Caribbean roast vegetable and chickpea soup

Yesterday, a lovely wedding - this meant a night in a hotel - therefore, the compulsory full english breakfast (I'm not going to name and shame - it wasn't brilliant) - leaves you quite full, or at least wanting something tasty and nutritious and not swimming in grease.  I looked in the fridage and found the remains of the veg box (nearly) were sweet potato, butternut squash, red pepper and pak choi.  Add a tin of chickpeas, tin of tomatoes and some yogurt and tadah!


Olive oil
Sweet potato, peeled and chopped into biggish bits
Red pepper, chopped and deseeded
Butternut squash, peeled and prepared
blackenned cajun seasoning
garlic, lots of it, crushed and the tough peel removed (papery bits can be left)
Stock
tin of tomatoes
tin of chickpeas, drained

lemon, zest and juice
salt
natural yogurt

pakchoi
olive oil

1.  Roast prepared vegetables and garlic in olive oil, whit a good sprinkling of cajun seasonning - in a hot oven, until soft and slightly singed.
2.  Meanwhile gently soften a chopped onion in olive oil.
3.  Add roast vegetables and garlic to onion, add a pint or so of stock.
4.  Bring up to simmer.  Add 1/2 tin drained and rinsed chickpeas and a tin of tomatoes.  Heat through.
5. Zizz to a smoot soup - add more stock/water to taste.
6.  Tip in the remaining chickpeas, and heat through.
7.  Just before serving squeeze in lemon juice (1/2 lemon)

Top with yogurt, which has a big pinch of salt, the zest of the lemon, and the other half of the lemon's juice mixed in.

Top that with shredded and fried in olive oil, pak choi.

FAB-U-LOUS!

Autumnal "spanish" omelette, with roasted vine tomatoes

Start with the tomatoes ... put them in the oven in an oven dish with a splash of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt.

Omelette

1 leek, chopped and washed
Mushrooms, chopped
8 medium potatoes
cavolo nero, shredded
broccoli, florets separated and stalk peeled and chopped
8-10 eggs, whisked

1.  Soften leek in olive oil, then add mushroom pieces, fry gently in a big frying pan, which you can put in the oven.
2.  At the same time boil chopped potatoes, and steam cavolo nero and broccoli.
3.  When the potatoes are done, and the greens are soft - add them all to the frying pan, and mix together.
4.  Add the eggs, shake the pan to even out and cook in a medium oven for about 20-30 minutes.

This was a fabulous use of the end of the veg box.  Filling, delicious and quite easy. "First class is too trite" was my provided quote.

Sprouts are not just for Christmas

Brown rice risotto - with leeks, mushrooms and broccoli - with brussels sprouts and hazelnuts

It all sounds very worthy - but bloody hell, it tasted fabulous.

Brown rice leek and mushroom
risotto

olive oil
leeks, washed and chopped
brown rice
mushrooms, chopped
vegetable stock
garlic
broccoli
fried onions

Brussel sprouts and hazelnuts

Butter
Sprouts shredded
hazelnuts, roughly chopped

1.  Sautee leeks in olive oil, until soft.
2. Add rice (I used brown rice, which means about twice the time of white rice) and some stock, simmer.
3. Add chopped mushrooms and garlic, simmer - keep on a medium heat.
4.  Keep an eye on the pan, add some water/stock when it is going dry.
5.  After about 20 minutes, add broccoli florets to steam on the top.

Brussel sprouts

1,  In a frying pan - melt a good know of butter, with a tbsp of olive oil
2.  Add shredded brussel sprouts, toss for a minute of two.
3. Add chopped hazelnuts.
4. Toss mixture together - don't burn it - but dont serve it cold :)

Cajun cod, tiny roasties ... spring greens and peas

Fish and chips are a bit of a Friday night tradition ... but a twist is always welcome.

To be honest, it's not much of a twist - f&c is a classic because it's delicious.

The twist was i) greens with peas - has been lettuce before but today we had spring greens - and the combination is GOOD and ii) polenta and cajun blacknned seasoning on the cod pieces.

Start with the potatoes - boil, drain and roast in olive oil.

After about 45 minutes start on the rest ....

Toss fish pieces in polenta a spice mixed together - fry for a couple of minutes on each side.

Steam green and frozen peas.

Serve, scoff, have seconds.

Spinach omelette (with roast tomatoes and potatoes)

The main part of this dinner took about 10 minutes - it was the mini roasties and roast tomatoes which took the other hour.  So, I put this firmly in fast food - buy chips/ bake oven chips / .... heat tinned tomatoes/ fry fresh tomatoes... to get a quicker version of basically the same thing.

The omelette is...

olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
garlic, crushed
spinach leaves, shredded
eggs (4), whipped

so ... boil - roast bits of potatoes (or buy chips from the chippy ... yum) .. roast tomatoes ... or use conveniently packaged tomato ketchup .. to serve along side the omelette

The omelette

1. sweat down chopped onion in olive oil - for about 5 minutes
2.  add crushed garlic and shredded spinach, keep moving around the pan until spinach has wilted.
3.  Beat eggs, add to hot pan.
4.  Swirl egg mixture in pan, pull cooked edges in and swirl uncooked egg into the spaces - stick in the oven for a couple of minutes if the top still looks uncooked ..

Serve - with salty cheese (feta and chvre - cos we had them) and other stuff.

