Winter salads: warm sprout top, kale, macadamia nut, lemon and cranberry salad

Having a veg box delivery means I'm often on the hunt for any recipes that do something a bit different with what's in season. This warm winter salad was initially inspired by a recipe from Cookie + Kate, which I've simplified and veganised, focusing instead on the lemon and cranberry flavours. It's perfect for cold January evenings- full of contrasting flavours, as well as being quick and easy to keep for lunch the next day.

I used homemade cranberry sauce here as it needed using, but fresh cranberries would probably be tastier if you've got them! Likewise, I used a mix of nuts as I seem to have a weird store of them. The macadamia nuts work really well with the sourness of the cranberries while the pecans add crunch and are a rich source of calcium and iron, which is the kind of thing that makes my Mum happy.

Ingredients
Handful of sprout tops or sprouts
Handful of kale
Bowl of leftover rice (or enough for two people)
Around 100g cranberries, or 2tbsp cranberry sauce
Handful macadamia nuts and pecans
Juice 1/2 lemon
Few glugs of olive oil
Seasoning

Start by gently heating the nuts in a pan to toast them lightly. You'll know they're done when they start to brown and you can smell them. Set aside.

Prepare the rice or thoroughly reheat if leftover.

Boil the sprout tops and kale in a saucepan for 3 minutes, or until the kale stalks are just soft enough to eat (I like mine quite crunchy!) Then drain and squeeze over the juice of half a lemon, a little oil and salt and pepper. If you are using fresh cranberries, just boil these with water to cover until they begin to pop so the juices can mix in the salad.

Pile up the rice, greens and nuts in a big bowl, along with the cranberries or dollops of cranberry sauce, and add a little more lemon juice or seasoning to taste.

Sour cherry and macadamia nut granola

I used to work in the cafe of a stately home, where I was given the absolutely brilliant task of making industrial quantities of flapjack (mainly because of the face I made when they asked me to go anywhere near the carvery, and my unique skill at dropping a record number of mugs when manning the coffee machine) . Which is why you'd think I'd be a bit better at judging when a flapjack has finished baking, but apparently not...

So instead of vegan flapjacks, I decided to turn half an hour's cooking into granola....everything's not lost. Obviously golden syrup isn't right up there with the major greats in terms of a light breakfast, but if you're adding it yourself, you can decide exactly how much goes in, and it will probably be a lot less sugar than anything shop-bought. Or just tell yourself that. Whatever. Golden syrup is god.

Makes enough for a jar full, or you can keep in an air tight box for up to a month.

Ingredients:
100g macadamia nuts, roughly chopped
100g dried sour cherries
250g rolled oats
2-3 tbsp of golden syrup
2 tbsp sunflower/nut oil
2 tbsp sunflower seeds

Heat the oven to 150C.
In a large bowl or pan, mix in the oats and nut, then the oil, and finally stirring in the golden syrup. You can hold back the sunflower seeds are they are fine raw and can be added at the end. The cherries are added during the baking to stop them burning.

Line an oven tray with greaseproof paper and spread across- you want the heat to get to as much of the mix as possible to bake it, so allow plenty of room for the granola to be spread out.

Bake for 15 minutes, then add in the cherries, mixing them through, and bake for another 10 minutes. Then remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Once totally cooled down, pour the mixture into a jar or container and spoon in the sunflower seeds. Now all you need is soy milk, yoghurt, chopped banana, apple or pears, and breakfast is made!