Fitzmaurice Lorraine - Blazing Salads 2: Good Food Every Day from Lorraine Fitzmaurice

The first Blazing Salads cookbook was published in 2004. It was filled with recipes that had been created in the Blazing Salads restaurant and others that my siblings and I had enjoyed as children.

In 2000 we opened the Blazing Salads deli, which came about one day when my sister Pamela and I were sitting in St Stephens Green in Dublin on our break from the restaurant. We realized that there was nowhere for vegetarians to get decent food on the go or to take back to the office. We decided Dublin needed a wholefood vegetarian deli. Our father, who is nothing if not a man of action, found a premises and rented it almost immediately, and we were away, running two family businesses at the same time. Were doing the same again these days, now with the bustling deli business and a wood-fired bakery run by my brother and sister-in-law, and we love the creative freedom that the more casual setting provides.

This new book, like the first, is made up of recipes to cook every day. Cooking daily is a joy because its quick, easy, and has obvious benefits for your health and your wallet. Whats more, cooking regularly at home will improve more than just family dinners once you eat your last refrigerated triangle sandwich at your desk, youll never look back. At its heart, our food is deli food; its made to move and to be convenient, so you can have fresh salads that havent been drowned in mayonnaise, protein-packed soups to keep you going, picnic and party food. There are plenty of vegan, gluten- and dairy-free options, and all of our recipes are versatile, so you can change them to suit your and your familys tastes, or to use what you have to hand.

Weve gotten to know our customers over the years and theyre not quite who you might think. For one thing, many are meat-eaters. Theyre health-conscious, but not fanatical; theyre eager to get more vegetables and good fats into their diets, but just as interested in a slice of cake to round out their meal. Many work long hours and have learned that eating better in the middle of the day keeps you going for longer. They dont always have their cupboard stocked with wholefoods, but will pick out a few key ingredients to take home from the shop. But mostly, our customers are in it for the food. They want their food to be nutritious, of good quality, tasty and colourful, and like us, theyre glad that the days of brown, heavy wholefoods are over.

Unlike most of our customers, it must be said that we had a pretty unusual upbringing when it came to food. My sister, two brothers and I were raised by very forward-thinking parents, and it didnt go unnoticed! My mothers macrobiotic cooking earned her the nickname of the witch among the kids in the neighbourhood, and our lunch boxes were the subject of much discussion in 1970s Irish classrooms. As revolutionary as it was at the time, this kind of cooking has become part and parcel of what it is to eat well today, and little of it sounds so strange to us now. Its principles are simple: everything in moderation; take responsibility for your health; enjoy the best-quality ingredients that you can afford; and try to buy local.

Nothing connects you to your ingredients more than growing your own and nothing, of course, is more local. Starting with a single flowerpot of your favourite herb on a sunny windowsill is easy, and thats just how I began growing my own, in a tiny apartment just off Patrick Street. Then, I moved up to a container garden in a small yard, and now, to a fully-fledged veg patch. Try growing your own vegetables. I started growing vegetables only in the last three years and have found it very satisfying. Its good fun, going out to the garden and digging up carrots or cutting Swiss chard and bringing it to the kitchen and cooking it straight away. When I was choosing the seeds with my father for this years patch, I was already thinking about what recipes I was going to make. Its a fantastic way to get children of all ages interested in food, too: send them out to dig up the potatoes and they will start paying more attention to the whole cooking process. Next, move them on to doing small jobs for you in the kitchen, peeling and stirring, and in turn you can educate them on the importance of taking care with a knife or the heat from the cooker. When you all sit down for your meal, they will be interested in eating the dish and proud of having helped, and with luck, their love of food and cooking will take root and grow.

All of this can make food more enjoyable, but the greatest enjoyment is found in the cooking itself. I believe that energy plays a big part in food, and I like good energy in my food, from when the ingredients are grown, to the quality of the seasonings used, to the energy put in to the cooking of the food. To this end, it helps to start with a clear work surface and as clear a mind as you can muster. This can be a tall order in a hectic household, so if all else fails, turn the radio on to something you enjoy and focus on each task as you go, recentring yourself when you inevitably get interrupted. Because life is busy and making time to cook can be tricky, I like to cook simply, and without complication. These recipes are straightforward and easy to use: I only use one pot or one mixing bowl whenever I can, and as few steps and as little fuss as possible.

Cook well, eat well, and enjoy.

Lorraine Fitzmaurice

Blazing Salads is more than just a play on a great film title: our salads do something different.

Like everything we make at the deli, these salads are tasty, wholesome, and good for you. They complement the other recipes in this book, stand alone as meals, or both. They are light, bright and packed with flavour, but theyre even more important for what they arent.

Salads arent diet food. Theyre not penitential. Theyre not limp, swimming in mayonnaise, made of half-frozen iceberg lettuce or spongy, pale tomatoes. Theyre not the garnish on the side of a plate of real food.

Our salads are real food.

Enjoy them with the best-quality ingredients.

Daikon (also known as mouli) is a long white radish now grown locally in Ireland. Like the little round red radishes, it has a great peppery flavour, and helps the body flush out fat deposits. In Japanese cooking it is stirred into the soya sauce dip that comes with a deep-fried dish. It is also delicious steamed, very like our white turnips.

SERVES 46

2 CARROTS, ROUGHLY GRATED

DAIKON, HALF THE AMOUNT OF CARROT, ROUGHLY GRATED

SEA SALT

1 TBSP TOASTED SESAME OIL

TSP CUMIN SEEDS

TSP BROWN MUSTARD SEEDS

LEMON JUICE

2 TBSP FRESH CORIANDER (LEAVES AND STEMS)

Roughly grate the carrot and daikon into a large bowl. Add a pinch of sea salt. Heat the sesame oil in a pot, and when hot, add the cumin and mustard seeds. Allow to pop for about 30 seconds. Pour the popped seeds and hot oil over the carrot and daikon. Add a good squeeze of lemon juice, roughly chop the coriander and toss with salad. Season with sea salt and a little more lemon juice if needed.