There are a million combinations of ingredients you can put together. That’s a recipe, and it is something that I truly marvel at. How you can use a few ingredients to create something unique each time is astounding. You may have noticed that a few new ingredients seem to be sneaking into recipes and demand has created some expensive pockets in the supermarket. Yep, superfoods. I’ve been using Quinoa for a while now. There’s nothing tricky about it. You boil it like rice or slowly add liquid to it while cooking like you would cook risotto. It’s crept up in price now that it is so popular and I am told that it is being cultivated as quickly as we can eat it.
No doubt, who ever you are you have heard of chia. I am just beginning my experiments with chia or Chia seeds. Its a spieces of plant from the mint family. It’s leafy and it flowers but the seeds are what the plants are grown for and those seeds are full of omega 3 fatty acids and full of 25-30% extractable oil. There are a few types of Chia, they are mottle-colored with brown, gray, and white.. and a luxurious black Chia.
Where did they suddenly come from?
I know you’re probably pondering that question…… Chia was once almost exclusively eaten and grown in Central America by the Aztecs and a beautiful golden version was commonly grown and eaten in the South Western states of the USA, by Native Americans. It’s now a cash crop in Mexico, Bolivia, Argentina, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Australia- can you believe? In 2008, Australia was the worlds largest producer of Chia!
There a a number of preported benefits and I am sure that a lot of them must be true. Eating seeds surely would have to be positive. I add them to my muesli and if I made smoothies thats where they’d go too. They can be used as a crunchy little spikes through salads and stirfrys added just before serving or as a coating for fish alone or added to crumbs. They can be ground up or added to foods such as baking and cereals. These little fellas are now the it food for making puddings and jams without the need for eggs, thickeners or loads of sugar. Very helpful.
Me, I like to embrace the new while keeping my feet firmly planted in the traditional cooking section of the recipe relm. So, heres a nice way to be modern and traditional at the same time. Grilled Asparagus, Lamb and a Beetroot and Chia dressing. Chia can absorb up to 12 times its weight in liquid. So it will thicken a dressing like this making a rich luxurious coating for this salad that can be soley vegetarian if you leave off the Lamb.
I have used beetroot powder. It’s a bit of a revelation all by itself. Once you buy it you can add it to cakes to get a nice natural redish colour. Use it in cream cheese icing for an eyecatching number, flavour hummus or yoghurt or add to smoothies. You get the idea.
Grilled Asparagus and Lamb salad with Beetroot Chia Dressing
Ingredients
Dressing
- 1 tablespoon chia seeds
- 60 ml water
- 20 gm beetroot powder
- 20 ml cider vinegar
- 5 ml maple syrup
- 40 ml olive oil
- 5 gm salt and pepper
Salad
- 4 Lamb leg steaks 500 gm
- 10 gm dijon mustard 2 teaspoons
- 20 ml olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper fresh ground
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 bunches Asparagus 12-14 stalks
- 20 ml olive oil 1 Tablespoon
- 150 gm danish feta cheese
- 1/4 bunch chives bunch of chopped
- 1 sprig rosemary
- 1/4 iceberg lettuce shredded, / or equivalent of Rocket
- 50 gm pinenuts toasted
Instructions
- Soak the chia seeds in the water till they are gelatinous. Pour these into a jar with a lid then add the vinegar, oil, maple syrup, salt and pepper and beetroot powder. Shake well and set aside.
- Toss the asparagus in the oil and put onto a hot grill. Turn to lightly colour and remove and set aside ( 1-2 minutes). The Asparagus should still be slightly firm and nicely coloured.
- Mix the dijon, oil, picked rosemary leaves, pepper and salt in a bowl and coat the steaks in this mixture and using the same hot grill cook the steaks for 5 or so minutes until medium rare. Set aside to rest
- Slice the Lamb
- Put the shredded lettuce, pinenuts,chives, sliced lamb and asparagus into a bowl or on a platter and sprinkle with crumbled feta and the dressing.
- ** You can serve this as a vegetarian dish without the lamb.
Grilled asparagus and lamb in a salad. This dish screams “SPRING!” The lamb looks like it was cooked perfectly, making this one amazing meal.
Your salad looks amazing and you have plated it beautifully. I do love lamb and asparagus and beetroot together. I’ve been getting on the health food bandwagon and have been eating my quinoa and my chia seeds. I’ve heard that the poor South Americans, who we thought we were doing a good service to by paying them for their quinoa has actually backfired because now almost all of it is being exported and what’s left in the country is in such high demand that it’s escalated in price to where the poor people can’t afford the grain that for centuries has been their staple. Trying to help those in the developing world is often very much a catch-22 situation xx
It looks fantastic, Tania. Those grilled asparagus are totally irresistible. I used chia dressing before, but love yours even more with beetroot powder.
Looks fabulous! I haven’t cooked with chia seeds or beet root powder (I wonder if it’s available in the states?). Will definitely have to try this combination.
I have so much asparagus in my fridge right now – it’s incredibly cheap here at the moment. This is exactly the kind of dinner I love!! Totally bookmarking this for next week 🙂 Thank you so much for supporting our Fabulous Foodie Fridays party! Have a fab weekend xx
Your new look is so classy! Love how you have used chia in the dressing, so many ways of incorporating such a healthy ingredient 😀
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Thank you very much!! You’ve just solved my dilemma of what to have you tea! I love how light and healthy this is and yet still filling from the lamb. Thank you!!
This sounds so lovely! I have heaps of asparagus in my garden right now, so this will be perfect for me. 🙂
What great ingredients Tania! The more super foods I can add to my diet the better 🙂 xox
Great new look too sweetie!
Your site is beautiful! Congratulations. Indeed I am hearing a lot about chia. I even saw some floating in a drink displayed next to the checkout line at the market yesterday. This dish is beautiful, and oh so tempting. I think you’ve convinced me to get on the super food bandwagon!
It’s the magical nature of recipes and cooking that draws me in too. It’s amazing how different foods can be combined in so many ways, and give such different results with some small tweaks!
The new site looks GREAT and I love that header!
Your lamb salad with grilled asparagus looks divine.
This is such a lovely looking Spring recipe, Tania, with two of my favourites, lamb and asparagus – and now I should add chia seeds to that list as well. This looks so pretty on the plate and I your coloured plates xx
Looks delicious, Tania! 🙂 xx
I love, love, love your new design!! I know you’re in the middle of tweaking but this is SO you.
That grilled asparagus and lamb is outstanding. I’ve not used chia except in a smoothie. I’d like to try this!
Love your new blog! When I clicked on to it this morning I thought I had got a different one. I promoted chia seeds last year when I did some promotion work – we just sprinkled it on some cruskits with some healthy lunch alternative ideas. It swells in your stomach so it makes you feel fuller!! But yes like quineo its popularity has resulted in an increase in price (though I do see kale cheaper now). Love this dish but was wondering where you purchased beetroot powder. I wanted to make pink velvet cupcake recently and read where you could read beetroot juice so cooked some and used the juice after cooking them. The batter was a very pretty pink but the cakes turned out looking normal! Maybe this is the answer. But love asparagus and beetroot. xx
Hi Pamela
I bought bioglan beetroot powder from Chemist warehouse, truly. They sell chia and beetroot and all the other stuff