Picnic food – Vegetable and Feta Pie Recipe

Happy picnic season! Spring leaped quickly towards summer over the past week in London. In response, the parks were immediately filled with keen, white Brit’s bikini-clad or bare-chested, soaking up the available Vitamin D with abandon. We were caught slightly off-guard, wondering what to do with our last remaining bag of smokeless coal. Not the sort of thing that stores well, far too dusty for the hall cupboard.

But an excess of smokeless coal aside, all this sunshine means one thing to me – its picnic season. Long, lazy afternoons on my grandma’s old picnic rug await us over the next few months. These are my favourite days. With my head buried in a novel, or just staring at the cloud formations, and a wicker basket filled with fabulously tasty morsels and uncomplicated treats by my side. Simple pleasures... Sounds cliché? It probably is. For good reason though! Picnics are a relaxing and gentile way to be outside in nature.

During the long summer months in Segur we waste away the hours by the side of Lake Ruffiac, or Vigeous, eating bites of cheese, in between swimming back and forth across the lake. We set challenges, play games, forage for berries. Mid-afternoon someone usually hikes from our secluded place lakeside to the little shop selling ice-cream.

In honour of this sunny week in London Kristoph and I packed a picnic to share with a friend in the late Friday afternoon London sun. I dug out one of my favourite picnic recipes that made use of our last window box grown carrots and beetroots. The key to picnic food is that it tastes good when it’s been lying in the sun a while, can be packed in small containers and withstand a car ride. This pie meets those criteria and is also good straight from the oven, or reheated under the grill. I hope you like it as much as we do. Here’s the recipe:

Recipe:
300 grams shortcrust pastry
6 baby beets roasted and sliced thinly sliced (or one regular large beetroot)
6 baby carrots roasted and thinly sliced (or one regular large carrot)
3 handfuls of chopped purple sprouting broccoli
1.5 cup crumbled sheeps milk feta cheese
1 egg
Olive oil
Ground black pepper

Step One: Preheat the oven to 180C. Roast the whole baby carrots and beets for 30 minutes in a shallow covered dish filled with water (this ensure they remain moist).

Step Two: Roll the puff pastry and place on a greased baking tray. Score the edges. Arrange the carrot, beet and broccoli on the pastry base. Top with the broccoli and then the feta.

Step 3: Lightly beat the egg and wash the pastry edges with it. If there’s egg left over poor it evenly over the pie. Then pop it in the oven until the edges of the pie are golden, around 20 minutes.

What are your favourite picnic treats?      

Kale and caramelized onion recipe

 

Warning: this is another super healthy post from Segur. This dish is delicious, I promise, but I realise I’ve posted two very green and healthy dishes sequentially, and for some of you that might be a little too much. So if you are looking for a sweet treat instead, perhaps try these blondies, or these muffins. But, if you fancy a hearty, simple earthy dish, with creamy and sweet elements, then this might just be for you.

So, a little background on this post - I’ve had a couple of kilograms of brown onions sitting in our kitchen for the last few weeks. I’ve been meaning to make caramelized onion chutney, to continue my preserving experiments, with my new preserving pan. But as is often the way, I seem to be continually distracted by other projects and activities. But I decided today was the day and the chutney, which I’ll post about in the next couple of days. Once it's finished simmering away, and slowly reducing on the stove.

As I was caramelizing onions anyway, I decided to put together a healthy lunch using some of the onions and a bunch of organic kale, which has been sitting in the fridge for a few days. I often steam kale, and toss it with soy, garlic and ginger. But today I thought I’d honour its Tuscan roots and go for a slightly richer dish. I added a couple of handfuls of chopped kale to oil in the frying pan and tossed it around a little. I then dropped in a couple of tablespoons of the caramelized onions and fried it off a little further, allowing the kale to soften and morph into an even brighter green. I added a little Turkish feta that was in the fridge, which finished the dish off with a rich creamy, slightly salty kick.

This is a really simple dish, and makes a fantastic midweek lunch. It would also be lovely served as a side dish, for dinner. You can also caramelize additional onions and they’ll keep in the fridge for at least a week. They are great on pizzas, or stirred into pasta. Here’s the recipe:

Recipe

(Serves one, scale up as required)

One onion (sliced)

Two large handfuls roughly chopped kale (any variety will do)

Dash of balsamic vinegar

30 grams feta, or any hard, crumbly cheese (a hard goat would also work)

Olive oil

Step One: Add the sliced onion to a pan, with a dash of oil. Move the onion around with a wooden spoon, allowing it to cook through and caramelize. After a few minutes add a dash of balsamic vinegar to the onion and fry it off a little more. You know the onion is caramelized when the colour has darkened. Set aside.

  

Step Two: Heat a dash of olive oil in a pan. Drop in the kale and toss. The colour will intensify quite quickly. When it does, stir through the onion, and toss again. Remove from heat, and crumble in the feta to serve. Enjoy!

Healthy and delicious broccoli and feta salad

I heart broccoli. It’s true. It’s green, good for me, and I often crave it. Broccoli is apparently one of the healthiest foods around, a “nutritional powerhouse.” Eating it makes me feel quite virtuous. I prefer broccoli steamed, to retain the powerhouse of nutrients, and because to me it tastes better. 

This salad is super simple, extremely tasty and takes less than ten minutes to make. I often have it for lunch on a weekday, but it’s also attractive enough to serve as a warm side dish at a dinner party. This salad also chills well and makes an excellent, colourful and nutritious addition to any BBQ. At this time of year though, I prefer my broccoli warm and straight from the steamer.

When buying broccoli make sure it’s crisp and bright. Avoid any broccoli that is a little saggy, or has lost its vibrant colour. And if you can, buy organic. Here’s the recipe.

Recipe

(Serves one hungry person, or two as a side dish)

One large head of broccoli

25grams Greek feta cheese

One small red pepper

15 black Greek olives

Juice of one lemon

Glug of olive oil

Ground black pepper 

Step 1 – Bring a medium size saucepan to the boil, and cover with a steamer. Chop the broccoli into florets and drop into the steamer. Using a pair of tongs, move the broccoli around every minute or so to ensure all of the florets are steamed. You’ll see the broccoli change colour from a dark green to a vibrant green. After five or so minutes taste a floret. When the broccoli is ready, it will taste crisp, but not raw. 

Step 2 – While the broccoli is steaming, chop the feta and slice the peppers. Mix the lemon juice with a glug of olive oil.

Step 3 – Transfer the steamed broccoli to a bowl. Stir in the peppers, feta and olives. Pour over the olive oil and lemon juice mixture and add ground black pepper to taste. Enjoy!