Blood Orange, Sweet Potato and Quinoa Salad

Salad! I was not expecting to get this excited about a salad, but here we are. I totally love this salad! I made it on a lazy Cup Day at home, and ate it joyfully for meals throughout the week. It happens to be gluten free, vegan, and full of fibre and vegetarian protein, but it certainly doesn't taste worthy or healthy, it just tastes great!

I got the idea from a salad box I bought for lunch from Lomah the other day. They did a mix of three salads for $9.95 - there was quinoa with almonds and orange cubes, soft roast pumpkin, a green bean and spinach mix, and loads of hummus. What was initially a sad-desk-salad actually turned out to be super delicious and joyful, hooray! The highlight, for me, were the crunchy almonds and sweet cubes of orange punctuating the quinoa, and I totally wanted to recreate something similar at home... perhaps with my beloved blood oranges, and perhaps in a very Insta-friendly platter kinda way. This salad is what I came up with.

Blood Orange, Sweet Potato and Quinoa Salad

There are a few bits and pieces to make but none of it is hard - cook some quinoa, toast some almonds, soak some raisins, roast some sweet potato, slice a couple of blood oranges, boil some green beans. I used a good quality bought hummus, but you could definitely make it from scratch if that floats your boat.

To assemble the salad, I started with some swirls of hummus on half the plate, drizzling it generously with extra virgin olive oil and za'atar.

Swirly hummus, olive oil, za'atar

I then piled the quinoa mixture on half the plate...

Swirly hummus, olive oil, za'atar, quinoa

... and then arranged the sweet potato cubes, green beans, and blood orange slices around. Ta-dah! Of course, if you're not "doing it for the Insta", you could simply stir all the elements together and serve with a scoop of hummus on top, but I actually really enjoy the process of putting together a pretty platter!

Blood Orange, Sweet Potato and Quinoa Salad

I love the idea of including this salad as one dish in a buffet-style lunch spread, say at a barbecue or a summer party. Pretty, colourful, healthy, and hits lots of dietary requirements! But in a less glamorous application, it makes an excellent meal prep as well, as the elements hold up quite well and don't go watery or soggy.

Blood Orange, Sweet Potato and Quinoa Salad

However you eat it, it tastes fantastic, and I hope you enjoy it!

Blood Orange, Sweet Potato and Quinoa Salad
A recipe by Sarah Cooks

Ingredients
1 sweet potato
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
1 cup quinoa
1/4 red onion, finely chopped
The juice of 1 lemon
Extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper
1/4 cup raisins
1/3 cup whole almonds
1 large handful green beans
200-250 grams hummus
1/2 teaspoon za'atar, or to taste
2 blood oranges (or regular oranges if not in season), peeled and sliced horizontally

Method
Preheat the oven to 200C.
Peel the sweet potato and chop into 2-cm chunks. Place on a baking tray. Drizzle over some olive oil and sprinkle over the cayenne and cumin. Stir to combine. Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until cooked through and with some dark brown patches. Set aside.
Place the quinoa in a small saucepan. Pour 2 cups of water over. Place over a medium heat and bring to the boil. Clamp on a lid, turn the heat down to the minimum, and allow to cook for 10-15 minutes, or until the water is absorbed and the quinoa is cooked through. Remove from the heat and fluff with a fork. Tip the quinoa into a large mixing bowl.
Add the red onion, lemon juice, and a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and stir together with a fork.
Place the raisins in a bowl and cover with boiling water from a kettle. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or so and then drain, and add to the quinoa.
Roughly chop the almonds and toast in a dry frying pan over medium heat or until lightly golden brown in parts and fragrant. Tip into the quinoa bowl and stir well.
Top and tail the green beans, and cook in salted boiling water for 5 minutes or until cooked to your liking. Refresh in cold water and drain.
Get out a large serving platter. Spread the hummus in a swirly fashion over the plate. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with za'atar. Arrange the quinoa, green beans, and blood orange slices on the platter. (Alternatively, mix everything except the hummus and za'atar in a serving bowl, then top with za'atar and hummus to serve).
Serves 4 as a hearty meal, 8-12 as a side

