a few nature, beauty-inspired photos from our trip to Australia.  Land to Sea….

-Yellow Sulphur-crested cockatoos – one evening there were 18 of them.

-a visit from a young kookaburra – early morning kookaburra calls

-low tide, ‘Catseye Beach’

-high-tide, ‘Catseye Beach’ with my very big teenagers

-view from ‘Passage Peak’, Hamilton Island Nature Reserve

brown rice salad with fresh herbs, toasted seeds & miso mayonnaise

serves 4

Inspired by Amy Chaplin’s ‘At Home in the Wholefood Kitchen.’

For the charred grilled vegetables, use whatever vegetables are in season.  If short on time, there is no need to cook the vegetables, just shave, grate or thinly slice.  In Summer, I serve it with roasted, buttered corn on the cob.   Once I have a supply of the miso mayonnaise in the fridge, it becomes a simple meal to throw together quickly – I sometimes use quinoa instead of the brown rice and for a more substantial meal, add 1 cup of cooked chickpeas.  If you don’t have sweet white miso on hand, this salad is really good with the left-over tamari and tahini sauces from the previous post.

ingredients

1½ cup small round brown rice, soaked overnight

2 Tbsp tamari toasted sunflower seeds/pumpkin (recipe here)

2 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds

1 medium zucchini/green beans/okra, chopped into diagonals

1 red capsicum, chopped

1 cup fresh coriander & parsley, finely chopped

½ cup small cherry tomatoes, halved and quartered

2 small crunchy cucumbers, diced

1 avocado

preparation

1.  Drain the rice and place in a heavy-based saucepan with 2⅓ cups of water.  Bring to boil, lower the flame, then simmer, covered for 40 minutes or until all the water is absorbed.

If you are not soaking the rice, increase the water to 2¾ cups and cook for longer.  Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

2.  In a skillet over medium heat, place the sesame seeds and toast for 2 or 3 minutes until golden – set aside.

3.  In a heavy-based frying pan over a high flame, drizzle in a tiny bit of oil/ghee, throw in the capsicum and zucchini – fry, stirring every few minutes.  The capsicum, zucchini/okra should start to have dark blisters and a charred look. Cook for 5 minutes until charred and soft.  Sprinkle with salt and set aside.

4. Place the cooled brown rice in a large bowl and stir through the charred vegetables.

5.  Sprinkle over the tomatoes, cucumbers, toasted seeds, fresh coriander and parsley.

6.  Remove the outer skin from the avocado, slice and fan over the centre of the rice.  When serving, spoon into individual bowls and drizzle with a generous helping of miso mayonnaise and lemon slices.

miso mayonnaise

Makes 1 cup

ingredients

3 Tbsp sweet white miso

3 Tbsp brown rice vinegar

3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

2 Tbsp honey/sweetener of choice

1 Tbsp freshly grated ginger

⅓ cup olive oil

preparation

1.  Place all the ingredients, except the olive oil in a small blender or an upright blender – blitz on high speed for 1 minute or until smooth.   

2.  With the blender running on low speed, drizzle in the olive oil and blend until thick and smooth, about 30 seconds.  Store in a jar in the fridge.

Goodness shared by Stacey