Tropical Fruit Salad made in a jiffy.

There is nothing better than a  tropical fruit salad to start your Sunday Brunch, this lovely colourful tropical salad is refreshing and really delicious to eat.

Ingredients:

1 medium ripe papaya
1 small ripe pineapple
10 strawberries

Dressing:

1 tablespoon ginger honey
Squeeze of lemon juice
2 tablespoons orange juice

Method:

1. Peel the pineapple, cut in half and remove the inner core.
2. Dice the pineapple into small bite size cubes.
3. Peel the papaya, cut in half and remove the inner seeds
4. Dice the papaya into small bite size cubes.
5. Wash the strawberries and towel dry them , remove the top and cut into small bite sized pieces.
6. In a jar with has a screw top add the orange juice, lime juice and honey and screw the lid. Give the jar a vigorous shake.
7. Get some pretty sundae glasses and spoon some pineapple pieces, followed by the papaya pieces and finally the strawberries. Drizzle over the fruit the honey dressing and serve immediately.

Submitting to:
Javelin Warriors cookin with/luv

Round Up ~ Lets Cook sweet treats for Valentine

Thankyou to everyone who participated in this lovely romantic event.I hope all your valentines enjoyed their yummy sweet treats.
Here is the lovely round up:

Some beautiful gifts from not on the high street.com

A few weeks ago I stumbled on a wonderful website whilst searching for a unique gift for a friend. The awesome site is notonthehighstreet. Now you may ask what is so special about this web site? The site is an Aladdin’s cave for personalised gifts, homeware, baby and child, jewellery wedding and fashion. There are so many gift ideas that the only problem will be deciding what to purchase. I spent over two hours on the site as each and every item is so nice, unique and pretty that I couldn't stop adding them all to my wish list. At the end I had almost 15 items that I so wanted. Finally I managed to narrow my wish list down to three items.

I love home ware and Kitchen Items and I immediately fell in love with these beautiful Ambiance Amethyst Footed Tumbler ice-cream / sundae glasses in a lovely pinky colour. They are perfect for serving ice-cream, fresh fruit and smoothies and would brighten up any meal with their pretty pink colour. The glasses are dishwasher safe too . The glasses retail at £ 5.75 each and are really good value for money.

The pretty little milk bottles are really cute and I love the fact that they are the perfect size to serve milkshakes or smoothies as one serving. 

These retro milk bottles retail £ 3.25 each. They are perfect for enticing your little ones to gulp down some milk. Alternatively these little retro bottles make cute flower vases too.

My third choice were these pretty glass spice jars with cork lids and little wooden spoons that attach to the jar itself.

The jars come in a set of three and are perfect for storing spices and herbs and look really cute on any kitchen shelf. They retail at £ 15.50 for a set of three.

I would like to Thanks notonthehighstreet who sent me all these three products to review, all the views and opinions in this post are my own.

Announcing EVENT ~ Lets cook with seeds.

At simply.food the month of March is dedicated to healthy eating  this event is all about adding healthy seeds to your dishes .Feel free to prepare any vegetarian dish ( eggs allowed) with the addition of seeds to it and link it to this event. Some seeds that you can use are pumpkin, sesame, chia, flaxseeds, hemp seeds, pomegranate seeds are just a few examples. You can use any edible seed in your recipe.

To Participate:

1. Prepare any  dish suitable for vegetarians but must include some sort of seed in the recipe in good proportion  (eggs allowed),  please link your dish using the linky below by entering your Dish Name and Post URL
2. Please link this event announcement with your entry, this is mandatory. (Any entries sent with out the mandatory link will be disqualified.)
3.Use of logo is  not mandatory but it helps to spread the word if you can use it.

4. Multiple entries are allowed, archived are only allowed if reposted and updated with this event link.

4. In the event of problem using linky you can email me the entry at simplysensationalfood@gmail.com

Please use this format:

Your Name: Recipe
Name Recipe URL
Image no larger than 300 pixels.
Event Ends 31st March 2014

Parsnip and Leek Soup ~ 5-2 Diet

Delicious Parsnip and Leek soup that is tasty filling and very low fat. It is perfect as part of the 5-2 diet.

Serves 2
Ingredients:

100 g parsnips peeled and diced
1 small carrot peeled and diced
1 small potato peeled and diced
100 g leek washed and finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon light olive oil
500 ml water

Method:

1. Place the parsnips, carrots and potatoes in a microwaveable dish with a cover. Add 250 ml water and cook the vegetables for 10 minutes on high or until vegetables are fully cooked.
2. In a pan add the olive oil and place the pan on a medium heat.When the oil is hot, add the leeks and saute them for 2-3 minutes.
3. Add the pre cooked vegetables to the pan and season with salt and pepper. Bring the soup to a low simmer for 2-3 minutes
4. Transfer the soup to a blender jug and blend the soup to a coarse texture.(You can blend it smooth if you prefer)
5. Transfer the soup back to the saucepan and add an additional 250 ml water and bring it to a simmer again.
6. Turn off heat and adjust seasoning if desired.
Transfer to a serving bowl and serve hot.

