girlwithanearring

I'm not really used to the savoury pumpkin recipes and I had only tried it once as a soup at some restaurant, which I liked undoubtedly. But making a whole new recipe with sort of unfamiliar flavours is always a challenge. I don't like things going wrong or go to waste. To avoid any mishaps, I made a research on other recipes and think about it a lot to find matching ingredients. 

That's why I thought that starting with something easy and light was the best option. Like a toast and a salad for breakfast! And the result was amazing. The toast is both crunchy, starchy, a little sweet, a little sour, fresh. I realised that I had really underestimated pumpkin until the first bite. To my enlightenment, it goes well with so many different flavours. 

The salad. I'm not really sure if you ever had "purslane" before but please let me know. I'm curious. I personally love purslane both cooked and raw. It's a type wild-green with juicy and sort of sour taste when it is raw. When it's cooked, it's like spinach but fresher and that little bit sourness gives a kick to it. 

So the salad. I believe among all the options of greens in my hands, purslane was the best choice. With all its freshness, my favourite wild goodness balanced the starchy sweetness of the pumpkin. I recommend each recipe with a high score of 10 out of 10. 

Here go the recipes: 

with Arugula Pesto and Pickled Red Cabbage  

Pumpkin is sweet and starchy and it needs something fresh and a little sour in my opinion. So arugula pesto as a dressing would be perfect, I thought and I thought it right. With some type of soft and creamy cheese as a base and something sour like pickled red cabbage to garnish. 

ingredients (for 1 person) 

2 slices of baguette 

4 tbsp cream cheese (I used homemade yoghurt cheese) 

4-5 slices of pumpkin (approx. 15cm x 7cm, 1cm thick)

1 tbsp olive oil 

1/4 tsp salt 

1/4 tsp black pepper 

1 tsp lemon juice

for the arugula pesto 

1 bowl of arugula 

1/2 cup olive oil 

1 tsp lemon juice 

1/2 tsp black pepper 

1/4 cup parmesan 

1/4 cup walnuts 

1 tbsp pickled red cabbage to garnish 

In a bowl, mix 1 tbsp olive oil, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp black pepper and 1 tsp lemon juice. 
HOW TO MAKE PICKLED RED CABBAGE 

I'll give you a quick description of how I make this all the time. Cut the whole cabbage into four pieces and cut them into thin shreds like in the photo. In a big bowl, add 1 tsp salt, 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar and preferably with some gloves rub and squeeze these for 1-2 minutes. Then get a big jar, put all the cabbage inside you can press them and put more as much as possible. Then, fill the jar with apple cider vinegar, because you pressed and put a good amount of cabbage there is already little space left for vinegar. It shouldn't be drowning in it. 

Fun fact: we call red cabbage "purple" in Turkish and actually it makes more sense, it is purple.

As for the salad, I had some fresh purslanes lying there and why not use them? Added some fresh mints, couple of slices of mandarins, again pickled red cabbage. I use the salad as a side but you can also make it a main lunch choice. Then you can add some olives, chunks of some kind of whole fat white cheese ( I prefer Ezine), toasted bread cubes, and a boiled egg. Et Voila! That's a perfect lunch.

ingredients (for one person)

a bowl of purslane, mostly leaves and avoid the thick stems

1/2 cup of pumpkins, diced

1/2 orange or mandarin, sliced

2 tbsp pickled red cabbage

5-6 fresh mint leaves

1 tsp pomegranate sauce

1 tbsp olive oil

a pinch of salt

 

arugula pesto for dressing 

In a bowl, gently mix the diced pumpkins with 1 tbsp olive oil, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp lemon juice. 

Spread it on a baking paper and put on a small grill like I did or in the oven with 250C to roast.

Halfway through, take them out and stir so they can get roasted equally on each side. 

In the meantime, place the purslanes in a bowl and mix them with the red cabbage.

Cut the orange or mandarin slices into bite-size pieces and gently mix in with the purslane. 

When they are done, add in the pumpkins. Drizzle 1 tsp pomegranate sauce, 1 tbsp olive oil and sprinkle a pinch of salt. 

Just before eating it add 2 tbsp arugula pesto on top. 

bon appetit,

As for the ingredients, I'm sure if you use wild mushrooms it would taste million times better. I used button mushrooms which are rather bland compared to wild mushrooms. And beets, I love beets. I use them in soups which I might say the colour of soup with beets is amazing. I also love them pickled and make a really tasty and colourful dressing with pickled beets for a tuna salad, or just simply chop some pickled beets and put them over arugula and iceberg lettuce, the best salad ever. Once I roasted them with garlic and olive oil, then pureed everything and used it as a pasta sauce. Yummy and pink.

This is the video in which I prepared the Roasted Beets and Mushrooms with Arugula Salad:


What makes this salad different is the "roasting" which makes everything better and richer in flavour and the dressing. For the video of preparing the dressing scroll down.

ingredients

500 gr. button mushrooms, you can also use wild mushrooms
10 baby beets or 2 large beets
200 gr arugula, washed
olive oil
salt
black pepper
optional: dried mint and red pepper flakes
juice of 1/2 lemon

for the dressing,
1 large shallot, minced
3 tsp pomegranate sauce
1 tsp dijon mustard (or whatever mustard you have)
3 tsp balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
black pepper
salt

method

if you have baby beets there is no need to trim them just cut in half or cut in four pieces.
if you have large beets, peel them and cut them into four pieces then slice them half a cm thick. (watch the video for a much clear sense)
in a bowl or on a baking paper, like I did, place the beets and sprinkle some olive oil, about 3 tbsp.
sprinkle 1 tbsp lemon juice, some salt, ground black pepper and some dried mint and red pepper flakes. the last two items are optional I sometimes do that and sometimes don't.
toss them gently and set aside.
cut the mushrooms in half.
in a bowl or on a baking paper, place the mushrooms and sprinkle with olive oil, 1 tbsp lemon juice, salt, black pepper.

(if the beets are too big I sometimes cover them with another baking sheet and then aluminium foil for the first 15 minutes. Then take the cover off and let them roast for 5 more minutes.)

place them side by side in a baking tray and roast them until they are tender.
mushrooms will cook much quicker than the beets.
take the mushrooms out and check the beets with a knife.

if you are doing this for the next day, keep the beets and mushrooms in baking paper covered with another baking paper and preserved them in the refrigerator if it's summer or in the oven if it's not, depending on the weather.

in a serving bowl, put the arugulas in big chunky pieces. I don't cut them if they are too small and fresh but if you don't like that just cut them in 3 cm wide.
place the beets on top of the arugula and then the mushrooms.

for the dressing,

in a small bowl, whisk together the minced shallot, vinegar, mustard and pomegranate sauce. Add 1/3 cup olive oil, salt, black pepper and whisk.
you can pour the dressing immediately or put it in a dressing jug for the presentation and pour it on the table with your guests.

Don't forget to check out my videos for my table set-ups and other menu items for brunch and afternoon teatime. 

This is the video in which I prepared the dressing and the menu and table set-up for a brunch:

bon appetit,
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