Author Archives: Shawn

cilantro & lime hummus

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cilantro lime hummus
Been a bit obsessed with adding fresh cilantro to things lately and so a couple of weeks ago I tried it in my basic hummus recipe and it was great. Later it struck me that it would be EVEN BETTER with lime juice instead of lemon… and it was! I wasn’t sure whether to include the stems or just use the cilantro leaves – in the end I opted for the latter. It’s super delicious and so versatile. Yesterday I had it with salt & pepper chicken fried in olive oil and basmati rice, today I’m planning to have some with crudité. And of course it would be great with corn chips.

If you want really super creamy hummus consider peeling the garbanzos. To be honest this is something I would never have considered myself until I accidently discovered an easy way to peel them in just a few minutes. Check out cripsy crunchy garbanzos for the method.

Recipe and ingredients below…

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migas

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migas

Traditionally migas (literally: bread crumbs) was a peasant’s or shepherd’s dish, a tasty way to use up stale bread using little more than some garlic, olive oil, and whatever bits of meat or charcuterie happened to be about. At casa az, migas has turned out to be a great way to use up the bread scooped out of crusty loaves when making pan cristal (more on that later) and then fed to skinny flatmate who always needs to “carb up”. Obviously there are loads of variations on what can go into migas, as well as various ways of preparing it. What I’ve done, as usual, is look up a few different recipes and then make something that looks good to me, though on this occasion I *almost* burnt the garlic and onions… so try not to do that.

Ingredients and instructions below…

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chicken, spinach & cashews

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chicken cashew (1)

This is the first dish I made to serve with my first batch of cauliflower rice. It was basically just thrown together with stuff I had on hand but it turned out so well that I thought I’d put it up here. One thing I didn’t happen to have on hand was fresh coriander, which I think would have been fabulous, so I’ll add it to the recipe below…

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cauliflower rice

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cauliflower rice (1)

I tried my hand at making cauliflower “rice” today. No, I’m not 5:2ing (don’t get me started on that nonsense) but I’ve seen this mentioned so much on the ‘net lately – and I love cauliflower and am always looking for new low-carb options – so I thought I’d try it out. It seems the main problem people encounter when making this is that the cauliflower ends up mushy. So I took the precaution of letting the cauliflower thoroughly dry on a tea towel before chopping it up. You can see the instructions below…
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sausage sarnie

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sausage sarnie
So there I was with a sudden craving for a meatball sandwich (something I haven’t had in YEARS) and all I had was some chorizo criollo in the fridge. It was time to improvise! The addition of spinach meant (to me) that there wasn’t any need for a side veg or salad, making it a super-simple all-in-one kind of dish, which I served open-faced as I prefer more filling/topping than bread. It also had a whack of parmesan sprinkled on top but was more photogentic without it. Makes 2-3 servings, depending on how hungry you are.

Ingredients and instructions below…

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garbanzo burgers

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garbanzo burgers

Got inspired this morning when I saw this Instagram pic by Ellie, co-owner of the Pear Café in Bristol. Hers were a much “healthier” version. I went for more of a traditional burger thing, first making two cheeseburgers with tomato, lettuce and onion, mayo and dijon. The other two I topped with fried onions and served with a soya-mayo (just mayonnaise with some soy sauce added). Both types were fabulous, served on freshly grill-toasted artisanal molletes (a soft Spanish bread roll), though in retrospect I realised I should have made eight smaller burgers from this recipe, which I did on my next try. Also the second time I added fresh cilantro – made all the difference. Very filling, super delicious.

Ingredients and instructions below…

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spinach & garbanzos with fried eggs

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garbanzos and spinach

The other day I had a bag of fresh baby spinach that needed using up so I had a quick look online for some “spinach and egg” inspiration and found this, which as it turns out is a typical Spanish dish. I hadn’t planned on making a stew, let alone something with garbanzos, but this looked interesting and so after a few adjustments to the recipe I’d found I decided this would make a nice meal. And it was! I used chicken broth but you can swap that for veggie broth if you want a vegetarian dish. Serves two but just double the recipe for more people or to have some tasty leftovers the next day.

Ingredients and instructions below…

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pollo al ajillo con espinacas

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pollo ajillo espinacasIt’s been awhile since I’ve posted something here that wasn’t a rice or noodle dish. But today I came up with this variation on pollo al ajillo which could be served with rice or, as a low-carb option, is perfectly tasty on its own. If you don’t fancy spinach you can just leave it out. Likewise the guindilla (hot chilis). From start to finish it takes about 45 minutes.

Unlike traditional pollo al ajillo recipes, which use the whole chicken chopped up into stew-size pieces, I am using boneless chicken breast. I’ve also made something similar to this with chicken thighs. So you can see it’s pretty versatile. I throw in my garlic right at the beginning, but those who prefer less “toasted” garlic should add it with the peppercorns (and chilis) after turning the chicken pieces to brown on the other side.

Ingredients and instructions below…

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