February No Croutons Required: Warm Roasted Potato and Onion Salad with Rosemary and Lavender
I'm getting back into the blogging swing with February's No Croutons Required challenge, hosted by Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes, and the theme this month is fresh herbs.
I went with a fresh and dried combination approach, using fresh rosemary, and dried lavender to create a warm roasted potato and onion salad, as a hybrid inspiration from this lavender roasted potatoes recipe at Boulder Locavore, and this lavender roasted onions recipe at Veggie Belly.
I've been intrigued by cooking with lavender in savoury dishes for a while, but never felt brave enough, and this was the push in the right direction that I needed.
On Saturday evening, Mini-M was getting a bit grumpy after a hectic day of relative visiting and a long time in the car, so after tea we went on an evening buggy walk over to Ocean Terminal to look at the boats. After 15 mins rampaging around the top level of the shopping centre (there were no boats) we headed in to M&S in search of herbs. Mini-M was quite taken with the rosemary and chewed the packet all the way home in the buggy, as well as very proudly handing over the money to pay. She's quite taken by money at the moment - yesterday as we were getting ready to go out, she wouldn't leave until she had a penny (2p to be precise) to put in her pocket, and made a show of patting her pockets to check - must be something Mr E and I do! At least she's happy with small change (for the moment!).Anyway, rosemary was the only fresh herb left, so rosemary it was.
The rosemary and lavender combination was a hit - and it made the house smell seriously gorgeous whilst roasting. According to Mr E, the smell would sell houses better than fresh bread.
Warm Roasted Potato and Lavender Salad (Served 2-3)
- 1 large potato
- 1 medium onion
- 2 tbsp extra virgin rapeseed oil infused with lemon
- 1 tsp dried lavender (make sure you use culinary lavender, otherwise it may be sprayed with inedible chemicals)
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
- pinch of dried thyme
- salt and pepper
Peel your potato and onion, and cut both into chunks.
Pour 1 tbsp of the oil into a small casserole dish or roasting tray.
Sprinkle over the herbs, salt and pepper, then drizzle over the other tbsp of oil.
Give it all a good mix.
Heat the oven to 180C and cook for 30-40 mins until the potatoes are cooked.
You'll need to give it a stir every 10 or 15 minutes to stop any bits of onion burning.
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| Oops... I seem to have two 'raw' pictures and none of the finished dish. Imagine the above, looking golden and cooked with some crispy potato corners, and caramelised onion edges and you'll be spot on |
