Category Archives: Capsicum

Watermelon & Mint Salad

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Time for another salad for bbq season!

This may be my favourite salad ever. Mum picked it out of a newspaper years and years ago and we make it all the time during summer. Specially to take to bbqs – people love this salad and always ask for the recipe. And the colours are so beautiful!  I think I might make this as part of our Christmas dinner spread.

The original recipe used watermelon, red onion and red capsicum; I was making it to take somewhere a couple of weeks ago and there wasn’t quite enough watermelon available at the supermarket, but they did have pomegranates on special, so I added the seeds to the salad to juzh it up a bit. They may become a permanent feature :)

Watermelon & Mint Salad
Adjust quantities to taste, and to how many you need to serve…

Watermelon
Red onion
Red capsicum
Pomegranate seeds (optional)
Mint sauce

Just toss together chopped watermelon, sliced red onion, sliced red capsicum, and pomegranate seeds, if you’re using them, and dress with mint sauce. A few fresh mint leaves wouldn’t go astray, either.

Enjoy!

White Coleslaw

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I’m loving fresh, healthy salads at the moment. We’ve been eating heaps of lovely simple food lately – grilled chicken, fish or meat, fresh or just steamed veges (‘specially asparagus!), and lots of fresh fruit. So salads are Way In.

I’m a bit over the old classic coleslaw with grated carrot and too much dressing (why? why do people use so much?). This white coleslaw is a nice alternative; it has a gorgeous light dressing and I like the styley white and pale green colours.  I’m not sure where the recipe comes from actually, it’s been in my recipe book since forever, so I probably picked it up from Mum. It’s just a simple little salad, enjoy it on a nice fresh spring day!

White Coleslaw
Serves 4-6

300g white cabbage, shredded
1 green capsicum, sliced
2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
4 spring onions, sliced
½ Tbsp dijon mustard
1 tsp horseradish mustard
½ tsp tabasco sauce
1 Tbsp white vinegar
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp light mayonnaise
pinch cayenne pepper
chopped fresh dill

Toss the prepared cabbage, capsicum, celery and spring onions together. In a small bowl, mix the mustards with the tabasco and white vinegar. Gradually whisk in the oil, then add the mayonnaise and cayenne (I popped in a bit of wholegrain mustard too). Season and toss the dressing through the salad, adding the dill as you go.

You say frittata, I say frittata

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I haven’t posted any of the dishes lately, but I have still been trying to cook at least one ‘proper’ lunch every weekend. No grand three course meals here, but just simple bruschetta, quiche, fancy toasties and what not.

This week I made these little spring vegetable frittata (or is that frittatas?). It’s a simple recipe – although I don’t have a fancy pan that can work on the stove top and in the oven, so I’ll admit I did end up with more dishes than I’d like on a Saturday afternoon.

It was worth it.

You could use almost any vegetables you like in this. I’d suggest keeping the potato, or even swapping it for kumara. A starchy vege anchors a frittata. Then you can really add what you like – I think courgette and asparagus are nice in spring, but let your tastes, budget, fridge contents and energy levels guide you!

Easy Spring Frittata
Serves 2

1 small-medium potato, scrubbed and chopped into small cubes
½ onion, finely chopped
½ capsicum, diced
½ a courgette, coarsely grated
4-5 spears asparagus, woody ends removed, chopped into 3-4cm lengths
handful spinach leaves, roughly shredded
3 eggs (or I used 2 eggs plus 1 white) , lightly beaten
small handful grated cheese
salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat your grill to about 200°(c). Heat a small frypan over medium heat. Cook the potato first – you have a couple of options here. You can cook it in the frypan until tender, and then add the other vegetables. Or, I was impatient, so just zapped the potato in the microwave for a couple of minutes, and then plonked it into the heated pan along with the onion, capsicum, courgette and asparagus. I found I didn’t actually need any oil; the moisture from the courgette created a bit of steam and that was enough to get the party started.

Cook for just 3-4 minutes, until the asparagus is tender. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Add the shredded spinach and stir for another minute or two, until it wilts. Then pour the lightly beaten eggs over. As I said, I don’t have a multi-function frypan, so I just kind of stirred the mixture around in the hot pan to start the eggs cooking, and then split the mixture into two ovenproof dishes. If you can leave yours in the frypan, cook it kind of like an omelette, tilting the pan to let the uncooked egg to run underneath, until the base is golden. Sprinkle your frypan or little dishes with grated cheese, and place in the oven. Grill until the frittata is golden and just set firm. You can serve hot or cold – it’s yummy with a bit of relish.

Spanish Salad with Smokey Dressing

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Another recipe from that Spanish dinner. I cannot vouch for its Spanish authenticity. I based it loosely on this Laurie Black recipe for a Spanish Pepper Salad. I played around with the dressing, and added black olives, goat’s cheese and prosciutto, but hopefully I’m still allowed to use Spanish in the title.

The resulting salad has lovely smokey, salty flavours which I love, and they’re set against the creamy goat’s cheese and sweet capsicums and tomatoes. Drool. You may note that capsicums (capsica?) are not present in the photograph. That was a sad story. I forgot they were in the oven while I was dealing with my rogue beef empanada dough. Let’s just say the capsicums were more char than grill. But what the hey, I figure that from a menu of 9 new (to me) dishes, a bit of burnt capsicum and a “deconstructed” version of empanadas wasn’t too bad!

Spanish Salad with Smokey Dressing
Serves 4-6 as part of a tapas spread

Vinaigrette:
3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp olive oil
flakey sea salt
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 clove garlic, thinly sliced

Salad:
3-4 tomatoes
1 large red capsicum
cos lettuce leaves
1 Tbsp chopped fresh mint
60-80g creamy goat’s cheese, sliced or cubed
50g very thinly slice prosciutto, sliced or diced

To make the vinaigrette, whisk all ingredients together. Adjust the seasoning to taste and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Cut the tomatoes into halves or quarters, whatever you prefer (I find quarters are a little more manageable when it comes to the eating), and cut the capsicum in half. Place the tomatoes and capsicum on a tray or dish lined with baking paper – capsicum skin side up, and tomatoes cut flesh side up. You could drizzle them with a little olive oil if you like; I just popped mine straight in the oven. I think they take about 40 minutes, but keep a close eye on them (see above). Once the tomatoes are looking roasted (like in the photo), and the capsicum skin has started to blister, take them out. While they’re still hot, pop the capsicums in a plastic bag to cool. Then when they’re cool enough to handle, the skins should peel off easily. Slice the capsicum thinly.

You know, if you were in a hurry, you could always buy sliced roasted capsicum from the deli. You could also use semi-dried tomatoes, or I imagine you could find viable alternatives to roasting the tomatoes at a good deli.

Starting with the cos leaves, assemble the salad ingredients on a serving platter, and drizzle with vinaigrette just before serving.