Roasted Veg Salad with Croutons and Tempeh Bits

I decided to make myself a salad for lunch today. This is seriously strange behaviour  because I hardly ever eat salads and I almost never make myself a salad at home. I think I may have done so once before. Just once, a couple of year back. I prefer cooked food: a baked tart, a robust curry, a cheesy quiche, a plate of steaming fried noodles with egg, greens and beans sprouts, a piping hot bowl of spicy, curry laksa. Oh yum.

So why did I make myself a salad today? Hell if I know!

Oh wait! I do know. I was dying to use the two bottles of dressing (well, I use them as dressing) I had just purchased recently: the first, a bottle of pumpkin seed oil which Ii actually didn't buy but received as a gift from a dear friend. The second is a bottle of chilli oil which I brought all the way from Italy where I was on vacation just recently. (I'd eaten a mushroom bruschetta in a restaurant somewhere in Florence that I absolutely loved. The secret ingredient was chilli oil which not only coated the mushrooms but oozed into the bread. It was so, so good that I bought a couple of bottles of chilli oil home).

Technically, this is a cooked salad. The vegetables (and I naturally only chose vegetables I love) are roasted and even the garnishes — tempeh bits and focaccia croutons — have been cooked. I chose carrots, parsnips, beets, eggplant and peppers: all of which transform magically from being "just nice tasting vegetables" to "freaking awesome morsels" once they come out of the oven.

Seriously folks, roasting vegetables completely transforms them. Roasting brings out flavours you don't realise exist in many vegetables. Take cauliflower, for example. Not a terribly tasty vegetable ordinarily. Put it in the oven (with some olive oil, salt and pepper) and it becomes surprisingly delicious — nutty and slightly sweet.  Even celery. Ever try roasting celery? You must ... and add it in an egg salad. Oh brother ... it's amazing!

I didn't use cauliflower or celery in my salad but the vegetables I did choose come out extraordinarily well once roasted: the carrots become even sweeter, parsnips tasted out of this word as did the peppers and beets! A sweet symphony of vegetables. Ok, I admit I chose vegetables that would look amazing together on a plate too: a gorgeous mix of autumn colours.

I had a few end-slices of chilli focaccia sitting in the fridge: I'd baked a loaf yesterday to make some sandwiches for a few friends and these were the scraps left over. Not enough to make a sandwich with, these were perfect to make croutons with. I toasted and added them in my salad. 

For some crunch (and a garnish) I added crunchy tempeh bits:I sliced a block of tempeh into paper thin pieces, seasoned the slices with a little chilli powder, salt and pepper and then deep fried the slices until they became golden and crispy. Once they cooled off, I crumbled them with my fingers and sprinkled them on my salad.

The final touch was the chevril: a mild herb that adds freshness to the dish.

Oh! And a word about the dressing. The pumpkin seed oil is really nutty and rich and delicious. It's been known to go really well with vanilla ice cream (oh, yes!) but it's great on bread, on salads and pasta. The Chilli oil? Oh my. It just adds a nice kick to this otherwise sweetish salad.

Roasted Vegetable Salad With Croutons and Tempeh Bits
(makes 4)

1 carrot, cubed
1 parsnip, cubes
1 eggplant, cubed
1 small beet root, cubed
50g tempeh, sliced paper thin
1 cup croutons
1 tbsp pumpkin seed oil
1 tbsp chilli oil
a handful of chevril.

Rub some salt on the eggplant cubes and set aside for 20 mins. Drain the water that oozes out (it will be bitter), rinse the cubes and pat dry.

Toss the carrots, parsnips, eggplant in olive oil and spread them out on a baking tray. Toss the beet root in olive oil separately (you don't want the pink to get on the other vegetables), place them in some foil and place them on the edge of the same tray.

Sprinkle a little salt and pepper on the vegetables and bake in a preheated oven (180C) for about 30-40 mins, till soft and caramelised.

Meanwhile, deep fry the tempeh slices till golden. Drain and cool. Break them into bits/crumbs.

Once the vegetables are done, combine them in a bowl, add the croutons and add the pumpkin seed oil and chilli oil and toss. Add the bacon bits and chevril. Voila!

Edamame, Broccoli and Cream Cheese Sandwich

Is edamame (young/green soy beans) really the secret of Victoria Beckham's enviably stick thin figure? Well, some years ago, the former Spice Girl revealed that her edamame-rich diet kept her slim. She let herself cheat on a single cupcake once in a while but mainly, she feasted on edamame, strawberries and lettuce. 

No, I am not about to go on the Posh diet quite yet but I must say she chose a delicious and extremely nutritious vegetable as her staple. Known as the "magic bean", edamame is rich in amino acids and is a protein source. It's also high in fibre, rich in vitamin C and folic acid and is known to lower your cholesterol. 

Most importantly, the young beans are delicious: nutty and sweet. I love edamame. The Japanese consume a lot of edamame: boiled and seasoned lightly with salt, the beans are a great accompaniment to beer or sake and a delicious appetizer before a meal of sushi.

It also makes for a delicious dip, a great base for vegetarian burger patties (keep and eye out for my next post) and a fantastic sandwich filling. 

Edamame forms the base of this sandwich filling.

