9:19am Monday 2nd February 2009
Londoners have to put up with exorbitant property prices, less-than-ideal air quality and teeming crowds, but they do have access to one of the capital’s best food destinations. The Leon restaurants, which started in a tiny converted shop in Carnaby Street in 2004, have brought healthy fast food to the mean streets.
Co-founders Allegra McEvedy, Henry Dimbleby and John Vincent had a vision of a place where diners could feast on fresh, seasonal food that didn’t cost the earth, or take hours to produce.
They wanted to offer properly good food without being neurotic about it – the chicken and eggs might be free-range, the coffee is ethically sourced and lots of the dishes on offer are low-GI and allergy-friendly, but it was all done with a sense of humour.
They were right on the money – that first little restaurant won loads of fans and just six months after opening it was named the Best New Restaurant in Britain in the Observer Food Monthly Awards. There are now nine in London, and the first Leon outpost opened late last year in Bristol.
Luckily, now everyone can have a bite of the Leon experience – co-founder Allegra McEvedy has collated some of the best-loved recipes in a new book which shares the Leon ethos.
“Leon was founded on the principle that food can be both lovely and good for you,” Allegra explains.
The book is a complete primer for the Leon way of life – the first half looks at the culinary ingredients so loved by its founders, while the second is devoted to the recipes.
While those familiar with the Leon line-up will be delighted to see the superfood salads, slaws, sweet potato falafel and even the famous Leon Brownie included in the book, there are plenty of new ones gleaned from behind the scenes.
Get busy in your own kitchen and soon there will be no reason to go to London at all!
CHICKEN (OR SALMON) SUPERFOOD SALAD
“Nowadays only the chicken version of this can be found on the menu, but back in the day there was a salmon one too,” Allegra explains.
“It’s just a perfectly balanced lunch: great, goodie-packed ingredients, some simple cooking and away you go. We have some wonderful regulars who’ve been eating this three times a week for years.”
Serves 2
2tbsp quinoa
1/2 a head of broccoli
300g free-range chicken thighs, each cut into four pieces and marinated overnight (see recipe below), or 4 x 70g slices of salmon fillet
2 handfuls of rocket
2 handfuls of baby spinach
2 vine-ripened tomatoes, roughly chopped
120g frozen peas (if using fresh, use 500g unshelled pods)
1 lemon
2tbsp extra virgin olive oil
a light sprinkling of alfalfa sprouts
3tbsp aioli
2tbsp toasted seeds
a hefty sprinkling of chopped mint and parsley
salt and pepperPut 80ml of water into a little pan and bring to the boil. Stir in the quinoa and boil fast for five minutes, then turn the heat down and simmer for five minutes more. Turn the heat off, fluff with a fork, and leave until cooled.
Preheat your grill to very hot, or get your griddle pan smoking.
Cut the broccoli into small florets and slice the stalks into 1cm thick circles. Drop the broccoli into a pan of rapidly boiling salted water for three minutes, then drain and run under the tap until cold.
Season your protein before you grill it: for chicken, grill for five minutes, turn it over, then five minutes more; a scant three minutes each side for the salmon slices.
While all this is going on, build your salad: toss the leaves, tomatoes, broccoli and peas in the juice of half a lemon and the olive oil.
Lift them on to whatever you’re serving them on, be it one big dish or individuals, then scatter on the cooled quinoa and alfalfa.
The next layer is the protein (try feta if you’re veggie), and top it off with the aioli, seeds and herbs, with the other half lemon, wedged, on the side.
CHICKEN MARINADE
“Marinating your meat is a really good thing to get into the habit of doing. Instead of just letting it sit in your fridge, shrink-wrapped in man-made packaging, why not give it some space and some friends to mingle with?
“The Leon recipe is simple and hasn’t changed since we opened; it does exactly what we want - flavour and tenderness.”
Makes enough marinade for 1kg diced free-range chicken
2tbsp olive oil
3tbsp lemon juice
1-2 cloves of garlic, chopped
Combine all the ingredients and leave the chicken to marinate overnight.
LEON GOBI
“At Leon we give the veggies who eat with us quite a lot of TLC, and this curry took a long time to get it spot on before it went on the menu: it’s all about the balance of spices, sweetness and making sure you time the veg right so it doesn’t all fall apart,” Allegra says.
