Duck and Pumpkin Bowl

Duck is a beautifully rich meat that is packed with flavour. If you enhance that with other complimentary ingredients then you can create a real showstopper. Play around with citrus and chili or keep things simple and fresh like this recipe! 

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Ingredients:

For the Bowl:

• 1 small butternut, quartered and seeds removed
• 1 red onion, quartered
• coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon red chilli flakes
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 duck breasts
• 1 handful fresh mint leaves
• 1 handful baby spinach
• salt and pepper
• 1 handful of fresh coriander, chopped
• 80g pistachios, shelled and chopped
• ½ cup red cabbage, sliced

For the dressing:

• 2 limes, zested and juiced
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon tamari
• 1 teaspoon coconut sugar
• 1 fresh red chilli, chopped (discard the seeds if you don’t like heat)
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 4 spring onions, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

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Instructions:

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Place the butternut and onion in a roasting tray with 1 tablespoons of coconut oil. Mix together the chili flakes, coriander, and cinnamon and sprinkle over the vegetables, tossing together with the oil until evenly covered. Season to taste.

Pop the roasting tray into the oven and roast for 45 minutes. Keep an eye on the onions, crispy bits are delicious but burnt is never tasty.

While the vegetables are roasting, place the duck breast, skin side down, into a large frying pan. Place the pan over medium heat. You want the pan to be cold and heat up with the duck in it. (Cooking tip: when you are cooking a high-fat meat, cook it without adding oil as it will cook in its own fat). Cook for ten minutes. The duck skin will slowly render and crisp, cooking out the fat. Once the skin is a golden colour and looks crispy, turn the breasts over and cook for a further three minutes. When done, remove the breasts and place on a wooden board. Cover with foil and let rest for five minutes.  Once rested, slice into half centimeter pieces.

In a large bowl, toss together the mint and spinach.

In a separate cup mix together all the ingredients for the dressing and pour over the mint and spinach leaves to make a salad base for your bowl.

Remove the roasted vegetables from the oven when done. Roughly chop the butternut and add the onions to the salad base and toss together. I like to add my butternut on top later separately for presentation, otherwise, you can just roughly chop it up and add in with the onions.

Finish off with the duck, red cabbage, coriander, and pistachios and enjoy.  

Health fact:

Pistachios have fewer calories than any other nut and they are a rich source of potassium and vitamin K. Potassium works to regulate fluid balance in the cells and body. Remember that raw and unsalted is always the best.

-Melissa 

tea poached asian chicken salad

This salad embodies two of my favourite things, crunch and Asian flavours. It’s fresh and healthy and the poached chicken its just so juicy! I've always wondered how patient a chef is to julienne vegetables but to be honest, with the invention of a peeler that julienne’s that fascination has disappeared. I can how ever confirm that it is a lot of fun grabbing your veg and slicing them into tiny perfect strips for this salad. 

The dressing for this salad takes me straight to Thailand. I can picture myself standing in the street food markets in Kopanghan dunking my chicken satay into the sauce. Some of the best memories of my life were had in Thai food markets. Perhaps that’s why this salad has such a special place in my recipe heart. We hired a scooter and whenever we wanted, nipped to different parts of the island we were on. After feeding an elephant a few bananas we stumbled across this amazing little food court, out in the open, where all the locals got their fill. From fresh sushi, chicken satay’s and fruit shakes this place was like mecca. I'm very open to the fact that I might of ate myself into a food coma that day but I can assure you that it was worth every. Single. Bite. 