Have you made this recipe? Leave a comment below! Tag me on Instagram @sarahcooksblog and hashtag #sarahcooksblog

Meatballs with Vegetable Noodles

So for today's Meal Prep Monday we have... meatballs in tomato sauce with vegetable spaghetti. Ta-dah! I think of it as a wintry version of a desk salad. We've got brightness and freshness in spiralised zucchini and carrot, plus the warmth of meatballs, all slathered in a rich tomato sauce. It's full of vegetables and protein and is low carb - perfect for a desk-bound lunch at work. I'm not sure if it's age or my sedentary office job, but I'm finding myself less and less able or willing to eat big carb-based lunches on the regular. So, standard takeaway options like ramen, rice dishes or sandwiches are just not that appealing to me every day, and I'll usually save those for a once-a-week lunch with colleagues.

But back to the meal prep. I started by spiralising a zucchini and a carrot for the base. (This makes four light lunches; obviously add more if you have a bigger appetite than I do). When you spiralise vegetables you're left with the core of the vegetable which, to be honest, I usually discard, but this time I made sure to use them! I chopped up the zucchini core and the carrot core, and added the zucchini to the meatball mix, and added the carrot core to the tomato sauce. Waste not want not!

Spiralised vegetables and meatball mixture

For the meatballs I used lean pork mince, but obviously use whatever mince you prefer. I mixed them with the chopped zucchini core (a few chopped pieces of carrot fell into the bowl too, no biggie), some chopped parsley, and some grated parmesan before forming them into balls.

Chicken Salad with Peri-Peri Potato Croutons

If you know me, you'll know that I'm obsessed with Nando's. It's a frequent lunch option, I have a loyalty card, I always get my free birthday meal, and I've even exchanged my points for Nando's swag in the past. (In case you're wondering, it was the Nando's pride badges because they are totally me, too cute, and I could not resist!) For me, it's always a quarter chicken and peri-peri chips. (Occasionally corn as the side if I'm trying to be healthy). But either way, the basting is always Extra Hot.

Beef Fajita Bowls

Super easy and totally delicious meal prep recipe for you today! Beef fajita bowls with black beans, corn, tomato salsa, guacamole, sour cream and grated cheese.

One of my favourite meal preps from last year was my chicken fajita bowls - Sandra really liked them too, so she requested them often, and they were on high rotation throughout 2017. Not only did they taste great, but they were healthy and easy to make. The carbs (black beans and corn) come out of a can, so that's one less pot to wash up, and the whole thing was totally doable on a Sunday arvo when motivation was low, but desire for good food was high.

When I made these beef fajita bowls, I had been feeling rundown and was craving some red meat. I thought beef would make a great substitute for the chicken in my fajita bowls (spoiler alert: I was right). I also thought that seeing as you only need a small amount of meat, I could splash out on fancy fillet steak. This turned out to be a great idea, as the meat was so tender and delicious! 300 grams of beef was good for my four lunches, but obviously scale up or down depending on your appetite.

Beef Fajita Bowls

Really, all you're doing here is cooking the fajita mix of beef and capsicum, chopping some tomatoes for a tomato salsa, and mushing up an avocado for guac. Everything else is just assembly! (I used half a green and half a red because I had them lying in the fridge; ordinarily I'd say just buy one capsicum of your preferred colour). So, put the microwavable items in one container, put your toppings in a separate container, and that's it. We've got vegetables, protein, fibre, iron, good fats, a little calcium from the cheese, and delicious sour cream. (I can't think of a redeeming nutritional feature of the sour cream; I just like the taste a lot and I had half a tub in the fridge to use up - Greek yogurt is an obvious substitute). Delicious, healthy lunches for the week. Better quality and much cheaper than buying similar salads at Mexican food court chains (I checked). You got this!

