peas – The Good Mood Food Blog (2024)

:: Irish Tatler and Asian Chicken Salad with Chilli, Ginger and LimeDressing

I was interviewed earlier this year for a blogging feature in Irish Tatler and a few weeks after I was offered the chance to become a regular contributor. This is the recipe I wrote for the October issue!

Asian Chicken Salad with Chilli, Ginger and Lime Dressing

Packed with tasty ingredients, this recipe is perfect for entertaining. You can prepare all the ingredients separately, stick them in the fridge and assemble the salad when your guests arrive. Don’t be afraid to add other vegetables here, peppers, cucumber, spring onions and bean sprouts are all tasty additions.

Serves 4
Marinade:
2 tablespoon of soy sauce
Juice of ½ lime
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
½ red chilli, finely chopped
½ thumb sized piece of ginger minced

Dressing:
3 tablespoons of sunflower oil
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of smooth peanut butter
Juice of ½ lime
2 teaspoons of honey
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
½ red chilli, finely chopped
½ thumb sized piece of ginger minced

4 chicken breasts, sliced thinly into strips
1 Chinese cabbage, slice thinly
3 carrots, sliced thinly
1 red onion, sliced thinly
100g of sugar snap peas, sliced thinly
100g of chopped peanuts to serve
A handful of chopped coriander to serve

:: Asian Teriyaki ChickenSalad

We (Industry) just started our radio tour for our brand new single, “Burn” which is due for release on the 21st of August, so we have been travelling all over Ireland visiting all the radio stations. It is quite hard going, early mornings and late nights, but after the last single going to number 1, it’s well worth it! The one thing I have been finding difficult is eating on the road. Unless you plan ahead you are at the mercy of petrol stations at the side of the road where the choice ranges from a hot deli counter to plastic wrapped sambos- not really my cup of tea!

My quick solution is to make my own healthy salads, and somehow I got roped into making one each for the other three! Now I say roped, but really I offered and totally enjoy making them, plus I have this thing for praise… Anyway, this is the favourite salad so far and I can see why, it’s pretty darn tasty if I do say so myself! Try it out, give it a whirl, let me know how you get on!

Asian Teriyaki Chicken Salad

I make this salad to go, if you want to do the same, keep the dressing separate and add it when you are ready to eat.

Serves 4
4 chicken breasts
4 tablespoons of teriyaki sauce
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 small Chinese cabbage, finely chopped in shreds
A large handful of sugar snap peas, finely sliced
2 red peppers, sliced finely
1 red onion, sliced finely
1 tablespoon of sunflower oil

For the dressing:
3 tablespoons of sunflower oil
1 tablespoon of teriyaki sauce
Juice of 1 lime
1 clove of garlic, finely minced
½ a thumbsized piece of ginger, finely minced

Combine the teriyaki sauce and garlic in a bowl and add the chicken breasts.
Toss to combine, cover and then place in fridge while you chop the salad ingredients
Heat a griddle pan over a medium heat with a little oil and fry the chicken breasts for 4-5 minutes either side or until hey are cooked through. Remove the breasts from the pan set on a chopping board to cool.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the ingredients for the salad dressing.
Add the Chinese cabbage, red peppers, red onion and snow peas to the bowl. Toss until the vegetables are nicely coated with the dressing.
Serve the salad in large deep dishes and sprinkle with a little shredded coriander.
Slice the chicken thinly and arrange on top of the vegetables.
Serve straight away.

August 9, 2009 at 8:12 pm 4 comments

:: Growing GardenPeas

I haven’t grown garden peas before, but I had heard they were quite easy to grow, so wanted to give them a go. We have been busy all spring working on our little garden patch and it is finally starting to take shape, but the most satisfying plant we have grown so far, has to be the garden pea. It is a really sturdy plant which grows quite rapidly. I planted the peas from seed and started them inside for the first three weeks and have just planted them in the garden last weekend. Let’s just say this is part one of the growing garden peas post as the plants have yet to provide a nice big healthy crop, but at the rate they are growing at the moment I shouldn’t have to wait to long. I was told that the pea seedlings don’t like their roots disturbed while transplanting so I planted mine in used toilet tubes, which can be planted directly into the ground and are biodegradable, this method is quite easy to do and is a good green practice. The tubes also provide the pea seedlings long roots enough room to grow. Here’s a little how-to:

Roll a ball of news paper into a tight ball.
Place inside the toilet roll tube and push to the bottom.
Fill the tube with soil and add a little water.
Using your finger push the soil down approximately 1 inch.
Place a pea seed in the hole and cover over with soil.
Place the tube in a seed tray or pot and water regularly.
When the seedling has a strong stem and is about 3 inches long you can plant outside.
Plant the pea plants approximately 20-30cm apart and water daily.
Place bamboo sticks beside the plant and using garden twine or ties, attach the plant by the stem. This will give the plant some extra support.

As my pea plants continue to grow I plan to make a wigwam structure for the peas to grow around. I’ll stick up some pictures as soon as there is a sign of some peas.

For Irish readers I also thought this would be an appropriate post to tell you that Glenisk are running a really great free organic seeds offer at the moment! Just for signing up you will be sent a pack of organic French runner beans! Check out the offer over here. Quote : “goodmoodfood01” and you will automatically be entered into a draw for a goody bag with a month’s supply of Glenisk organic yogurts!

June 5, 2009 at 7:31 pm 4 comments