Roasted warm vegetable salad with basil crème fraiche vinaigrette

Ingredients

600g sweet potato and potato-you can use a mix or just 1. Keep the skin on and chop to a 1 cm dice.

1 large broccoli, cut into florets

½ large cauliflower, cut into florets

300g green beans, top and tailed

Method

This is the timeline because the veg takes different times.

In an oven tray toss the potato/sweet potato in some olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast this at 200 c fan forced for 20 minutes. In another roasting tray toss the broccoli and cauliflower in olive oil, salt and pepper.

Then put the broccoli and cauliflower in the oven and roast for 10 minutes.

Throw the beans on top of the sweet potato and give them a toss through the oil, season with salt and pepper. Roast a further 15 minutes. Everything should now be cooked at the same time.

You can serve hot if you like but I served mine as a warm salad.

Add your protein, I had mine veg and did hard boiled eggs and pan fried haloumi. If you want vegan you can heat some lentils, chickpeas or cannellini beans.

So the sweet potato takes 45 minutes. The broc/cauli take 25 minutes and the beans take 15 minutes.

Basil, crème fraiche vinaigrette

Juice of 1 lemon

A handful of basil leaves

1 small clove of garlic

1 tbsp crème fraiche- or you can use sour cream or cream, or just use oil

2 tbsp mild tasting olive oil

Salt and pepper

Method

Pulse in a food processor until combined, Taste and adjust your seasonings.

Or finely chop the basil and garlic and mix by hand.

Lentil and vegetable bolognese sauce/nachos

I made this the other day and i'm using 1/4 of it for nachos and I still have another 1/4 to use up!!

The sauce is vegetarian which you can have without the meatballs if you prefer. I blended the sauce at the end so the kids could not see what was in it. I was delighted to tell them when they finished dinner that their most hated vegetables were in there, mwahahahaha! (zucchini, mushroom and pumpkin)
Lentils are a great addition to bolognese sauces as they break down and add extra nutrients plus extra fibre.

You can serve this with rice or mash or use it as a savory mince dish. Use as a baked potato topping with melted cheese, or jaffles, pies or shepherd's pie.
When you use the rest you can fry some more onion and garlic add some cumin and paprika and as well as some kidney beans and chopped tomatoes and simmer until really thick. Use for burritos, tacos or nachos.

Lentil and vegetable bolognese sauce
Ingredients
1 brown onion
4 cloves of garlic
2 zucchinis
300g pumpkin
150g broccoli
150g mushrooms
1200 ml tomato passata
½ cup of red lentils
3 tsp each of dried oregano and basil
Salt and pepper

Meatballs is just 500g mince, kneaded until sticky with some herbmare or salt and pepper. Roll into balls and fry in a pan for 6-7 minutes. You can either add the sauce to the meatballs in the pan and simmer a few minutes
- or you can stir the sauce through the pasta and serve the balls on top. If you do it this way you can set any leftover balls aside and make a meatball salad or stuffed into some pita bread and salad.

Method
I used the grater attachment on my food processor but you can finely chop by hand. It gets blended up at the end anyway (although you don’t have to).
Fry off onion and garlic for 30 seconds and then add everything else. Simmer for 25-30 minutes or until the lentils are tender. Use a stick mixer to blend until the sauce is to your liking. Serve with pasta like spaghetti, penne, rigatoni or whatever you like. Instead of parmesan cheese I used some feta.

Another idea to use this up is nachos

For the spaghetti above I used half the recipe then I used 1/4 to make nachos. (still have 1/4 of the mix left!)

In a large pot add 1 chopped brown onion, 3 cloves of crushed garlic, fry off in some olive oil for 30 seconds, then add 3 tsp paprika and 2 tsp ground cumin, stir again until fragrant. 

Then add on 1 x 400g can of rinsed and drained kidney beans, your leftover mix and 3 chopped tomatoes. Simmer for 25 minutes stirring occasionally. it should be nice and thick.

Now you have yourself some vegetarian nacho mix. You can also use for burritos or tacos or on a bed of brown rice.

Serve up with corn chips, melted cheese, guacamole and sour cream, so good!!