Beef Fajita Bowls
A recipe by Sarah Cooks

Ingredients
For the bowls
300 grams fillet steak (or beef of your choice)
1 tablespoon olive oil
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 red or white onion, peeled and chopped into fine half moons
1/2 red capsicum, cored and sliced thinly
1/2 green capsicum, cored and sliced thinly
1 x 400 gram tin black beans
1 x 400 gram tin corn kernels
To serve
Tomato salsa (recipe below)
Guacamole (recipe below)
4 x heaped teaspoons sour cream
4 x heaped tablespoons grated cheese

Method
Slice the fillet steak into thin strips and place into a bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Add the olive oil, the lime juice, oregano, smoked paprika, and cumin and stir to combine. Allow to marinade while you get on with the rest of the recipe.
Heat some olive oil in a large frying pan. Add the onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the capsicum strips and cook until softened. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
Add a little extra olive oil to the pan and cook the steak strips until browned and cooked through. (Drain off any excess liquid at this point).
Return the cooked onion and capsicum to the pan and stir through until cooked. Set aside and allow to cool.
To assemble the bowls, divide the black beans, corn and fajita mix between four serving containers. Place the sour cream, grated cheese, tomato salsa and guacamole in a separate container(s).
To serve, heat one container of beans / fajita / corn in the microwave, then top with sour cream, grated cheese, tomato salsa and guacamole.
Makes 4

Tomato Salsa 
Chop 200 grams cherry tomatoes into dice and add to a bowl. Core and finely dice 1/4 jalapeño chilli and add to the bowl. Squeeze over the juice of 1/4 lime. Season with salt and pepper and set aside. Add a handful chopped coriander, and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Guacamole
Finely chop 1 spring onion and place in a small bowl. Add a generous pinch of salt, a grinding of black pepper and the juice of 1/2 lime, and 1/4 finely chopped, de-seeded jalapeño. Mash in 1/2 large ripe avocado. Stir through a small handful of chopped fresh coriander.

Have you made this recipe? Leave a comment below! Tag me on Instagram @sarahcooksblog and hashtag #sarahcooksblog

Crudité salad with chipotle hummus

Crudité salad with chipotle hummus

You could definitely make your own hummus, but I bought a pre-made, chipotle-flavoured one. (I'd never tried it before, but thankfully it was delicious!) If you can't find chipotle hummus, I'd suggest stirring some chipotle chilli sauce (or regular chilli sauce) through some plain hummus, or switching it up completely and picking another flavoured hummus. I'd never thought about it before, but when I went shopping for ingredients, there were literally dozens of different flavoured hummuses at the supermarket! I had no idea flavoured hummus was such a big thing.

I made five bowls - one for Sunday night, four for the week - but it's quite a light salad, so I think the amount of ingredients listed could make four bowls. Just trust your appetite.

Cruditeé salad with chipotle hummus

I absolutely loved this salad, and was excited about eating it every day throughout the week! The lightness of the salad was perfect for the warm weather (and my sedentary job - anything too carb heavy sends me straight to sleep!) There was a great combination of textures - the refreshing crunch of the carrot and cucumber, the juicy sweet cherry tomatoes, the mealy and hearty chickpeas, the creamy avocado, and the crunch from the sesame seeds and pumpkin seeds. And of course, these were all brought together by the spicy chipotle hummus. I don't think chipotle's quite as big here as in the States and Latin America, but I'm glad it's becoming more widespread. I adore the smoky heat it brings!

Let's talk dietary characteristics! This salad is vegetarian, vegan, grain and gluten free, and low-carb. (Are chickpeas "carbs"? Even so, this salad is certainly lower in carbs than most of the standard takeaway options near my work). On the more positive side, it's full of good fats from the avocado and vegetarian protein and fibre from the chickpeas and hummus! Apart from enjoying the taste, I loved getting in so many fresh vegetables for my lunch - I felt very virtuous and it set me up for more healthy eating, woop woop.


