Couscous Salad with Thyme Roasted Onion & Tomato

Served warm, this couscous salad made a filling & tasty lunch

I’ve had a box of couscous sitting on my pantry shelf for ages now, and I decided last week that it was time to use it – so I came up with an easy couscous salad recipe, which can be served either warm or cold.

This salad is so filling that it’s almost a meal in itself, thanks to the addition of the couscous, which is a low fat carbohydrate made from semolina wheat commonly used in North African cooking. I usually serve couscous as a side dish (it goes well with stews and casseroles), so this made a nice change -:


Couscous Salad with Thyme Roasted Onion & Tomato

5 large ripe Tomatoes, cut into quarters
3 – 5 red Onions, cut into quarters
2 cloves Garlic, sliced
Small bunch of fresh Thyme, washed
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper

2 cups cooked Couscous (prepared according to package instructions – I use the ‘instant’ kind)

Place the cut tomatoes and onions into a baking tray. Sprinkle the garlic & thyme over, then pour a little olive oil over everything, season with salt and pepper and toss to mix everything together well. Cook at Gas Mark 7/220’C/425’F for about 40 minutes, turning the tomatoes and onions over a couple of times during the cooking process. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly, before adding to the cooked couscous. Mix everything together to blend, taste and add more seasoning if necessary and serve.

Creamy Homemade Leek & Potato Soup

This creamy Leek & Potato soup is a meal in itself ....

I spoke about the Leek & Potato Soup which I made for dinner the other night in my blog post over here. We’ve been having some cool, rainy weather lately and this soup went down a treat !

As the festive season is almost upon us and we’re bound to be over indulging and eating in excess during this time (!!) I figured a little soup in place of a full-on meal wouldn’t go amiss now and then …. although I can’t say that (hungry) hubby is as enthusiastic about my idea …. even with the addition of potatoes and cream to the recipe below. Oh, well !

Creamy Homemade Leek & Potato Soup

Olive Oil
4 cups Leeks, sliced into rings
3 large Onions, sliced into cubes
4 Potatoes, cubed & par boiled
4 cups Chicken Stock (I use 3 stock cubes for this)
1 cup Cream (I prefer to use Skim Milk - which works just fine)
Salt and Pepper – to taste

Cream (or Natural Yogurt) - to garnish
Chives, snipped – to garnish

Pan-fry the leeks and onions in the oil until translucent. Then add the par boiled potato cubes & chicken stock. Bring to the boil, then turn down to a simmer and allow to bubble away for about 20 to 30 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly before adding the cream (or milk) and liquidizing (I use a hand held blender for this – straight in the soup pot as it’s less messy !) Season to taste and serve with a dollop of cream (or natural yogurt – pictured) & some snipped chives sprinkled over. I like to serve this with some bread rolls on the side.

Curried Butternut Soup - for a cold African Winter's Night !

This curried butternut soup is just the thing for a cold Winter's night - just like the ones we're experiencing here in Africa at the moment .... brrrrr !

I love the slightly sweet, deep flavour of butternuts and they lend themselves well to this hearty soup. Nicely spiced and served piping hot, it’s just the thing to warm you on a cold Winter’s night. Add a couple of freshly baked bread rolls (try my recipe for these over here), and you have a warm and filling light supper -:


Curried Butternut Soup

2 Butternuts - skin & seeds removed & flesh cut into cubes
Olive Oil - for frying
3 red Onions, finely chopped (you can use white, too)
3 cups Beef Stock (made using stock cubes/granules)
2 tbsp mild Curry Powder (or – to taste)
Salt & Pepper
Dollop of Cream (or plain yogurt) to serve

Boil the cubes of butternut until soft. Set aside. In a large/deep saucepan, fry the chopped onions in the olive oil until translucent. Add the cooked butternut cubes to the onions, then add the stock, curry powder and salt & pepper to taste. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat and simmer for around 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and place in a food processor and blend until smooth and lump free. Ladle into soup bowls and serve hot with a dollop of cream or plain yogurt in the centre. Serves 4 – 6. (This soup freezes well, too.)

Mum's Broccoli Salad

This broccoli salad is slightly unusual - and tasty, too !

