This recipe is for four people and is fully keto and vegetarian.
So, I was asked to do a low carb, vegetarian starter. I wanted to do a simple, no cooking, cold starter. Well, here we go!
You are going to need a set of presentation rings, lakeland do nice ones.
I had seen a recipe like this before, but I couldn’t remember where, so I made this up. I used pistachio as all the other ingredients pair with it, and so they should all pair together. Well. After a few attempts I think I have it bang on.
I was reading that the biggest bug bear with food blogs is that there is too much waffle before you get to the recipes…….. so I have put the recipe first, and a little detail after it!
This recipe if for 4 people and if you use roasted red peppers in a jar (oil not brine) and shop bought beetroot, it will take about 15 minutes, as the only thing you have to cook is the spinach.
If you want to use your own peppers, (which is healthier and have a better flavour) just pre-heat your oven to 200oC fan and roast the peppers until the skin is blackening. pop them in a bowl and cover with cling film. Once they are cooled, the skin and core will remove easily then just slice them up fine.
Ingredients
- 450g jar of peppers or 2 red or yellow peppers.
- 60g of fresh spinach, most of the stalks picked off and shredded.
- 15g of fresh basil, finely shredded.
- 10g of capers, very finely diced (not minced).
- 100g feta cheese.
- 100g soft cheese.
- 60g of oil. (Olive oil adds more flavour, but rapeseed oil allows the cheese to be a bolder flavour).
- Zest of 1/2 lemon.
- 15g pistachio, crushed.
- 100g beetroot in natural juices, very thinly sliced.
Method
You can make the dish neater by using the press, which is included with the presentation rings, to press each layers down smooth. If you do use the press, add the step in between every layer. I deliberately wanted it to be rustic.
- Place the spinach in a hot pan and cook for about 2 minutes until it is just starting to wilt. Remove from the heat, and squeeze in a towel to remove most of the moisture.
- Add the basil and capers and combine, then set aside.
- Add the feta, soft cheese, lemon, a pinch of black pepper, and the oil, then blend until it is smooth.
- place a layer of the peppers in the bottom of the ring, then a layer of the cheese mix to just cover it.
- Then a layer of the spinach mix then the cheese mix again.
- Lastly a good topping of the beetroot and pistaccio.
- carefully remove the mould and serve with a few capers.
Other tweaks
On this particularly rainy day I did 6 different recipes. some worked, but others needed changes! This is the “finished” dish, but a few of the other recipes had note worthy things that worked. These included:
Add a little dijon or wholegrain mustard to the cheese mix.
Use different oils, it is always worth experimenting with!
Add pistaccio to the spinach as well.
Use goats cheese instead of feta.
I hope you enjoy. As always this blog is just for me, but if you find it, and enjoy it, give it a like!
Food ideas 