Grilled scallops with green sauce, vegetables and noodles.

For this recipe try to find fresh king scallops. I've used frozen ones and the dish was very good, but I had to defrost them for 8 hours and I think fresh ones are softer. I remember melting-in-the-mouth taste when I used to live by the sea and scallops were available daily and were cheap and fresh...and not farmed. This recipe is for two people; you will need:

1 carrot
100g french beans, trimmed
1 small pointy pepper
6 spring onions
50ml-100ml vegetable stock
Rice or udon noodles
12 scallops
a little extra virgin olive oil

Green sauce:

100-120g spinach, washed and drained
a bunch (about 25g) of chives
25g fresh coriander
15g fresh basil
1 tbsp (app. 2 cm) fresh ginger, grated
250ml well flavoured vegetable stock
2 tbsp greek youghurt
*optional - 1 tbsp potato flour

1. First make the sauce. Place first 6 ingridients in a food frocessor and blend until smooth. Stir in yoghurt and leave until required.

2. Cut all vegetables into long stripes and steam-fry it for a few minutes, until just soft. Remove from the heat. Cook the noodles according instructions on the pack, then drain and toss with vegetables. If using pre-cooked noodles, add them to vegetables and heat through.

3. Brush the scallops with a little oil and cook under a very hot grill for 3 minutes on each side. Do not overcook. If you are not sure whether they cooked or not, cut one in half - it should be white through. They also tend to shrink a bit when ready to eat, but if you overcook them, they will shrink too much.

4. This step is optional and depends on whether you like thicker or lighter sauses. If you do prefer thick consistency, pour the sauce into a pan over a medium heat and bring to the boil. Add the potato flour, stirring all the time until the mixture thikens. Remove from the heat. I personally skiped this step, because I prefer runny sauses and it's healthier if you do not boil it :)

5. Spoon the noodles with vegetables on plates, arrange cooked scallops on top and drizzle Green Sauce over the top. Alternatively, you could coat the plates in sauce first, especially if you skip step 4, because you'll have more sause then.

I washed it down with a glass of Rieslig :)

Courgette salad with raisins, olives and goat's cheese

This salad is good for a light summer lunch. You can substitute goats's cheese with feta or vegan cheese. I like this one and it's available in larger health shops. I buy it from Wimbledone based Health Zone.

For two portions you will need:

Dressing:

1 tbsp sherry
1 tbsp sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp of any Omega oil (I use Hemp seed oil, which you can buy in larger supermarkets or health shops)
Half teaspoon of mustard
sea salt/freshly ground pepper

Salad:

50g raisins
100-120g cheese of your choice
Handfull of pitted black olives
2 medium or 1 large courgette
2-3 tomatoes
pack of mixed salad leaves or 1 lollo rosso lettuce
1 tsp oregano

1. Make the dressing by combining all ingridients together and whisk them lightly.

2. Wash, trim and slice courgettes, saute them in a little bit of olive oil until they are just soft. Alternatively, you can put them under a hot grill and cook on both sides until soft, but still crunchy. For a healthier option - use them raw :) Slice tomatoes.

3. Arrange salad leaves, courgettes, tomato slices, olives, raisins and cheese on two plates. Pour over the salad dressing and sprinkle with oregano before serving.

Sweet potato soup with asparagus

This soup is very tasty and wholesome, yet very healthy.

Ingredients for 2 full bowls:

250g Sweet potatoes
1 red pepper
2 shallots
1 garlic clove
2 tbsp olive, sunflower or soya spread (instead of butter)
1 tsp brown sugar
300-400 ml vegetable stock (I like using vegan Marigold Swiss Vegetable Bouillon. It's available in health shops)
1 red chilli
1 bay leaf
8 green or white asparagus tips
sea salt/freshly ground pepper
1 tsp balsamic vinegar

1. Wash, peel and cut potatoes. Wash, trim and dice pepper. Finely shop shallots and press or chop the garlic.

2. In saucepan, saute shallots and garlic in 1 tbsp of spread of your choice. Add pepper and sugar and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Add potatoes and vegetable stock. Trim, wash and de-seed chilli, cut it in half and add it to soup with the bay leaf. Simmer everything for about 20 minutes. Remove chilli and bay leaf from the soup, cool it slightly and prosess it in blender.

3. Wash asparagus tips. Heat the remain 1 tbsp of the spread in a pan and saute asparagus until slightly soft, but still crunchy. Place on paper towel and season with salt and pepper. Season soup with pepper and vinegar (you don't need salt if you use vegetable stock) and serve with asparagus.

You can also shred one carrot with vegetable peeler and put the stripes in soup together with asparagus. Add some torn basil leaves too.