Harissa explosion salad

What I really love about this salad is that each mouthful is an adventure in texture, conducted while taste buds are thoroughly stimulated.

You need:

·         One pickled red pepper, diced

·         As many jarred mushrooms as you can handle (the ones in oil)

·         A sprinkling of toasted sunflower seeds, then some more

·         Two handfuls of lettuce, finely shredded

For the dressing:

·         An almost empty jar of harissa – about a teaspoon left

·         Olive oil to fill the jar (about a tablespoon and a half)

·         A dash of vinegar (about a dessert spoon and a half)

Serve with:

·         Cous cous bake

·         Hardy bread

Ok, so here’s what you do – spread the lettuce over a plate and add mushrooms, pepper, and most of the seeds. Add the liquids to the harissa and shake up. Pour some dressing on it and mix it up well. Sprinkle the remaining seeds over the salad, serve with cous cous bake and bread and enjoy!

~Gwen

Dara's Sandwich no. 6: BBQ crispy tofu & seweed with pineapple relish

There was some questionably old tofu in the fridge. It smelled pretty funky, so I wanted to cook the hell out of it. I fried it up in small pieces with some garlic and onion and a bit of bouillon. Inspired by my mother's love of using local Atlantic dilisk seaweed in sandwiches, I added some of that. And a tasty new pineapple relish, topped with some barbeque sauce. It was quite something!

- Dara

Quick Tomato Soup/ Berlin Skipping

 

On the way to breakfast at my friends I couldn't help but stop off at the skip. It's sort of an addiction. I was pretty late for breakfast, but from the above skip haul, I whipped a quick and easy tomato soup for lunch. I basically chopped up all the tomatoes and simmered them with some garlic, basil and oil. And the freshly baked rolls from the skip went perfectly. This is basically my favourite way to cook, when the skip decides what I'll be preparing.

- Dara

Creamy Mushroom Tart / Skipping in Dublin

I went skipping in Dublin recently. There was a lot of food in the bins, but this is all we could carry.

Among the skipping haul was a box of mushrooms, double cream, butter and pastry. Inspired by all these ingredients, I decided to make a creamy mushroom tart.

I fried the mushrooms in some of the butter with plenty of garlic. I was bold and I added some salt. Once they were cooked to my liking/ patience, I added in the carton of double cream and let the mixture cook and thicken for a few minutes.

While all this was happening, I pre-heated the oven and flattened the pastry out in a baking dish (I'm lying, I just threw it in the oven - I despise waiting for pre-heated ovens). After the pastry cooked a bit, I took the pot of creamy mushrooms and spread it evenly over the pastry. I popped this in the oven for a bit until the pastry was crispy.

I also made some garlic bread with some skipped ciabattas. I cut them into slices and spread the butter on them, then rubbed in some diced garlic and threw them in the oven. Delicious. Watch yer heart.

- Dara

Vegan Banana Ice-Cream

Time for another skip tip! If you go skipping/ dumpster-diving a lot, you're bound to find lots of bananas. I love bananas. They're great in cereal and smoothies. Sometimes they can be brown and squishy and some people don't like that. But, don't throw them out! They're perfect and sweet like this for ice-cream!

Peel them and put them in a container, then place them in the freezer. And the next time you feel like some vegan ice-cream, simply put them in a blender with a few spoons of soy milk and blend it all up until it's smooth. You can also add some cinnamon, and even cocoa powder to make chocolate banana ice-cream, if you like!

- Dara

Rice + Parsley Pesto

I was at a friend's house a while ago and they had a rather large amount of parsley. And I hear parsley has a rake of vitamins. So, this happened.

 

I blended up the parsley in a pot with some garlic, sunflower seeds, nutritional yeast and possibly a bit of balsamic vinegar. Some pepper also. Maybe you want to add salt, if you like it. I warmed it all up in a pot, but not too hot as I didn't want to kill the vitamins. I wanted to get that vitamin C in 2 me.

My friend made the rice part of the meal, first frying the uncooked rice in oil to get more flavour out of it (this was news to me). Then they added water to cook it. And also some onion, garlic, and bouillon powder.

The bread is there as I found a couple of loaves in a skip the day before, but it contrasted perfectly with the sloppy components of the meal.

- Dara

Hanging Bottle Herb Garden

Inspired by this photo, I have decided to create a hanging herb garden on my living room wall. Filling the base with gravel (for drainage)  then covering with top soil should do it.

As well as herbs, small lettuces could be an option. Do you have any ideas which other plants could thrive like this?