Pea, parmesan and saffron risotto with thyme mushrooms

I have said 4 serves but is it very filling if you have lots of veg with it so you could serve 6 with this. You can also use white wine as the first bit of liquid you cook with your rice, but i have left it out.

Have you made risotto before? how did it turn out?

Now if you watch masterchef this is apparently the dish that everyone seems to fail, I have never understood why! lol

You need a lot of liquid, the consistency of risotto should be sloppy like a thick soup, you will need a ladle. The rice shouldn't be crunchy if it is add more liquid. If you overcook it the rice will be mushy it needs to have a little texture still!

Rice is generally quite bland so loves flavors like onion, garlic, cheese, salt, pepper, saffron, things like that.

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 ½ cup of Arborio rice

Approx. 1- 1.2 litre of chicken stock or vegetable stock if vegetarian

300g peas, defrosted (2 cups)

1 cup of parmesan cheese, or to taste

1 brown onion, fine dice

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

A pinch of saffron threads. If you don’t have it you can just leave it out

500g mixed mushrooms, I used button and swiss brown, sliced, but you can use whatever mix you like

½ a 10g pack of thyme, chopped

Method

Heat your stock, this needs to be hot when you use it.

In a large pot heat about 2 tsp olive oil and 2 tsp butter. Put in your onion and garlic and cook for one minute, you don’t want it browning so turn the heat down if you need to. Then add your rice and stir for one minute to coat the rice in the oil.

Add a couple ladles of hot stock and stir. Add in your saffron if using.

You basically keep adding ladlefuls of stock stirring with each addition. When you have a couple of ladles of stock left check your rice to see how cooked it is, it shouldn’t be crunchy, should be nearly there at this stage, if it’s still really crunchy you need to keep adding liquid, if you run out of stock you can use a little water. When you get down to your last bit of stock add in your defrosted peas. Add your last bit of stock and heat through the peas. Again check your rice. The consistency should be a really thick soup, you should need a ladle to serve your risotto. The longer it stands through the more the liquid is absorbed.

Add in a knob of butter and your cheese. Check your seasonings and add salt and pepper if needed.

While your rice is cooking cook your mushrooms with a little olive oil and butter, add your thyme in and cook until the mushrooms have wilted and start releasing juices and start to get some caramelisation. Season well with salt and pepper.

You can also cook extra veg at this stage to serve, I had with steamed asparagus and broccoli.

To serve place your mushrooms at the bottom, then your risotto and whatever vegetables you are using to serve with. You can garnish with some extra shaved parmesan cheese if you like.

Cannellini and black bean falafels

Ingredients

2 cans of legumes, rinsed and drained-I have used black beans and cannellini beans but you can use butter beans and chickpeas too

1 small handful of parsley and coriander- you could use mint as well if you wanted

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin- you can double these 2 spices if you like

1 small brown onion

1 clove of garlic

1 tsp baking powder

1 egg

Panko crumbs

Salt

Method

Put your legumes, herbs, spices, baking powder, onion, garlic, salt, egg in a food processor and blitz till smooth. Then add in enough panko crumbs until it comes together and you can form into patties, this will be about 1.5 cups or so. Then form into patties and coat the outside with more panko crumbs. Fill the bottom of a large pan with oil and heat. Place in your patties and cook on a medium heat until golden brown then cook the other side. Drain on absorbent paper. Serve with hummus, pita bread, tzatziki and salad. You can use a vegetarian burger pattie too.

As an alternative you can use gluten free crumbs in the mix, form patties and bake at 180 c for about 12-15 minutes.

Quinoa, cannellini beans with vegetables and tahini & lemon dressing

Ingredients

½ cup of quinoa, cooked- cook while your vegetables are cooking

1 x 400g can of rinsed and drained cannellini beans- add these in the last 1 minute of cooking the quinoa to heat through

½ a large cauliflower

1 large broccoli

400g of thinly sliced pumpkin, skin off and slice  as thin as you can sliced it otherwise it won’t cook in time

Method

In a large pan or wok add some olive oil and butter, stir fry your veg for 5-6 minutes until it is cooked to your liking. When done add in your cooked quinoa/cannellini beans and mix through. Season well with salt and pepper. Serve up with tahini dressing and optional garnish.

