Roasted butternut squash and parsnip salad with turmeric cauliflower, shaved fennel and kale crisps

Photos by Anges Malterdotter

Roasted butternut squash and parsnip salad with turmeric cauliflower, shaved fennel and kale crisps

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 butternut squash

1 cauliflower

250 g parsnips

200 g kale

230 g (about 4 dl / 1.6 US cups) pre cooked chickpeas

1 fennel

1 tsp mild curry blend (choose your favourite!)

2 tsp dried cilantro

1 tbsp cold pressed olive oil

flakey salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Avocado mash

2 avocados

1 tbsp apple cider vinegar 

a handful of fresh mint, finely chopped

flakey salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

How to

Pre heat the oven to 175 degrees celsius / 345 degrees Fahrenheit.

Peel, remove the seeds and dice the butternut squash in 2x2 cm pieces. Tear the cauliflower in to smaller florets (and keep the light leaves - the are delicious to roast as well). Scrub the parsnips, cut in half. Rinse the chickpeas, then dry them with kitchen paper. 

Cut away the thick bottom steam of the kale, tear the leafs in to smaller pieces. Massage with olive oil and a pinch of salt until silky. Put half of the kale on your serving platter, the rest is going in to the oven when about 5-7 minutes remains on the roasted veggies.

Put the butternut squash, cauliflower, parsnips and chickpeas on a baking tray (separated), drizzle with olive oil. Massage the cauliflower florets + leaves and chickpeas with the curry blend. Roast in the oven for about 20 minutes, until the veggies are slightly golden and crispy around the edges but still have that al dente taste to them. Add half of the massaged kale when 5-7 minutes remains. Toss everything with the dried cilantro once out of the oven.

Shave the fennel using a mandoline or cut thinly using a sharp knife. Peel and pit the avocado, mash, with vinegar and finely chopped fresh mint, using a fork. Salt and pepper to taste.

Layer all the ingredients on a big serving plate. Top with dollops of the avocado mash. Sprinkle with flakey salt.

Crispy kale with nori and sesame

Kale. I like (love) kale in every possible way you can have it. Therefore I was beyond happy yesterday when I visited the amazing Ugglarps Grönt, a renown farm shop in the southern part of Sweden where I was wandering around the unbelievable brassicas fields. There they grow not only kale but every type of brassica that you could think of. Got a lot of inspiration for the upcoming season ot say the least.

Thinking of,  and writing about, kale I wanted to share with you one of my favourite ways to have it - baked until perfectly crisp! To get the kale really crisp you need to have a little trick down your sleeve. Scroll down to read more! 

Crispy kale with nori and sesame

Serves 1-6, all depending on how and when you serve it (as a Friday snack when hanging out with yourself, topping on a salad etc)

Ingredients

250 grams kale

2 tbsp cold pressed coconut oil

2 tbsp sesame seeds, preferably a mix of white and black ones

1 tbsp nori flakes 

1 tsp flakey salt 

How to

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius. 

 Wash the kale and remove the stalk. Tear the leafs in smaller pieces and put on a oven tray. Dry the kale carefully (!) with a clean kitchen towel. This is the secret part, by drying the kale completely before you massage it with the oil the kale will bake and not steam, which will happen if you have wet kale. Baked kale = really crisp. Steamed kale = impossible to get crispy. 

Blend sesame seeds, nori and salt. If you can't find nori flakes you can finely chop a nori sheet, or even better mix in a food processor. Massage the dry kale with coconut oil until every part is covered. Sprinkle with the sesame and nori mixture. Give it a toss.  

Bake in the middle of the oven for 10-15 minutes, until the kale is crisp. Make sure to stay close as the kale can easily burn if in the oven for to long. Toss it around every now and then to get evenly crisp kale. Let cool. 

Oat and carrot bread with hummus, avocado and kale chips

Alright, so this post is really all about my absolute favourite bread in the world; let me present to you my very moist oat and carrot bread packed with nutrients and lots of flavour. Plus it is very easy to make. It’s gluten free, nut free and vegan, so pretty much anyone could enjoy it. I always cut the loaf in slices and put the ones I don't eat straight away in the freezer. That gives me the chance to just take out a slice or two for any occasion I’m craving a healthy slice of bread (which is very often). 

Have a slice for breakfast or the weekend brunch, eat it as a side with you lunch soup or bring as a snack-on-the-go. A couple of slices topped with hummus, avocado and roasted kale + a sprinkle of sea salt and freshly grounded black pepper is one of my favourite ways to have them. And that is just what my dear friend Fanny Hansson, aka talented photographer of my cookbook The new green salad, and I had a couple of months ago during a creative workshop day. I cooked and styled, Fanny took lovely pictures and Sofia Törnqvist did her retouch magic. Not a bad day at work. 

Well, enough writing. I’ll just post the recipe below and let you try the bread for yourself. I’m sure you’ll understad where I’m coming from once you’ve tried it! 

Oat and carrot bread

Makes 1 loaf

4 dl oat flour

3 dl buckwheat flour

1 dl crushed buckwheat groats

1 dl sunflower seeds

1/2 dl pumpkinseeds

1/2 dl flax seeds

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp himalayan salt

1 tbsp chia seeds + 3 tbsp hot water

1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

2 dl finely grated carrot (about 70g) 

4 dl almond milk (or any other plant based milk of your choice)

Pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and sea salt to sprinkle on top

Serving suggestions

hummus (on p. 102-105 in my book The new green salad you'll find my three favourite hummus recipes!) 

avocado 

kale chips *see instructions below

dried cherry tomatoes, or try my recipe for Semi dried cherry tomatoes

cress

sesame seeds (toast them for an even more intense flavour!)

How to

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Bring 3 tbsp water to a boil. Mix water with chia seeds and allow it to sit for about 5 minutes, until it takes on a texture similar to jelly.

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Finely grate the carrot. Add carrots, chia mixture, apple cider vinegar and almond milk to the dry ingredients and mix well.

Grease a bread tin with olive oil and cover the bottom of the tin with baking paper. Put the “dough” in the bread tin, sprinkle with additional seeds and sea salt, and place in the lower part of the oven for about 60-70 minutes, until the inner temperature reaches about 100°C. Let the bread cool completely before slicing it. Preferably wrap it in a kitchen towel and leave on the kitchen counter over night. This will allow the bread to sit and the flavour to develop even more! 

Hope you’ll like it as much as I do!

* Kale chips. Pre heat the oven to 175°C. Tear the leafs in to smaller pieces, massage with some olive oil and flakey salt. Spread out on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for about 10 minutes, until crispy, tossing around the kale every now and then.