This is a slightly unusual broccoli salad recipe of my Mum’s, which tastes wonderful !

The original recipe calls for you to use raw broccoli, but I prefer to lightly blanch or steam mine first. You can also swap the Cheddar cheese for another type of cheese if you prefer.

I don’t have a photo of this salad, so the one which you see is one of my Mum’s (yes, we’re weird like that and email each other photo’s of the food which we cook !) -:


Mum’s Broccoli Salad

2 cups Broccoli florets, cut into smaller pieces (lightly blanched/steamed & cooled)
3 tbsps Mayonnaise
3 tsps Sugar
½ cup Cheddar Cheese, grated
Black Pepper, freshly crushed
Salt (optional)

Blend the mayonnaise, sugar and cheese together and then add the broccoli florets to this, stirring to blend well. Taste for seasoning & add black pepper and salt to taste. Chill before serving.

Easy Homemade Chicken Soup

This homemade chicken soup is both hearty & filling .....

Warming and wholesome, nothing beats a bowl of homemade chicken soup – and no, you don’t have to be sick or recuperating from an illness in order to enjoy it’s full benefits !

This is my husband’s favourite soup and my daughter has also recently developed a taste for it. I usually make a huge pot of it, which we have with freshly baked bread rolls for lunch, and I freeze the leftovers in flat, individual portions in re-sealable plastic bags (as they store much easier than bulky plastic containers, and are quicker to defrost this way, too).

This is my basic chicken soup recipe below. You can adjust it anyway you like. You can omit certain vegetables and add ones which you happen to have on hand, you can also add any type of fresh herbs (thyme works well) and if you like, you can even throw in a cup or two of cooked noodles or small pasta shells towards the end of the cooking time, to bulk the soup out a little.

For a lower fat version of this soup, I allow mine to stand for a few hours in the fridge so that the fat congeals and rises to the surface of the liquid, and I then simply skim it off and throw it away (actually, it is mixed into my stray village dog’s food as they could certainly do with the extra fattening up !)


Easy Homemade Chicken Soup

1 whole Chicken
4 Onions, chopped
3 large Carrots, sliced into rings
3 – 4 sticks of Celery, sliced
6 tsp’s Chicken Stock Powder (optional)
Water (+- 2 litres - depending on size of your pot)
Salt & Pepper to taste

Remove as much skin and fat from the chicken as you can. Place it (whole) in a large pot and add the onions, carrots, celery & stock powder. Add enough water to cover everything completely (around 2 litres) and bring to the boil, stirring occasionally. Turn the heat down and allow to gently simmer for about 2 hours. (During this time you can give it the occasional stir, and skim the surface of the pot of any sediment.)

After the 2 hours, remove from heat, take the chicken out & allow it to cool a little before removing all the meat from the bones/carcass. Chop the meat up & put it back into the pot. Taste for seasoning & add salt and pepper and return to heat for 5 – 10 minutes, stirring well to blend before serving hot.

If there is a lot of fat/oil on the surface of the soup, you can place it in a covered container in the fridge for a few hours or overnight. This will cause the fat to congeal on the surface of the soup & it can then be easily removed with a spoon.

You can also add 1 to 2 cups of cooked noodles to the soup at the final stage (when you add the chopped chicken meat back in) if you like.

Warming Carrot, Tomato & Ginger Soup

A dollop of cream or natural yogurt poured into the middle of this soup just before serving, really makes it - so don't leave this step out if you can help it !

This warming soup recipe is for all the people reading my blog on the other side of the world at the moment, where the temperatures are pretty cold & icy !

I’m amazed at the beautiful photo’s I’ve seen of people’s gardens (and nearby local scenery) cloaked in a blanket of snow – it all looks really beautiful and magical to me – but then I don’t have to put up with the plummeting temperatures and slippery roads which go with it !

So, although we are basking in the warm African sunshine here in Tanzania right now, I made this warming soup for lunch last week & served it with bread rolls – it was a hit, especially with our daughter who just adores soup !