As a garnish sprinkle over some pumpkin seeds and some Persian or normal feta cheese, feel free to have more veg/salad on the side J

Tahini dressing is 1 tbsp tahini, juice of one lemon, small clove of crushed garlic (not too much!) 1/4 cup of natural yoghurt plus salt and pepper, mix well.

Mexican beans

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

1 red capsicum

1 green capsicum

3 carrots

3-4 stalks of celery

1 brown onion

4 cloves of garlic

2 x 400g cans of diced tomatoes of passata

1 x 400g can of kidney beans or ½ cups of cooked kidney beans

1 tbsp paprika

1 tbsp smoked paprika

1-2 tsp ground cumin

1 tbsp dried oregano

Method

Dice all the veg up about 1cm, chop the garlic.

In a large pot heat 1 ½ tbsp olive oil, through all the veg in a stir, cook for 1-2 minutes and then add spices, cook another 1 minute and then add tomatoes and kidney beans, add about ½ can worth of water. Simmer for about half an hour until the veg is tender.

You can take this mix and put in an ovenproof dish, break in 1-2 eggs each and sprinkle over some grated cheese, bake at 200 fan forced for 10 minutes or the eggs are done to your liking. Serve up with extra veg and sour cream if you like!

Vegetable, tomato and barley soup

Ingredients

2 carrots

2 zucchini

2 stems of celery

1 brown onion

5 cloves of garlic

4 bay leaves

1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes or 400g tomato passata

¼ of a small green cabbage

½ cup of pearl barley

800-1000ml water/vegetable stock/chicken broth-800ml will be quite thick, add more liquid as needed

Optional ½ cup alphabet pasta shapes or similar

Chopped parsley and parmesan cheese for garnish

Method

I used a food processor and pulsed the vegetables to finely chop, not puree! Do the cabbage separate, this gets added later in the cooking. Or you can chop finely by hand.

In a large pot put in some olive oil and fry off your carrot, celery, zucchini, onion and garlic for 1 minute, then add your tomato, broth/water, bay leaves and barley. Simmer for 30 minutes or until the barley is tender, should be a little chewy in texture. Then add in your cabbage and pasta if using. Simmer a further 5 minutes or until the pasta is cooked. Add plenty of salt and pepper. Serve with chopped parsley and grated parmesan cheese.

Legume ragout with saffron and rosemary

Have this by itself or as I have done with poached eggs and feta cheese

The term comes from the French ragoûter, meaning: "to revive the taste".

The basic method of preparation involves slow cooking over a low heat.

Serve 4-6

Ingredients

2 carrots, diced

2-3 stalks celery, diced

1 red or green capsicum, diced

1 large brown onion, diced

3-4 cloves garlic, crushed

2 stems rosemary

A pinch of saffron

2 x 400g can of rinsed and drained legumes, chickpeas, butter beans, cannellini bean, kidney beans etc…

2 cups of vegetable or chicken broth

1 cup tomato passata

Method

Put everything in a slow cooker and put on low for the day.

You can serve with extra veg and poached eggs, feta cheese, chopped chilli

Zucchini, carrot, haloumi fritters

  makes 12

 

Ingredients

3 zucchinis, grated

2-3 carrots, grated

250g block firm haloumi, grated

½ c (approx.) corn/rice flour/tapioca

3 eggs  

  

Method

Mix altogether, there will be some liquid surrounding the vegies, you don’t want it too thick. Cook in a large pan on a medium heat in some ghee or similar. When golden brown turn over and cook the other side. The liquid that comes out of the veg mix when cooking goes crispy and is really nice, that’s why you want a little liquid come out of the mix. These are good with a nice relish and avocado and salad.

Rat-babs

 This is so easy there is no recipe! Rat-babs!

This is ratatouille vegetables on a kebab stick!

Slice zucchini, finger eggplant capsicum and diced haloumi cheese, panfry in a little oil, cook for 7-8 mins turning occasionally. When cooked put on your plates then in the same pan put in 1 cup of tomato passata (cooked, strained tomatoes)and 1/2 cup water 1/2 shredded wombok (chinese cabbage) and cook for 2 minutes until wombok is wilted. Put the wombok on your plate and pour over what sauce in left in your pan.

If you have any basil or oregano you can  put that in with the sauce.