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serves: 2

Ingredients:

• lapsang suchong tea
• 2 chicken fillets
• 1 carrot, finely sliced on the length
• small handful of fine green beans
• 1 cup red cabbage, finely sliced
• 4 radishes, thinly sliced
• 1 cup coriander leaves
• 1 cup thinly sliced cucumber
• ½ cup pumpkin seeds, roasted
• ¼ cup toasted sesame seeds

Asian dressing:

• 3 tblsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp grated ginger
• ½ tsp garlic, finely chopped
• 1/3 cup lime juice
• 2 tblsp honey
• 1 tblsp mint, finely chopped
• ½ cup olive oil or sesame oil
• salt and pepper

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Instructions:

Bring 500ml water with tea to the boil in a saucepan. I usually use a small strainer and fill that with the tealeaves, and just put in straight into the water. Add your chicken fillets and simmer for 12mins. You can turn the chicken around at the 6-minute mark. Remove and let cool.  Once cool slice chicken and toss with the rest of the ingredients (that you have julienned by knife or by slicer) and dressing, season with salt and pepper and plate.

Asian dressing:

Blend all the ingredients together and season to taste. 

Serve on a hot summers day with some fresh infused waters! 

-Melissa 

quinoa salad

This is one of my all time favourite party tricks. Yes, this salad. For those of you who are not that familiar with quinoa, it is a grain that is very high in protein, simply delicious and easy to make. It has a marvelous nutty flavour to it and it is tastier than most rice’s and healthier to serve. 

This salad is my go to salad when I have my vegetarian friends come over. When I make this salad I more often than not don't make meat, although you can serve it with pan-fried moist chicken breasts if you want. It’s beyond filling and decked out with so many flavours that it will leave you wanting more. It’s the salad I take with to a braai (South African barbecue) and impress everyone with, or it’s a great salad to make for lunch, work or to nibble on at home.

The amazing thing with this salad is that once you get the hang of it and its ingredients you can start playing around with what you add to it, making it your own symphony of flavours. 

Here is my version of this healthy, delicious and colourful salad! 

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Serves: 5

Ingredients:

• 1 cup quinoa
• 1 butternut, medium, peeled and sliced
• half a head of broccoli 
• 1 red onion 
• 1 baby red cabbage
• 50g pine nuts 
• 100g rocket 
• 100ml balsamic vinegar
• 100ml water 
• olive oil to dress the salad 
• 40g parmesan cheese

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Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 180℃

Place your peeled and sliced butternut on a roasting tray and drizzle it with olive oil. Making sure all the pieces are covered. If you do not want them to char, cover with foil (shiny side down) and place in the oven for 30-40 minutes or until soft when pierced with a fork. 

While your butternut is roasting slice your red onion into rings. If you find it easier you can also slice it in half and slice half rings from there. Put the water and balsamic into a pot over a low heat. Put the onions in and let them simmer and reduce. It should take about half an hour depending on your heat for them to become sticky and be fully reduced. Once the onions have reduced set them aside. 

In another pot put your one-cup of quinoa to two cups boiling water and a pinch of salt. Make sure the water is boiled before adding it. Cook over a low to medium heat for 30 minutes. If the water disappears before 30 minutes just turn the heat off and put the lid of the pot on. The moisture and residual heat will continue to cook the quinoa. Don’t add more water. Keep an eye on it so that the bottom doesn't burn. At the 25-minute mark just lightly fluff the quinoa with a fork. If you give the quinoa a taste it should still have some crunch but not be too hard-al dente one could say. Once ready set aside. 

In a large bowl grate the broccoli head (tree top bits), the Parmesan cheese and the baby red cabbage. Once they are all in add the rocket to mixture. 

Place your pine nuts in a small pan and over a low heat. Make sure you tend to them and watch them. When roasting nuts they can go from zero to burnt in two seconds. just keep turning them until they are golden brown and toasted. 

Grab your butternut out of the oven and add to your salad bowl. Add your quinoa and balsamic onions. Salt and pepper the salad to taste. Give the salad a good mix and drizzle with a great olive oil. My favourite is Rio Largo olive oil and you can shop it here. Once everything is mixed in and the salad is dressed, sprinkle the pine nuts on top.

This salad is great served hot but just as delicious cold! 

-Melissa