Sweet Potato French Bean Lentil Salad

When you want to lighten up your menu for the holidays, this salade composée of “roasted” sweet potatoes, lentils and French beans, dressed with a shallot vinaigrette, Mandarin oranges and cilantro is perfect. Festively colored and full of flavor, it's substantial enough to be a main course, or serve smaller portions as a starter or side dish.  

During the roasting hot days of summer in Dubai we eat a lot of salads, what the French would call salades composées, created as they are of many colorful ingredients and substantially suitable for a main course. Our days are slightly less hot right now but we still want mostly cool food in the evenings and, with the supermarkets full of fall produce, our salads take a decidedly autumnal turn with the addition of sweet potatoes or pumpkin or butternut squash.

Since I try not to turn the oven on unless absolutely necessary, I “roast” the sweet potatoes in a dry non-stick skillet, only adding a small drizzle of olive oil when the potatoes cubes are well-browned, even a little charred in places. I’ve given the quantities for my salad but feel free to add more tomatoes if you love them or choose a different cheese or substitute grapefruit for the oranges and chickpeas for lentils or whatever! This salad is easily adaptable to your taste.

This week Sunday Supper is sharing holiday salads. Make sure to scroll down to the bottom of my recipe to see what other wonderful dishes we have for you to try.

Sweet Potato French Bean Lentil Salad

This served two of us for a good supper with some leftovers for lunch the next day but it's sure to be a favorite on your holiday table as well.

Ingredients
2 small sweet potatoes
5 1/3 oz or 150g French beans
1/2 cup or 105g dried caviar lentils
1 shallot
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 large Mandarin orange
13-15 sweet grape or cherry tomatoes
Good bunch cilantro
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus a drizzle for the sweet potato pan
3/4 teaspoon whole grain mustard
1/2 teaspoon flakey sea salt
Black pepper
4 3/4 oz or 135g soft aged goat cheese (Mine is a goat milk Brie.)

Method
Peel and cut your sweet potatoes in bite-sized chunks. Toss them into a dry non-stick skillet and cook over a medium high to high fire, turning and stirring them frequently until they are browned all over.

Drizzle in a little olive oil and stir the cubes to coat. Add in a generous splash of water, reduce the heat and cover the pan tightly. Cook the sweet potatoes for about 10 minutes or until fork tender. Remove from the stove and leave to cool.

Cut the stem ends off of the fine French beans and blanch them in slightly salty boiling water for 3-5 minutes. Meanwhile, fill a bowl with ice and water.

Use tongs or a slotted spoon to remove the beans from the boiling water and immediately plunge them into the bowl of ice water. When the green beans are cold, remove them from the ice water and drain well on a clean tea towel.

Add your lentils to the boiling green bean water and cook for about 20 minutes or until they are just tender.

Drain your lentils, rinse them and leave them to drain again.

Slice your shallot as thinly as you can and put it in a large bowl. Pour the vinegar over the sliced shallot and set aside. This reduces the sharpness of the raw shallots while flavoring the vinegar.

Peel your Mandarin orange and pull the pegs apart. Use a sharp knife to slice off the hard center and remove any seeds. Cut the orange pieces in half.

Halve your little tomatoes and chop the leaves and tender top stems of the bunch of cilantro roughly.

Mix the whole grained mustard and olive oil into the vinegar and shallots, along with the sea salt and a few good grinds of fresh black pepper.

Add in the cut oranges and stir well.

Add the “roasted” sweet potato and blanched green beans to the dressing bowl.

Top those with the cilantro and tomatoes. Toss the salad thoroughly, making sure to reach deep and dress everything with the dressing and shallots at the bottom of the bowl.

Finally, add the drained lentils and toss again.

Scoop the salad into a pretty serving dish, if desired, and top with small wedges of soft rind goat cheese.

Enjoy!

Check out all the holiday salads we have for you today!

