A week in Salads - Beetroot, Sweetcorn and Feta

Day two of my Salad adventure sees is paying homage to the humble beetroot. When I was planning this week I wanted to make sure that the salads weren’t just low calories, that is easily done. I wanted them to be highly nutritional using ingredients that gave your body the minerals and vitamins it needs to function healthily. Beetroot is an amazing little root vegetable, it can be eaten raw or cooked and really shouldn’t be treated any different to carrots. A 100gm of beetroot has only 43 calories and contains 11% of your RDA of fiber, 4% iron; it also have vitamin C, B-6 and Magnesium.

This beetroot salad does need a little bit of preparation the night before mainly for the onions. The rest can be put together in 5 minutes at work. I actually have two different versions and will give you both recipes as one is with sweetcorn and the other with lentils and mushrooms.

Ingredients for Beetroot & Sweetcorn 2 medium beetroots - cooked & cubed ½ can of sweetcorn - try and get the one without salt 100gm fresh garden peas or ½ can - the fresh ones are sweeter and nicer 1 small red onion 50gm Feta Cheese 1 tablespoon Balsamic vinegar ½ tsp olive oil Salt to taste Cooked Broccoli - Optional Balsamic glaze/dressing - optional

Method 1: Slice the onion in half and then into very fine half crescents. Put in a container with the balsamic vinegar.This macerates the onions taking away the raw bite of them and leaving behind their sweetness. Add the beetroot to the container after 20 minutes and leave overnight in the fridge Pre-cook your broccoli leave it to cool and leave to the side, do not add it to the beets and onion mix until you want to put the salad together Put the salad together by mixing all the vegetables in a bowl, dress with the olive oil and salt to taste. Crumble the feta on top If you like me love a bit of balsamic glaze/dressing drizzle it over. DOnt forget that adds to the calories as does any dressing

Ingredients - Beetroot and Lentils 2 medium beetroots - cooked and cubed ½ can green lentils - drained and washed 100 gm cooked mushrooms 1 small red onion 50gm Feta cheese 1 tablespoon Balsamic vinegar ½ tsp olive oil Salt to taste Cooked Broccoli - Optional

Method 2: Slice the onion in half and then into very fine half crescents. Put in a container with the balsamic vinegar.This macerates the onions taking away the raw bite of them and leaving behind their sweetness. Add the beetroot to the container after 20 minutes. Pre-cook your mushrooms and add them to the beets. Leave in the fridge overnight to marry the flavours. Pre-cook your broccoli leave it to cool and leave to the side, do not add it to the beets and onion mix until you want to put the salad together Put the salad together by mixing all the vegetables in a bowl, dress with the olive oil and salt to taste. Crumble the feta on top If you like me love a bit of balsamic glaze/dressing drizzle it over. DOnt forget that adds to the calories as does any dressing

This salad may need a bit of prep before hand but it is truly delicious, it has lovely sweetness from the sweetcorn and broccoli, or a deep rich earthy flavour if you got for the mushroom and lentil option. 

Tips and Ideas: I have already had a few people worry that a salad is not enough for lunch that they will be hungry, and want to snack all the way through, it will make them grumpy. Over the next two days I hope to share with you how I overcome this.

Make sure that you have breakfast.Breakfast is key to any healthy diet. Having a good breakfast will mean that you won’t be hungry at 11, you will have energy to carry you through to lunch and you won’t have as many cravings. It also helps with maintaining a healthy and faster metabolism. Skipping meals actually slows your metabolism down as your body goes into hunger mode and starts to store all food as fat.   

A good breakfast can be a couple of eggs, they are full of protein, vitamin D and calcium and actually make you full despite their small size, you can add some healthy fat with half an avocado. Alternatively an avocado on rye bread with some cottage cheese is delicious. Porridge is also good but do be careful what you flavour it with, you can easily slip here and go over the top on the sugar by adding too much honey or jam or other such things. Beware the pre-prepared flavoured porridge packets, some or full of sugar and additives.   