“The Gobi refers to the cauliflower in it, and it’s the addition of ground almonds that provides the wonderful consistency. Our grandmothers were wedded to arrowroot to thicken their sauces, and our mums to flour (or Bisto), but ours is the generation to welcome the almond – so much better than any other thickener, both for health and flavour.”
Serves 6
1 medium onion, halved and thickly sliced
1 carrot, thickly sliced
2tbsp sunflower or peanut oil
1 red chilli (go for a bird’s-eye if you like it hot - some do)
2 thumb-sized pieces of root ginger, washed but not peeled
5 cloves garlic, peeled
1 large tsp Madras curry powder
1tsp turmeric
1tsp black onion seeds
1 medium sweet potato, washed and cut into 2.5cm dice
4 heaped tbsp ground almonds
a good handful of sultanas
1/2 a small cauliflower, broken into florets
1 x 400ml tin of coconut milk
150g frozen peas
juice of 1/2 a lemon
a really big handful of coriander, roughly chopped salt
2 heaped tbsp desiccated coconut, to serve
In a big and well-loved saucepan cook the onion and carrot over a medium to low heat in the oil for 15-20 minutes with the lid on, stirring occasionally. Season with salt.
Blitz the chilli, ginger and garlic to a paste in a food processor. Stir the paste into the onions once they have begun to soften, along with the spices (including the onion seeds).
After another five minutes, season with salt, add the sweet potato chunks and the almonds and mix well so that everything is well coated.
Turn the heat up a bit and stir in 500ml of water and the sultanas.
Bring it up to a simmer and leave it to bubble away gently for about 10-15 minutes with the lid off, stirring occasionally.
Add the cauliflower florets and the coconut milk and simmer for a further 10-15 minutes covered.
Check that the sweet potato and cauliflower are both cooked, then turn the heat off and stir in the peas.
It’ll need more salt, plus the lemon juice and chopped coriander to finish it off right. We serve it with a sprinkling of dried coconut on top.
LEON BETTER BROWNIE
“This is the lovely Emma’s recipe, which she’s been making for us down in Dorset since day one and which has won many admirers,” Allegra explains.
“As you can tell, she’s a bit particular about the way it’s done, but all power to her – it’s the best brownie in the world.”
The melting:
180g unsalted butter
200g dark chocolate (Belgian 54% cocoa solids)
2tbsp espresso at room temperature, or other very strong coffee
The mixing:
1tsp organic cold-pressed sweet orange oil or finely grated zest of 1 orange
80g sweet Spanish almonds (skin on), toasted and chopped
4 free-range eggs
100g ground sweet Spanish almonds
160g dark chocolate chunks (Belgian 54% cocoa solids)
160g very dark chocolate chunks (Belgian 72% cocoa solids)
150g fructose
pinch of sea salt
3-4 drops of Madagascan bourbon vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4.
Melt the butter on full power in a microwave for one minute (this can also be done in a little pan on the hob) and separately melt the dark chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water on the stove. Stir the chocolate well, ensure it’s completely melted, and be careful not to burn it.
Once the butter is melted and allowed to cool slightly, add the coffee and stir well, then add whichever orange bits you’re using (if you add anything too hot or too cold to the mix it can cause it to shrink – have your ingredients at room temperature and not straight from the fridge).
Roughly chop and toast the skin-on almonds for 10 minutes and leave to cool. (When it comes to this next bit take special care to place the ingredients into the mixing bowl in the order stated – this ensures a nice even mix of all ingredients and the eggs don’t come into contact with the warmed butter.) Put the eggs in first, then all the ground almonds, then the dark choc and very dark choc chunks, and lastly the fructose. Stir in the salt and vanilla, followed by the butter mixture. Mix well until creamy and thickened but be careful not to over-mix – too much air will cause the brownie to crumble when baked.
Spoon the mix into a well-buttered baking tray 30cm x 30cm, or something with similar volume.
Take extreme care not to over-bake. The brownie is ready when the edges are slightly crusty and the middle is still soft. The middle should be very moist but should have a firmish feel to it – about 20-25 minutes. Remember that fructose goes much darker when baked than sugar. The brownie also develops a glossy sheen and does not look baked when it is. I’ll say it again – you need to be very careful not to over-bake.
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