Warming Carrot, Tomato & Ginger Soup

4 red Onions, finely sliced
3 sticks Celery, finely sliced
1 tbsp fresh Garlic, grated
1 heaped tsp fresh Ginger, grated
4 cups Carrots, grated
1 x tin (410 gm) whole peeled Tomatoes (including juice)
5 cups vegetable Stock (you can use chicken or beef if you prefer)
Salt to taste
Oil for frying
To garnish – fresh cream, spring onion tops

Pan fry the onions, celery, garlic & ginger in a little oil until soft. Then add the grated carrots, tinned tomatoes (including the juice) & vegetable stock. Bring to the boil & then reduce heat and allow to simmer for 30 minutes. Taste for seasoning and add salt if necessary. Stir, then remove from heat & allow to cool slightly before liquidizing with a hand blender (or place in a food processor) until smooth. (I like to leave mine almost in a puree form – not too thin and not too chunky/thick)

Serve with a dollop of cream (or natural yogurt for a lower far option !) in the middle, and sprinkle some snipped spring onion chops over the top.

Cabbage & Apple Salad

This Cabbage & Apple Salad is extremely filling & makes a perfect light lunch, accompanied by some freshly baked bread

"Eating For Sustained Energy" the wonderful South African cookbook which my friend Jo sent me for Christmas, & which this recipe comes from

My dear friend Jo (you can visit her over at her blog “Memorable Meanders”) sent me a wonderful South African recipe book for Christmas called “Eating for Sustained Energy”.

The book is based on low GI (Glycemic Index) recipes, the GI being a measure of how carbohydrate affects blood glucose levels & the idea being that eating low GI foods will help regulate blood glucose levels, preventing energy dips and helping you to feel full for longer.

The book has some delicious looking recipes in it, including a wonderful chapter on breads, muffins etc – I can’t wait to try some of these recipes out !

In the meantime, I tried one of the salads from the book the other day – the “Cabbage & Apple Salad” which the book states is a deliciously different coleslaw, which is much lower in fat than the traditional one. It really was tasty, and I will definitely be making this one again -:


Cabbage & Apple Salad (from “Eating For Sustained Energy 1” by Liesbet Delport & Gabi Steenkamp)

1 red Apple (I used a green Apple)
1 green Apple
2 – 4 tbsp Lemon Juice
2 cups Cabbage, finely chopped or grated
4 tbsp plain, low-fat Yogurt
½ cup low oil Salad Cream or low oil Mayonnaise
1 – 3 tsp Sugar (optional)
2 tsp Sunflower seeds (I used Pumpkin seeds)
4 Lettuce leaves

Wash the apples, but don’t peel them. Slice thinly, or cube. Sprinkle with just enough lemon juice to prevent discoloration. Add the apple to the cabbage & mix lightly with a fork. For the dressing, mix the yogurt, low-oil salad cream & sunflower seeds. (Add 1 to 3 teaspoons of Sugar if it tastes too tart). Pour the dressing over the cabbage & apple, toss the salad & spoon into a container with a lid. Chill for 2 hours or longer before use. Serve the salad over the lettuce leaves.

(This recipe makes 4 large portions, or 6 smaller ones. It can be made the day before & kept in the fridge.)

Caprese Salad

This Caprese Salad is always a favourite & is very simple to put together

I have lots of heavy, rich, calorie laden Christmas fare recipes coming up so not wanting to feel too guilty, I thought I’d post a favourite salad recipe of mine today !

This is a great tasting yet simple salad that always proves popular. Quantities given are estimates, as much of it is really up to what you have on hand & your personal taste. (If you can get baby spinach then use that, as it is more tender and tasty raw than 'normal' spinach I find.)

Caprese Salad

Spinach leaves – a large handful, or enough to cover the platter which you’re using
Basil – a handful
3-4 large ripe Tomatoes, thickly sliced
About 125 gm’s of Mozzarella Cheese, sliced
Salt – to taste
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Place the spinach leaves on the serving platter and scatter most of the basil over these. Top with slices of tomato, followed by Mozzarella cheese, a few more basil leaves and sprinkle with some salt to taste. Pour a little olive oil over just before serving.

Serve with crusty rolls & a glass of chilled Chardonnay !

Copper Penny Salad

This Copper Penny Salad is great served with a barbecue

I’ve been making this recipe for years now, & I can’t tell you where it originated from because I cut it out of a South African magazine and stuck it into one of my recipe books sometime in the late ‘80’s ! (Although I know that the salad does not originate from South Africa).

