• Salsa Rice Bean Dish

• Fried Courgettes w. Garlic & Lemon

• Australian Salad

• Lemon Ginger Noodle Salad

• Mediterranean Roasted Vegetables

• Spiced Carrots

• Roasted Vine Tomatoes with Garlic

• Mango and Avocado Salad

• Pink Grapefruit and Courgette Salad

• Carrots in Gin

• Vegetables with White Balsamic Vinegar

Salsa Rice Bean Dish

For the token veggies on the DSP, here's one of my favourites (JC and Joe V have actually had this and can attest to it being quite tasty) - Broenwynn

1 cup uncooked rice

1 large red (or yellow) onion, coarsely chopped

1 large capsicum (green), coarsely chopped

3-5 spring onions, coarsely chopped

3-4 roma tomatoes (or 1 large tomato), coarsely chopped

1 large carrot, grated

1 small zucchini, coarsely chopped (optional, not everyone likes zucchini)

1 large tin of kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 large jar of your favourite pasta sauce

Healthy dose of garlic, minced (3 cloves or so)

Dash or eight of Tabasco

Lots of cheddar cheese, grated

Prepare veggies as noted above. Cook rice per package instructions. Combine chopped veggies with cooked rice. Add kidney beans. Add pasta sauce. Add garlic and Tabasco. Mix well.  Serve hot, and top with generous amounts of cheese. A nice green salad will go well with this. 

Finish with several pints of stout.

Cheers!

Fried Courgettes w. Garlic & Lemon

This is one of the easiest side-dishes I know which makes a great change from straight forward boiled vegetables. It is important to try and work fast once you start cooking, otherwise you will either burn the garlic, or over-fry the courgettes and they will become terribly soggy.

You don't have to use olive oil in this one - any oil will do really - but I find that it gives greater flavour than light oils such as rapeseed or sunflower. - JC

Serves: 2-4 people

Preparation time: 10 mins

3-4 small courgettes

1 clove garlic

dash of lemon joice

1 dsp olive oil

Cut your garlic into slices, as thin as possible. If you're not great with a knife, or lazy, crush it instead.

Cut your courgette into triangular chunks.

Heat the olive oil in your pan, until it is very hot

Add the garlic and courgettes together, and fry briskly. Don't stop stirring or it will burn.

After about 90 - 120 seconds, add the lemon juice, and toss it into the courgettes, and serve.

Australian Salad

Might sound weird, but it is amazingly delicious! - Bren

2 chicken breasts

1 clove of garlic finely chopped

½ a galia melon

2 kiwi fruits

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1 tbsp wholegrain mustard

2 tsp honey

1 tbsp lemon juice or white wine vinegar

3 tbsp olive oil

Fresh salad leaves (one of those pre-packed 4 leaf ones with rocquet is very

good!)

Salt

Ground Black Pepper

Chop the melon into smallish chunks (or use a melon baller if you like). Peel the kiwi fruit, slice in half lengthways and then cut halves into slices. Put both these in a bowl.

In a separate bowl make the dressing by whisking together the Dijon mustard, wholegrain mustard, honey, lemon juice (or vinegar) and olive oil.

Cut the chicken breasts into thin strips and fry in some olive oil, seasoning well with salt and pepper. Once cooked, before removing from pan, add in garlic, stir for a few seconds and add chicken to the melon and kiwi.

Pour over the dressing, mix well and serve on a bed of the salad leaves, with a final good twist of black pepper over the top.

Lemon Ginger Noodle Salad

12 oz. uncooked linguine

2 tsp sesame oil (light olive oil works as well)

½ cup chopped scallions (green onions)

¼ cup chopped flat-leaf (Italian) parsley

2 tbsp. roasted sesame seeds

Dressing

½ cup tahini (sesame seed paste, used a lot in middle eastern food)

½ cup boiling water

3 tbsp lemon juice

3 tbsp soy sauce

3 tbsp fresh minced/grated ginger (do not use powder!)

4 cloves minced garlic (2-3 tsp crushed garlic from a jar)

2-3 tsp chilli paste (hard to find, use slightly less of favourite curry paste)

First make the dressing. Put tahini in a medium bowl, whisk in boiling water until smooth. Add remaining ingredients and whisk until blended. Set aside.

Cook linguine per package instructions, then rinse under cold water until cool to touch, drain and place in large bowl. Drizzle with oil and mix well until thoroughly coated. Add dressing and mix until well coated. Add parsley, scallions and sesame seeds. Toss well. Serve at room temperature.

Mediterranean Roasted Vegetables

I generally use a different selection of vegetables each time I make this but it always seems to turn out great. Quantities are for 4 people but scale it up or down as suits you - Paula.

Serves:4

1 medium red onion chopped into chunks

2 cloves garlic sliced

16 baby new potatoes par boiled (almost cooked) and cut into halves

Selection of vegetables roughly chopped - fennel, courgette (baby or regular), peppers, chillies (if you want a bit of heat), green beans, broccoli. Quantities here depend on how hungry you all are

2 tbsp olive oil

8 cherry tomatoes

8 olives

2 oz feta cheese crumbled

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

To serve

1 oz sundried tomatoes finely chopped

1 tbsp pine nuts roasted

Preheat oven to 190C.

