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Recipe: Taco salad
I make a variation of taco salad every few weeks. While Tex-Mex restaurants use the word “taco” as an excuse to load their salads with tortilla chips, I prefer to load mine with vegetables instead. This recipe is gluten-free and dairy-free. You can omit the beef and double-up on beans for a vegan version. If you do eat meat you can swap the beef for pork, chicken or turkey (or a combination). If you prefer less heat, omit the fresh and pickled jalapeños, lower the amount of chipotle powder and omit the chilli flakes. If you want to make this recipe ahead of time, you can prepare the pico de…
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Recipe: Lomo saltado (Peruvian beef stir-fry)
Lomo saltado is one of my favourite Peruvian dishes. It’s a result of the fusion between Cantonese and Peruvian (i.e. Andean and Spanish) cuisines. This traditional dish consists of strips of beef tenderloin or sirloin (“lomo” in Spanish) stir-fried with onion and tomato wedges, soy sauce and vinegar. It is served with rice and potato chips. You can use tenderloin or sirloin, but any stir-fry cut works well as long as you don’t overcook the meat. As with any stir-fry it’s very important that you get your wok or pan super hot before adding the meat. If you don’t eat beef, there are versions of this dish that use chicken…
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Recipe: Pastel de choclo con polenta
I recently inherited a bag of polenta that I had to put to good use. Instead of going the easy (Italian) route, I decided to see if I could use it to sub fresh Peruvian corn to make our version of cottage pie. Thus, pastel de choclo con polenta was born. The recipe calls for ají amarillo paste and ají panca paste. If you don’t have ají amarillo I would not bother trying to find a substitute as most chilli pastes will add heat rather than flavour. If you don’t have ají panca for the filling, you can use tomato paste instead. This dish is gluten-free and can be made…
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Recipe: Eggplant, beef & mushroom casserole
Eggplant, beef & mushroom casserole is the perfect winter dish. It is not only warming and comforting, but it also contains a lot of veggies and good quality protein. I used organic mince with organs from Feather and Bone, but you can use regular beef mince. Feel free to add whatever vegetables you have lying around in your fridge. If you don’t do dairy, it tastes wonderful without the cheese, too.
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Recipe: Supercharged Bolognese
This Supercharged Bolognese might look like a regular Bolognese but it’s got a secret ingredient to make it extra nutritious: Feather and Bone’s organic beef mince with organs. You can use your own mince + organ meat blend, of course. Flavour comes, mostly, from the speck (also from Feather and Bone – you can use bacon instead), classic soffritto veggies (onion, garlic, celery and carrot) and red wine (you can use beef broth instead). The other flavour booster most Bolognese recipes don’t include is dried porcini, which adds to the umaminess of the dish. In Perú, ragú-style dishes are always made with dried mushrooms because they are included by default…
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Recipe: Mum’s burgers
Last time I went home I asked mum for recipes of meals I really miss. Her burgers, a simple weeknight meal, were on the list. She used to serve them with rice (otherwise it’s not a meal, according to many Peruvians) and occasionally a little salad. I used to pour tomato sauce all over the rice; these days I prefer serving the burgers with salad (coleslaw is my personal fave) and some good mustard.
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Recipe: Ground beef and cabbage
Ground beef and cabbage is a simple nutritious recipe you can make on a week night using ingredients that are easy to come by. This recipe is gluten-free, dairy-free and low-carb. You can substitute the beef mince for any other kind of mince, including plant-based alternatives. You can also use pre-shredded cabbage or a coleslaw mix instead of shredding your own cabbage.
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Recipe: Ground beef and green beans
Ground beef and green beans is a simple nutritious recipe you can make on a week night using ingredients that are easy to come by. This recipe is gluten-free, dairy-free and low-carb. You can substitute the beef mince for any other kind of mince, including plant-based alternatives. Feel free to use other vegetables (e.g. broccolini, broccoli or Asian greens) instead of the green beans.
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Recipe: Pesto beef with Mediterranean vegetables
As much as I love collecting and trying new recipes, there are some times when I have a particular craving and I know I won’t find the recipe in a cookbook. Luckily, it wasn’t anything too crazy or complicated to make. Hope you like it as much as I did.
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Recipe: Peruvian osso buco
Gastón Acurio is without a doubt the most important Peruvian chef of all times. In his Facebook page he promotes Peruvian restaurants back home and overseas and shares recipes with his followers. Like Peruvian mums, he doesn’t use quantities. He might indicate approximates (e.g. “a lot”, “a pinch”), but you have to figure out exact amounts by yourself. This is not hard to do if you have any experience with cooking Peruvian dishes but can become daunting if you don’t. The first time I made Gastón’s recipe for osso buco I eyeballed the quantities and the result was amazing. I didn’t write the recipe down so I “had to” make…