This salad has a sweet & sour tang to it and I especially like serving it with a barbecue. It’s best made the day before so that the flavours can develop overnight in the fridge.

You can also add a finely sliced green pepper to the carrot/onion mix if you like. Of course the ‘copper penny’ in the title is the carrot rounds resembling copper pennies, although I prefer to slice mine even thinner than that, & at a slight angle across the wider section of my cheese grater. But you could cut the carrots any way you prefer.

It’s important to only cook the carrots until al dente (still crisp & not soggy) – I once made the mistake of overcooking my carrots, and the salad really did not taste as nice.


Copper Penny Carrot Salad

500 gm Carrots, finely sliced & cooked to blanch (+- 10 mins)
1 red Onion, finely sliced into rings
¼ cup Tomato Sauce (Ketchup)
¼ cup white grape Vinegar
2 tbsp brown Sugar
2 tbsp cold Water
3 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
½ tsp Hot English Mustard
Salt & Pepper to taste

Place the blanched carrots, and onion together in a bowl and mix well. Place the remaining ingredients into a small saucepan and bring to the boil whilst stirring. Allow to simmer for 2 minutes before removing from the heat. Pour the liquid over the carrot/onion mixture and toss well to blend. Store, covered, in the fridge until ready to serve. This salad is best made the day before you plan to eat it, so that it has time to marinade and for the flavours to develop fully.

Nicoise Salad - My Way !

I love serving this filling Nicoise salad on it's own for lunch, with perhaps some bread rolls on the side

Nicoise Salad is not a salad that I usually make as an ‘everyday’ salad. I usually make it as a meal in itself - usually for lunch and served with some fresh bread rolls on the side. It is also a salad which I will order when eating out at a restaurant (although I don’t know of a single restaurant, hotel, lodge or camp in the Northern region of the country that has Nicoise Salad on their menu. So I guess you could say that I only order it when traveling further afield !)

Of course a 'genuine' Nicoise Salad contains tuna aswell as black olives and cucumber. Some versions have seared tuna steaks added (yum !) instead of tinned tuna and yet others include ingredients such as potatoes and celery.

Mine doesn’t contain any of those, which is why I’ve called this “Nicoise Salad - My Way !” because this is the way that I like to make it (I do usually add tuna to the recipe below, but because the anchovies are so strong in flavour, I sometimes leave the tuna out if I am not in a particularly fishy mood).


Nicoise Salad – My Way !

Head of Lettuce
1 large Tomato, quartered
3 boiled Eggs, quartered
½ tin Green Beans
1 small tin of Anchovies (with capers – optional)

Dressing:
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
1 tsp crushed Garlic

Tear the lettuce leaves and put on a plate. Arrange the tomatoes, eggs, green beans and anchovies/capers on top of the lettuce. Whisk the dressing ingredients together in a separate bowl, then pour over the salad. Serve immediately.

Tangy Pasta & Lentil Salad

This pasta & lentil salad makes a filling lunch (especially if, like my husband, you decide to add rashers of greasy fried bacon to it !)

“What’s that boiling on the stove top ?” asked my husband as he arrived home for lunch one day last week. “Lentils” I said cheerfully, as I waited for his face to fall “Oh” he said “What are they for ?” “For the pasta & lentil salad we’re having for lunch today !” I said it with as much enthusiasm as I could (‘cause my husband hates eating things like that - as regular followers of my blog will know !)

Oooohhhh … I’m a bit mean sometimes, I know … but goodness, hubby can’t ALWAYS eat unhealthy fat laden things now, can he ?! In good spirit, he ate the salad without much fuss. (But I suspect it was because of the crispy streaky bacon rashers he fried up for himself and mixed in with it !)

This is actually a really filling lunch – you could also serve it on a bed of lettuce or baby spinach leaves if you liked. Or rashers & rashers of greasy bacon. Mmmmm … that would work quite well, too ;)


Tangy Pasta & Lentil Salad

500 gm cooked Pasta Shells
400 gm (drained) tin of chopped tomatoes
300 gm cooked Lentils
100 gm pickled cocktail Onions
Salt & Pepper to taste
125 ml Mayonnaise
10 ml hot English Mustard
Parsley sprigs, chopped (for garnishing)

Place all the ingredients (except the mayonnaise & mustard) in a salad bowl and toss to combine. Mix the mayonnaise and mustard together until well blended, pour over the ingredients in the salad bowl and mix to combine well. Chill before serving. Sprinkle with some chopped fresh parsley before serving.

