Alternative and Delicious! A Summer Salad

Organic food has traditionally had a reputation for being “good for you” but a bit boring! Organico Café (Bantry, West Cork, Ireland) turns this on its head offering food that is both exciting and delicious. Rachel Dare, who trained with Darina Allen at Ballymaloe, supplies the inspiration behind the menu in Organico Café. Rachel has a distinctive style, fusing a combination of ingredients that are primarily organic and locally grown to create menus that are both lifestyle conscious and tasty. To take full advantage of what’s fresh and in season, the menu changes daily - but it’s always creative and interesting.

The café is surprisingly large, light and spacious, and is located next door to the shop but upstairs. It has a lively buzz at lunchtime, when you can enjoy a salad plate from the extensive salad bar, a summer courgette and rice noodle soup or one of the specials such as Gubbeen and leek frittata. So if you’re looking for an alternative place to have lunch that’s new and exciting or simply want a quite cup of Bantry’s best coffee (or green tea!) just pop up to Organico Café and treat yourself. Go on! You’re worth it!

Rachel's Summer Salad
Throughout the summer we are all looking for lunch ideas that are light, fresh and tasty. We are lucky in our shop to have people from all walks of life bringing us their own lovingly grown fruit and vegetables, so we have the best of local produce to choose from. I am using Quinoa (pronounced kee-no-wah) as the base for this salad, because it can be used as a substitute for couscous as it is wheat-free. Quinoa is often called a 'supergrain' as it is also a very good source of vitamins, minerals and protein, and has a light delicate flavour which appeals to all.

Two cups of quinoa grain, cooked as shown below.
1/3 cucumber (can be replaced with baby courguettes, diced)
10 cherry tomatoes, diced
A handful of finely chopped fresh mint, fresh basil, and fresh parsley
100 g fetta cheese, crumbled
One small red onion or a bunch of scallions, chopped finely
1 ripe avocado, peeled and diced (a little lemon juice stops it discolouring)

Dressing
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon salt and fresh ground pepper
1 teaspoon of honey or concentrated apple juice

Rinse the Quinoa grain well under cold water in a sieve, To cook, place two cups cold water to one cup quinoa in a sauce pan and bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook until the grains are translucent and the sprout has spireled out of the grain (about 15 minutes). While this is cooking, prepare the rest of the ingredients. When the Quinoa is ready allow to cool slightly, add to the other ingredients and dress to taste. Serve on its own as a light lunch or with chicken or fish as a more substantial meal.
If you want to buy Quinoa grain or the other fresh salad ingredients, we stock them in Organico!

Organico Cafe, Glengarriff Road, Bantry, Co. Cork Ireland. Tel 00 353 (27) 55905.

Organic Quinoa Salad

1 cup quinoa grain
2 cups water

100 g parsley and mint
100g cherry tomatoes


dressing

100 mls olive oil
300 mls water
50 mls balsamic vinegar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 dessertspoon apple concentrate


Rinse the Quinoa grain well under running water (this is beacuse there is a bitter coating on the grains) Bring to the boil then simmer checking after twenty minutes quarter tomatoes, chop mint and parsley add the dressing ingredients and let stand for 30 minutes.
This is a lovely simple salad that works really well with a combination of different herbs so have fun with it, adding sundried tomatoes, olives, fetta cheese, toasted seeds, the list is endless...

Organic Marinated Chickpea salad

1kg dried chickpeas
400 mls olive oil
2 lemons
5 cloves of garlic minced
1 inch piece of ginger minced
200 mls red wine vinegar
2 lrg red onions
3 teaspoon salt
2 tsp pepper

Soak dried chickpeas over night then cook for about 1 to 2 hours(you know when its done as you will be able to crush one easily). Take out about a quarter and mash then zest both lemons and juice, add the cloves of garlic, minced ginger and finely diced red onions combine all the dressin ingredients then mix well with chickpres and allow rest for at least an hour. This is really necessary to develop the flavor and it can last for anything up 3-4 days if refridgerated. When serving garnish with a handful of chopped parsley. This is large quantity as it was being made up for the cafe however it works just as well done in half quantities.

Organico Bean Salad

MIXED BEAN SALAD

500 g kindey beans
500 g cannolinni beans
½ cucumber
1 pkt parsley
1 pkt coriander
300 g red onion

dressing
125 mls sweet chili sauce
100 mls vinegar
200 mls olive oil
1 lemon zest and juice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

Soak the kidney and cannolinni beans for over night or at least 12 hours in separate pans this is because the color of the kidney beans will stain the others) with lots of water then cook them both at a slow simmer for 1 to 2 hours checking after 1 hour every 10 minutes, drain and allow to cool slightly. Mix up the dressing and add to the warm beans and allow to soak in for 30 mins. Dice the cucumber, celery and onion finely and add to the beans. This is another recipe that works well if left for a day and will keep for up the 3-4 days in the fridge.

Sweet Red Cabbage Coleslaw

500 g red cabbage
250g grated carrot
50 g sesame seeds
100 g sunflower seeds
small bunch parsley

Dressing
2 tblsp Apple juice concentrate
2 tblsp Olive Oil
1 tblsp Lemon juice
pinch saly and pepper

Cut red cabbage thinly taking out the tough stalks, peel carrots and grate,
Toast seeds in a hot dry frying pan until lightly brown, Chop parsley.
Combine all ingredients in a bowl, mix dressing in a small jam jar and pour over, mix well. Will keep well for a few hours, but best fresh.

Organic Coleslaw

750 g white cabbage
500 g carrot
250 g apple
200 g onion

make dressing in measuring jug
200 g mayonaise
250 g yoghurt
50 g olive oil
50 g white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper


Thinly slice white cabbage cutting out any tough stalks out first, peel or scrape carrots (if using non organic or making it ahead of time) and grate, thinly slice onion, quarter apples and grate with skins unless they are tough and put all ingredients into a wide mixing bowl, combine everything then add half the dressing at first then add more to taste.

What's Organic about Organico Cafe?

In Organico we try to practice what we preach. Many people say they use 'organic products wherever possible', but when you ask them the might use organic lettuce, in the summer. We are trying to use all organic products unless they are not available.
All our soups, salads and bakes are made using organic fruit & vegetables (locally grown whenever possible), organic lentils, chickpeas, beans etc. Our breads are organic (of course - they are fresh from our bakery), so is our coffee, and tea. The milk in our lattes is organic too! Our cakes are made with organic Spelt flour and any sugar used is both raw cane and organic.

We use local Irish cheeses, real local free range eggs, extra virgin low acidity olive oils, and local Irish butter.

Because we use so much organic fruit and veg in our food, we are very aware of what grows well in which seasons and where. For example right now (the middle of summer)we are using a lot of spinach, beetroot, mange tout peas, broad beans, chard, courgettes, salad veg and herbs as they are all in season in Ireland. We do use imported fruit and veg, because otherwise things would get very plain in the winter, but we always try to use only what grows in Europe. At the moment there are loads of great tomatoes, peppers and aubergines, fresh garlic and lovely cherries and apricots coming from France.

For more information on Organic fruit and veg, you can look up IOFGA, and organicmattersmag.com.

Organico Cafe, Glengarriff Road, Bantry, Co. Cork Ireland. Tel 00 353 (27) 55905.