Crudité Salad with Chipotle Hummus
A recipe by Sarah Cooks

Ingredients
1 x 60 gram bag mixed salad leaves
1 x 400 gram tin chickpeas
1 x 200 gram punnet cherry tomatoes, halved
1 large carrot, peeled and julienned
1 small cucumber, cut into small chunks
1 avocado, peeled and sliced
1 x 200 gram container chipotle hummus (or hummus of choice)
2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
Salt, pepper, lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil, for dressing

Method
Divide the salad leaves between four serving bowls or containers.
Top with the chickpeas, cherry tomatoes, carrot, cucumber and avocado.
Squeeze generously with lemon juice, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. (Make sure you get the avocado slices well covered by the lemon juice).
Divide the chipotle hummus between the bowls.
Sprinkle with the pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds.
Makes 4-5

Have you made this recipe? Leave a comment below! Tag me on Instagram @sarahcooksblog and hashtag #sarahcooksblog

Olive Oil Braised Chickpeas with Feta

First Meal Prep Monday of the year! Today's Meal Prep is low key, but still healthy and totally delicious. We've got olive oil braised chickpeas with feta, roast eggplant, hardboiled eggs, and a little cherry tomato and cucumber salad.

The braised chickpeas come by way of the fabulous Joy The Baker. These popped up in my Facebook feed a little while ago, and went straight to the top of my to-do list! You sauté a little onion in lots of olive oil, then add chickpeas, thyme, capers, salt and pepper, cover the dish and cook it gently in the oven until bubbling hot and softened. Once cooled, you add some smoked paprika and crumbled feta. (I used the feta I made myself, *smug*). You can serve it with crusty bread as an appetiser or as part of a sharing meal, but it also is good left in the fridge to be picked at over a few days - perfect for meal prep.

Olive Oil braised chickpeas

I also took Joy's suggestion of serving it with hardboiled eggs. Delicious, easy, and protein-packed!

Hardboiled Eggs

The roast cubed eggplant was so I'd have an extra vegetable, but I never really need an excuse to eat roast eggplant. I chopped these up and roasted them in olive oil on a separate shelf in the oven while the chickpeas were braising. Efficiency.

Roast eggplant

And I added a simple salad of cucumbers and sweet little cherry tomatoes, for freshness and contrasting crunch. I just dressed these with extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and a sprinkling of chives. I didn't use any acid (although red wine vinegar or lemon juice would be nice), because the chickpeas were already so boldly flavoured, and I just wanted to keep this one simple.

Cucumber and cherry tomato salad

And that was it! Super simple to put together, so many vegetables, lots of vegetarian protein, all in one easy to eat and delicious package. I'd definitely suggest setting aside a couple of hours on a Sunday to put this together - it's well worth it!

Packed up!

Olive Oil Braised Chickpeas with Feta

Recipe (slightly) adapted from Joy the Baker

Ingredients

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup finely diced onion

2 x 400 gram tins chickpeas, drained

1/4 cup capers, rinsed

3 sprigs fresh thyme

1/2 cup crumbled feta

Smoked paprika, to serve

Method

Preheat the oven to 190C.

Heat a splash of the olive oil in a pan that can go from stovetop to oven. Add the onions and cook over a medium heat until softened. Remove from the heat and add the chickpeas, capers, and thyme. Season with salt and pepper and stir to combine. Cover the pan with foil and place in the oven.

Cook for 30 minutes.

Remove from the oven, remove the foil and allow to cool slightly. Add the feta and sprinkle with smoked paprika.

Roast Eggplant Cubes
Chop 1 eggplant into 2-cm cubes. Place in a baking dish with 1/8 chopped onion and a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Roast in a 190C oven for 20 minutes, or until softened and golden brown. Season generously with salt and pepper.

Hardboiled Eggs
Place 4 eggs into a small saucepan of cold water. Bring to the boil, then turn off the heat and clamp on a lid. Allow to sit for 8 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold water. Once cool enough to handle, peel the eggs.

Cucumber and Cherry Tomato Salad
Chop 1 cucumber into small cubes and place into a bowl. Chop 250 grams cherry tomatoes in half and add to the bowl. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, and a sprinkling of chopped chives.