A Tanzanian Beetroot Recipe from the Serengeti National Park ...

Deceptively simple yet so delicious - Salim's Serengeti Beetroot Salad

The world famous Serengeti National Park. Home to the annual migration of around 1 million Wildebeest and Zebra, 14 763 square km’s in size, a world heritage site – and once, my home.

My husband and I used to live in the Serengeti National Park, and refurbished & ran a luxury tented safari camp here. Living there was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Especially when the Wildebeest used to gallop BETWEEN the camp tents as we slept. Thousands of thundering hooves … tons of dust. It was terrifying. But delightful. It used to leave our guests in awe.

When the migration was around the camp (usually always in the early morning), I’d get the waiters to set the breakfast tables out on the wooden deck with the best view of where the Wildebeest happened to be grazing. The food would be forgotten, as cameras and binoculars took over … no amount of money could guarantee that you would see it, hundreds or thousands of grey Wildebeest, as far as the eye could see ….. even now, just the thought of it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

You know what they say about the ugly old Wildebeest, don’t you ? That after God created all the beautiful animals … the zany Zebra, the magnificent Lion, the breathtakingly beautiful leopard … he used all the left over ‘bits’ … put them all together, and came up with the Wildebeest. It’s true ! If you look at the Wildebeest he is an ugly, hotch potch of a fellow … unbalanced and beasty looking. Poor soul !

Anyway, I’ve veered off the topic as usual … I wanted to share with you a very easy but extremely flavorsome salad which one of my Serengeti camp chef’s, Salim, used to make. He used a slightly different honey & mustard dressing for his – I don’t have his recipe I’m afraid –but you get the idea ….


Salim’s Serengeti Beetroot Salad

4 – 5 large beetroots, cooked & sliced
1 large red onion, finely sliced
Salt
Honey & Mustard Salad dressing (see my recipe for it over here)
Spring Onions, finely chopped

Lay the beetroot & onion slices on a large platter. Sprinkle some salt over and pour the dressing over this. Allow to marinade in the fridge overnight. Just before serving, top with the finely chopped spring onions.

Kilimanjaro Coleslaw

I use a mixture of carrots and both red & green cabbage for this coleslaw

Everyone has their favourite Coleslaw recipe. After years of trying to find the ‘perfect’ recipe, I finally found it a few years ago – and then lost it again !

I have so many recipe books and although I try to keep them well organized (especially the ones I’ve made myself from recipes cut out of magazines, printed off the internet/emails etc) I have somehow mislaid ‘the’ Coleslaw recipe somewhere. (I’m sure it’ll crop up someday though !)

In the meantime I’ve tried to replicate the recipe from memory (it’s nice - though not quite as good as the original !) and have also since created a new recipe keeping system of plastic flip files – so as soon as I print or cut a recipe out, it gets put straight into the flip file … never to disappear again !

Here is the replicated (& renamed !) recipe -:


Kilimanjaro Coleslaw

¾ cup Mayonnaise
¼ cup white grape Vinegar
1 small red Onion, grated
2 tbsp brown Sugar
2 tbsp Lemon juice
2 tsp Celery Salt
1 heaped tsp Garlic flakes
White Pepper & Salt to taste
3 cups Cabbage (red & white)
2 cups Carrots, grated

In a large bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, vinegar, grated onion, sugar, lemon juice, celery salt, garlic flakes, white pepper & salt. In a separate bowl, mix together the cabbage and carrots and then pour the whisked mayonnaise mixture over and stir to blend. Cover and refrigerate overnight – this Coleslaw tastes even better the next day.

Warm Roast Tomato & Onion Salad

I sprinkled some toasted pumpkin seeds on top of this salad to add a lovely crunch to it

We’re still experiencing cold Winter temperatures here in Tanzania, so the other day I was inspired to make this delicious warm salad for lunch.

