Freekeh salad

Monday and a new week... it has been quite stormy here, not the best start to the week, but hopefully it'll get better. I do not need belated trains on my commute to work. Anyway, now is the perfect time again to make those weird and wonderful weekday salads like this one, where I combined freekeh with lettuce, chicory, carrots and gouda. On the side I served couple of extras, croutons, whipped soft cheese (my new favourite) and hummus. For a salad this was actually like comfort food!

Ingredients

½ cup freekeh

1 tsp vegetable stock powder

4 mini gem lettuce

2 red chicory

2 carrots

150 g mature gouda

Bread croutons

Hummus

Whipped soft cheese

Olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing

Method

Cook the freekeh in water with the vegetable stock powder until done. You can add it either warm or cold to the salad.

Chop the gem lettuce and chicory and grate the carrots.

Cut the gouda into cubes and make the dressing.

Serve everything together, enjoy and have a great week!

Your VegHog

Halloumi, lentil and freekeh salad

Here is a very quick salad post for today. I made this salad last week, but didn't get around to posting it yet. I just came back from London, so I haven't had loads of time writing a post today. I thought a weekday salad could be a good post for today. The tomatoes in this salad are homegrown, which I guess makes it a bit more interesting. I have some proud bush tomatoes on my balcony with tasty produce, only some of them turned out to be very small.

I don't really have exact ingredient amounts for this salad either, as the size can be variable depending on for how many people you make it. The clue is again that there are some warm and some cold components, but it's equally enjoyable as a fully cold salad. I have made good guesses below, which catered for light evening salads for two people and for work lunches the next day.

Ingredients

½ cup green lentils

½ cup freekeh

1 tbsp vegetable stock powder

250 g halloumi

1 tsp vegetable oil

2 gem lettuce

100 g cherry tomatoes

Basil infused olive oil

Balsamic vinegar

Salt

Ground black pepper

Method

Cook the lentils and freekeh in separate pots with a little addition of vegetable stock powder until they are done.

Cut the halloumi into cubes and fry them in vegetable oil until golden brown.

Cut the cherry tomatoes in halves and the gem lettuce into thin strips.

Combine the warm and cold components on a plate and drizzle with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog

Freekeh salad with fresh garden peas, barbeque flavoured peppers and mature Cheddar

Once again I wanted to make a salad with substance so that I would be properly full afterwards. My addition of smoky freekeh and mature Cheddar delivered in this respect and I was quite happy with my salad plate of mixed things. This is quite a good option for busy weekday dinners. Have a look at how I made it.

Ingredients

½ cup smoky freekeh

1 tsp olive oil

1 onion

1 garlic clove

1 vegetable stock cube

Salt

Ground black pepper

Fresh oregano

2 romano peppers

1 tsp olive oil

1 tbsp barbeque sauce

100 g mature Cheddar

1 cup fresh garden peas

Mixed salad leaves

Method

Chop the onion and garlic finely and cook them in olive oil. Add the freekeh, vegetable stock cube and water and cook until the freekeh is done. In the end, drain off any excess water and season with salt, black pepper and oregano to taste.

Cut the peppers into rings and brush them with olive oil and roast in the oven until done. After that brush them with barbeque sauce.

Cut the Cheddar into small cubes. Place all the components onto a plate and serve. Alternatively you can mix them all together, if you prefer.

I also want to share this salad plate idea with the No Croutons Required soup and salad cooking challenge. The challenge is hosted by Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen this month and the co-host for this event is Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes.  

Your VegHog 

Freekeh salad with barbeque flavours

Today was quite warm here, but I'm not sure if the good weather is going to continue. However now it's nice to dream of summer and eat a light salad with barbeque flavours at least. I found this tasty barbeque sauce and bought it even though it refers quite heavily to meat products. The product itself is of course suitable for vegetarians and quite tasty, so I try to ignore the name. I haven't used barbeque sauces for ages, maybe it's just not something that vegetarians do so often, but now I'm totally hooked. I can see this coating many vegetables for me and adding flavour. What are your thoughts about barbeque sauce?

I used these ingredients for the salad:

2 romano peppers

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp barbeque sauce

½ cup freekeh

1 garlic clove

1 tbsp vegetable stock powder

250 g halloumi

1 tsp vegetable oil

Mixed salad leaves

First I chopped the peppers into generous cubes and roasted them coated in olive oil. Once they were roasted, I coated them with the barbeque sauce and let marinade for a while.

Chop the garlic finely and cook it a little in olive oil. Add the freekeh, water and vegetable stock powder and cook until done.

Cut the halloumi into cubes and fry them in vegetable oil until they are golden brown.

Serve all these components with some mixed salad leaves. I served the freekeh, barbeque peppers and halloumi warm, but the salad is also tasty when served cold.