Festive Holiday Salad Recipes

• Best Ambrosia Salad by That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Cranberry Fluff Salad by Palatable Pastime
• Cranberry Walnut Potato Salad by Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
• Easy Green Bean Salad by Cricket’s Confections
• Layered Christmas Gelatin Salad by Positively Stacey
• Orange Fennel Salad by Pies and Plots
• Pecan Crusted Chicken Salad by Bottom Left of the Mitten

Bountiful Holiday Salad Recipes

• Roasted Artichoke Salad by Sunday Supper Movement
• Roasted Vegetable & Goat Cheese Salad by My Life Cookbook
• Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad with Creamy Balsamic Dressing by Bites of Wellness
• Shaved Brussels Sprouts with Drunken Cranberries by Our Good Life
• Shredded Brussels Sprouts with Bacon Dressing by Life Tastes Good
• Sweet Potato French Bean Lentil Salad by Food Lust People Love
• Winter Beet Salad with Goat’s Cheese Dressing by Caroline’s Cooking
• Winter Fruit Salad by Turnips 2 Tangerines
• Winter Slaw with Pecans and Maple Dressing by Sprinkles and Sprouts

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Butterflied Stuffed Sardines #FishFridayFoodies

Butterflied Stuffed Sardines make the most of these flavorful fish, by removing the bones and adding even more flavor with a well-seasoned bread crumb stuffing.

Growing up, I never knew that there was such a thing as fresh sardines. In the Gulf of Mexico, seafood was plentiful but we never seemed to eat smaller fish. All the fishermen I knew threw the little guys back in.

That all changed for me after a holiday to Portugal. Fresh sardines were everywhere! In grocery stores, roadside dives, beach huts and even fancy restaurants. After that, I cooked them whenever the opportunity came up.

One summer, about 16 or 17 years ago, I was fangirling over Jamie Oliver’s second book, called either The Return of the Naked Chef or The Naked Chef Takes Off, depending on whether you have the US or UK release. I didn’t realize they were the same book so, of course, I have one of each.

We happened to be in the Channel Islands where sardines are readily available and super cheap. Not everyone in our group was keen on all the bones so Jamie’s grilled butterflied sardines sounded like a recipe everyone would like. It is fiddly to remove the backbones but it sure makes eating these beauties a breeze.

Here’s the funny thing. I was discussing this month’s “seafood with stuffing” Fish Friday Foodies challenge with both my husband and younger daughter and I asked them if they remembered these butterflied stuffed sardines from so long ago. They both did! And then they wanted to know why I hadn’t made them but maybe once since. I have no excuse but to say, I won’t leave it that long before the next time.

Butterflied Stuffed Sardines

This is the perfect dish for folks who love fresh sardines but hate dealing with the bones!

Ingredients
1/4 cup or 25g fresh bread crumbs
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 fine green onions, minced
1 small handful flat leaf parsley, minced
Zest 1 lemon – use a microplane for best results
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon olive oil, plus a little extra for pan-frying
6 large fresh sardines, scaled and gutted

To serve: lemon wedges and parsley

Method
Rinse your sardines with plenty of cool water and set them on some paper towels to dry.

Mix the rest of the ingredients together well in a bowl and set aside.

Cut the heads off of the sardines and discard. With one hand press each sardine open and use the other hand to work the spine free of the body. This is tricky to get started but once it’s free up near the top (where the head used to be) it comes out rather easily the rest of the way down.

You can remove the tails, if you'd like to, but I thought they were prettier with their tails so I snipped the backbones with scissors and left them the tails intact.

Give the sardines another rinse and pat dry with paper towels. Divide the stuffing between the sardines and use damp hands to pat it down.

Heat a non-stick pan with a small drizzle of olive oil over a medium flame. Cook the sardines for a few minutes on each side, until they are cooked through and the stuffing is golden. I put them skin side down first then carefully flipped them over. I also cooked them in two batches so as not to crowd the pan, which makes flipping carefully a challenge.

Plate them up with a few springs of parsley and some lemon wedges so everyone can add a squeeze, if desired.

Enjoy!

If you love fresh sardines, you might also enjoy my whole pan-fried sardines, another Fish Friday Foodie recipe.

As previously mentioned, this month’s theme is seafood with stuffing or, even, seafood stuffing. After all, stuffing is not just for turkeys! Many thanks to our host is Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm. Check out all the great recipes we are sharing today.

An InLinkz Link-up

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Chili Cheese Corn Dog Bundt #BundtBakers

Hot dogs and spicy beef chili are baked up in a cheesy cornbread batter to create a savory chili cheese corn dog Bundt you can slice up and serve at your next party.