Have you made this recipe? Leave a comment below! Tag me on Instagram @sarahcooksblog and hashtag #sarahcooksblog

Easy desk salad

Good morning and a hearty welcome to you! Meal Prep Monday post, all ready to go! Today's recipe is a super simple and easy desk salad. We have a base of cos lettuce, some sun-dried tomatoes and feta, topped with a sliced avocado and a hard-boiled egg.

I made this because I'd been in a slight cooking rut, was sick of buying lunches and really wanted to Meal Prep something, even though I didn't have time go out shopping. I literally looked through my fridge and picked whatever I could find that I thought might make a decent meal. I'm glad to say that the result was this delicious salad, full of good fats and protein.

It takes about fifteen minutes all up - and most of the prep can be done while the eggs are boiling and cooling. I was wondering if it might be too simple to share as a recipe here, but I couldn't argue with the taste. And of course, complicated doesn't necessarily mean better! As long as it's tasty, healthy, and nourishing, it definitely deserves a place on Meal Prep Monday.

Just quietly, I'd actually wondered if my Silken Tofu Bowl might be too simple to be a proper recipe here on the blog (You didn't even cook your own rice, Sarah, what kind of Asian are you?), but I actually got some unsolicited feedback from a friend of mine who doesn't cook much, saying she thought the recipe looked great and that she really wanted to make it. So that simple recipe was helpful for her, and I do hope this simple recipe will be useful for you!

Normally I like to prepare my four meal preps for the week all at once on a Sunday. However, the prep time for this is so low that I think it makes more sense to buy all the ingredients at once, and assemble two lunch boxes at a time. This way the avocados are less likely to go really brown, and the lettuce is less likely to get soggy. The recipe below makes enough for two lunches, so buy more if you want to make more lunches throughout the week.

I was also worried they might be a bit light, so I bulked up my lunch with some bliss balls and a little portion of blueberries. I also always forget to eat fruit, so bringing some to work meant that I wouldn't forget! I got the coconut-covered bliss ball as a sample from a catering company, and the peanut butter balls I made from a recipe I found online. I didn't love the peanut butter ball recipe, but I can heartily recommend my peanut butter cookie dough protein balls or my peanut butter chocolate protein balls instead!

Happy Monday everybody! You got this.

Easy Desk Salad
An original recipe by Sarah Cooks

Ingredients
2 eggs
1 x mini cos lettuce
10 sun dried tomatoes in oil, roughly chopped
25 grams feta cheese
1 small avocado
Lemon juice, salt and pepper

Method
Place the eggs into a saucepan of cold water. Place on a medium heat and bring to the boil. Once the water reaches a boil, clamp a lid on and turn off the heat. Allow to sit for 8 minutes, then drain and rinse under cold water. Once cool enough to handle, peel and set aside.
Chop the cos lettuce thinly crossways, and divide between two serving containers.
Top with the sun dried tomatoes and crumble over the feta.
Peel and slice the avocado and divide between the containers. (No joke, I have an avocado-slicing tutorial on my blog). Season with salt and pepper and squeeze lemon juice generously over the avocado.
Sliced the hardboiled egg and arrange over the salad, season the egg with salt and pepper.
If you like, you can drizzle the salad with some extra virgin olive oil, but I think in this case it softens the lettuce too much, and I find there's enough flavour going on already.
Makes 2

Have you made this recipe? Leave a comment below! Tag me on Instagram @sarahcooksblog and hashtag #sarahcooksblog

Pasta Salad with Avocado Pesto Dressing

Good morning! Meal Prep Monday time for you! Today's meal prep is a boldly-flavoured and wholesome vegetarian pasta salad, with a creamy avocado pesto dressing. It's basically all the flavours of the deli, in one easy-to-eat meal that can be spooned straight into your mouth at your desk.

