Playing in the kitchen

I got a little creative in the kitchen this afternoon.

Lately, I don't even need an excuse to try out a new recipe. However, it just so happens that a friend is hosting a mutual friend's leaving dinner tonight. Whilst others are probably thinking 'yum - someone is cooking me dinner', I am thinking 'yum - what is my contribution going to be?'.

This gave me yet another opportunity to consult my favorite cooking blog: 101cookbooks.com. However I actually didn't get any further than the homepage. The honey balsamic bean salad was too good to click over.

I love this recipe because its simple enough for me to confidently experiment with different variations. In fact, the original blogger said that she added a few bits and pieces 'as I'm prone to do'. Time to get creative.

Rather than using the suggested beans, I took advantage of the opportunity to use up random tubs of legumes from my pantry. In went black beans, bortellini beans, green split peas and chick peas. Now red capsicum is a favourite (for its sweetness and colour), so that was a definite substitute for the suggested green beans. And finally, you can't go wrong with spinach for its decorative effect. So in that went too.

All I can say is that I hope the salad tastes as good as it looks.

As a final note, I got carried away with the legume mixture and cooked enough to feed a small army. Looks like we are having bean salad for lunch! In order to add a little variation (and substance), I marinated some tofu with some pesto, olives, salt + pepper and olive oil. Once cooked, this will taste fantastic sprinkled over the bean salad.

This is the full recipe here:

8 oz / 225 g (about 1 1/2 cups) EACH cooked chickpeas, pinto beans, black beans

1 small head of romaine lettuce, washed, dried, shredded

1/3 cup / 1 oz / 30g sliced almonds, toasted

2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons runny honey
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4+ teaspoon fine grain sea salt

10 sprigs fresh thyme