Green Rice

So, I won’t eat cauliflower rice. I just won’t do it. I love rice too much to substitute it completely away.

When I was in Edinburgh recently, I hit up Dishoom (a favourite Indian of mine, with loads of chains in London) and had the most delightful broccoli, pistachio, mint and chilli salad. It was intense and perfect with a skewer of delicately spiced chicken (and a huge pile of garlic naan).

I will re-create that salad one day, but for the meantime I got to thinking how good a side of broccoli was with curry/spiced food. And how maybe I could bulk out rice with some nice greens to easily increase my vegetable consumption. The great thing about this is the versatility, you could easily bulk it up further by adding pistachios and some sliced chillies.

So I decided to throw in what I had on hand - some random spices, shredded broccoli and peas into some cooked rice and see what happened.

The majority of the ingredients

What happened was deliciousness. See below.

Greek Feast! Individual Spanakopita, Aioli, Honey Sesame Baked Feta

Greek food is awesome. I have always found the Greeks to be like a Mediterranean version of the Irish. The Greeks and Irish are both family orientated, with a matriarchal society, and use food as love. But the Greeks are more tanned than us. And their cuisine is superior.

There is a seriously amazing Greek restaurant nearby which is a family affair - dad and mum cook, sons hold the floor. It's my favourite restaurant and if I'm not there, chances are I want to be there. 

And then last weekend, my Greek friend made some amazing Greek food for dinner which I completely PIGGED OUT at. Everything was delicious (how had I never had moussaka before?!) but I was completely enamoured with the individual spinach pies (spanakopita). I had to make them. I bothered him for a week for the recipe. And as soon as I had it in my grubby hands, I made them. Winner.

Then, as I was feeling pretty Greek, I baked the leftover feta (warmed sweet and nutty cheese? Hello!) and whipped up some aioli.

The aioli was pretty easy to make, and much better than my last, disastrous, effort at making mayonnaise. 

Veggie Pilaf

First announcement.. I got a new spice rack! My spices were all piled in a little cupboard before this, resulting in much cursing during cooking when I couldn't find the one I wanted at a crucial stage. I also mistook chilli powder for paprika a few times, so there was that. Bad times. Real issues.

But look how gorgeous now:

It's just so.. Beautiful. Organised alphabetically. My life is changed.

Okay, back to the serious business of food going in my mouth. This was one of the first Indian-style dishes I ever made. And I was hooked. I pretty much make this once a month at least. It can easily be changed to add chicken if you fancy that, just fry it off at the start. However, this is plenty flavourful without the addition of chicken. As so often happens with delicious, spicy Indian food, it is almost better as leftovers, and for making colleagues jealous at lunch the day after.

Good things about this meal: quick, easy, and delicious.

Bad things: NONE.