Tangy Thai Rainbow Salad

To compensate for my jaunt to the cinema (and subsequent consumption of a ten-ton Tess serving of Candy King with AN ENTIRE TUB OF PRINGLES), I decided to keep my lunch light, bright, easy-peasy but still packed with a punch.

It was really delicious, incredibly healthy and particularly filling so I don't feel at all bad about the 76,340 calories I just consumed in one sitting. Not even slightly.


Excuse the chipped plate. It's quite a sore spot and I still don't feel ready to talk about it. 

For the salad:

1. Slice half a Chinese Leaf into thin strips (a type of lettuce stocked in Tesco)
2. Finely dice half a red onion (also in Tesco)
3. Peel a carrot into ribbons (you'll never guess what, appears on the shelves of our well-stocked Tesco)
4. Grate half a cucumber (see above)
5. Dice an avocado (NEVER. IN. TESCO.)
6. Heat a non-stick frying pan on high
7. When the pan's hot, throw in your prawns and flash fry until they have just turned pink all over

(My prawns were frozen because it's cheaper… so before I fried them, I defrosted them by putting them in a mug and pouring in some boiling water. I drained them just before I fried them.)

For the dressing:

8. Juice two limes into a bowl
9. De-seed and chop up half a chilli (or a whole one if you like it hot) & add to lime
10. Add 2 dessert spoons of soy sauce, 2 dessert spoons of runny honey & 1/2 teaspoon fish sauce
11. Grate a thumb-size piece of ginger, gather the pulp and squeeze it into the bowl (I hate raw ginger pulp. Yuck.)

The dressing is super strong when you taste it on its own, but over the whole salad it gives it the pizazz it needs. 

SERVES 2

INGREDIENTS

SALAD

• 1/2 Chinese Leaf
• 1/2 red onion
• 1 large carrot
• 1/2 cucumber
• 1 avocado
• 240g raw prawns

DRESSING

• 2 limes
• 2 dessert spoons of soy sauce
• 2 dessert spoons honey
• 1/2 teaspoon fish sauce
• 1/2 red chilli
• 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger 

Sweet Berry Clouds

Four years in and I'm still not ready for a St Andrews winter. How could I forget about these pitch-black 4 o'clocks and the gale force winds with their torrents of rain trying to force us back into the library. Not to mention that we are approaching week 9, deadlines and exams are looming. Really, all I want is to be snuggled up warm, snacking and watching a film. I have the next best thing.

Although these may not be what you'd necessarily call healthy (okay, I concede, there is no way that these can be called healthy), I have decided that they are good for the soul. Plus, they are snappy to make.

The sharp blackberries and raspberries are packed full of fibre and antioxidants (and apparently the former help with your libido... good for keeping warm on a winter's eve). Mint is high in Vitamin C and it also reminds me of mojitos which is always a plus. The cream acts as a figurative fluffy down duvet and the icing sugar, well, it keeps you sweet in this most miserable of times.

1. Whip up your mascarpone and double cream in a bowl. The mixture should be quite firm - if it's a little too stiff add a dessert-spoon of water to loosen it up.

2. Add the icing sugar and mix in

3. Chop a sprig of mint leaves finely, and cut the fruit into quarters
(I forgot to do this and ended up having to chop them up within the bowl - all very messy and definitely unadvisable)

4. Stir them into the cream and crush them lightly with your fork. The fruity juices will run and give it a glorious lilac colour with vibrant streaks of pink and purple! Yum.

5. Scoop spoonfuls of the cream onto your meringue baskets.

6. Crush some blackberries and raspberries on top of your cream and add a little leaf of mint.

Don't mind me while I polish these off. See you all at fat camp.

8 SERVINGS

INGREDIENTS

• 8 meringue baskets
• 150ml double cream
• 125ml mascarpone 
• 3 heaped dessert spoons of icing sugar
• 1 sprig of mint leaves, chopped
• 120g raspberries, quartered
• 120g blackberries, quartered

To garnish

• 4 raspberries
• 4 blackberries
• 8 small mint leaves

A punchy little number

I get obsessed with food. I lived in Paris for a term and every single day that I lived in the French capital, the hub of the culinary world and the home to some of the most exquisite bakeries in the world, I ate the same supermarket Boursin and carrot wrap for my lunch.

This, however, is my latest obsession. It is ever so slightly prettier, healthier and fresher. It is also largely pink.

I had something similar for brunch recently at the local café Sunday and thought THIS IS DELIGHTFUL, I MUST TRY THIS AT HOME.

1. Julienne your carrots and beetroot and add them to a bowl with your Kale

Watch here for Julienne-ing knife skillz but lets be honest no one at uni has a knife sharp enough to cut butter, they really don't come any blunter. So you can go for a rather chunky cut like I have or just grate them up.

2. Into the bowl pour in the olive oil, the juice of a lemon, a minced clove of garlic and sprinkle in lots of salt

3. Massage well to get everything covered in the creamy dressing and to break down the rough kale a little

^ (Apologies for the eyesore above that is, unfortunately, my mutant arm)

 4. Poach each egg for 2 minutes, one by one.

I really think it's true that the fresher they are the easier it is. I just boil some water in a pan, add a wee lid of white wine vinegar in. Crack an egg into a cup. Then, when boiling, swill the water round in a circular motion with a dessert spoon and put your egg into the typhoon's eye!

5. When your eggs are cooked, take them out with a slotted spoon and leave them to dry off

6. Plate up your kale medley, chop in an avo & lay the eggs on top

7. Last but not least add a sprinkling of pepper

Et voilà. If you are what you eat then this healthy, vibrant and punchy little number suits all my pals very well indeed.

 SERVES 2

INGREDIENTS

• 200g curly kale
• 2 carrots
• 3 beetroots
• 100g feta
• a good few glugs of olive oil
• 1 lemon
• 1 garlic clove
• lots of salt
• 1/2 avocado
• 2 eggs
• pepper, to taste

That's all folks. Give it a bash.