Minted Pea and Goats Cheese Wrap

8th February 2016

A couple more recipes from the Good Food magazines today. One for lunch and one for tea. This minted pea wrap looked pretty good from the pictures and very easy, and this will be a pretty short blog post!

To begin, I defrosted some frozen peas and mashed them with chopped mint. This was mixed with soft goats cheese into a kind of pea and cheese paste.

This was spread onto the tortilla and was topped with grated apple, chopped spinach and pumpkin seeds. I wrapped this in foil to take for lunch the following day.

Spoilers: whilst I hadn't eaten the whole ensemble on the day of writing this, I did try a spoonful (or two) of the filling and it was delicious! I can't wait to have the whole thing for lunch tomorrow.

Mexican Bean Soup with Feta Tortillas

8th February 2016

This looked like a nice winter warmer, given that we're bracing ourselves again Storm Imogen this week.

The onion was fried in a pot for a few minutes until golden. I didn't have any chipotle paste to add and to be honest, I'm a bit of a wuss with spicy food. I used a bit of chilli powder instead, and added this along with the kidney beans, black eye beans and passata. 

This was left to boil for around twenty minutes. In the meantime, I made the feta tortillas. In a bowl I mixed the feta cheese and garlic paste. This was spread onto half the tortilla and folded in half to toast in the panini press

The tortillas were served with the bean soup. Both were tasty and warming and were exactly what I needed on a cold day.

Baked Sweet Potato with Lentils and Red Cabbage Slaw

2nd February 2016

Second recipe of the week! This one had a number of components which I expertly put together with perfect timing!

First it was a matter of pricking the sweet potato and starting it off in the oven for a while. Apparently Sainsburys were only selling off gigantic potatoes this week so I baked just the one for two meals. We're trying to diet a little bit here, of course!

After around thirty minutes, I began to prepare the filling. I fried an onion with garlic paste, chilli powder and ground coriander. I prefer to use powdered chilli as I'm just such a wuss when it comes to chopping and eating fresh ones. This was all fried for a few minutes until golden, then the lentils and cold water were added and brought to the boil. I put a lid on and left this to simmer for twenty minutes. Fresh chopped tomatoes and a bunch of roughly chopped coriander was added and stirred into the mixture for a further few minutes.

Meanwhile, I started the red cabbage slaw. I cored and thinly sliced half a small red cabbage, grated a carrot and sliced a spring onion. This was mixed with lemon juice, oil, a handful of sultanas and pumpkin seeds.

Then began the construction! I split the half potato and spooned some of the lentil mixture onto the potato. This was topped with a dollop of natural yogurt.

Finally I added a portion of the red cabbage slaw and a little extra yogurt for dipping. This dinner was vitamin overload and incredibly tasty.

Masala Frittata with Avocado Salsa

1st February 2016

Well the last batch of recipes left me with tuppaware meals for over a week! In the meantime February's edition of the Good Food magazine turned up so I folded down some more pages to work through. After a heavy weekend it was time for some detox veggie goodness, and this one looked nice and simple. I'm a big fan of frittatas.

To start, I diced two and a half onions and fried them in a large frying pan until golden brown. Next a table spoon (and a bit...) of madras paste was added along with a pack of halved cherry tomatoes, chilli powder and paprika were added and stirred into the onions. The mixture was fried until the tomatoes were beginning to burst and the paste had thickened onto the other ingredients.

Six eggs and a bunch of roughly chopped coriander were mixed in a glass and then poured onto the onion and tomato mixture. This was stirred together to give an even distribution of ingredients and cooked on a low eat for just under ten minutes.

Once the bottom was cooked, the pan was put under the grill to cook the rest of the egg mixture until stiff.

Meanwhile, the remaining half an onion was mixed with a diced tomato, avocado and a small bunch of roughly chopping coriander. This was topped with juice from half a lime and mixed together.

A quarter of the frittata was served with a spoonful of the salsa which made a really light dinner after a day of snacking. Delicious!

Italian Aubergine Bake

20th January 2015

Another one from the Good Food magazine. I'm back on my aubergine binge so this one looked good.

First, the aubergine was sliced and diced, covered in oil and salt and roasted for 15 minutes.

Next the chopped tomatoes, olives and basil was stirred in and everything was baked for a further 10 minutes.

Finally, I tore a small baguette into pieces and layered those and the grated mozzarella on top of the aubergine. This was baked for another 20 minutes until crispy. 

This was absolutely delicious and very easy to make. The baked cheese on the croutons were amazing and the Italian flavours were extremely warming on a cold winter night.

Chunky Vegetable and Rice Soup

17th January 2016

Two in two days! Today is a soup day because its absolutely freezing for the first time this winter. Snow everywhere..except south London. This recipe is also taken from the January Good Food magazine.

This was a very easy broth type soup to prepare. To start with the onion, carrot, parsnips, celery and herbs were lightly fried in a pot. I added a small amount of water so the veg wouldn't dry out or stick to the bottom. This was covered and left to cook gently for around 15 minutes.

Meanwhile I weighed out the rice (half brown, half white) and measured out a litre of water for the stock. These were added to the pot and left uncovered to simmer for another 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure the rice didn't stick to the bottom.

Finally, the leeks were added with salt and pepper for seasoning and this was simmered for a few more minutes until the leeks were softened.

The recipe recommended to blitz half the soup in a blender and leave the remainder chunky, but I ate the first portion as it was. I slipped with the pepper so it was quite hot, but overall it was a thoroughly warming winter soup.

Sweet Potato Dhal with Curried Vegetables

16th January 2016

Ok, its the beginning of 2016 and I'm ready to get back on this thing. The end of 2015 was incredibly busy and I'm pretty sure I didn't cook a proper meal for the most of December. I will get around to posting Christmas dinner soon, promise.

So to start of the year I flicked through the January copy of the Good Food magazine. There's a few great looking veggie recipes so I think I'm going to draw on these for a little while.

The first recipe I went for was a sweet potato dhal after a freezing cold day out playing netball. To start an onion was fried in oil until golden brown. Garlic paste and curry powder was stirred in until the onion was coated. Next, the red split lentils, chopped sweet potato and a litre of water was added to the pan and simmered until the lentils were soft and most of the liquid was boiled off.

Meanwhile, I chopped the cauliflower, green beans and carrots into small pieces and these were boiled for a few minutes and drained.

Another onion was fried, and the drained veg were added into the pan with curry powder. Roughly chopped tomatoes were added next with a small amount of water to fry lightly.

I actually ended up with too much liquid in the dhal, so there was a bit of a straining job to get rid of the excess. It didn't need the whole 50 minutes recommended, and it looked mushy and dhal-like after about 30 minutes.

The dhal was split into four portions and the veg topped it off. Overall it was a success and a nice warming dinner to heat up after netball. It was a little bland though, and for the remaining portions I plan to add some more seasoning. But I'd definitely make this again.