A Natural Reminder: Poem and Xmas Recipe
Our #EatNZKaitaki Siobhan Hemingway, is a Horticulture student, nature lover, artist & designer with a passion for gardening. She loves inspiring others to get their hands in the soil & grow food.
This is a poem that I truly believe is becoming more and more apparent as we move forward in our food landscape and food security in Aoteoroa and our modern world. Part of my kaupapa is to help people see the beauty and importance in connecting to nature, the whenua & Papatūānuku again. No matter how big and small, I feel if we can come back to something so pure, yet wild and extraordinary, we can find a lot of healing in being closer to nature and each other as tangata whenua.
Christmas Confetti Salad - Recipe
This salad is bright, colourful, crunchy, and packed with an array of fresh, savoury and zingy flavours. A wonderful dish to celebrate fresh produce, even better with homegrown or locally sourced vege. The millet, a wonderful gluten free nutritious grain, acts as the carrier and lets the vege and herbs shine. Beautiful and easy to prepare and would be an awesome side salad at Christmas! Let it highlight the summer bounty and make you appreciate the food grown locally or in your own backyard - reka! (yum!)
Salad Ingredients:
1 cup uncooked Millet
½ Red Onion
½ Orange Capsicum
1 Courgette
1 cup Cherry Tomatoes
1 cup Button Mushrooms
1 Bunch of Parsley (Hefty handful)
1 Bunch of Spring onions or chives (Heft handful)
⅓ cup of Chopped Sundried Tomatoes
Handful of raw Pistachio nuts (Optional)
Salt + Pepper to season
Dressing Ingredients:
Couple swigs of good-quality cold pressed Olive Oil
Few splashes of Coconut Aminos
½ lemon, squeezed
1 - 2 tsp dried dill
Pinch of garlic + onion powder
Salt + Pepper
(Eyeball straight into the salad bowl or mix in a jar then pour over salad)
Method:
Start by cooking your dried millet, 1 cup millet to 2 cups water into a pot and bring to a boil with lid on, once at boil bring down to a simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and take the lid off to finish absorbing. Once cooked and cooled, gently fluff the cooked millet and pour into large mixing bowl.
Whilst the millet is cooking and cooling down. Chop up all your veggies, sundried tomatoes and herbs. Dice them into small cubes about ½ cm thick. The smaller the better the texture. Add the courgette and mushrooms to a hot pan with olive oil or butter, season with Mrs Rogers Organic Chicken Seasoning or your favourite all purpose seasoning and cooked to soft/golden. Add the cooked vege along with the rest of the fresh chopped ingredients into the same mixing bowl as the millet.
Gently toss the vege with the millet until all the colours are well combined, season with salt and pepper.
Toast your pistachio nuts (pine nuts or slithered almonds would work well too). Once cooled, gently crush the pistachios into a nice crumb, not too fine, leave some texture. Set aside.
Now it's time to dress the millet salad. A swig or two with good olive oil to your liking, generous splashes of coconut aminos, ½ fresh lemon squeezed, 1 - 2 tsps dried dill, pinch or two of garlic & onion powder, salt and pepper. This is the base recipe ingredients, please adjust to your liking. (A honey mustard dressing would work well here too). Mix in the dressing until it is well coated and flavours combined.
Serve up in your favourite dish and top with the crushed pistachios as an optional crunchy garnish. Dig in!
This salad stores really well in the fridge for up to 4 days. It is easy to prepare the day before and kept in the fridge ready to serve.
It can be served in many ways as a side salad or a main salad with your choice of protein and leafy greens.
See more from Siobhan over on IG @siobhanirisrose