Mix the onion, garlic, potatoes, vegetable selection, olive oil and salt and pepper in an ovenproof dish. Roast for 20 minutes stirring half way through.

Add the cherry tomatoes, olives and feta cheese. Mix well and roast for a further 10 minutes.

Sprinkle with the pine nuts and sundried tomatoes and serve.

Spiced Carrots

Serves: 4

Preparation time: 30mins

200g / 8oz carrots, peeled

1 tsp cumin seeds

25g / 1oz butter

1 tsp paprika

1green chilli finely chopped (deseed the chilli for less heat)

Grate rind and juice ½ lemon

Slice the carrots as desired. Place in a pan with barely enough cold, slightly water to cover them. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer till the carrots are cooked to your own liking. Drain the carrots.

While the carrots are cooking roast the cumin seeds in a saucepan for a couple of minutes. Grind the cumin seeds to a powder.

Melt the butter in a pan. Fry the chilli for 30 secs, add the paprika and fry for another 30 secs. Add the lemon juice and ring, mix well then toss in the carrots. Stir well to coat the carrots in the spices.

Sprinkle with the ground cumin seeds and serve.

Roasted Vine Tomatoes with Garlic

Even though this recipe uses whole cloves of garlic the flavour is very mild. Roasted garlic takes on a very sweet mild flavour, making it very edible. I've used cherry tomatoes still on the vine for this recipe, more for presentation reasons than anything. Regular cherry tomatoes would work just as well - Paula

Serves: 4

Preparation time: 30 mins

20 or cherry tomatoes on or off the vine

8-10 cloves garlic unpeeled

salt and black pepper

2 tsp sugar

1 tblsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 190C.

Wash the cherry tomatoes and place in an oven proof dish. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, sugar and olive oil. Add garlic cloves.

Roast for 20-25 mins, basting with the oil/juices in the bottom of the dish half way through the cooking.

Serve.

Mango and Avocado Salad

This salad is exceptionally easy to make and tastes divine. Perfect served on a hot summers day or even as an accompaniment to curry - Paula

Serves: 4

Preparation time: 15 mins

1 large avocado

1 large mango

1-2 red chillies finely chopped

Rind and juice1 lime

1 dsp olive oil

1 tblsp chopped fresh coriander

Mic the chilli, lime rind and juice, olive oil and coriander together.

Peel and chop the mango and avocado into even size chunks.

Mix fruit and dressing and serve.

Pink Grapefruit and Courgette Salad

You need small (these will be not much larger than your average size tube of smarties) or baby courgettes for this recipe - Paula

Serves: 4

Preparation time: 10 mins

2 pink grapefruit

2 small or 4-5 baby courgettes

1 dsp olive oil

1 tblsp chopped fresh coriander

Wash and slice the courgette.

Now for the difficult bit. You want to cut the skin off the grapefruit, removing the pith and everything to expose the flesh. Do this over a dish as you want to keep any juice that comes out of the grapefruit during this process. Basically take a sharp knife (and it must be sharp) and cut a slice off the top and bottom of the grapefruit, exposing the flesh. Now you can slice the skin off the side of the grapefruit, again exposing the flesh. This is when it gets a bit messy. You need to remove the flesh from each segment of the grapefruit by slicing into the centre on each side of each segment, using the membrane that divided the segments as a guide. You should end up with a dish of these segments, and plenty of juice. If you can't manage this, go to a shop buy a tin of pink grapefruit segments in unsweetened juice, return home and open the tin.

Half the grapefruit segments if they are too large and add to the courgette.

Mix the grapefruit juice, olive oil and coriander together.

Pour over the grapefruit and courgette. Mix well and serve.

Carrots in Gin

- Paula

Serves: 4

Preparation time: 25 mins

700g carrots peeled and chopped

1 tsp sugar

1 oz butter and

a little water

2 tsp gin (or a bit more if you like)

Little grated lemon zest

Place the carrots, butter, sugar and water in a saucepan over high heat and boil rapidly till carrots are cooked and water is evaporated - you have to be careful not to burn the carrots. Add the gin and lemon zest and serve.

Vegetables with White Balsamic Vinegar

This goes well with Duck, Lamb or Chicken - Anita

Serves: 4

Preparation time: 25-30 mins

1 kg of vegetables (courgettes, peppers, peperincini, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, green beans, kohlrabi, carrots - get the idea?)

1 medium onion or 2 spring onions

1 tblsp butter or olive oil

½ - 1 dl white balsamic vinegar

pepper and salt to taste

Wash and slice the veggies whichever way you prefer them.

Fry the diced onion with the butter/oil (preferably in a wok) add the veggies and fry for 5-8 mins (depends on how crunchy you want them).

Add the vinegar, salt and pepper and let simmer for 3-5 minutes. You're done !