Chinese chicken salad (in crispy tortilla bowls)

Now that I finally have a new laptop, here is the recipe for the Chinese chicken salad I promised you. Obviously you can serve it on a plate or in a regular bowl, but it's more fun when you serve it in a crispy tortilla bowl.

The first step is to make Oriental Poached Chicken. You can use pieces of roast chicken as well, but this poached chicken tastes sooo good! You can make it a day in advance and put it in your fridge, if you want.

Oriental Poached Chicken

• 125 ml soy sauce (not the sweet kind!)
• 125 ml orange juice
• 4 dl water
• 3 pieces of fresh ginger of approx. 2,5 cm, flattened with the back of a knife
• 1/2 five spice powder (or 2 star anise)
• 4 chicken breasts (without the skin)

- Bring all liquids and spices to the boil in a pot or big pan. 
- Turn down the heat so the liquid simmers and add the pieces of chicken.
- Cover and turn the heat even lower, simmer for approx. 2 mins, turn the chicken and simmer for 2 more mins.
- Leave the chicken in the broth to cool down. (You can also put it in the fridge this way if you want to use it the next day.)
- Remove the chicken once it's cold and cut it into small pieces, suitable for a salad for children.

Chinese Chicken Salad

• The pieces of oriental poached chicken made using the recipe above, or at least 2 cups roast chicken in small pieces
• 2 or 3 spring onions, chopped
• 1 very big carrot (or a number of smaller ones), in small pieces (julienne or similar)
• 2 stems of white celery, in narrow strips
• 1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
• 2 or 3 handfuls of soy sprouts
• 1/2 cup roast sesame seed

Dressing:

• 2 tsp fresh ginger, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar

If preferred:

• 1 package oriental noodles (you can fry them instead of cooking them if you like, so they become crunchy)
• 6 or 8 crispy tortilla bowls

- Put the chicken with all of the vegetables and the sesame seeds in a bowl. Add in the dressing and stir well.

- If you want to, you can add either cooked or fried noodles to the salad, otherwise serve it without noodles in crispy tortilla bowls.

Cold soup for hot days (or teething pains): cucumber soup

Yes, I know, it's very definitely not a hot day in Belgium today... But my nearly 17-month-old has been eating cold soup nearly every day for the last month or so. He loves soup in general, but the cold soup is especially popular when he's teething.

This week I made a classic: 

Cold cucumber & yoghurt soup

• 3 cucumbers, seeded and roughly chopped
• 350 ml Greek yoghurt
• 250 ml vegetable stock, chilled
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh mint (and if you want, some extra to garnish)
• salt and ground black pepper
• paprika for sprinkling
• (4 spring onions, cut into lengths and finely shredded to garnish)

- Purée the cucumbers in a blender until smooth. Add the yoghurt and stock and pulse briefly to combine.

- Pour the soup into a plastic bowl. Stir in the mint and salt and pepper to taste, then chill for at least 2 hours.

- When you serve the soup, sprinkle each portion with paprika, and if you prefer, some more mint and/or spring onions.

(Dutch recipe available on demand)

Lunch at the Zoo: Tabouleh

Often when we are going on a day trip or a picnic, I'll prepare some kind of tabouleh. A cold 'salad' with couscous or bulghur. One day we were going to the Antwerp Zoo and I thought I'd try to make tabouleh with entire wheat kernels instead. It loved it and the children finished the entire bowl, so I think they agreed ;-).

Lunch @ the Zoo: Tabouleh with cooked entire wheat kernels, lemon juice, chopped celery, spring onions, black olives, raisins and capers (served with hardboiled eggs & sliced cucumber)

Tabouleh with entire wheat kernels

• 1 cup of entire wheat kernels (In Belgium: Ebly)
• 1 bouillon cube
• juice of 1 lemon
• 2 white celery stalks, finely chopped
• 2 spring onions, finely chopped
• a handful of black olives, finely chopped
• a handful of raisins
• 1 tbsp capers
• (salt)
• (black pepper)

- Cook the wheat with the bouilon cube according to the instructions on the packaging (should take about 10 mins). Pour it in a sieve and let cool.

- Once it has cooled down, mix it with the lemon juice, pieces of celery, spring onions and black olives and the raisins and capers and season to taste.

I served this with hardboiled eggs and slices of cucumber, but you could obviously serve it with meat/fish/tofu and/or other fresh vegetables, too.

(Dutch recipe available on demand)