Roasted Vegetables

If there is one thing I love making then it is roasted vegetables.

The simplicity of it.

Peeling, slicing and dicing the vegetables is a type of meditation to me.

Mixing them up with a drizzle of olive oil and a dash of balsamic vinegar.

Since we had a big crop of cherry tomatoes I could not resist adding them to the mix.

They were sweet and juicy.

To finish the dish I added a few fresh fennel leaves.

I'm so looking forward to my next big vegetable roast in the new kitchen!

Grilled Chicken and Vegetable Salad

It was the usual question.
What am I going to make for dinner.
I had chicken breasts, I had asparagus and I had a lime.
Of course I had a whole lot more than that but I really wanted to use the chicken, asparagus and the lime!

I browsed the Delicious Magazine website and stumbled across two potential recipes. I improvised and used a bit of this one and a bit of that one.

I was happy with the results and so was my husband!

Ingredients:

3 skinless free-range chicken breasts
Juice of 1 lime and lime zest
½ garlic clove, crushed
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp paprika powder
½ tsp chilli flakes (optional)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, sliced
1 courgette, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
12 - 15 asparagus spears
2 cups arugula lettuce
60 gr couscous

Method:

Place the chicken breasts between sheets of cling film and carefully flatten with a rolling pin until they are 10mm thick. Place in a dish with the lime juice, the lime zest, garlic, dried spices and one table spoon olive oil. Cover and leave to marinate in the fridge for an hour or two.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Place the chopped courgette, carrots and onions into an oven proof dish, season and drizzle some olive oil on top. Roast in the oven for approximately 40 minutes.

Prepare the couscous as per the instructions on the packaging.

Trim the asparagus and drizzle with olive oil.

Heat up your grill (I use an electric grill which looks a little like a George Foreman Grill!).
Now place the asparagus on the grill and let it cook for 3 to 5 minutes.
Next cook the chicken breasts on the grill - it shouldn't take long, but it entirely depends on your grill.

Combine everything, including the arugula, and enjoy a very healthy and tasty salad!

Roasted Vegetables Again

I make oven roasted vegetables ALL the time.
It's just easy and delicious and the perfect side dish to any meal.
Sometimes we even eat it as the main course!

Here is a photo of some vegetables seconds before I placed them in the oven.

Yes, it is something of everything in the vegetable department. Carrots, courgette, onion, garlic, potatoes and corn on the cob. I just tossed them all together with a drizzle of vegetable oil, seasoning and into the oven they went.

Funnily enough I forgot to take a photo once they were cooked :-)
I assure you though that we enjoyed eating them!

The best roast chicken!

Purely by accident I made the best roast chicken ever.

I had the chicken in the oven for about 35 minutes, so at least 30 minutes to go when my husband called. He was stuck in a meeting and I had to rush to pick up the kids. What to do, what to do?

I hastily covered the chicken with tin foil, reduced the heat from 200 to 160 degrees Celsius and left the house. I knew it would take me about 50 minutes there and back. What's the worst that could happen to the chicken?

It turned out to be the best thing that could happen to the chicken!

Once home, I pulled the chicken out of the oven and checked that the juices ran clear. Then I turned up the grill to give it some colour and crisp up the skin, just 3 minutes or so.

I let it rest with the breast side down for about 20 minutes and once we carved that bird it was perfect. So perfect I couldn't believe it. The skin was crisp. The meat was soft, tender and juicy.

Simply perfection.

Ingredients:
1.1 kg whole chicken
half a lemon
4 garlic cloves
1 white onion
6 carrots, peeled and halved lengthwise
700 gr peeled potatoes
olive oil (enough to drizzle over the veggies and to rub the chicken)
Jamaican jerk seasoning
salt & pepper

Method:
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
Rub the chicken with olive oil, then stuff with half a lemon, half an onion and a clove of garlic that has been bruised.
Now cover with the seasoning of your choice - I used Jamaican jerk seasoning.
In a large roasting tin, combine the potatoes, garlic, onions and carrots and sprinkle with olive oil.
Now place the chicken on top of the potatoes and pop into the oven.
After 35 minutes, remove the chicken and cover it with tin foil.
Reduce the heat to 160 degrees Celsius and roast for another 50 minutes.
(you might need to adjust the cooking time if you have a bigger bird)
Switch the oven to grill and let the chicken grill for 2 or 3 minutes to crisp and brown the skin.
Remove from the oven and let the chicken rest with the breast side down for at least 20 - 30 minutes. Letting it rest like this will let some of the juices flow down to the breasts and make them more juicy.
Serve up and enjoy!!

p.s. I love squeezing the lemon over the chicken - just be careful since it is hot!

Lots of roasted vegetables

So I had some carrots, potatoes, aubergine, onion, garlic, courgette and mushrooms. Not that I had to eat them all but they just looked so good and I figured what would be easier than to toss them in vegetable oil, season and roast them all together for about an hour.

It only required a little bit of prep work and then I had a whole hour to do other stuff like read my flow magazine :)

When there was 15 minutes remaining on the timer I added some vegetarian nuggets to the oven. Easy peasy and before you know it dinner was ready.