My camera is doing odd things, but my taste buds are not - this was really tasty.

layered potato, tomato and cheese with vegetable ragu

Olive oil
Potato
Onion
Cheese (edam in this case)
Tomato
Garlic
Vegetable stock

Red onion
Olive oil
Mixed herbs
Mushrooms
Courgette
Yellow pepper
Spring greens
Baby kale
garlic

1.  In an oven proof dish, splosh of olive oil.
2.  Layer thinly sliced potato, onion, tomato and cheese.  Season every layer of potato.  End with layer of potato.
3.  Pour in a pint of stock, with crushed garlic.
4.  Drizzle with olive oil.
5.  Bake for about 1 and a half hours, until potato is soft, and top is golden brown.

After 5 above, start the rage.

1. Sweat chopped veg in olive oil, with the herbs.  (onion, mushrooms and courgette)
2.  Add a little water or stock, and simmer.
3.  Cook until soft.
4.  Add shredded greens and cook until soft (about 4 minutes)

Serve, scoff.... have seconds, smile.

Fennel, red pepper and lemon risotto

Olive oil
Onion
Celery
Fennel
Red pepper
Garlic
Arborrio rice
White wine
Stock
Parmesan
Frozen peas

1.  Sautee chopped celery and onion in olive oil.
2.  When a little soft, add the chopped fennel and red pepper.
3.  Add rice and stir until each grain is covered in a film of oil.
4.  Add garlic, white wine and stock gradually, stirring frequently.
5.  Keep adding stock, seasoning and stirring until rice is very nearly cooked.
6.  Stir in grated parmesan and a handful of frozen peas.
7.  Serve - garnish with baby kale and parmesan shards.

Smooth, silky and comforting - with a nice fresh edge from the aniseed fennel and lemon.

Courgette and mushroom rarebit with sauteed potatoes

Quite late home, and no clear idea what to make for tea - this emerged, and was tasty.

We love baby roasties - or home baked chips, but I wanted to speed them up, so I zapped them (chopped) in the microwave first, then shallow fried them while the oven heated up - then finished them for 20 minutes in the oven.

The courgette, mushroom bake started out as an idea for mushroom rareabit with griddled courgettes - but ended up all in the same dish with the eggy cheesy mixture over the top.  It worked though!  What to call it?   No idea!

Baby roasties

Chop potatoes into bite sized pieces.  Microwave for 2 minutes, toss, microwave for a further 2 minutes.

Shallow fry in hot olive oil.  Toss, when a bit browned transfer to over dish and bake with the veg.

Courgette and mushroom rarebit

Cur 2 courgetted longways into 3.  Gently fry in olive oil until the crunch has gone and there's a little colour on them.

Meanwhile, put 4 field mushrooms, gil side up in baking tray greased with olive oil.

Bake for 10 minutes.  Turn mushrooms over, add courgette strips.  Bake for 10 more minutes.

Grate some cheddar and mix with 4 beaten eggs.

Slice 2 tomatoes.

Turn beg over in the baking dish. add tomatoes to the top.  Bake again for 10 minutes.

Shred some basil.

Sprinkle basil onto veg, and top with cheese and egg mixture.  Bake for 12 (ish) minutes until top is golden.

Serve and scoff!

Root veg and squash mash with lentils, shallots braised in red wine

This is very close to a Yotam Ottalenghi recipe - but we didn't have celeriac, puy lentils or ground cumin - so we used celery with the shallots, some little green lentils and a little biryani curry mix instead - and it was delicious.

Start with the shallots, then the lentils, then the root vegetables.

Shallots braised in red wine

Olive oil
Shallots, peeled and chopped if necessary
Celery, chopped
Bay leaves
Mixed herbs
Vegetable stock
Red wine
salt and black pepper

1. Sweat off shallots and celery in olive oil.
2.  Add bay leaves and herbs, chuck in wine and stock.
3.  Simmer for about an hour until veg are soft.  Add more wine/stock if it is going dry.
4.  At the end turn heat up, to thicken sauce into sticky yumminess.
(You could pull out the veg, and stir in a knob of butter, to make more luxurious)

Lentils

Boil in plenty of water until soft - about 30 minutes. Drain.

Root vegetable mash

2 carrots, peeled and chopped into chunks
2 sweet potatoes, chopped into chunks
1 squash (festival in our case) peeled, deseeded and chopped into chunks
salt
black pepper
butter
curry powder (or some other spice eg. cumin)

1.  Boil carrots for about 10 minutes
2.  Then add other veg and boil until all yield to a sharp knife.
3.  Drain, add a good knob of butter and seasonings.  Mash.
4.  Stir in lentils.

Serve mash and lentils with shallot, red wine sauce on top.

Extremely healthy comfort food.  DELICIOUS.

crispy courgette batons - with halloumi, watercress and left over paella

I have included this in the blog for two reasons - i) courgettes done this way are delicious and ii) it has been really hectic, and I have not posted for a while, so I need to get back on it!

So - crispy courgette batons

Olive oil
Polenta
Salt and pepper (don't skimp)
Courgette, cut into batons

Easy...

Mix the polenta and seasoning.  Put into a plastic bag (or a bowl and move the pieces gently).  Add courgette pieces and toss gently to coat.

Fry in olive oil. allowing it to crisp up before tossing to mix up.

Drain on kitchen roll, keep warm.

Serve with other stuff.