Have a nice week!

Your VegHog

Gouda and freekeh salad

My freekeh love affair isn't over yet and there are many recipes coming up with this beautiful grain. Now I made again a warm and cold salad with freekeh, and I absolutely loved it. In this salad I also combined walnuts, gouda cheese and roasted tomatoes. So the freekeh and tomatoes are warm and the rest are cool and fresh ingredients. This is in my mind just the perfect lunch salad, as it's very filling.

Ingredients

½ cup smoky freekeh

1 small shallot

1 garlic clove

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp vegetable stock powder

200 g tomalini tomatoes

50 g walnut pieces

100 g gouda (I used Musta Salaneuvos Gouda that I bought in Finland)

Mixed salad leaves

Salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar and olive oil to taste

Method

Rinse the freekeh. Chop the shallot and garlic finely. Heat the olive oil in a pan and lightly cook the shallot and garlic. Add the rinsed freekeh and vegetable stock powder and cover with water. Cook until the freekeh is done.

Brush the tomatoes with olive oil and roast them in the oven until they are soft and bursting open.

Toast the walnuts on a hot dry pan or in an oven dish and cut the gouda into cubes.

Combine the ingredients and dress the salad with salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

Enjoy and have a good weekend!

Your VegHog

Freekeh salad with roasted courgettes and halloumi

Earlier this month I posted my first freekeh recipe on this blog: Smoky freekeh with peppers, beans and sweetcorn. Now I'm utterly freaking out for freekeh! At least I should get all my proteins and fibre at the moment, judging by the amount of freekeh I've been eating. This smoky freekeh is just perfect for different seasonal dishes at the moment and today I have made a warm and cold salad with it. The salad consists of roasted baby courgettes, halloumi, mixed leaves, pumpkin seeds and of course some freekeh. The fresh coriander added a wonderful flavour to this dish and as so often, I couldn't leave fried halloumi out of this salad.

Here's my salad recipe that is also my contribution to the 'Eat Your Greens' challenge by Shaheen from the A2K – A Seasonal Veg Table blog for the month January.

Freekeh salad with roasted courgettes and halloumi

Ingredients

1 shallot

1 garlic clove

2 tbsp olive oil

½ cup smoky freekeh

1 ½ cup vegetable stock

200 g baby courgettes

250 g halloumi

2 tbsp vegetable oil

½ tsp smoked paprika

Pumpkin seeds

Fresh coriander leaves

110 g mixed salad leaves

Olive oil + balsamic vinegar + salt + pepper drizzled on the top

Method

Rinse the freekeh. Chop the shallot and garlic finely and cook them soft in olive oil.

Add the freekeh to the pan with about one and a half cups of vegetable stock. More liquid can be added later if needed.

Let simmer under lid for about 30 minutes and season with the smoky paprika towards the end.

Cut the courgettes in about 1 cm long pieces and brush with olive oil. Roast them in the oven until they are soft with roasting marks.

Cut the halloumi into cubes and fry them in vegetable oil until golden brown.

Combine the components on a plate, drizzle olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper on the top and serve as a warm and cold salad.

Done! Easy!

Your VegHog

Smoky freekeh with peppers, beans and sweetcorn

Freekeh is quite a new acquaintance for me, but I'm already head over heels for it, not just for its health benefits. Freekeh is an ancient grain, unripe wheat that has been through a process of roasting, where it has obtained a lovely smoky flavour. It's full of fiber and protein, which makes it a perfect veggie supplement.

Last week I made this spicy freekeh dish with beans, sweetcorn and peppers (please note that the recipe is for quite a large amount and can be scaled down). I think that this was a perfect mid-week dinner, which transformed into a great lunch for the next day. I will be making much more this kind of dishes in the future now that I'm hooked. This basic recipe is vegan, I only added halloumi to the serving, but it's optional.

Ingredients

1 cup smoky freekeh

1 tbsp vegetable stock powder

1-2 bay leaves

2 bell peppers

3 shallots

3 garlic cloves

240 g red kidney beans

240 g sweetcorn

1 tbsp olive oil

½-1 tsp chilli flakes

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

A sprinkle of salt

Fresh coriander to taste

Method

Rinse the freekeh and cook it in water with added vegetable stock powder and bay leaves until it's done. This takes about 20 minutes.

Chop the bell peppers, shallots and garlic and start cooking them in olive oil.

Add the beans and sweetcorn to the pan with the spices (chilli flakes, smoked paprika, ground cumin, ground coriander and salt).

Let it cook until you're happy with the flavour and textures.

Add the freekeh to the vegetables and cook for 10 minutes more.

Just before serving, add the fresh coriander.

On the side I served just a little bit of salad and fried halloumi slices.

Enjoy and have a good week!

Your VegHog