Saturday Breakfast: Sweet Potato Rosti

Introduction

These rösti-style pancakes make a very nice, quick and easy breakfast or lunchtime snack that can be made in no time at all.

Serves 2 (makes 4 pancakes)

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

 Ingredients

  • 1 large or 2 small sweet potatoes
  • 1 banana shallots (or regular shallot)
  • 1 or 2 eggs (see method)
  • 1 level tbsp. of coconut or almond flour
  • ½ tsp. dried thyme or oregano
  • 4 tbsp. of cold chicken or vegetable stock (or water)
  • Sea salt & Black pepper
  • Coconut oil or olive oil (for frying)

 Method

  1. Peel the sweet potatoes and coarsely grate them into a bowl.
  2. Peel the shallot, cut in half through the length, and slice into fine strips. Add to the sweet potato.
  3. In a separate dish, add a little of the stock to the flour, and mix. Keep adding the stock until a smooth, fairly thick, batter-like consistency is achieved. Add 1 egg to the mixture, beat together, and add to the sweet potato and shallot.
  4. Add the dried herbs, season well with salt and pepper, and mix thoroughly. If the mixture seems too dry then add another egg and beat well.
  5. Heat a little coconut or olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Spoon ¼ of the pancake mixture into the pan and gently press down into a disc shape. Repeat for the other three pancakes. (For a neater finish, use a large pastry cutter or mousse ring to shape the pancakes in the pan.)
  6. Fry for 4-5 minutes on each side. Do not try to turn these until you have cooked one side for at least 4-5 minutes or they can fall apart.
  7. Drain well on kitchen paper, and serve topped with crumbled blue cheese, chopped walnuts, and toasted pumpkin seeds.

Top Tip

For an even more substantial dish, try adding courgette and/or parsnip to the mix and top with sautéed red peppers and a poached egg

Saturday Lunch: Courgette Salad with Basil & Walnut Pesto

Serves 2

Ingredients

For the pesto

  • 1 packet fresh basil
  • 2 large garlic cloves, roughly chopped
  • 1 large handful walnuts
  • Optional: 1 large handful Parmesan cheese
  • Good quality extra virgin olive oil
  • Unrefined sea salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper

 For the salad

  • 1-2 courgettes per person, depending on size of courgette and how hungry you are
  • Punnet of cherry tomatoes

 Method

  1. Make the pesto: Combine the walnuts and garlic in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped.
  2. Add the basil leaves, salt and pepper. Process until finely chopped.
  3. Then, with the food processor running, add the olive oil through the feed tube in a steady stream. Be sure to use good quality olive oil; it makes a big difference.
  4. If using, add the Parmesan cheese and process again.
  5. Keep adding a bit more cheese or olive oil until you are happy with the taste and consistency.
  6. Julienne the courgettes using a julienne peeler or spiralizer if you have one. Chop the cherry tomatoes in half. Add the cherry tomatoes and courgettes to a large bowl.
  7. Stir a few spoonfuls of the pesto through the raw courgette. You need to mix really well to ensure all of the courgette is thoroughly coated in the pesto mixture. You now have two options: you can leave the salad to sit for 15-20 minutes for the flavours to develop and eat this salad raw. Alternatively you can now pan fry the pesto-coated courgettes for 2-3 minutes to warm through and soften, and serve the salad warm.

Saturday Dinner: Cod Topped with Beetroot Pesto

If you don’t have time to make the beetroot pesto for this recipe (steps 1-5 can be done the night before) then you could use a simple basil pesto recipe, which only takes 5 minutes to make (see recipe above). You could also wrap the cod fillets in Parma ham before baking.

Ingredients

For the beetroot pesto

  • 4 medium sized beetroots
  • 6 garlic cloves, unpeeled
  • Generous handful of pine nuts, toasted
  • Optional 50g Parmesan cheese, grated
  • Unrefined sea salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • Extra virgin olive oil

For the main meal

  • 2 cod fillets
  • 1 lemon
  • 1 large bag of spinach

Method (Steps 1-5 can be done the night before)

  1. Preheat oven to 200C
  2. Wash the beetroot, top and tail them, and cut into eighths.
    Place a sheet of tinfoil on a baking sheet, and place the beetroot in a single layer on the foil.
  3. Scatter over the whole garlic cloves, season generously with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, and drizzle with olive oil.
  4. Close up foil around the beetroot to make a package, and place it on the baking sheet into the preheated oven. Cook until the beetroot is tender – will take around 50 minutes.
  5. Remove from the oven and allow the beetroot and garlic to cool to room temperature.
  6. Squeeze cooled garlic cloves out of their skins, and put the garlic and beetroot into the bowl of your food processor.
  7. Add toasted pine nuts and Parmesan cheese, and blitz up until a rough paste begins to form.
  8. Now, with the motor running, pour olive oil through the tube until you reach a fairly smooth, spreadable consistency.
  9. Give it a taste and then add salt and pepper to your liking, also adding more cheese or oil according to your taste.
  10. To cook the cod, preheat the oven to 180C.
  11. Place each cod fillet on a lightly oiled piece of tin foil. Top with a generous dollop of the beetroot pesto.
  12. Drizzle with a little olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice
  13. Bake the cod fillets for 12-15 minutes until cooked through
  14. While the fish is cooking, steam the spinach until wilted and stir through some lemon juice, salt and pepper
  15. Serve the baked cod fillets on top of the wilted spinach.