Two easy salads – creamy tahini roast cauliflower and carrot, and black bean, olive and rocket

This cauliflower salad has become a firm favourite as part of work lunches over the last few weeks. It’s great eaten straight away, but the creaminess really seems to intensify over a couple of days! I’ve given the recipe here to include baby carrots, as I had some pretty little orange and purple ones in, but it works just as well using only cauliflower.

To pair with the creamy salad, the second recipe is brightly flavoured, with olives, rocket and lemon enhancing the black beans. Herbs are welcome in this salad too, I’ve used mint but parsley, coriander or basil would be great too. Even tarragon thinking about it.

The bean salad keeps well in the fridge for 3 days or so, we ate the salads for lunch the day after making them, and then three days later and they were great both times.

---

makes 4 servings

---

 

for the creamy tahini roast cauliflower and carrot salad

400 g cauliflower, cut into bite sized florets

200g baby carrots (or use 600 g total of cauliflower)

2 tbsp oil

Salt

2 heaped tbsp. light tahini

30 ml hot water

100 ml unsweetened soy yoghurt

Juice of half a lemon

15 g fresh coriander, chopped

Salt and pepper

for the black bean, olive and rocket salad

1 400 g tin of black beans, drained and rinsed (240 g drained weight)

75 g green olives

50 g rocket, roughly chopped

Juice of half a lemon

10 g fresh mint, roughly chopped (or use coriander, or parsley or basil)

---

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees c.

In a large roasting tray toss the carrots with the oil and a bit of salt. Roast for 10 minutes. Add the cauliflower and mix, then roast for a further 25 minutes, turning once. There should be some lovely caramelised dark brown bits on the cauliflower and the carrots should be tender. Cool.

In a smallish bowl, add the hot water to the tahini and mix it carefully to combine. The water being hot helps the tahini to soften as it can be quite stiff. Beat in the yoghurt, salt and pepper and lemon juice.

Mix the dressing with the vegetables and coriander.

 

Creamy tahini roast cauliflower and carrot salad

 

For the black bean salad, simply mix all the ingredients together!

 

Black bean, olive and rocket salad

 

 

By E.

Sausage, apple, parsley and parsnip rice salad

So here’s second recipe using our delicious sausage mix! This time the sausage is rolled into little balls and baked, before being combined with a lovely warm salad of brown rice with apple, parsley, and cubes of roasted parsnip and potato.

The mixture of flavours here with sweet roasted parsnip, nutty rice and tart apple works beautifully with the sage and spice in the sausage. They feel like very English flavours, and are lovely and comforting!

The sausage balls bake for quite a long time, but it’s worth it as they form a good crust on the outside. They can be frozen after baking (and cooling), and reheat very well, either in the oven or microwave. It’s great to have a few on hand for quick meals!

 

Sausage, apple, parsley and parsnip rice salad

 

makes 4 servings

---

for the rice
200 g brown rice, rinsed
2 apples, peeled and diced
400 ml water
a pinch of salt
20 g parsley, stalks chopped finely and leaves roughly
for the vegetables
4 parsnips, peeled and diced
1 potato, diced
2 tbsp oil
salt and pepper
for the sausage balls
1 tsp gluten free yeast extract (the marmite type stuff)
100 ml hot water
400 g firm tofu (or 1 standard pack, usually 396 g for some reason)
80 g gluten free rusk
0.5 tsp ground allspice berries
0.25 tsp crushed caraway seeds, or a little less ground caraway
2 tsp dried sage
20 g tapioca starch
30 g coconut oil, melted (we melt it in the jar in the microwave for 30 seconds or so)
6 g salt

---

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees c.

First make the sausage balls. Dissolve the yeast extract in the hot water.

Next add the rusk, allspice, caraway, sage, salt and tapioca to a large bowl and mix together. Crumble in the tofu (no need to press it first), pour in the coconut oil, and then the water and yeast extract. Mix well and leave for 10 minutes to allow the rusk to soak up the water. I find it easiest to squodge it all together using my hands. You can use a food processor if you like.

Divide the mixture into 4 and then make 7 balls from each quarter, 28 in all.

Spray or drizzle the balls with a very little oil, and roast for 45 minutes. After they’ve been roasted the sausage balls can be cooled and frozen. They can then be warmed through in the oven for 10 minutes, or also in the microwave for a minute or two.

For this recipe, add the vegetables to the oven (same tray if it’s big enough) after the sausage balls have been in for 15 minutes.

Once the sausage balls are in the oven get the rice on to cook. Add the rice, apple and water to a rice cooker or saucepan and simmer for around half an hour (with a lid mostly on if using a saucepan), until the rice has absorbed the water and is tender, and the apple has softened into a sort of sauce.

Combine the rice with the parsley, then toss through the roasted veg, and top with the sausage balls.

---

By E.