Nadia Lim’s vege BBQ dishes
Celebrity foodie Nadia Lim shares fresh ideas for using up your summer harvests of homegrown vegetables, herbs and fruits.
Great ideas from the foodie’s new book.
JASMIN’S CHRISTMAS SALAD
Ingredients • 1 large bunch cavolo nero • Flaky sea salt • ½ ripe avocado, diced For the dressing • Juice of ½ lemon
• ½ teaspoon liquid honey or maple syrup • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard • 1 tablespoon macadamia or cashew nut butter
• 1½ tablespoons extra virgin olive oil To serve • ¼–½ cup lightly toasted pecans, roughly chopped • Seeds of ½ pomegranate (about ½ cup seeds) • ½ ripe avocado, diced
Wash cavolo nero and tear leaves from the stalks. Chop leaves and place in a bowl. Sprinkle a pinch of flaky sea salt. Whisk dressing ingredients together until smooth. Drizzle over cavolo nero. “Massage” the dressing and sea salt into the vege for a few minutes. Add half the avo and “massage” it through so the soft part of the avo coats the leaves. Top with avo, pecans and pomegranate seeds. Toss before serving.
MARINATED VEGE KEBABS
Ingredients • 16 bamboo skewers
• 1 punnet cherry tomatoes • 2 capsicums (red, yellow or orange), cut into 2–3cm pieces • 1 red onion, cut into 2–3cm pieces • 1 eggplant, cut into 2–3cm pieces
• 2 courgettes, sliced 1cm thick • 200– 250g haloumi, cut into 16 cubes • ½ cup natural, unsweetened yoghurt, to serve For marinade and dressing • ¼ cup olive oil • Zest and juice of 1 lemon • 1 clove garlic • 1 teaspoon ground coriander • 1 cup chopped parsley • ¼ teaspoon ground cumin • ½ teaspoon sweet or smoked paprika • ½ teaspoon salt • 2 tablespoons pickled jalapeños • 1 cup chopped coriander
Soak the skewers in water for 20 minutes while you prepare the marinade and vegetables. Place all marinade ingredients, except parsley and coriander, in a food processor or high-speed blender and blend until smooth. Add parsley and coriander and pulse a few times until the herbs are finely chopped. Reserve 2 tablespoons of marinade for the yoghurt dressing.
Place vegetables and haloumi in a large bowl or ziplock bag and add marinade. Toss to combine and coat the vegetables. If you have time, leave to marinate in the fridge for 4–6 hours.
Preheat barbecue or oven grill. Thread veges onto wet skewers, so that they are lightly touching each other. I like to place a piece of courgette on first, followed by capsicum, eggplant, haloumi, red onion, another piece of courgette, and cherry tomato. Brush skewered vege with oil. Grill kebabs for 10–15 minutes, turning once or twice, until veges are soft and haloumi is golden. Arrange kebabs on a platter. Mix reserved marinade with yoghurt and drizzle over kebabs just before serving.
Soak the skewers in water 20 minutes while you prepare the marinade and vegetables.
Instead of pasta, you can toss the vegetables with freekeh, bulghur or quinoa.