Soba Noodle Salad with Rainbow Vegetables

I came home after a long day at work, all was dark - and look what Kev had rattled up for us! Fancy as anything, and he made it look so pretty! This was really refreshing, even on a cold frosty evening!

Soba Noodle Salad with Rainbow Vegetables a la Kev
(Serves 2)

250g soba noodles (or vegan noodles)
1/3 of a daikon, or 1 pak choi, finely sliced
1/2 small head of white cabbage, shredded
1 medium carrot, grated
Handful of radishes, thinly sliced
1 Spring onion, finely sliced
1 small handfull of sesame seeds

Dressing:
3 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp tamari or 2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp agave syrup

- Prepare all the vegetables so you have them ready to toss in with the noodles.

- Then cook the noodles until soft.

- Whilst this is cooking, have all the ingredients for the dressing in a jar, give it a shake and set aside.

- Have all the vegetables in a frying pan and fry for a few minutes until they go slightly soft, and then add your noodles! Give it a good swirl before plating up.

- Pour over dressing and sprinkle over the sesame seeds - and you are done!

I hope you have had a great week so far! I myself have felt quite drained to say the least. But! College was fantastic this week and we made a modern line arrangement:

Today, the Scottish Norwegian Society had their annual Christmas bazaar and it was a lot of fun! I have been to this once before and to get to have open-style sandwiches, playing the tombola and buying Norwegian sweets is always a hit!

Everyone was so lovely - and a few of my friends were there and I got talking to some new friendly faces too!

I wont Twist chocolate at the tombola. This is the kinda goodie bag where you find yourself fighting with family members over certain different ones. Dad and I would always go for the marzipan ones, but I must say the banana chocolate is amazing too! In fact - all of the chocolates are...
I also got a traditional marzipan pig, some floor wash (it's a Norway thing...), Norwegian lefser, christmas cookies and Kev got a small dose of his addiction - Norwegian Melkesjokolade! So a good day overall!
The weather was awful later on in the day though, so it's been filled with Gilmore Girls, studying whilst listening to Kaizers Orchestra, Muse and Magnet, watching Firefly. Productive in its own sense one can say ;)

- Jules

Original Recipe: From Season to Season, p. 32

Curried Hot Pot with Gnocchi

Boy, so since the last time things have changed... But let's not dwell on that eh?

It is getting ridiculously cold and Glasgow had its first snow of the year on Tuesday! Iæm more of a Summer/Autumny kind of person myself, so the cold weather is an excuse for something hearty.

With a twist this time, as you add a little curry powder or paste to give it that lovely spiced aroma - Yum!

I was having one of my best friendsover for dinner, and I hadno time to make dumplings from scratch - so I used gnocchi! Ready made, but they made a perfect addition to this dish, with a different texture. We ate, we watched That 70s Show and giggled like girls and polished off some caramel icecream with whisky and cream liquer - delicious!

Curried Hot Pot with Gnocchi
(Serves about 4)

1tbsp cumin seeds
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
1 tsp turmeric
1 1/2 litre vegetable stock
1 tbsp medium hot curry paste or 2 tbsp curry powder (I made my own emergency curry mix)
1 kilo vegetables (I used about 5 potatoes, 1 parsnip. 2 carrots, and 1 leek), diced
Juice of 1/2 lime
Black pepper
1 bag of gnocchi (I think they usually measure at 300-400g?)

Wholemeal pita bread to serve - toasted of course!

- In a large pot, dry fry the cumin seeds for a minute until fragrant, add the turmeric, ginger and tomatoes and stir for a further minute before adding stock, curry powder/paste and vegetables - add a bit of pepper to taste. Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes until the vegetables are soft.

- Now add the gnocchi and cook for as long as instructed, once done, turnthe heating off, stir through the lime juice. Toast the pita bread and serve! Apartfrom the chopping, this dish basically makes itself. Yum!

I hope you are having a great week so far! I myself managed to fall in the stairs in the hall quite badly andhadto go to the hospital for x-rays.... Thankfully there were no broken bones, but it hurtas hell! It will get better soon, but until then I just have to take it a liiiittle bit easier.

Oh! And last weekend I got to go to the BBC Good Food show here in Glasgow and I finally got a spiraliser! So hopefully I will have some nice light recipes coming up in the near future *smiles*

- Jules

Original recipe: Delicious Low-Fat Recipes, p. 103