NEW YEAR’S DAY BRUNCH MENU

White Bean Soup with Hazelnut Pesto
Roasted Potato Olive Bread cut into Stick Dippers
Rice Noodles, Mango and Butterbean Salad

Black Sesame Pudding

Green Tea (1 cup)

Nutritional Analysis per serving (based on serving sizes suggested in recipes, or as stated)

*Recommended daily allowance (Food labelling regulations)

WHITE BEAN SOUP WITH HAZELNUT PESTO
Serves 15

You can make this with butter beans or haricots, but the texture is superb with collapsed, creamy cannellini beans.

Ingredients
For the soup:
450g dried cannellini beans
2 large carrots, diced
2 large red onions, diced
8 garlic cloves, finely chopped
3 celery sticks, sliced
3 tbsp olive oil
4 sprigs rosemary, finely chopped
3 bay leaves
pinch of bicarbonate of soda
1½ litres reduced-salt vegetable stock
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp sherry vinegar (or red wine vinegar)

For the pesto:
150g hazelnuts
50g shelled walnuts
150ml extra virgin olive oil
3 garlic cloves, peeled
3 sprigs of rosemary, chopped
50g flat leaf parsley, chopped
1 tsp dried chilli flakes (optional)
Sherry vinegar (or red wine vinegar)

Preparation
Soak the beans overnight. The next day, sweat the vegetables in the olive oil over a low heat. Add the chopped rosemary and bay leaves.

Drain the beans and add to the pot with the bicarbonate of soda. Pour in the stock and top up with water – the liquid should rise four inches above the beans.

Bring to the boil, skim the surface, then simmer for around two hours until the beans have wilfully collapsed.

Make the pesto. Roughly blitz the hazelnuts and walnuts. Pour half of the olive oil in a pan on a low heat. Add the nuts and garlic.

Slow fry for 15 minutes, stirring regularly. Once the nuts have coloured, add the chopped herbs and chilli. Infuse for 10 minutes, then cool. Pulse in a food processor to a coarse paste. Scoop into a bowl and stir in the rest of the olive oil, vinegar and reduced-sodium salt and pepper to taste.

Once the beans are soft and mushy, stir in the extra virgin olive oil and a splash of the vinegar. If you like, you can encourage the beans to break down further with a potato masher. Season to taste.

Serve the pesto as a blob on top of the soup or stir it in.

Source: Guardian

Nutritional Analysis

*Recommended daily allowance (Food labelling regulations)

ROASTED POTATO OLIVE BREAD
Makes 1 focaccia loaf

You can shape this dough into loaves, cut it into sticks for deli sub rolls or – even easier – pat it out on an oven tray for a mega-thick focaccia.

Ingredients
450g salad potatoes, washed
Olive oil and reduced-sodium salt
1 tsp instant dry yeast
100ml dairy-free yoghurt
50g maple syrup
175g pitted green olives
1 small bunch dill, chopped
625g Italian 00 flour
1 tsp reduced-sodium salt

Preparation
Chop the potatoes into cubes, toss them with oil and a little salt, roast for 30 minutes until barely cooked, then leave to cool. In a large bowl, mix 375ml water with the yeast, yoghurt, maple syrup, olives, dill and cold potatoes, then mix in the flour and reduced-sodium salt to a sticky dough.

eave for 45 minutes, then oil both a patch of worktop and your hands, knead the dough gently on it for 10 seconds, then lift it back into the bowl. Repeat this three more times at 45-minute intervals, then line a baking tray with nonstick paper and press the dough out so it half covers it. Leave another 45 minutes, then stretch the dough to cover the rest of the tray.

Dimple the top, sprinkle with reduced-sodium salt and leave for about 30 minutes while you heat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan-assisted)/390°F/gas mark 6. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a deep golden brown on top.

Source: Guardian

Nutritional Analysis

*Recommended daily allowance (Food labelling regulations)

RICE NOODLE, MANGO & BUTTERBEAN SALAD
Serves 4

Scour a large supermarket or Asian grocer for additional ingredients with which to infuse your sauce – galangal, Thai sweet basil, coriander root… the more the merrier.

