PUY LENTIL SPINACH BLUE CHEESE SALAD

How beautiful was the weather today - it was boiling in London and so we thought it was the perfect day for our first barbecue of the year. We have simple tastes when it comes to grilling and so had cheese burgers and sausages but I wanted to make a different type of side dish to our usual green or potato salad. I found this lentil salad recipe in a waitrose magazine from last year - it was apparently inspired by Le Tour de France.

It took around 10 minutes to prepare and 30 minutes to cook.

Ingredients for 6 people (as a side dish):

250g puy lentils
3 tbsp olive oil
1 leek, sliced (I didnt have a leek and very much missed it)!
1 carrot, diced
1 celery stick, sliced
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 x 25g pack of flat leave parsley, roughly chopped
100g bag baby spinach
Squeeze lemon juice (optional)
100g blue cheese (such as Stilton or Roquefort)

Cook the lentils according to the packet instructions. I put the lentils in a saucepan and covered them with three times their volume of vegetable stock (you could just use water). Bring to the boil and simmer for 20-25 minutes until the lentils are firm to the bite.

When they are ready drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large pan and fry the leek and the carrot over a medium heat for 10 minutes. As I mentioned earlier I didnt have a leek so had to just make do without.

Add the celery for a couple of minutes and then stir in the remaining olive oil and the balsamic vinegar.

Tip the drained lentils into the pan and mix together with the vegetables.

Remove from the heat and add the parsley and spinach, tossing together until the leaves have started to wilt.

Pour into a bowl / serving dish, season well and add a splash of lemon juice. Finally scatter with some blue cheese and serve warm or at room temperature.

This was very good although as I mentioned earlier I missed having a leek. Pascal adored this salad - it is definitely one of his favourites. I think you could easily mix it up a little - for example add some cherry tomatoes or pine nuts or whatever you have available. It would also go very nicely with some crusty bread and butter although I definitely enjoyed it with my cheese burger….you can never have enough cheese right?!

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STEAK AND BLUE CHEESE SALAD

Sorry for the silence however my daughter is away with her father and my husband has been in France and so I have been home alone. Despite the fact I LOVE food, cooking for one is hard - firstly because I become so unmotivated and secondly most recipes are for 4 people which means you end up with tonnes of leftovers. Although I did make my quick pita pizzas one night and they were very good.

Anyway Pascal is now back and so it is time to cook again. As it was super hot today we wanted a barbecue but we also wanted something quite light so this recipe card from Waitrose was the perfect option. It took about 20 minutes in total.

Ingredients for 2 people:

Around 350-400g beef sirloin steak
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
75g Roquefort 
5tbsp soured cream
100g fine green beans, chopped into bite size pieces 
4 thick slices of mixed olive ciabatta
1 tbsp olive oil
1 sweet Dolce Verde Romaine lettuce, roughly torn (you could use iceberg if easier)
2 tbsp snipped chives

Crush the garlic cloves and rub one on to each steak.

Roughly mash the Roquefort in a bowl and then stir in the sour cream. Place in the fridge until ready to serve.

Boil the beans for 3 minutes (or according to the packets instructions).

Drain and cool (I rinsed them under cold water). Cut into bite size pieces.

Brush the bread with oil.

Cook the bread and steaks on a barbecue or in a griddle pan for a couple of minutes on each side (you may want to cook the steak longer if you prefer it more well done).

Place the lettuce and green beans in a large serving bowl.

Slice or cube the steak and add to the salad.

Tear or cut the toasted bread into pieces and add to the salad.

Add the blue cheese dressing and mix well.

Serve with a sprinkling of chives.

Wow this was really good! I am a big fan of the steak and blue cheese salad at Sophies Steakhouse in Chelsea but this was even better. Very simple but full of flavour. I never realised it was so easy to make blue cheese dressing - I will definitely be making this again and / or variations of this salad starting with an iceberg wedge with blue cheese and bacon - another favourite of mine!

You can enhance this recipe by marinating the steak in a couple of tablespoons of Jack Daniels whiskey for a few hours or even overnight.

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BLUE CHEESE CARBONARA

As I have mentioned in my blog previously, my daughter Arabellas favourite dish is carbonara - she would eat it every week if she could. I really like it but its not my favourite. However I saw this recipe of carbonara with blue cheese in the Sunday Times magazine and I thought it had my name all over it!! It is a Jamie Oliver recipe and he does suggest adding pears to it which I left out as I hate sweet and savoury but if you like that kind of thing just add a couple of thinly sliced pears to the frying pan with the garlic and rosemary.

Here is the recipe for 3 people and it took about 15 minutes.

Ingredients for 3 people:

3 large free-range egg yolks
2 tbsp creme fraiche
100g Stilton
350g dried spaghetti (or similar pasta)
A small knob of butter
Olive oil
8 rashes of smoked streaky bacon, sliced into 5mm pieces (or thereabouts)
A few sprigs of rosemary, leaves picked and chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
Juice of half a lemon 
Rocket leaves to serve

Crack the egg yolks into a bowl, add the creme fraiche, season and whisk with a fork.

Crumble in the Stilton as finely as you can and stir in (mine was pretty lumpy but it melted when you add it to the pasta)!

Cook the pasta according to the packets instructions in a pan of salted boiling water - mine took 8 minutes.

At the same time in a frying pan, melt the butter with a drizzle of olive oil over a medium heat.

Add the bacon and fry until golden, stirring all the time.

Then add the rosemary and garlic and fry for another couple of minutes.

Drain the pasta but reserve a couple of cups of cooking water for later.

Add the egg, creme fraiche and cheese mixture as well as the bacon, garlic and rosemary to the pasta.

Add a squeeze of lemon and some of the cooking water (add a splash at a time) and mix all together as quickly as possible.

Serve immediately with a few rocket leaves scattered on top.

This was absolutely amazing!! Pascal rated it as his favourite ever pasta dish and it could be mine too - it worked wonderfully and we also used gluten free pasta as then we dont feel so stuffed afterwards. Arabella prefers Pascals Pasta Carbonara as she isnt a huge fan of blue cheese but she still ate the lot. The best thing about this dish is even though it was cheesy, it still tasted incredibly light. I would highly recommend it!

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