One special treat I loved as a child were the fried corn dogs only sold at ball games in the concession stand. They vied for favorite status with Frito Pie, that is, Fritos served covered in chili, and nachos, crispy tortillas smothered with melted cheese food product. I have no idea if any actual cheese is involved in the making of that sauce but it is fabulous. I would go to a football or baseball game just for the food.

When our host of this month’s Bundt Bakers event decided on tailgating Bundts as our theme, I knew I wanted to create a Bundt that had elements of my favorite ballpark snacks. I started with my mom’s homemade cornbread recipe – it’s the best and I really should share that sometime soon – then I added the rest. Talk about good!

Chili Cheese Corn Dog Bundt

This would be great to take along to any tailgating party or neighborhood potluck.

Ingredients for a 6-cup Bundt pan
1 cup or 180g yellow cornmeal , plus extra for the Bundt pan
1 cup or 125g all-purpose flour, plus extra for the Bundt pan
2 tablespoons sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup or 180ml milk
3/4 cup or 200g chili - homemade or otherwise. Mine was from this recipe.
3 1/2 oz or 100g extra sharp mature cheddar
3 hot dogs (I used Oscar Meyer because that’s what I can buy here. Use your favorite brand.)
1 large egg
1/4 cup or 60ml canola oil, plus extra for greasing the pan

Method
Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C and liberally grease and flour your 6-cup Bundt pan. I used a combination of flour and cornmeal for mine.

Slice the hot dogs into thick circles and fry them gently for a few minutes in a nonstick skillet. This removes some of their moisture. Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add in the cheddar cheese and sliced hot dogs, stirring well. I set aside 8 slices to put on the bottom of the Bundt pan before adding the batter. They came out pretty cute so you might want to do the same.

In another bowl, beat together the milk, egg and oil. Beat until fairly smooth, about one minute.

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet and stir until they are well combine.

If desired, put slices of hot dog around the bottom of your greased and floured Bundt pan. Spoon one third of the batter into the Bundt pan. Spoon half of the chili on top.

Top with the second third of the batter. Add the rest of the chili. Top with the last of the batter. In other words, it goes 1. batter 2. chili 3. batter 4. chili 5. batter.

Bake in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes or until it's lightly browned on top and pulling away from the sides slightly.

Remove from the oven and let to cool for a few minutes. Turn the Bundt out onto a rack to cool for another 15 minutes before slicing to serve.

Enjoy!

Every month my Bundt Bakers group gets together to bring you creative treats baked in Bundt pans. Sometimes they are savory, most times they are sweet, but they are always delicious. Check out this month’s list below. Many thanks to our host Sue of Palatable Pastime for coming up with this fun theme and all her behind the scene work.

• Boston Cream Mini Bundts from Patty's Cake
• Brown-Sugar Ripple Buttermilk Bundt Cake from All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Bundt cake de platano from La mejor manera
• Chili Cheese Corn Dog Bundt from Food Lust People Love
• Chocolate Coffee Bundt Cake with Espresso Glaze from Cookaholic Wife
• Chocolate Guinness Bundt Cake with Cheesecake Filling from Nunca es demasiado dulce
• Chocolate, Walnut and Prune Bundt Cake from Katin špajz
• Cranberry & Beer Breakfast Bundt Cake from Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Cranberry Pound Cake from Palatable Pastime
• Giant Party Sub Bundt from Making Miracles
• Lemon and Praline Cold Bundt Cake from Bizcocheando
• Maple Bundt with Cinnamon Glaze from Sweet Sensations
• Orange Cranberry Bundt from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Yellow Vanilla Bundt Cake with Hot Fudge Sauce from Tartacadabra
• Yogurt Bundt Cake from Sneha's Recipe

 

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on the BundtBakers home page.

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Bananas Foster Monkey Bread #BreadBakers

Bananas Foster Monkey Bread takes everyone's favorite pull apart loaf (usually made with bread dough balls rolled in sugar) to a whole new holiday level with bananas and rum. Put one of these guys on your party table and watch it disappear.

Bananas Foster is a special dessert that was created and served first, table-side, at Brennan’s in New Orleans. About five years ago, I made Bananas Foster Muffins for a special Muffin Monday, just as we moved in Dubai because that was kind of a special occasion.