Ingredients
400ml tin coconut milk
1 lemongrass stalk, pounded
6 lime leaves
1 very hot red chilli, cut in half
6 little red shallots (60g in total), peeled and very thinly sliced
40g ginger, peeled
½ tsp palm (or caster) sugar
1 tbsp thick tamarind water (that is, tamarind pulp whisked with hot water and strained)
½ tsp sesame oil
½ tsp reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
150g Thai wide rice noodles
240g cooked butter beans
2 medium mangoes, peeled and cut into 2cm dice (400g after dicing)
20g coriander leaves, chopped
20g mint leaves, roughly chopped
½ tsp reduced-sodium salt
80g cashew nuts, toasted and crushed roughly

Preparation
First make a dressing. Put the coconut milk in a medium saucepan and add the lemongrass, four lime leaves, half the chilli, half the shallots and half the ginger thinly sliced. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 30-40 minutes, until the coconut milk is thick and reduced by three-quarters. Strain through a fine sieve and reserve; you should have about 100ml. Pour into a small bowl and whisk in the sugar, tamarind water, sesame oil and soy. Leave to cool. Before serving, add the lime juice.

Meanwhile, cook the noodles as per the packet instructions. Taste to make sure they're done (bear in mind that doing so while they're warm can be misleading; they tend to harden when they cool down), wash in cold water and strain.

Put the noodles in a serving bowl, and add the beans, mango, herbs and salt. Remove and discard the central vein from the remaining two lime leaves, slice the rest as thinly as you can and add to the bowl. Finely dice the remaining chilli, grate the ginger and add to the bowl. Add the rest of the shallots and half the cashews, toss and add the dressing; you may not need it all. Toss again and check the seasoning. Scatter over the remaining nuts and serve.

Source: Guardian

Nutritional Analysis

*Recommended daily allowance (Food labelling regulations)

BLACK SESAME PUDDING
Serves 6

Ingredients
75g/½ cup black sesame seeds
75g/½ cup unsalted dry roasted peanuts (or substitute almonds, cashews, or other nuts)
700ml/3 cups water + ¼ tsp reduced-sodium salt
70g/½ cup brown sugar, or more according to taste
1 tsp. vanilla
80g/1/3 cup coconut cream OR good-quality coconut milk
1½ tbsp arrowroot powder OR corn starch dissolved in 3 tbsp water
optional for garnish: coconut milk, dry shredded coconut, and/or ground peanuts (or other nuts)

Preparation
Heat water with salt added in a pot over medium-high heat.
While water is heating: using a coffee grinder, grind the sesame seeds well (to clean out coffee grinder, simply wipe with a dry cloth). The ground seeds should become a little oily and almost look like a paste when you're done grinding (about 1 minute).

Add the ground sesame seeds to the hot salted water and stir, mixing the seeds well into the water.

Using your same grinder again, grind up the nuts to a fine consistency. Add to the pot as well and stir.

Bring the sesame, nut and water mix to the boil, then reduce to medium heat. Simmer the mixture for 5-8 minutes.
At this point, the pudding can be strained to get rid of the little bits of nut and sesame.

With the pudding still placed over medium to low heat, add the sugar, vanilla, coconut cream/milk, and the arrowroot/cornstarch powder dissolved in water. Stir continuously. The dessert should thicken within a minute or two.

A Note About Asian Puddings: In Thailand and other parts of Southeast-Asia, puddings like this one are often referred to as "dessert soups" or "gruel", as they are much thinner in texture than a Western-style pudding. However, you can make yours thicker, if you prefer, by adding more arrowroot powder or cornstarch (dissolved in water).

Taste for sweetness, adding a little more brown sugar if needed.

To serve, pour into dessert cups or bowls while still warm and sprinkle with a little dry shredded coconut or some ground peanuts. An extra swirl of coconut milk can also be added.

This dessert is normally served warm, but it is also very good served cold on a warm day. To store, keep in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Reheat before serving. Enjoy!!

Source: About.Com

Nutritional Analysis (without garnish)

*Recommended daily allowance (Food labelling regulations)