Warm goats cheese salad with asparagus

I got this recipe from a course at Cordon Vert and this is one of the very few recipes that I still use with only minor tweaking because Sarah Kearns’ recipe is already perfect!

You will need:

• 200 g thin asparagus
• 40 g walnut halves
• 1 pc medium orange (rind and juice)
• 1 tsp rock salt
• 1 clove garlic
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 125 g goat cheese log with rind
• 1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns, toasted
• 1 tsp fennel seeds, toasted
• 3 tbsp clear honey
• 2 tbsp groundnut oil
• 1 tsp tamari
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 small cos lettuce
• 100 g wild rocket

What to do-

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200˚C.
2. On a baking tray, place the asparagus, walnuts, orange rind, garlic, salt, and olive oil. Roast until the asparagus starts to char in places – about 15 minutes.
3. Mix and then grind Sichuan peppercorns and fennel seeds- don’t forget to toast them before grinding! I just use mortar and pestle for this. Mix the spices with honey.
4. Slice the goats cheese log into 5 circles (you can keep the rind). Place the slices on a tin foil. Drizzle honey mixture over the cheese. Leave to marinate for 1/2 hour and then grill goat cheese until bubbling.
5. Mix orange juice, tamari, sesame oil and groundnut oil together for the dressing.
6. In a salad bowl, place the cos leaves and rocket. Put the roasted asparagus and walnuts on top. Add grilled goat cheese to the salad then drizzle dressing.
7. Enjoy 🙂

morning muffin

This is from the recipe book GI High Energy Cookbook.

Ingredients
170 g dried apricots, coarsely chopped
170g unsweetened muesli
250 g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
250 ml orange juice (fresh is better!)
zest of 1 orange
3 tbsp vegetable oil
100 ml honey
1 large free-range egg

What to do

1. Out apricots, muesli, flour, baking powder in large mixing bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, mix juice, zest, oil, honey and egg. Fold into the dry ingredients, but do not overmix.
3. Spoon the mixture into the paper muffin cases.
4. Bake in a preheated oven at 150˚C (fan-assisted oven) for 10-15 mins until golden and risen.
5. Remove from the oven and serve or transfer to a cooling rack for freezing.