Have you made this recipe? Leave a comment below! Tag me on Instagram @sarahcooksblog and hashtag #sarahcooksblog

Green Vegetable Bowl with Falafel and Green Pea Tahini Sauce

Good morning! Meal Prep Monday for your enjoyment today! Today's meal is green, green, green: a green vegetable bowl with falafel and green pea tahini sauce. Can you feel the vitamins doing you good already?

This meal came about because I was really craving vegetables after a period of general overindulgence, and the realisation that I had all the ingredients for falafel in my pantry! Boom.

The base here is a whole lot of of green vegetables: a spiralized zucchini, plus blanched asparagus, green beans, peas and edamame. I dressed these lightly in extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice and salt and pepper. I really liked the combo, and think they'd make a great lunch base for all sorts of toppings.

Green vegetable bowl base

Green Vegetable Bowl Bases

So, falafel. I love eating falafel but have never thought to make them myself before. However, I was idly scrolling through Pinterest for inspiration, and recipes for them are actually quite achievable. I'll admit, I'd always thought they were made of some really obscure pulse (I have no idea why), but when I realised that they're usually made from chickpeas, it was on like Donkey Kong.

Trad recipes that I've seen instruct you to soak and cook the chickpeas first - I was lazy (efficient?) and used tinned. I blended them up with a mixture of different flavourings (garlic, spring onion, parsley, salt, pepper, cumin, coriander), plus a little bicarb, lemon juice and olive oil. Any falafel experts feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but for me, it's the cumin that makes them taste distinctly falafel-y.

Falafel ingredients

I deep fried these - I've seen recipes say you can bake them, which I'm sure would be easier and healthier, but, you know, live a little! (I was too lazy to soak chickpeas but mustered up the energy to deep-fry. You see where my priorities lie.)

IMPORTANT - fry one ball first to see if your mixture will hold together. If they start falling apart, you need to add more flour to the mixture. I learnt this the hard way, by frying six to start with, which collapsed into a soggy and oily (but still aromatic) mess. Booo! Ordinarily I would have given up, but they smelled so damn good that I couldn't waste the mixture. I ploughed ahead, adding more ingredients to my processor, and being generous with the flour. (I used chickpea flour, because I had it, and to keep with the chickpea theme. Bonus - extra protein and, if it bothers you, gluten free).

I know these look a bit rough and ramshackle, but boy-oh-boy they tasted good! So crunchy and fluffy and tasty. It was hard to save enough for my lunches - I wanted to eat them all!

Falafel!

Now, the sauce. I wanted to make a typical Ottolenghi-style green tahini sauce (tahini and herbs, plus garlic and olive oil and water), but I used up all my tahini making the sauce, and I accidentally watered it down too much. Whoops! I wasn't able to add any extra tahini back, so I thought I'd amp up the green vibe and try adding frozen peas to the sauce. A winning move! It thickened the sauce nicely, added a fresh sweetness, and it went super bright green! (I'm not sure if you need to cook frozen peas before you can eat them - I'm happy to eat them just defrosted, but if you're worried, then cook and cool them before adding to the sauce).

Green Pea Tahini Sauce

So that's it! All the green vegetables, vegan protein, gluten free, and so very delicious. I was happy eating these all week!

Falafel
Sarah's version of a classic recipe

Ingredients
1 x 400gram tin of chickpeas
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1 clove of garlic
2 spring onions
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup flat leaf parsley leaves
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
4-6 tablespoons chickpea flour

Method
Place all the ingredients (just 4 tablespoons of the chickpea flour to start with)into a food processor and whizz until combined. Heat 5 centimetres of olive oil in a small saucepan until it reaches 180C (a kitchen thermometre is handy here, or just test by frying a square of stale bread - it should take a minute to reach a golden brown colour).
Take a tablespoon of the falafel mixture and roll into a ball. Deep fry for 1-2 minutes a side, or until golden brown and crisp. If the falafel falls apart in the oil, it means your mixture isn't dry enough. Discard the test-falafel-mush, add the rest of the chickpea flour to the mixture and process to combine. Then fry tablespoons of the mixture in the hot oil, in batches. Drain on paper towel.

