries
- 6 garlic cloves
- 2 tbsp. tomato paste
- 1 heaped tsp oregano
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp sugar
- Up to 1lt stock
- Additional sea salt to taste
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Fresh, chopped parsley (optional)
Preparation (1.5hrs in total)
- Place the chicken, preserved lemons, paprika and half of the garlic crushed in a bowl with a couple of glugs of olive oil and 2 tsp of salt.
- Mix well, cover and leave aside to marinade for at least half an hour (or overnight in the fridge if you prepare the day before for extra flavour).
- In a casserole dish or oven tray with a lid, which is suitable for oven use, preheat olive oil on the hob, enough to coat its surface.
- Brown the chicken pieces well on all sides taking care not to burn.
- Before the process finishes add the finely chopped onions, the cinnamon stick and the pimento/all spice berries and sauté with the chicken for flavour and until just soft.
- Add the tomato paste stirring well to dissolve, additional garlic, dried oregano, pepper, sugar and finally at least 750ml of the boiling stock.
- Cover with the lid and place swiftly in the oven cooking on high heat for ten minutes.
- Cook for an additional thirty minutes on medium heat.
- Then remove from the oven to add the orzo pasta, stirring in carefully so as not to ‘break’ the chicken flesh.
- Return to the oven and cook on medium heat for another 20 minutes checking whether you need to add an additional 250ml of stock for the past to cook (particularly if the pasta has ‘drunk’ most of the water and is still quite tough)
- Let the dish sit for 15-20 minutes and serve with fresh parsley if you prefer that.
Festive Sprout Stir Fry
![Sprouts[a]](https://liaskitchen.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/sproutsa.jpg?w=705)
This is a recipe that even the biggest sprout sceptic will enjoy – I have tested this with my partner whose face contorts with disgust every time I even mention sprouts. Slicing the sprouts finely definitely helps. For the host of a Christmas dinner this is a great side for any roast and rather helpfully the recipe can be cooked mostly on the hob, freeing up the necessary space in your oven.
As all recipes this month are inspired by Riverside Market Garden’s vegetable box all you need to do is place your order today (Wednesday 16 December) and you will have all the vegetable ingredients you need to execute this and the rest of the recipes.
The combination of ginger (in the stir fry), nutmeg and a hint of clove (in the roast nuts) is inspired by the French Quatre Epices (four spices) mixture but I have substituted the white pepper with crushed red peppercorns for a festive look. And I have added an optional pinch of crushed buckthorn seeds (hippophae) for a zingy lift. I have also shared my recipe for roasted spiced walnuts which I learned from Anna Hansen’s, The Modern Pantry cook book. In the past year I have used this method to roast nuts with any imaginable spice to suit my recipes – it is a real delight!
Ingredients (4-6 people)
- Salt to season as required
- ½ tsp buckthorn seeds (optional)
- 1 tsp red peppercorns
- Olive oil
- 3-4 Tbsp soya sauce
- 1 tsp paprika
- 50g fresh ginger, grated
- 2 medium onions, finely sliced
- 500g Brussel sprout, finely sliced
- 100g walnuts
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp icing sugar
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- Pinch of clove
- 1 Tbsp water
Preparation (30 minutes)
- In a baking tray mix the walnuts, salt, icing sugar, nutmeg, clove and water until the nuts are well coated.
- Place in a low to medium oven (160 centrigrade) for 20 minutes or until dried and golden.
- Finely slice and grate the onion, sprouts and ginger.
- Coat the base of a wide frying pan with enough olive oil and heat.
- Stir fry the onion and ginger with the paprika and a pinch of salt for 5 minutes and until translucent.
- Add the finely sliced sprouts and stir fry with the soya sauce for 15 minutes or until the sprouts are soft.
- Season with additional salt or soya sauce if required – the sprouts can definitely take it so don’t be shy.
- Crush the red peppercorns (and buckthorn seeds) in a pestle and mortar and sprinkle on the stir fry
- when the walnuts are ready sprinkle on the stir-fry.
Back to the roots #3 – Festive recipes: Parsnip or celeriac oven chips with beetroot dip
![RoastVeg[studiolit]_5web - Copy](https://liaskitchen.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/roastvegstudiolit_5web-copy.jpg?w=705)
Ingredients (snack quantity or enough for two)
- 350g parsnip, celeriac or turnip or a mix
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp sweet or smoked paprika
- ¼ tsp dried thyme
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
Preparation (40min)
- Wash the vegetable well with a brush or peel and wash.