Step one: Boil about a cup of beans for ten minutes or so. Remove the beans from their pods and roughly mashed them.  Season with salt, black pepper and finely chopped garlic. Next, mix in 3 tbsp of cream cheese and 1/4 cup grated carrots to the bean mash. What you get it is a thick spread. At this point, with a couple of drops of lemon juice, you could it  into a dip too but I'd suggest you try it in a sandwich first. I spread a thick layer of the bean mash (make sure you leave some half bean chunks in, for some bite) on the base of my sandwich.

That was step one. Oh, I forgot to mention, step zero is to get good bread. Good, sturdy bread that won't dissolve once you load it with filling. I used the Zucchini and Cheese Loaf I made yesterday.

Step two: The next step is adding texture to the sandwich. No one really likes a completely mushy sandwich, right? I like a little crunch too and so, instead of lettuce, I added roasted 1/2 cup of broccoli florets — just toss the broccoli florets in olive oil and roast them for about 15 to 20 minutes and season with salt and pepper — on top of the edamame spread. Have you tried roasted broccoli? It's really fantastic.


Next comes the cheese layer.

Grilled cheese sandwiches have a huge appeal for me. I toasted my bread and then added a generous layer of  mozzarella on the top slice of bread and popped it under the grill for a few minutes for it to melt.

At the same time, I toasted a few walnuts (you could use almonds or cashews), chopped them fine and sprinkled them over the broccoli.

When the cheese has melted, press the top layer over the sandwich and you're good to go!

The little sandwich that could

I just recently realised how insanely competitive I have become.  Its a shame really because competitive people have to work so much harder. I must do something to arrest this and quick.

Am I over reacting (again)? You judge.

I think I make pretty good sandwiches. I mean, I sell sandwiches every Monday to the folks at work (with my colleague and fellow foodie Marty) so they must be pretty decent, right? Well, ironically, while he likes the sandwiches he sometimes gets for dinner (no charge, mind you), my husband's favourite sandwich is a grossly overpriced (RM12. I just re-checked the price and it's RM17!) triple decker monstrosity from a certain sandwich franchise.

Hmmph.

I fully support a person's freedom to express themselves and choose what they want to eat but turning down my sandwich and opting instead to brave traffic and drive to a sandwich shop that's a good 20 minutes away? Now that's enough to get my competitive juices all flowing.

So when the RM12 sandwich came home, I studied it. It had slaw, some chicken, a thin piece of chicken crisp (what?), red onion, cheddar cheese and tomato as the fillings.  

OK, not too fancy. I can do this, I said confidently.. 

That was a couple of months ago. And then I forgot all about the challenge. You see, I may be competitive but I am also easily distracted and, to be fair, I have been pretty busy at work of late. Yes, so I forgot all about my project to give the RM12 sandwich a run of its money. 

 Until last week. 

I was craving for an egg salad sandwich - a very simple sandwich but a very delicious one. As I was getting stuff out of my fridge, I realised I had a heap of leftovers from a dinner I cooked for some friends a couple of days before. I had a big portion of mash potatoes left and some honey roasted carrots. 

What to do? Suddenly the light bulb went off: Triple decker sandwich lah! 

It was kinda exciting. The combination of ingredients sounded pretty good: a mustard-strong egg salad with celery and chives, some mash, honey roasted carrots and lettuce. Now all I needed was something crunchy because the eggs and mash are really soft and the carrots were tender too. What do I have that's crispy?

Cheese! I decided to make some parmesan chips (read on for the how-to). 

I was a little worried as my triple decker sandwich was an entirely  vegetarian sandwich and, in case you haven't read my previous posts, the man isn't  keen on vegetarian fare. Nevermind, I was determined to try.

Here's how it went.

Step One: Making my sandwich loaf. (click here for the recipe)  

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Step two: Making egg salad.

Ingredients:

2 eggs

water

1 tbsp mustard

1/2 tbsp mayo

1 tbsp chives, chopped fine

1/4 cup celery, chopped, coated with olive oila nd roasted for 10 mins.

salt and pepper

Place 2 eggs in a large saucepan and cover with cool water by about an inch. Slowly bring the water to boil over medium heat and then cover, remove the pan from the heat and let the eggs sit (covered) in the hot water for about 13 mins. Transfer to a bowl of cold water and let the eggs cool before you peel them. OR you could hold them under some running water and peel them immediately if you're in a hurry. 

Mash the eggs (after peeling, of course) with a fork, allowing some chunky bits. Add the mustard, mayo, chives, celery and, of course, salt and pepper and mix it together gently.

Step Three: Making the Parmesan chips (see pic above)

1/4 cup grated parmesan 

olive oil

baking tray

Grease the baking tray with olive oil. Gently spread the grated Parmesan cheese into a 6cm diameter circle. Sprinkle just enough to cover the area, don't mound the cheese too much. Repeat. Bake (150C) for about 8 to 10 mins or till golden brown, Remove and let the crisps cool and set.

Step Four: Removing leftovers from fridge and letting them cool to room temperature. 

Step Five: Assembling the sandwich: slice of bread/lettuce/egg salad/parmesan crisp/bread/thin layer of mash potato/carrots/bread.

Step Six: Presenting the sandwich

I did it! The sandwich was well appreciated and let's just say we won't be making many trips to the said sandwich shop any more!

Woohoo!