It comes from the August copy of the South African “Essentials” magazine, and I discovered it one night last week when I was reading in bed, and decided that I just had to make it soon ! (See my version of the recipe below, as I did not have all the ingredients called for on hand so had to adjust it a little).

I made it for lunch for my daughter & I one day last week when my husband was in the big city for the day (if I served my husband just a SALAD for lunch, he’d turn his nose up and ask where the meat & bread was, for sure – ha ha !) I added some side items for my daughter but I thoroughly enjoyed this salad on it’s own and found it to be quite filling.

I did serve the left over (cold) salad with supper and surprisingly, my husband rather enjoyed it !

Roasted Tomato & Red Onion Salad (from “Essentials” Magazine, August 2008)

3 large red Onions, roughly chopped
1 tsp Olive Oil
3 sprigs Thyme
300 gm Cherry Tomatoes, halved
2 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
handful of bagged Salad Leaves
2 tbsp roasted Pine nuts (optional)

Heat the oven to 200’C/400’F/Gas Mark 6. Put the onions, olive oil & thyme in a roasting tin, toss well & cook for 10 mins. Add tomatoes & balsamic vinegar, and roast for a further 5 – 10 mins. Tip into a bowl (I would let it cool slightly first, else the salad leaves will wilt quite a bit), season & toss gently with the salad leaves. Scatter with pine nuts (if using) and serve.

How I adapted this recipe -:

I only used 1 large red Onion & I added a clove of sliced garlic to it, too. I didn’t have cherry tomatoes (they are difficult to find here) so used 5 medium sized (quartered) tomatoes instead. I used 2 small red lettuce from my garden as my salad leaves & as I didn’t have Pine nuts, I used Pumpkin seeds instead. I used garlic flakes, salt & freshly milled black pepper to season the salad – some of which I added before roasting the veggies.

The next time I make this salad, I think I will try it with some fresh Basil in place of the Thyme, & I’ll add some rocket leaves tossed in with the lettuce. Ooohhh … I can almost taste it now !

Hot Red Potato Salad

This is a great hot salad to serve on a cold day

This is another one of my Mum’s salad recipes, which she got off a cooking show. It’s served hot and if you are living in a cold climate or are in the middle of Winter like we are at the moment here in Africa, it’s a great warming salad to serve on a cold day ….


Hot Red Potato Salad

6 to 8 red skinned Potatoes, cut into wedges and boiled in salted water
4 to 6 rashers of streaky Bacon, diced
2 red Onions, chopped
diced Garlic
1 cup Chicken Stock, or White Wine (or both)
Salt & Pepper to taste
A few sprigs of Parsley for garnishing

Fry the bacon, onions and garlic. Remove onions and garlic and allow the bacon to crisp. Remove this from the pan and drain off excess fat, leaving only a little behind in the pan. Add chicken stock and/or wine to the sediment and stir well. Pour this over the potatoes, add the bacon and onion mixture, mix well and season & garnish with parsley sprigs and serve immediately.

Marinated Zucchini (Courgette) Salad

This salad is always quite eye catching with it's lovely green and red colours ....

In Africa Zucchini are sometimes called “Baby Marrows” or Courgettes. (I don’t know why there are 3 different names for such a simple vegetable, honestly !) *Update - thanks to Jilly, a reader from Australia who emailed me the following -: "Zucchini is the Italian word, Courgette is the French word, and they are Baby Marrows. But whichever name you prefer, that's a good salad!" Thanks, Jilly, I always love getting feedback from people who read my blog !

Baby Marrow or not, there is nothing “baby” about the Zucchini grown here. They are, on average, larger than an English cucumber. Which is really not good as they tend to lose their flavour when they become so large, and often have a lot of discoloration on the inside. I have never been able to get through to local market suppliers or my own gardeners here, the whole concept behind miniature vegetables …. baby corn spears, cherry tomatoes, tiny sweet carrots ? They just don’t see the point as for them “bigger is better” … even when it comes to ‘normal sized’ veggies like tomatoes, carrots, potatoes …..

“How many kilo’s of tomatoes do you want today, Mama Lynda ? One kilo ? Okay, that is 3 tomatoes. Maybe you take 3 kilos instead, hey ?” (I mean, honestly – who wants a tomato the size of a small melon anyway ?!)

