My life is about food, food and more food, which often is rather rich and high in fat and sugar. To counter this, and to attempt to rein in the thickening waistline, I like to eat lots of salads and raw or lightly cooked vegetables when I am not eating for this site, reviewing or recipe developing. Maybe I need to rebrand myself as a professional eater?
Lightly cooked tenderstem broccoli is the star of this simple vegan salad, which is served with rich tasting semi confit tomatoes and scattered with crunchy toasted pumpkin seeds. We are in the middle of the tenderstem season at the moment, which runs from June to December.
To cook the tenderstem either steam for a few minutes, or place in a microwaveable container with a tablespoon of water, cover and buzz for a minute. It seems as if the tomatoes use lots of oil, but pour the remainder into a jar and keep in the fridge and use for salad dressings.
I am delighted and honoured to be the winner of September’s No Crouton’s required with this recipe!
Recipe: Tenderstem and Semi-Confit Tomato Salad
Serves 2
Ingredients
100ml good olive oil
Sprig woody herbs – oregano, thyme
4 medium tomatoes quartered
2 tbs pumpkin seeds
2 Handfuls baby spinach leaves
Handful tenderstem – lightly cooked
Squeeze lemon juice
Pinch Chilli FlakePour the oil into a deep sided frying pan, add the herbs and tomatoes and slowly heat to almost boiling. Remove from the heat and leave to infuse for 10 minutes.
Toast the pumpkin seeds in a dry frying pan over a medium heat until they start popping. You will need to keep a close eye on them and continually shake the pan to keep them moving and to stop them burning.
Arrange the spinach between two plates, top with the tenderstem and tomatoes, drizzle over the lemon juice and some of the oil. Sprinkle over the chilli flake and toasted pumpkin seeds.
Tenderstem recently sent me a beautifully packaged packed lunch of a quinoa salad with feta, tenderstem, and pomegranate with a tenderstem and chickpea frittata. Delicious, vegetarian and packed with protein from the both chickpeas and quinoa. I especially like the reusable compartmentalised Box Appetit lunchbox!
More Tenderstem recipes here.
Many thanks to Tenderstem for sending me my lunch.
Sending this to Ren’s Simple and in Season, hosted this month by Katie.
And Jac and Lisa’s No Croutons Required where the theme is vegan.
really intriguing idea of con fitting vegetables instead of duck. I will have to try this. Maybe with something meaty as well like aubergine or pumpkin..
Great entry Helen. I used to have a lunch box like that, until I dropped it and one of the hinges broke off. Whoops!
Lovely lunch, I too have never tried confit tomatoes, sounds intriguing. Thank you for linking up to Simple and in Season x
This looks deliciously healthy Helen – I adore tenderstem broccoli in warm salads – remember that one we made at Leiths with roasted butternut squash mmmmmm! Thanks for linking up :-)