Christmas Greens

A few nice green ideas for your holiday table.

image from here

Green beans with almonds
700g green beans
a good handful of slivered almonds
good knob of butter
juice of half a lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Trim beans, then dunk into boiling salted water until they turn bright green and are still a little crunchy (about 2-3 min). Melt butter in a frying pan, add almonds and toss to coat then add beans. Toss to coat in almonds and butter. Squeeze lemon juice over beans, season to taste and serve.

image from here

Steamed asparagus wrapped in prosciutto

Spinach, pea, mint and grilled zucchini salad
4 zucchini thinly sliced lenghtways
2tbs good extra virgin olive oil
5 cloves of garlic, unpealed
juice of one lemon
200g baby spinach leaves
a good hand full of fresh mint leaves
1 1/2 cups fresh shelled peas, blanched
salt and pepper to taste

Toss sliced zucchini in a bowl with salt and half the olive oil. Place zucchini slices on a grill pan or on bbq. Cook each slice till grill marks appear.  While zucchini is grilling put garlic cloves to the side of the pan to cook (alternatively you could roast the garlic). Once garlic is soft squeeze it out of its skins into a bowl. Wisk together garlic, olive oil and lemon, season to taste the add cooked zucchini, peas and spinach toss to combine. Garnish with mint and serve.  

image from here

Caramelised brussels sprouts with bacon
(I love brussels sprouts, but not everyone is a fan, but give this a go, it's tasty)
1 kg fresh brussels sprouts, halved if they are big
5 tbs unsalted butter
200gm bacon, diced
juice of one lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 190C. Melt butter in an oven proof pan and add bacon. Fry bacon till cooked and almost crispy. Remove bacon and add sprouts along with a bit of salt and pepper and a small squeeze of lemon. Place pan with sprouts into the oven for 15ish minutes until the sprouts are almost cooked and starting to get a nice caramalised colour to them. Then add the bacon, toss and cook for a futher 5-10 min. Once cooked remove from oven, check seasoning and add more salt/pepper/lemon as needed. Serve.