Today is the exact anniversary of our arrival, which is what made me think of Bananas Foster again for this month’s Bread Bakers theme of pull apart breads. After all, most monkey breads have sugar and cinnamon. Some have a sticky toffee or caramel glaze. Bananas Foster sauce has the added bonus of rum, perfect for a celebration.

The dough is adapted from the King Arthur Flour monkey bread recipe.

Bananas Foster Monkey Bread

Ingredients
For the bread dough:
1/2 cup or 120ml lukewarm water
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons instant yeast
2 cups or 250g flour

For the Bananas Foster sauce:
2 medium bananas
6 tablespoons or 85g butter, plus more for buttering the pan
1 cup or 200g dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons rum

To assemble the bananas foster monkey bread: 1 cup or 125g chopped pecans

Method
To make the dough, put your sugar, yeast and warm water in your mixing bowl. Leave to prove for a few minutes. When the bubbles begin forming, mix in oil, egg and salt.

Add 1 cup or 125g of the flour, stirring to blend. Add in the rest of the flour, mixing well. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes.

Knead the dough by hand or machine until it is stretchy and smooth. Form the dough into a ball and lightly grease your mixing bowl. Put the dough ball in the greased bowl and cover the bowl with cling film.

Leave in a warm place for 30 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

While the dough is rising, you can make your bananas Foster sauce.

Cut your bananas into about 1/2 in or 1 cm slices.

Combine the butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon for the sauce in a skillet. Place the pan on a low heat, and cook, stirring, until the brown sugar dissolves. Add the bananas to the pan.

Turn the heat up a little, until the melted sugar is bubbling slowly. When the banana sections soften, carefully add the rum.

Tip the pan slightly so the rum vapor will ignite. It’s a little scary and happens quite suddenly so do be prepared. The flame burns off the alcohol and also helps thicken the sauce.

Remove from the heat. Set aside and allow to cool. This makes about 1 3/4 cups or 414ml of sauce. We are going to use about 1 1/4 cups or 295ml in the monkey bread and save the balance for pouring on the bread when it’s served.

Thoroughly grease a 10 or 12-cup nonstick Bundt pan with butter and sprinkle in a small handful of the chopped pecans. Set aside a handful of the pecan for decorating the bread after it bakes.

Once the first rise of the dough is finished, tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Press it down gently then cut the dough into about 20-23 balls.

Drizzle some of the bananas foster sauce into the bottom of the Bundt pan.

Add in about 8 or 9 dough balls. Top with more sauce then a sprinkle of pecans.

Add more dough balls, then more sauce and more pecans, until the dough balls are all used.

Cover the pan with cling film and leave in a warm place for 45 minutes or until the bread has doubled.

When rising time is almost up, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. Remove the cling film and bake the bread for 25 minutes.

Remove the bread from the oven.

Turn it out onto a serving pan, scraping any sticky topping left behind in the pan and spooning it onto the bread.

Warm the remaining sauce if it’s not pourable anymore and then drizzle it over the monkey bread. Top with reserved pecans.

Enjoy!

Many thanks to this month's host, Kelly of Passion Kneaded for this fabulous theme! Check out all the pull apart breads, both savory and sweet, that we’ve baked for you this month.

• Apple Pecan Streusel Pull Apart Bread from Hostess at Heart
• Bananas Foster Monkey Bread from Food Lust People Love
• Cheese Stuffed Garlic Pull Apart Bread from Mayuri's Jikoni
• Cheesy Pesto Pull Apart Bread from Spill the Spices
• Christmas Tree Bread from Sara's Tasty Buds
• Chrysanthemum Bread from Ambrosia
• Cinnamon Sugar Pull Apart Bread from Cook's Hideout
• Coffee Pull-Apart Bread from Passion Kneaded
• Coriander Garlic Pull Apart Bread from The Mad Scientist's Kitchen
• Cranberry Chutney Pull Apart Bread from Spiceroots
• Garlic Pull Apart Bread from Palatable Pastime
• Laadi Pav or Pull Apart Rolls from Sneha's Recipe
• Overnight Monkey Bread Pudding from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Paneer Pesto Pull Apart Rolls from Veena's Vegnation
• Pull-Apart Dill Bread from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Pumpkin, Garlic, and Sage Pull Apart Bread from Baking Sense
• Pumpkin Spice Latte Pull-Apart Bread from All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Savory Breakfast Monkey Bread from Sonlicious

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

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Stuffed Plum Tomato Tart #BakingBloggers

For a Christmas brunch or a Sunday lunch, this stuffed plum tomato tart with a savory black olive shortcrust is pretty enough to be the star of the meal.

