Sauce recipes — 5 meat-free sides and mains
Looking to add a little more ZEST and LOVE to your Christmas dishes this summer? We have sourced out some amazing vegetarian festive recipes from Miss Polly’s Kitchen’s spiced Avo salad to the perfect instagram-worthy pizza and more. Serve with your Christmas lunch or dinner, or simply create for friends, family or that summer date night.
Miss Polly’s Kitchen — Spiced Avocado Salad with Zesty Ricotta
Spice up your Christmas this year with this fresh, yet spicy avocado salad with zesty ricotta by our friend Polly Markus of Miss Polly’s Kitchen.
Salad
2 large avocados
4 baby cucumbers
Zest and juice of one lemon
1 red chilli
¼ of a red onion
½ cup fresh dill leaves
1 tbsp extra virgin OO
1 cup ricotta
Dressing:
1 tbsp chilli oil
2 tbsp extra virgin OO
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
Juice of half a lemon
Method
Mix the ricotta in a bowl with the zest and juice of 1 lemon, stir in 1 tbsp of extra virgin. Set aside.
Slice the avocados in half and remove the pip and skin, slice each half into 6 pieces.
Slice the baby cucumbers on the diagonal into roughly 1cm thick pieces.
Thinly slice the onion and chili.
Mix together the dressing ingredients.
Now start layering the salad. Dot over the ricotta and pour on the dressing. Finally top with the sliced chilli and dill leaves.
Serves 4-5 as a side
Assortment — Shaved Zucchini with Mint, Pomegranate and Feta Salad
Looking for that perfect salad this Christmas to balance out those summer BBQ favourites, then this shaved zucchini with fresh mint, pomegranate and feta salad by Assortment is what you need.
Ingredients
3 zucchinis
50g feta (crumbled)
1/4 cup mint leaves (roughly torn)
1/4 cup pomegranate seeds
3 Tbsp walnuts (roughly chopped)
Juice of one lemon
Zest of 1/2 a lemon
2 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper
Method
1. Shave the zucchinis with a vegetable peeler - start on one side, shave until you see seeds, then rotate 90 degrees and repeat, at the end, you should be left with a small amount of the centre of the zucchini. Discard this part of the zucchini or freeze to pop in your smoothies or vegetable stock.
2. In a small bowl combine the olive oil and lemon juice, add the mint leaves and let sit while you prepare the rest of the salad. This will help to soften the mint leaves.
3. In a large bowl or platter add the shaved zucchini, make sure to loosen the strips of zucchini. Top with 3/4 of the feta, pomegranates seeds, and walnuts. Drizzle over the dressing and give the salad a good toss.
4. Top with the remaining, feta, pomegranate seeds and walnuts,. Then add the lemon zest and salt and pepper. Adding the salt right at the end prevents the zucchini from going soggy.
Ingredients
3 zucchini, cut into 1 cm cubes
¼ cup olive oil
2 red capsicums
1 onion, chopped
3 medium orange kumara (approx 550g) or small pumpkin, peeled and grated
2 tsp picked thyme leaves, plus a few sprigs for garnishing
1 tsp sea salt
1 tin white beans
½ cup Fix and Fogg cashew butter
¾ cup dried bread crumbs
3 Tbsp finely chopped chives, parsley or dill
1¼ cup roasted cashews, roughly chopped
1 packet Proper Crisps kumara chip
Method
Preheat the oven 180°C
Line a baking tray with baking paper. Put the zucchini on a tray and toss with a little of the olive oil and season with salt. Spread out in single layer. Nestle the capsicums on the tray
Roast for 25-30 mins until the zucchini are cooked through and the capsicums collapsed. Set aside. When cool enough to handle, peel the skin and seeds from the capsicums. Cut into a 1 cm dice
In a frying pan, heat the remaining olive oil, add the onion, kumara, thyme and salt and cook until softened. Set aside to cool
Roughly mash the white beans, then mix in the cashew butter. Fold through the remaining ingredients, leaving aside the Proper kumara crisps and ¼ cup of cashews for garnishing
Grease and line the base of a ring tin with baking paper. Add the mix and press down. Bake for 35 mins. Set aside to cool slightly for 10 mins. Turn out from the tin onto your serving plate, remove the baking paper and scatter with the kumara chips, remaining cashews and sprigs of thyme
Ottolenghi — Avocado and Broad Bean Dip
Sink your teeth into this smooth and zesty dip from Ottolenghi this summer - Vibrant and fresh.
Ingredients
250g podded broad beans (fresh or frozen )
1 large avocado, peeled and roughly chopped (190g net weight)
1½ tbsp lemon juice, plus 1 strip finely shaved lemon skin
60ml olive oil
Salt
2 spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced.
Method
Fill a small saucepan with salted water and bring to a boil. Blanch the beans for two minutes, then drain, refresh and drain again. Peel off and discard the beans’ skins, then set aside 50g. Put the rest of the beans in a food processor with the avocado, lemon juice, two tablespoons of oil and a quarter-teaspoon of salt, and blitz until almost smooth. Heat the remaining two tablespoons of oil in a small frying pan on a medium-high flame, then gently fry the spring onions and lemon skin for a minute. Off the heat, stir in the reserved broad beans and a pinch of salt. Spread out the avocado and broad bean mash over a plate, making sure there is a rim around the edge, spoon the spring onion mix into the middle and serve.
Anastassslife — The Perfect Pizza
Serve a little extra love this Christmas with these perfect pizzas with only 2 ingredients by Annabel Langbein - Savoury or Sweet
Ingredients:
plain yoghurt
self raising flour
Method:
Combined, kneed and roll out into your desired heart shape. Top with your favourite toppings
Vegetarian Pizza - Anastasi
Strawberry Galette - Celine