This Zucchini salad recipe is an old one which I got from my Mum. Actually, it is from one of the cook books she had when we were growing up as kids. I have adapted the recipe over the years – for example, the original doesn’t have tomatoes added but I think that they just look so nice against the emerald green of the Courgettes/Zucchini and add some extra flavour. This salad is always a big hit and is another one of those recipes that gives maximum taste for minimum effort !


Marinated Zucchini (Courgette) Salad

500 gm Zucchini (Courgettes), thinly sliced
1 tsp minced Garlic
Olive Oil
1 tsp dried Mint (or 1 tbsp fresh mint, chopped)
1 tsp dried Origanum
3 tbsp white wine Vinegar
Handful of Cherry Tomatoes
Salt & pepper to taste

Lightly fry the Courgettes & the garlic in the olive oil until just tender. Remove from heat and place in a salad bowl. Add the dried mint, origanum, vinegar, cherry tomatoes & salt and pepper. Mix to blend and then place in fridge to marinate for a few hours before serving.

A Hot Pineapple Salad Recipe

The spicy yellow pineapple contrasts beautifully with the crisp, green spinach - yum !

This is one of my Mum’s hot salad recipes which she saw on a TV cooking show. I like the idea of serving (and eating !) a hot salad once in awhile – especially on a cold Winter’s day like the ones we’re experiencing in Africa at the moment.

My Mum actually made this recipe when they had friends around last weekend for lunch, and I asked if she’d mind me using it on the blog, along with the photo she emailed me.

As I’ve mentioned before, my entire family are ‘food mad’ and because we live on opposite sides of the African continent, my Mum and I often email each other what we’re making for supper, what we plan to eat over the weekend, new recipes and twists on old favourites along with (sometimes) photo’s of what we’ve just cooked !

I know that might sound a bit odd but, well …. I guess that’s what happens when the whole family are food fanatics and do strange things like discuss over breakfast what we’ll be having for supper, book holiday accommodation in relation to where the best restaurants are, and start planning their Christmas day lunch menu in July !

So ….. here’s the yummy recipe. (Thanks, Mum !)


Hot Pineapple Salad

1 bunch Spinach - rinsed, stems removed, shredded or torn in pieces
2 tbsp Butter (I used olive oil)
1 Onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp Masala Powder*
1 tsp Cumin seeds
1 tsp Coriander seeds
1 large (or 2 small) Pineapples, peeled and sliced into wedges
1 large Lemon, sliced into wedges

Line a salad bowl with the Spinach leaves. Then heat the butter, add the onion & stir fry until transparent. Add the Masala powder, Cumin & Coriander seeds & stir fry lightly. Add the pineapple and half the lemon wedges and fry until well coated with the spices. Arrange on the spinach leaves, and garnish with the remaining lemon wedges if desired.

*Masala Powder can be found in the spice section of most major supermarkets. (It is also sometimes called "Garam Masala".) It is a mixture of dried, ground spices which usually includes either some or all of the following -: cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, cumin, cardamom, caraway, ginger, coriander & chilli to mention a few. If you cannot find Masala you can use a mild Curry Powder instead.

Creamy Tomato & Basil Soup

I used a deep purple coloured basil to make the soup, and left some of this whole in the soup, as you can see (or - was I just being lazy & not liquidzing it for long enough ?!)

The temperature is dropping on our side of the world, as we enter our chilly Winter months and the days get shorter.

Ever since I was a child, I have absolutely LOVED Winter - it is my most favourite season of the year ! There’s just something about crisp, cool air and long, cold nights that make me feel so … alive, and cozy.

Our Winter temperatures here can drop to as low as 7 ‘C at night and average around 15 – 18’C during the day (I know – not nearly as cold as Winter in other parts of the world – but cold by African standards !). We usually have a huge log fire burning in the lounge at night, and duck down duvets on the beds – both of which help to take the chill off the air. I cannot run electric blankets off our battery power at night, so hot water bottles are good substitutes. All the dogs and cats have foam cushions and blankets to sleep snuggly on – well, the cats sleep on the beds and if I am really honest, the dogs creep up onto the couches once we go to bed and I have extra blankets and cushions out on the veranda for the village strays. (They creep up onto the veranda at sunset for a little warmth, and are gone again by dawn.)

