A couple of weeks ago I re-started my ClearOutAndEat project. If you didn’t spot that post you can read it here and find out what my project is all about.

I am thrilled to see so many of you using the hashtag #ClearOutAndEat over on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. It is wonderful to see such delicious looking dishes and be inspired to new creations of my own too.

Top row, left to right: Janine’s prawn fried rice from Cook with Craic, Ciara’s slow cooker curry from Our Little House In The Country, my own vegetable plate with mint yogurt, recipe below.

Bottom row, left to right: Ciara’s curry in the making, Nicola’s chocolate orange sweet potato muffins from Simply Homemade

Ciara kindly posted several photos, from the raw ingredients to the cooking to the final dish. This mouth-watering shot of herbs, garlic and onions frying is one of my favourites.

Elizabeth from Life on Hushabye Farm posted an equally mouth-watering photo of her chicken and chorizo dish. Doesn’t it look fantastic? I am definitly giving a version of this a go! Elizabeth has pleny of family-friendly recipes over on her blog, so do pop over and have a browse.

Speaking of gathering inspiration from others, I have been picking up a lot of ideas for flavour combinations from The World Of The Happy Pear, the latest book from the brothers behind The Happy Pear Cafe in Greystones, Co. Wicklow in Ireland.

Penguin Books kindly sent me a copy recently and I have spent many a happy coffee break browsing it and gaining inspiration from their fabulous-sounding recipes and gorgeous photos.

In the true spirit of #clearoutandeat, I have been viewing the contents of my fridge and cupboards with new eyes and have been combining flavours I might not have otherwise put together.

Above is a photo of one of my recent lunches – a salad of lettuce, tomatoes, olives and avocado with a dressing of tahini, lime juice, olive oil and sesame seeds, served with toasted pitta bread and a glass of homemade lavender & lime barley water. While neither the salad nor the barley water were from The World of The Happy Pear, both are along the lines of the type of recipes in the book. I drew some inspiration from the Happy Pear philosophy and went about making my own healthy lunch with what I had available.

Another of my #clearoutandeat lunches from last week was this  carrot, apple and ginger salad – delicious, healthy, largely regional food combined to make a filling lunch which used up some bits and pieces that were lying round the kitchen.

Here’s the recipe:
2 carrots, peeled
1 apple, washed
A 3 cm piece of ginger, peeled
1 dsp olive oil
1 dsp sesame seeds
Lemon juice
New potatoes
Yogurt
1 tsp dried mint (or fresh)
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
Shred the carrots, apple and ginger in a food processor. Stir in the olive oil and sesame seeds. Add a squeeze of lemon juice, to taste.

Simple, right? It is really fresh-tasting and goes with a whoe range of foods, flavour-wise. Since I was using up what I had, I ate the salad with new potatoes and a minty yogurt dip.

Boil the potatoes in their skins till done. Drain and arrange on a plate with the carrot salad.

While the potatoes are boiling, stir together the yogurt, mint and cardamom. Leave to sit till the potatoes are cooked then dollop onto the salad and potatoes.

Please do continue to share your own creations on social media, tagging me if you think of it,  and using the hashtag #ClearOutAndEat.

[Disclaimer: Penguin Books Ireland sent me a copy of The World Of The Happy Pear for review purposes. All words and opinions here are my own.]