Instagrams of Yumness - Sauteed Mushrooms with Silverbeet (Chard)

Last night, after a gym work out, followed by Pilates, I didn’t get home until around 9pm. And starving. And desperate for protein! Luckily, on the weekend I headed to some new markets and bought a swag of mushrooms. I have never been terribly adventurous buying mushrooms. I usually stick to the cheaper button, field and Portobello styles. But in the spirit of trying new things, I picked up a punnet of shitake and a packet of enoki to go with the standard field mushrooms. I thought I would quickly fry them, minimal intervention to get a sense of their individual textures and flavours. I added some silverbeet to up the vege quota, a poached egg for more protein, some toasted nuts and seeds for crunch. Served with a slice of “Life Changing Bread” from My New Roots (a dark rye would do just as well) and a good dash of Sriracha. My husband’s newest sauce addiction. We’ve gone through a bottle in a fortnight!

Verdict – delicious and cooked in about 15 minutes. But this would most definitely a Vegetarian Meal Improved By Bacon. Crisp up a few rashes to add to the top and this would be perfect!

 

Sautéed Mushrooms with Silverbeet

Serves 2

Small punnet shitake (around 5 mushrooms), sliced

Small packet enoki (a decent sized handful)

2 medium sized field mushrooms

1 shallot

1 clove garlic

Pepper

½ tsp dried thyme

1 tsp honey

Splash balsamic vinegar

Splash Worcestershire sauce

3 leaves silverbeet (chard),

¼ cup fresh basil leaves

Olive oil for frying – about 3 tbsps.

2 eggs

¼ cup walnuts

1 tbsp quinoa

2 tbsp pepitas

¼ tsp smoky paprika

Heat a pan/wok and gently toast the nuts, quinoa and seeds until golden and crunchy, stir through the paprika. Remove to a bowl and set aside to cool.

Add a little olive oil to the pan, heat to medium. Dice the shallots and fry until translucent, mince the garlic and add to pan. Add salt and pepper to taste, thyme and the teaspoon of honey. Mix to evenly distribute through the onion mixture

Finely slice the shitake and field mushrooms and lightly separate the enoki. These will further break apart when cooking, so don’t worry too much. Fry, stirring frequently, to coat them in the onion mixture. When softened slightly (around 5 minutes), boil water in a shallow pan to poach the eggs.

Add the splashes of Worcestershire sauce and balsamic vinegar, this should sizzle and cook out pretty quickly, so make sure you stir it through all of the mushrooms. Add the silverbeet and fresh basil leaves, cook until wilted, but still bright green.

Serve immediately with poached egg on top, sprinkled with the seeds and a slice of bread and sriracha on the side.

And as I said, next time I make this, I’ll be adding a rasher of crispy bacon on top.

Tofu, nectarine and broccoli salad with toasted quinoa. And bacon.

I am a carnivore. Well, technically an omnivore, I guess. But I love meat. And I love bacon. When I was younger, I used to tell mum I could be a vegetarian if it weren’t for bacon. This is not even slightly true anymore. I was going to start listing all the meats I couldn’t do without now, but it got too long just thinking about it. And that’s without even adding seafood into the mix. But I think I’ve someone taken that initial theory on in a subconscious way. Now when I see vegetarian recipes, I almost always find myself thinking, ‘that looks so good…but it’d be so much better if it had bacon’.

 
 

This is a common theme in my cooking, so it’ll end up being a common theme in my blog. Much like the more common Meatless Mondays, I present “Vegetarian Dishes Improved by Bacon”. I’ve told a few people now that it’s my dream to write a cookbook with that as the title, and so far have 10 willing buyers. Maybe one day, I’ll get there!

 
 

Anyway, I made this summer salad with beautiful sweet nectarines, salty crispy bacon and crunchy greens for dinner on a hot, humid night and it went down a treat. Unfortunately, this was before my decision to make this blog, and therefore take more photos. Food blogging is going to be a bit of a learning curve for me. I am not hugely comfortable taking food photos - yet. I love taking photos, I love food…but somehow the idea of taking photos of the process and finished result is a bit weird and foreign to me. Despite the fact I adore food porn. That’s pretty much all I am on pinterest for. I will try and improve at this. I’ve been practicing by uploading some photos of my dishes to Instagram (follow me!). In the meantime, and for when I am too lazy to whip the camera out, I will post “Instagrams of Yumness” such as this one.

 

Tofu, nectarine and broccoli salad with toasted quinoa. And bacon.
Serves 2

 

Tofu slices – around 200g I believe??

3 tbps balsamic vinegar

1 tsp olive oil

¼ cup quinoa

One small onion, diced

Two cloves garlic, minced

Zest of one lemon

Finely diced green chilli

3 rashers of bacon, cut into small dice

1 small eggplant,  sliced

Large tomato, finely chopped

1 tbsp wholegrain mustard

Juice of one lemon

1 tbsp agave nectar

Big handful Italian parsley

Salt/pepper to taste

Half head broccoli

2 nectarines

Half red capsicum

 

Add balsamic to slices of tofu, leave to marinate for at least 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, toast ¼ cup of quinoa until slightly golden, put in a bowl

Fry the onion,  garlic, chilli and bacon in the olive oil over a medium heat. The bacon should crisp up around the edges. Add the lemon zest

Add to the quinoa, mix well and set aside to cool slightly.

Chop tomato finely, add to quinoa bowl. Then add mustard, lemon juice, agave and parsley. Mix well. Check seasoning and adjust to taste.

Chop broccoli into small florets, cut capsicum to desired size and dice nectarine,. add to quinoa bowl, mix well and put in serving bowl

Grill eggplant slices until soft, a few minutes either side. This can be done in the same pan to save dishes.

Grill tofu until desired level of crispness on the outer layer.

Dice tofu and eggplant, and arrange on top of salad

 

Voila! Lovely summer salad!