Bon Apettite!

Banica - Filo Pie with Feta

I along with every Bulgarian grew up with a staple go to meal when I was hungry, Banica with mutenica. That translates to a filo pastry pie filled with a feta cheese and egg mixture and a glass of cold yogurt that has been watered down and has a pinch of salt in it. It was peasant food back home in the same way that pizza was peasant food in Italy. These days it can be a street food snack or if grandma/mom makes it it can be the best comfort food you will ever have. The cold yogurt drink adds a savoury richness to the meal, but to be honest a glass of cold beer with it goes just as well. There are many variations, you can add leek, chard, nettles or spinach for example. The last essentially turning it into a version of the Greek spanakopita, which to me only goes to highlight the ancient history of the Balkans and the many links and similarities between the people and culture.

Banica can be eaten hot or cold. Once cooled down it is easy to carry in a box, can be reheated and makes for a great lunch. my favorite version is the one with leek hence why the recipe below calls for it, but please be as inventive as you like!  

Step 9 - Dollops of the Spinach version.

Ingredients:

5 medium eggs

5 tbsp of yogurt

400gm feta cheese

1/3 tsp bicarb

350gm melted butter

1 medium leek

1 packet filo pastry

Method

1. As always we start with preheating the oven to 200C’ (180C Fan).
2. Oil a large deep pie dish, I use a stoneware pie dish. Anything that you may make a giant sheppards pie in will do.
3. Melt your butter and leave to cool down a little
4. Chop up the leek as fine or as chunky as you like it, I like mine quite chunky.
5. Cook the leek down until softened in a little bit of oil or butter and let cool a bit before use, if you add it to the mix while hot it will cook the eggs.
6. In a large bowl put the eggs, yogurt crumble the feta cheese into medium chunks, add the cooked leeks and melted butter - hold back a spoonfull of butter to brush the pie with before putting in the oven. Now mix it all together. Leave to one side.
7. On a clean surface open up your filo pastry and with dry hands spread it out. Be gentle its very fragile. 
8. To the mix above add your 1/3 tsp of bicarb. this will give the pie a nice bit of volume You are doing the need to work fast now as the bicarb starts to act immediately.
9. Dot dollops of the mixture on the top sheet of filo pastry quite randomly. I put about the equivalent of 4 tablespoons. Pick up this and the next sheet of filo and roll it into a cigar. I find that if I use a single sheet of the filo pastry it is too thin, it breaks and you do not get the right ration of pastry to filling. You need your baking dish nearby for the next step.
10. Take your cigar over to the baking dish and roll it into a snail in the centre. Repeat the above process wrapping the filo cigars around each other to make what looks like a giant snail shell until you have used up either all the mix, all the filo or your dish is full and you cannot fit any more in.  
11. If you have mix left you can dollop it on top of the pie, brush the pie with the remaining melted butter and put in the oven for 20-30 minutes until golden brown.

I buy my filo pastry from Tesco and find that with their particular brand I tend to have 1 or 2 sheets left with the above mix ratio. So as not to waste those I tend to brush with butter sprinkle sugar and cinnemon and bake in the oven until crispy and lightly golden.  Its little crisps of sweet cinnemon  goodness!

Now the above might sound a bit complex and a hassle but actually from beginning to oven it takes about 15 minutes to make, and that is mainly because you are waiting for the leeks and butter to cool down so you don’t end up with scrambled egg. Also if you don’t feel like rolling it up you can just layer it, two sheets of filo, thin spread of mix two sheets of fillo thin spread of mix until one runs out. Make sure you finish with filo though, it’s nicer that way.

One of the attractive things to the recipe for me is that the measurements above are more guidelines than exact measures. Put as much or as little filling as you want, play around with it, add the stuff that you want, like nutmeg with the spinach, or sundried tomatos with the leek. It may not be authentic but if you love the taste of it that is all that matters. Food is to be enjoyed and shared!

Bon Appetite!