Green Pea and Tahini Sauce
An original recipe by Sarah Cooks

Ingredients
1 tablespoon tahini
1/4 green chilli (deseeded if you like)
A generous squeeze of lemon juice
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 spring onion
1/2 garlic clove
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons frozen peas (cooked, drained and cooled if you prefer; I'm happy to eat them raw)
1/4 cup flat leaf parsley leaves
Salt and pepper to taste

Method
Place all ingredients into a blender and whizz to combine. Taste, and add more lemon juice / olive oil / salt / pepper if you like.

Green Vegetable Bowl
An original recipe by Sarah Cooks

Ingredients
1 zucchini
1 handful green beans, topped and toiled
1 bunch asparagus, trimmed and cut into 4-cm lengths
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup frozen edamame
Extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste
1 x quantity of Falafel (recipe above)
1 x quantity of Green Pea & Tahini Sauce (recipe above)

Method
Push the zucchini through a spiralizer. (Or grate or finely slice). Place into a sieve and set aside to drain while you prepare the rest of the bowl.
Bring a pot of salted water onto boil. Add the green beans, and cook for two minutes. Add the asparagus and cook for a further minute. Tip in the peas and edamame, allow to come back to the boil and cook for a further minute. Drain and rinse under cold water to arrest the cooking.
Combine the zucchini and cooked vegetables in a large bowl and dress with extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
To assemble the bowls, divide the vegetables between four serving containers. Top with the green pea and tahini sauce and the falafel.
Makes 4

Have you made this recipe? Leave a comment below! Tag me on Instagram @sarahcooksblog and hashtag #sarahcooksblog

Sweet potato and kale bowls with crisp harissa chickpeas and sesame dressing

Individual Serving

For my lunch, I'd scoop out the hot items (chicken fajitas, beans and corn) into my serving bowl, microwave that, and then add the cold ingredients on top. (If you don't have a container with dividers, then I'd suggest putting all your hot items in one container and the cold items in another container).

Enjoy!


Chicken Fajitas
Adapted from Nigella Lawson
Slice 2 skinless chicken breasts into 1 centimetre strips. Place into a bowl. Add 1 teaspoon dried oregano, 1 teaspoon ground cumin, a generous sprinkling of salt, 1 tablespoon garlic-infused olive oil and 2 tablespoons lime juice. Stir to mix and set aside.
Warm 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large frying pan. Peel and slice 1 red onion, add to the pan and cook slowly for 5 minutes. Core and seed 1 red capsicum, and cut into strips. Add the capsicum to the pan with the onion, and cook until softened. Remove the onion and capsicum to a bowl and set aside.
Heat 1 tablespoon garlic-infused olive oil in the pan and add the chicken pieces. Cook, stirring frequently, until cooked through. Add the capsicum and onion back to the pan and stir to combine. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Pico de Gallo
Chop 1/4 red onion into fine dice. Place in a bowl and squeeze over the juice of a 1/4 lime. Core and finely dice 1/4 jalapeño chilli and add to the bowl. Season with salt and pepper and set aside. Chop 200 grams cherry tomatoes into dice and add to the bowl. Add a handful chopped coriander, and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Guacamole
Chop 1/4 red onion into fine dice. Place in a bowl and squeeze over the juice of a 1/2 lime. Core and finely dice 1/4 jalapeño chilli and add to the bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Mash in 1/2 avocado and stir in a small handful of chopped coriander.'

To assemble your lunch boxes...
Divide the chicken fajitas, 1 x 400 gram can drained corn kernels and 1 x 400 gram can drained black beans between four lunch boxes. To four separate containers (or separate section in your lunch boxes), add your cold ingredients. This will be your pico de gallo and guacamole, 1/4 shredded iceberg lettuce, 1 tablespoon Greek yogurt or sour cream per box, 1 tablespoon grated cheese per box, and a lime wedge.

Have you made this recipe? Leave a comment below! Tag me on Instagram @sarahcooksblog and hashtag #sarahcooksblog