- Chop in long chip sticks and in a baking tray toss in the thyme, paprika, salt and olive oil.
- Roast for 30 minutes in a medium oven (180 centigrade) or until cooked enough to pierce with a fork but not falling apart.
- For Lia’s Kitchen beetroot dip please see www.liaskitchen.com.
Back to the roots #2 – Festive recipes: Parsnip and/or Jerusalem artichoke maple roasties
Continuing with the festive theme, here is another roast vegetable recipe which can accompany any chosen Christmas dinner meats or veggie roast. I think it will particularly delicious with goose.Once again this is a stress-free recipe which does not require extensive preparation. It is versatile enough for you to use with many of the white root vegetables that you can find in your Riverside Market Garden festive vegetable box. Personally I have great difficulty stopping myself from devouring these before I place them on the dinner table. Let’s hope I manage it this time for the family’s sake!
Don’t forget to order your festive Riverside Market Garden vegetable box by Wednesday 16 December here: https://store.buckybox.com/riverside-market-garden
Ingredients (feed 4-6 as part of a roast dinner)
- 6 Jerusalem artichokes (around 250g)
- 1 large parsnip (around 200g)
- 2 Tbsp maple syrup
- 2-3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
- ½ tsp dried thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp ground salt to season
- 2-3 Tbsp olive oil to dress
Preparation
- Wash the artichoke and parsnip well with a brush or peel. I prefer both vegetable with the skin on if you cut off any ‘hairy’ bits and chop the top and tail off.
- Roughly chop and mix well with all ingredients in a baking tray.
- Roast for 40 minutes in a medium oven (180 centigrade) or until cooked enough to pierce with a fork but not falling apart.
- Particularly delicious with roast goose, duck or a hearty nut roast.
Back to the roots #3 – December festive recipes: Parsnip or celeriac oven chips with beetroot dip
Back to the roots #1– Festive recipes: The Mixed Root Roast with Dukkah
![RoastVeg[studiolit]_2web](https://liaskitchen.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/roastvegstudiolit_2web1.jpg?w=705)
Ingredients (feed 4-6 as part of a Christmas or other roast dinner)
- 600g mixed root vegetable, coarsely chopped (use equal amounts of e.g. parsnip, carrot and Jerusalem artichokes or celeriac and or 200g of each)
- 3 leeks, coarsely chopped
- ½ tsp dried thyme
- ½ tsp ajwain/carom seeds or dried oregano (optional)
- 2 Tbsp. sesame seeds
- 1 tsp salt
- Olive oil
- 2 Tbsp Dukkah mixture (optional- see recipe here https://liaskitchen.com/2015/12/12/the-wonderful-dukkah-condiment/)
Preparation
- Peel or wash the root vegetable well with a brush and coarsely chop it together with leek.
- If using celeriac and Jerusalem artichokes place these in a bowl of acidulated water to avoid them turning brown, i.e. water with some lemon juice or vinegar.
- In a baking tray pour enough olive oil to line its wide base.
- Stir fry the vegetable and leek for 5 minutes after adding the salt and thyme.
- Add the sesame, adjwein or oregano (optional) and stir to make sure all veg is coated well in the oil.
- Roast for 40 minutes in a medium oven (180 centigrade) until the veg is cooked enough to pierce with a fork but does not fall apart.
- Sprinkle with the Dukkah mixture generously once you have removed from the oven. If you do not want to add the Dukkah season to taste adding a couple of pinches of salt.
Lia's Kitchen 
Love your leftovers, reduce waste!
Posted on Updated on
Read about us on BBC Wales front page on 28 December 2015!
This Christmas weekend we have had fantastic time in our kitchen using our limited leftovers from Christmas dinner. They went such a long way making us two delicious pie dinners (one with turkey and one with ham), bubble & squeak with our roasted veg, whilst we had planned to use our organic cabbage in a pickled raw salad with seeds because it lasts well over a week! Yesteday we cleared through our cupboards making sure that everything is clearly labelled and this week we will be mainly eating what’s already there.
Make a pledge to join us this year in our effort to help reduce waste, to take care of ourselves better through nutritional meals and to benefit our pockets. There is plenty of inspiration and help from us and Green City Events coming up with Love Food Hate Waste roadshows and cook ups scheduled most of the weekends of January and February 2016.
To stay up to date with booking links and further information, follow us on twitter and facebook, and subscribe to our mailing list.
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