Do you ever come across a new ingredient in the grocery store that you just have to buy, even if you have no idea what you will make with it? I do! My most recent purchase was a container of mini plum tomatoes. Talk about cute!

Well, I couldn’t just cut them up and put them into a salad because then, how would you know how cute they were? Right? I decided that the best way to showcase them would be to stuff and bake them. And the best way to get them to stay upright would be to make them part of a tart.

This is a bit fiddly to make since you have to empty the tomatoes in order to fill them, but look at how pretty it turned out? Totally worth the time and, really, not a lot of effort.

Stuffed Plum Tomato Tart with Black Olive Shortcrust

The flavors are Mediterranean, from the red ripe plum tomatoes and the mozzarella and anchovy stuffing, to the black olive shortcrust.

Ingredients
For the black olive shortcrust:
1 1/2 cups or 190g flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup or 60g shortening
1/2 cup or 40g minced black olives, well drained
3-4 tablespoons cold water

For the plum tomato tart filling:
16 baby plum tomatoes (mine weighed about 1 lb 2 oz or 500g)
1/2 cup or 28g fresh breadcrumbs
1 clove garlic
Small bunch chives (about 15g)
3.5 oz or 100g mozzarella, grated
5-6 small anchovies fillets, drained (for a vegetarian tart, replace these with salty Kalamata olives)
3 large eggs
1/4 cup or 60ml milk
1/2 cup or 50g finely grated Parmesan
Freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil

Method
Make the pastry dough by lightly combining the shortening with the salt and flour, until you have crumbles. Fork through the minced black olives.

Add the cold water a little at time, mixing it in with a fork, until the pastry can form a ball. You can see my method, without the olives, in detail here: How to make a flaky pie crust.

Wrap the dough in cling film. Chill.

Halve and empty the plum tomatoes, reserving the liquid and flesh you have removed. I used a melon ball scoop, which made this part really easy. Leave the tomato halves to drain cut side down on paper towels.

Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C. Lightly grease and line your 8 3/4 in or 22cm spring-form tart pan with baking parchment.

To make the stuffed plum tomato filling, mince the garlic, chives and anchovies. Mix them with the grated mozzarella, breadcrumbs and enough of the tomato insides to moisten.

Roll out the chilled olive pastry crust and ease it into the prepared tart pan. Trim the pastry to fit or fold it over and make a decorative edge.

Top with another piece of parchment and baking beads.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 10 minutes. Remove the beads and parchment and bake another five. Remove the tart case from the oven and brush the bottom with a little olive oil.

Stuff the tomato halves with the filling and put them cut side up in the tart case, close together so they support each other to stay upright. I piled them all in and then held one at a time to fill, then replaced it in the crust.

Beat your eggs with the milk. Add the Parmesan and a good few grinds of fresh black pepper and mix well.

Carefully pour the egg mixture around the stuffed tomatoes. Give the whole tart another couple of grinds of fresh black pepper.

Bake for 35-40 or until the egg is set and the tomatoes are slumping.

Cut into slices. Enjoy!

Today I am joining a group of avid bakers in a new group called Baking Bloggers. Our organizer is Sue from Palatable Pastime and for our inaugural post, she has chosen PIE as the theme. Check out all the other lovely pies and tarts, both sweet and savory, that we are sharing.

• Applesauce Pie by Making Miracles
• Blackberry Pie by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Concord Grape Pie by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Cranberry Apple Pie by House of Nash Eats
• Dairy-free Raspberry Jam Crostata by Manu's Menu
• French Silk Pie by Tramplingrose
• Pear-Apple Crumble Pie by Cookaholic Wife
• Pear Frangipane Tart with Cranberries by Caroline's Cooking
• Seafood B'stilla (Moroccan Seafood Pie) by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Stuffed Plum Tomato Tart by Food Lust People Love

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