Day One - Salad with Arugula, Black-Eyed Peas, Carrots & Fresh Spinach Leaves

Got back late from the office and I'm a little too grumpy to make anything complicated. In my overflowing mess of a fridge I came up with a 1/4 full pack of Black-Eyed peas (they're actually beans. Not peas; beans).


I boiled the beans for about 1 1/5 hours, let them cool, then stuck them in a dish with unbelievably delicious pure virgin olive oil from Crete (like any self-respecting Greek I have enough olive oil to last me a couple of years), then added some plain red wine vinegar, salt and fresh ground pepper.


My year's supply of olive oil.

That's about 20kgs right there.

Then I chopped up half an onion, a handful of arugula (make sure you wash the store-bought stuff really well), grated a carrot and snipped some baby leaves off my spinach plant out in the garden. You don't really want to soak the spinach or the arugula for too long because they tend to bruise easily. You do want to let them sit for a little in water and a little vinegar (which kills off many types of bacteria) before you wash each leaf individually though.

If you have any fresh dill, go ahead and add some of that to the salad - dillweed (don't laugh) tends to go really well with beans. We use it quite a bit in Greek food.

Tip:

If your fresh herbs, like dill, parsley or basil are looking sad and weary, stick them upright with their stems in some water like a little bouquet - they should liven up in about a half hour.

Toss everything together, and there you have it - a nice filling salad with healthy mediterranean ingredients. 

If you need to pair this with something dry and solid like bread, try to stick to some whole wheat or barley rusks. Break them into pieces and let them soak up the oil and vinegar. Softens them up and makes them taste pretty damn good.

Yum.

The 30-day 'No Supermarket' Challenge

I came up with the idea for this challenge on the weekend that I decided to switch around my food cupboards (pantry?) ...and discovered that there was mutiny afoot in my very kitchen.


So many THINGS... things I had forgotten I had, others I don't even remember buying.


Upon sorting out my unholy mess of condiments, pasta in every size, colour and shape, package upon package of every kind of bean under the sun and a whole lot of other unmentionables, I ended up throwing away loads of food that was waaaaaay past its expiration date.


This kind of made me feel guilty.

Then, I tackled the fridge. 

Euch. Another fine mess.

So, I decided to get creative and for the next 30 days I will do my best to refrain from buying any more food and just try to come up with new recipes to turn all this edible crap I have lying around, into actual, healthy meals.


Let's just hope I still have a fiancé in 30 days.