Beetroot, horseradish and feta blini

This looked quite impressive, but was set upon as soon as it reached the table - and then people had seconds before I managed to remember to take a pic.

Blini

self raising flour and buckwheat flour (about 2/3 to 1/3)
egg
soya milk
salt
sour cream/ natural yogurt

Mix flours together, whisk in egg, then add soya milk and yogurt.  Mix to thick batter.  Fry in light olive oil - a couple of minutes each side.

Topping

beetroot
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
sour cream
horse radish cream
feta
pine nuts
(smoked salmon)

Chop beetroot and toss in good olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Mix a couple of spoons of horseradish into sour cream.  Roast pine nuts til golden (or roast pine nuts until burnt, then get lovely sister in law to roast another batch until golden - this works too).  Lay blini on big platter add beetroot, horse radish cream and crumbled feta.  Fling pine nuts over the top.  Some people might also enjoy adding smoked salmon.

Cauliflower and sprout cheese, pepper and tomato bake and roasty tatoes

Tasty, tasty, tasty!  But... it did take longer than a quick tea... and I didn't start cooking until 7:15 (long stories... work, trains, dogs etc...) and we ate at 9pm.  That was OK though, cos it gave us chance to catch up with professional master chef as well.  The downside of that is that a person might be tempted to compare my presentation of dinner to a masterchef thingy.. well - DON'T.. that is all.

There are 3 elements to the dinner tonight - a greens bake, a red bake and roasted potatoes.

1.  the best thing to do would be start with the potatoes, chop them into bite sized pieces (skin on if it looks nice) and par boil.
2.  Meanwhile, chop and onion and fry gently in olive oil, then after a few minutes add cauliflower florets and prepped and quartered sprouts... I then added a splosh of white wine.  Cover and simmer.  When veg a bit soft, chuck on huge handful of grated cheddar and stick it in t'oven  with 'tatoes.
3.  Red bake - chop red pepper, plum tomatoes add crushed garlic, olive oil and plenty of seasoning - stick in t'oven with t'rest.

Takes about an hour in the oven - then scoff

Vegetable, butterbean hazelnut crumble

Visiting people and a full veg box.  What glee.  So mushroom and pepper hazelnut crumble with roast potatoes and steamed carrots and broccoli.  It was declared "better than my average" - which I took, though back-handed, as a compliment.  Thanks mis-behaving sectagenarian for the elegant presentation of serving implements.

Crumble

olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 giant field mushrooms
1 red pepper
garlic
grainy mustard
tin butter beans
white wine
water

Topping

rolled oats
gluten free flour
hazelnuts
olive oil
seasoning

olive oil
potatoes
carrots
broccoli

1.  Sautee onion in olive oil.
2.  Add chopped mushrooms and red pepper, soften slightly.
3.  Add garlic and grainy mustard, drained butterbeans and splash of white wine.
4.  Simmer, don't let it dry out.
5.  Parboil bite sized pieces of potato, drain and cook in olive oil in hot oven.
6.  Mix oats, a little gluten free flour, zizzed up hazelnuts, season and mix with olive oil - enough to make it look like crumble.
7.  Transfer mustardy mixture to oven dish, top with crumble and bake for about 30 minutes.
8. Prepare and steam carrots and broccoli for about 12 minutes.

Minestrone

Surprise lunch out - and stuffed full of cheese 'n onion pie, so only wanted soup for dinner.  Lovely organic veg left from the box though, so a big steaming bowl of minestrone.

olive oil
onion
garlic
carrots
turnip
tomato puree
vegetable bouillon
water
few chili flakes

1.  Sweat finely chopped onion in olive oil.
2. Add finely diced root veg and garlic.
3.  After turning in the oil for a couple of minutes add a big squirt of tomato puree and stock.
4.  Simmer for about 15 minutes.
5.  Add a few chili flakes and the chopped cavolo nero.
6.  Taste, adjust seasoning if necessary, take a few ladles out and whizz, return to the soup.
7. Scoff

veggie curry, tarka dhal and brown rice

You can make this with all sorts of veg, and all sorts of spice mixes.  It takes about 45 minutes, start to finish, but you can leave it in the oven for ages if you're busy - just make sure it's covered.

Brown rice

Bring to boil in a cast iron, the water about an inch above the rice.  When it reaches the boil, put the lid on and stick it in a medium oven.  Forget about it until you are ready to eat.  It'll be done.

Veggie curry

I used:-

olive oil
1 onion
garlic
biryani spice mix
3 carrots
some mushrooms
large turnip
tin of tomatoes

1.  Soften chopped onion in olive oil until a bit soft.
2.  Prepare other veg and chuck it all in.
3. Simmer, taste, add more water if you need it.

Tarka dhal

Red lentils
water
olive oil
spices for frying - eg. fennel, cumin, coriander, mustard seeds, garam masala, curry leaves

1.  Boil lentils until gloopy, add more water when you need to.
2.  Two minutes before serving, fry spices in oil, they're ready when they start releasing their aroma.
3.  Chuck onto lentils and savour the sizzling.

Scoff - in this case with a blob of natural yogurt.  Miss the yogurt out, and you have a vegan, gluten free dinner.  Kerching.