This soup can be part of the 5- 2 diet, its is approximately 150 calories per serving ( 1 bowl of soup)
NB-Bread roll not included in calorie count.

Calories per serving	Carbs	Fat	Protein	Sodium	Sugar
150	29	3	3	1195	4

Submitting to:
Javelin Warriors Cook in w/luv
No Croutons event by Jac of Tinned Tomatoes Guest hosted by Lisa's Kitchen
In my veg box ~Potatoes event by citrusspiceuk guest hosted by Give me some spice

Modern Masala: Indian Plantain Kofta in rich Cashew nut gravy.

McCormicks produce the Schwartz range of spices and each year they produce a flavour favour forecast which highlights five top food trends. This year’s top five food trends are:

Chillies Obsession

Modern Masala

Clever compact cooking

Mexican world tour

Charmed by Brazil

I recently received a spice hamper from McCormicks and a request to create a dish inspired by one of the five food trends. In the hamper there was smoked paprika, cayenne chilli pepper Chinese five spice, sesame seeds, medium curry powder, oregano, kaffir lime leaves, fenugreek, onion salt, mint, crushed chilli flakes, asafoetida, ground ginger, ground cloves, minced garlic, black onion seeds, garam masala, cumin seeds, cardamom pods, ground coriander, ground cumin and minced garlic, chilli powder, whole red chillies and kaffir lime leaves. My recipe is inspired by Modern Masala which uses an array of Indian spices to create a dish.

Plantain Kofta- Spicy plantain balls, cooked with a blend of aromatic spices in a rich and creamy cashew nut gravy.

Preparation time – 15 minutes (chilling time 30 minutes)

Cooking time- 20 minutes

Serves- 4

 Ingredients:

For Kofta:

2 plantains

1/2 teaspoon schwartz ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon schwartz chilli  powder

1/2 teaspoon schwartz onion salt

3 tablespoons corn flour

1 pinch bicarbonate of soda

1 tablespoon fresh coriander finely chopped

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon amchur (dried mango) powder

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon 

¼ teaspoon schwartz ground cloves

½ teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon schwartz white sesame seeds

300 ml Sunflower oil for deep frying Kofta.

For Gravy:

2 tablespoons olive oil

Small pinch schwartz asafoetida

2 schwartz red dried chillies 

2 schwartz cardamon pods

½ teaspoon schwartz cumin seeds

1 medium red onion finely diced

½ teaspoon schwartz minced garlic

½ teaspoon schwartz ground ginger 

2 medium tomatoes chopped and blended to a puree

1 teaspoon tomato paste

½ teaspoon schwartz ground coriander 

½ teaspoon schwartz ground cumin 

½ teaspoon schwartz chilli powder

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon schwartz garam masala

2 tablespoons cream or plain yoghurt

60 grams / 2 oz cashew nuts

For Garnish:

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh coriander

2 spring onions finely sliced.

 Method:

For Kofta:

1. Boil the plantains till well cooked, allow them to cool slightly and then peel skin off and mash with a potato masher ensuring there are no lumps.

2. Add the ground ginger,chilli powder,onion salt,1 pinch bicarbonate of soda, fresh coriander finely chopped, salt, amchur (dried mango) powder, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, turmeric, white sesame seeds and corn flour. Add a little more corn flour if needed.

3. Divide the mixture into 10 parts and roll into 10 walnut sized balls. Refrigerate the balls  for 30 minutes.

4. After 30 minutes, heat the oil in pan and fry the plantain balls on medium heat till golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper and keep aside.

For Gravy:

1. Soak the cashew nuts in 1 cup water for 10 minutes, once soaked grind to make a smooth cashew nut paste. Keep aside

2. In a pan heat the oil when hot add  a pinch of asafoetida, the cumin seeds, dry red chillies and cardamom pods. Once cumin seeds splutter add the onion and cook till translucent, add the garlic granules and ginger powder and sauté for 2 more minutes.

3. Add the pureed tomatoes, tomato paste, chilli powder, salt , ground coriander and cumin and cook till gravy starts to separate from oil.

4. Add the cashew nut paste and the garam masala and simmer till gravy thickens for 3-4 minutes.

5. Remove the gravy from the heat and stir in the cream or yoghurt.

6. Place the pre prepared koftas in a serving dish. Spoon the gravy generously over the kofta’s and garnish with chopped spring onions and freshly chopped coriander.

Serve with boiled rice.

In 2014 global flavour leader McCormick, parent company of UK leading herbs and spices brand Schwartz is celebrating its 125^thanniversary. The yearlong celebration kicks off with the launch of the 125^thAnniversary Edition of the Flavour Forecast and the Flavour of Together programme, with the goal of connecting people around the world as they share 1.25 million stories about the special role food and flavour plays in our lives.

I was sent the Schwartz hamper to create a recipe, all views and opinions stated in this post are my own.

Event Round up Flavours of ~The World Grand Finale.

Sadly the we bid farewell to the "Flavours of" series at simply.food, this was the grand finale of the series and I must say it has been a wonderful journey around the world. Thankyou to all participants  for all the entries . Here is the delicious round up.