Saffron quinoa with brassicas, avocado and pomegranate

Here comes one of my favourite salads for the winter season. Flavours and veggies that reminds me of candlelit dinners, cosy mornings and Christmas gatherings - all tossed together in to this recipe!

If you ask me every festive buffet requires a semi raw salad - a salad where at least most of the components are raw - great thing as that will add lots of texture and freshness which goes very well with basically anything. Cook the quinoa prior to serving and massage/shave/slice/deseed the rest of the components (preferably put the brassica i ice cold water to get them really crispy!)- then just toss it all together just before serving!

Saffron quinoa with brassica, avocado and pomegranate

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

3 dl / 1.2 cups white quinoa

0.25 grams saffron, ground

100 gram kale (you might want to use black kale instead of kale if you’re pairing this one with my pumpkin tray recipe from the previous post)

50 gram red cabbage

1 fennel

1 avocado, sliced

1 pomegranate, deseeded

1 dl / 0.4 cups mixed seeds and nuts, toasted

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

flakey salt

How to

Cook the quinoa according to instructions on the packaging, together with the saffron.

Cut away the thick bottom steam of the kale, tear the leafs in to smaller pieces. Since they’ll the added raw to the salad you want the pieces to be quite small. Massage with olive oil and a pinch of salt until silky.

Shred the red cabbage thinly using a mandoline, a vegetable peeler or a sharp knife. Trim the fennel bulbs, then shred thinly on the width using a mandoline/vegetable peeler/sharp knife. Put cabbage and fennel in ice cold water for 20 minutes - this will make them extra crispy!

Toss together the cooked saffron quinoa, kale, cabbage, avocado, pomegranate and seeds/nuts!

* This is a recipe from “Två Dagar” distributed by Göteborgs-Posten. Photo by Stefan Edetoft

Roasted pumpkin with kale, lingonberries, dijon dressing and pecans

This is the kind of food I’ll put on our Christmas table year after year - hearty salads with seasonal veggies and delicious dressings! I like to make a couple (or more…) of them, with different components, and one or two dressings/hummus/dips on the side!

This kind of food is very smart festive food as it feeds both few as well as many, depending on how many you’re cooking for. And it doesn’t take much time at all to cook it - just put it on a tray and the oven will help you do the rest! No matter if you have a Christmas table with exclusively plant based dishes - or if you want to keep room for your families traditional dishes food like this can be served. Why not make this an onwards classic in your home?

Roasted pumpkin with kale, lingonberries, dijon dressing and pecans

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 small muscat pumpkins

400 gram kale

75 gram pecans

2 dl / 0.8 cups lingonberries

1/2 Tbsp cold pressed rapeseed oil

Dijon dressing

1/2 dl / 0.2 cups dijon mustard, unsweetened

1 dl / 0.4 cups cold pressed rapeseed oil

1/2 dl / 0.2 cups water

1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 tsp maple syrup, optional for a sweeter taste

salt and freshly ground black pepper

How to

Pre heat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius / 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Wash and cut the pumpkins in half, scoop out the seeds using a spoon (save the seeds for roasting) them and cut the rest in slices. Put on a baking tray and roast in the oven for 30 minutes, until the pumpkin is soft.

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. Add to the pumpkin tray together with the pecans when 5 minutes remains and bake until kale is soft - and some of it a bit crisp as that is delicious - and pecans crunchy!

Mix all the ingredients for the dressing. Salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle over the tray. Sprinkle with lingonberries.

Happy season!

Recipe was first published in The Gothenburg-Post/Två dagar