Winter months also mean warm, comforting food and one of our favourites is soup. We eat it often for lunch during Winter as it is filling, nourishing and easy to make.

So, here is my own recipe for Creamy Tomato and Basil Soup. (I made this last week when I realised how much basil I had in my herb pots which was begging to be used) -:


Creamy Tomato & Basil Soup

2 tins (400 gm each) peeled Tomatoes
2 vegetable Stock Cubes, dissolved in
2 tins boiling Water (use the empty Tomato tins to measure)
2 tbsp chopped Basil
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 cup Milk (you can use full cream – I usually use skim & it works just fine)

Place all the ingredients in a pot (except the milk) and bring to the boil. Simmer for around 20 minutes, stirring every now and then. Remove from heat, stir in the milk and liquidize.
Serve with a drizzle of olive oil poured over the surface, and some croutons. To make the croutons, I simply cut shapes with a small pastry cutter into slices of bread (the older the better) and quickly shallow fry in some olive oil, drain, and add to the soup. If you don’t have a tiny pastry cutter, simply cut the bread into squares instead. The croutons add a lovely crunch to the smoothness of the soup.

Sunday Visitors .... & A Pasta Salad Recipe

The crunchiness of the sweetcorn & raw vegetables are a nice contrast to the softness of the pasta in this easy to prepare salad

Yesterday we had visitors to the farm for the day. A lovely family who moved to Tanzania a little over a year ago, and who have a son in my daughter’s class at school. They are originally from Germany and are doing volunteer work here. They really wanted to come to Africa to try and make a difference – they didn’t speak much English before they arrived, so they learnt as much as they could, and since they’ve been here are now also learning how to speak the local Kiswahili language.

I have great admiration for them because they have whole heartedly embraced the African lifestyle and really are trying to make a difference in the lives of the people here. They genuinely want to be here, it has been a life long dream of theirs to work here and having a young family has not stopped them. The fact that their children have had malaria countless times since they arrived has not stopped them. The fact that they can only return to their home country for a visit sometime next year, has not stopped them. They don’t complain, they just get on with it and it was nice to see Tanzania through their eyes, through the eyes of “newbies” so to speak. They are passionate about what they do, and what a difference they hope to make – and I admire them for that !

We had a lovely day and I served Chicken Broccoli Bake for lunch with baked potatoes, homemade bread and this Pasta and Vegetable Salad. Afterwards we went for a long walk on the farm, but I’ll post about that (and some photo’s) another time. Here, instead, is a recipe for the salad I made (sorry the photo isn’t that great) -:


Pasta & Vegetable Salad

½ packet (about 250 gm’s) Pasta, cooked
1 x tin Sweet corn, drained
2 x large Tomatoes, chopped into cubes
½ cup grated Courgettes (Zucchini)
½ cup grated Carrots
½ to ¾ cup Mayonnaise
Salt & Pepper to taste
Spring Onion tops (or chives), snipped – to garnish

Simply mix all the ingredients together and top with the spring onion or chives to garnish. Best served chilled.

Tomato, Mozzarella & Basil Salad

I use the ripest tomatoes which I can find for this delicious and simple salad

This is a simple salad which is great as part of a light lunch or as a side dish to a main meal of pasta.

I made this over the weekend as I had some lovely ripe tomatoes that needing using up and I also wanted to try some of the basil I’d planted in a pot outside my kitchen window.

The mozzarella I found in town last week – it is locally made (from cows milk) and it isn’t that great, and had a bit of a floury texture but hey ho, it’s the closest to the real thing we can get here, so I bought it to try out !


Tomato, Mozzarella & Basil Salad

2 Tomatoes, sliced (the riper, the better !)
Mozzarella Cheese, sliced
Basil, a few leaves
Olive Oil, about 1 tbsp
Balsamic Vinegar, about 1 tbsp
Salt & Pepper, to taste

Layer the tomatoes and top with the Mozzarella slices. Sprinkle salt and freshly ground black pepper over these, then drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Top with sprigs of fresh basil, and serve immediately.