Monday, October 3, 2011

Monday Night Dinner




For my birthday this year Brent and Toki gave me a cook book written by Angela Stafford called Wild Vegan.

It's a really good book. I particularly like it because it was written and published in Australia so all the ingredients are really easy to get here in Aotearoa. One of my favourite recipes is 'Golden Masala'. It's made with yellow split peas, spices, tomatoes, spinach and grated apple.

I'm a big fan of split peas. They are quite quick cooking and cook down to a really nice mushy consistency. Although they cook better after they've been soaked for an hour or so, they can be cooked from dry as well. They're pretty economical too. I just bought 500g for $2.88 from Moore Wilson's. I reckon 500g will do us about two meals. I get them a wee bit cheaper when I shop at the Indian bulk supermarkets in Petone and Newtown. I buy lots of dried pulses in bulk because they last and are so good to have in the cupboard.

While the Masala is cooking I'm boiling some new potatoes that Brent got from our local fruit and veg shop a few days ago. I'm going to make a warm potato salad with them - because it's really miserable weather today, last week I would have made a cold potato salad and we would have eaten it on the deck - you should have been here last week! I'm basically going to throw the cooked potatoes in a bowl mix up a dressing, chop some coriander, parsley and spring onions into it and mix it up.

We're also having a salad. We are always on a mission to get as many colours as possible into our meals. Which, as spring arrives, is getting a wee bit easier - boy, we eat a lot of red cabbage and beetroot in the winter. I feel bad diss-ing my good friend beetroot. Man, it is super veg! The anthocyanadins, the blood building, the Vitamin C, calcium, phosphorus and iron - the humble beetroot takes a lot of beating - baha. This year my friend Jo helped me get more out of them. I had, shamefully, always thrown out the green parts of the beetroot. Jo mentioned she had cooked beet greens for dinner and I asked how she did that. It's a lot easier than I thought - you just cut them like spinach and chuck them it. And they're delicious! Which brings me back to the Golden Masala, which I often make with beet greens instead of spinach.

Hope everyone else is warm and dry tonight and having a hearty dinner.
















3 comments :

  1. The friend Jo who eats beet greensNovember 8, 2011 at 2:36 PM

    I am just catching up on your blog. I love it. I will miss it when it goes. If it goes?

    ReplyDelete