Summer Salads!!

I hope everyone is having a fabulous Summer and enjoying the longer warmer days, my heart goes out to all of those who have been effected by the terrible bushfires.

Summer is my favourite time of the year, so many varieties of fruit and vegetables to make delicious healthy meals! I find myself eating more salads over this time as its so hot.

Some handy tips to making salads taste great are adding loads of fresh herbs, season well and always add something with some crunchy texture.

Each year I come up with different ideas for delicious salads and this year my favourite salad has been my Soba Noodle Salad, so I have decided to share it with you. Its so simple and you will definitely impress your friends and family with this one.

Give it a go, recipe below 😊 

Soba Noodle Salad

Author: Pippa McLeod

Prep Time: 30 mins         Cooking time: 15 mins   Total time: 45mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients

300g                      Buckwheat Soba Noodles

100g                       Broccolini

125g                      Edamame (shelled and defrosted) – you can buy bags of these at any good Asian supermarket in the freezer, it will make your life easier, trust me.

200g                       Eggplant (cut into 2cm dice)

25g                         Parsley (chopped)

25g                         Spring onion (finely sliced)

25g                         Coriander (chopped)

25g                         Fried Shallots

5g                           Sesame Seeds

25g                         Sesame oil

50g                         Soya Sauce

Olive oil (to taste)

Salt and pepper (if you desire)

Method

1. Pre heat oven 180 degrees
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil, add noodles and cook according to packet.
3. Strain noodles, toss through some olive oil so they don’t stick together. Cool down in fridge.
4. Toss cut eggplant with oil, salt and pepper. Roast @ 180 degrees until soft (usually takes 20 mins)
5. Blanch broccolini in salted boiling water for 2 minutes and refresh in iced water. Once cooled chop into small pieces
6. Bring out noodles from fridge, roughly chop and place in mixing bowl. Add eggplant, edamame, broccolini, sesame oil, soya sauce, coriander, spring onion, parsley and toss through.
7. Check for seasoning add some soya sauce, salt, pepper or extra olive oil if desired.
8. Place in serving bowl and finish with fried shallots and sesame seeds.

Hello there, My name is Pippa and I love eating and cooking healthy, wholesome food. I have always been a busy person, either rushing off to sports in my younger years or spending lots of hours in a restaurants learning and refining my cooking skills. As I loved the past 10 years in commercial Kitchens, it was time to follow my real passion for Healthy, wholesome food.

So I started Pippa’s Kitchen. Here at Pippa’s Kitchen, our philosophy to food and healthy eating has always been about enjoying everything you eat, in a balanced way. Time pressures cause people to eat whatever is available, wherever they are which contributes to their view that food is necessary, not something to be enjoyed

By creating our delicious hand-crafted meals, we hoped to show that food and eating is one of life’s greatest joys. By using quality ingredients and cooking small, fresh batches – we can provide our customers with delicious, restaurant quality meals that have a great shelf-life, all while never being frozen.

Although most of our meals are designed to heat and eat, we also have a range of larger portions that can be served with other ingredients. I have created lots of easy recipes to help with this. I cant wait to share them with you.

Check out my recipe below. Spaghetti with ratatouille, herbs and Parmesan. I am using on of our ratatouille from our condiments range.  Our ratatouille is made with eggplant, zucchini, tomato, capsicum, garlic and onion, slowly roasted and full of flavor.

Author: Pippa Mcleod

Prep Time: 5 mins         Cooking time: 10 mins   Total time: 15mins

Serves: 4           Category: Main Course

Ingredients

1 packet           Spaghetti (I like to use Garofalo spaghetti)

2 Jars                Pippa’s Kitchen Ratatouille

½ Bunch           Parsley

100g                 Parmesan

Method

Step 1: Bring large pot of salted water to the boil, cook spaghetti according to packet. I always coo for 2 mins less than the packet says, so check a couple of minutes before the time is up to ensure its al dente and not over cooked.

Step 2: Meanwhile heat Ratatouille in a large pan on a low heat. Check seasoning to your liking.

Step 3: When pasta is cooked strain, with keeping a little bit of pasta water. Add pasta and some pasta water to ratatouille. Toss through and finish of with chopped parsley and freshly grated parmesan.

How easy is that?

‘Bon Appetit’ xx