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Posts Tagged ‘Vegetarian’

Veggie Feast – Nigel Slater’s Spiced Aubergine Stew

Posted in Food, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , on 7 June 2011| 2 Comments »

We cooked this for a veggie dinner party and it was really tasty. There’s a lot of stages involved so leave yourself plenty of time. We cooked it in the morning and reheated it on the hob while we steamed the rice and that worked well. You might want to ease up on the chilli depending on your audience – it’s quite hot.

Spicy aubergine stew – to feed 6 generously

  • 1 kg aubergines
  • 3 medium onions
  • 2 tbsp groundnut oil
  • 8 green cardamom pods
  • 2 tbsp coriander seeds
  • 2 tsp black peppercorns
  • 4 big garlic cloves
  • a thumb-sized piece of ginger
  • 2 rounded tsp turmeric
  • 10 medium-sized tomatoes, peeled and seeded
  • 500ml vegetable stock
  • 2 x 400ml tins coconut milk
  • 4 finely chopped red chillies (or less if you like it milder)
  • a small bunch of mint
  • a bigger handful of coriander
Cut the aubergines into big chunks and tip them into a colander, put it in the sink and sprinkle sea salt all over. Leave them for a minimum of half an hour.
Crush the cardamom pods with the flat blade of a knife and shake out the little seeds into a mortar. Add the coriander seeds and the peppercorns and grind them to a coarse powder.
Peel and roughly chop the onions, then cook them in a very large pan over a moderate heat until they are soft and translucent.
Thinly slice the garlic. Peel the ginger and cut it into thin matchsticks. Stir the garlic and ginger into the onions with the turmeric and ground spices. Add the tomatoes.
Rinse the aubergine of their salt and pat dry. Grill them on a ridged cast-iron pan until they start to soften and have griddle marks all over. This will take many batches. Add them to the onions, then pour in the stock and bring to the boil.
Add the coconut milk, chillies and some salt and simmer for 45 minutes. The aubergines should be very soft but not falling apart.
Lift out the aubergines, tomatoes and some of the onion with a draining spoon. Reduce the rest of the sauce by boiling hard for 5 minutes. Now ladle most, but not all, of the sauce into a blender and whizz until smooth and thick (watch you don’t scald yourself – we used a stick blender in a separate pot).
Return the vegetables and sauce to the original pot, then chop the fresh herbs and stir them in with a final seasoning of salt and pepper.
Serve with steamed rice.
(Original recipe from Nigel Slater’s Tender Volume 1)

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Super sides for last night’s stew

Posted in Food, Side dish, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , , , , on 23 May 2011| 1 Comment »

We like leftovers and at the same time we don’t cause it means we don’t get to cook anything new for dinner. Our way around this is to cook some tasty side dishes which we often neglect in favour of the main event.

We picked up some new season ‘blue danube’ potatoes, carrot, chard (or Silverbeet as Jono would say), and onions at the market on Sunday and made two tasty treats to brighten up the leftover peposo (see post below).

New potatoes and onions – to serve 2

  • 15g butter
  • 2 onions, halved and sliced fine
  • a big sprig of thyme
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 tbsp olive ol
  • 3oog cooked new potatoes, cooled and sliced thick
  • a large handful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped fine
Heat the butter in a shallow pan and cook the onions on low, with the thyme and bay leaves, for 20 minutes or until very soft.
Turn the heat up to medium and cook for another 5 minutes or so to make the onions golden and sticky.
Add olive oil and add the sliced potatoes. Fry for 10 minutes until golden (they won’t crisp up much because of the onions but they’ll taste good).
Just before serving toss in parsley and season.
(Original recipe from BBC Good Food)
Jono’s Silverbeet and Carrots
  • Swiss chard (silverbeet)
  • Carrots
  • Butter
Rinse the chard and remove the stalks. Chop the stalks coarsely and cut the chard into ribbons, as you would cabbage.
Simmer some chopped carrots in a small amount of water and a good knob of butter for about 10 minutes. Add the chard stalks and cook for another 7 minutes. Add the ribbons of chard for the last 3-4 minutes. Season well and drain off any excess liquid.
(Original recipe Jono)

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We want to be Italian!

Posted in Food, Healthy, Pasta, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , on 21 May 2011| 2 Comments »

So home from honeymoon and we had all the boxes in the new house to unpack (you know all this from the last post). The sensible thing would be to stay home and unpack them but I felt the need to go on the hunt for Tipo 00 flour instead. We had got a shiny pasta machine in Italy see.

Jules wanted to unpack but I insisted on kneading dough; I won her over in the end! This is my homemade and fresh fettuccine with The Frankies Spuntino’s Sunday Sauce (really tasty tomato sauce). A success and so much more fun than unpacking 🙂

I actually made enough for the village and didn’t research how to store fresh pasta. The first meal was fantastic … and the rest … well I’ll live and learn.

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Spicy Houmous

Posted in Food, Healthy, Uncategorized, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , on 20 May 2011| Leave a Comment »

Well here’s a nice tasty houmous and a bit different from the one we’re all used too. We love houmous but it sometimes has that over-powering thing you get from raw garlic (no matter how little you use). This one uses some cooked red onions and indian spices for flavour instead and it’s a winner!

Red onion & Indian-spiced houmous

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • a red onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 tsp each of cumin seeds and coriander seeds
  • 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
  • 400g tin chickpeas, rinsed and drained
  • juice 1/2 lemon
  • 1 tbsp tahini
  • 2 tsp finely chopped coriander
  • pitta bread or grilled soft tortilla to serve
Heat 1 tbsp oil in a non-stick pan and fry the onion until soft and getting a bit of colour. Take off the heat and set aside to cool.
Toast the spices for a couple of minutes on a low heat and then grind to a powder in a mortar and pestle.
Blitz the chickpeas, lemon juice, tahini, ground spices, some salt, coriander and red onion in a food processor until smooth.
Serve dressed with some olive oil and something crunchy to dip in it.
P.S. We spread the leftovers on soft tortillas and stuffed them with roasted veggies and rocket for lunch to take to work.

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Jono and Jules are back from Tuscany and are very hungry!

Posted in Brunch, Food, Healthy, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , , , , on 18 May 2011| 2 Comments »

Quite a lot has happened since our last post. We moved house, then we got married, then we went to London, Paris and Italy. Lot’s of eating and drinking but no time for blog posts. When we got home we couldn’t work out if our new house had been robbed or if we had just left it in a complete state of disarray. Thankfully the latter. So needless to say we left the mess where it was and headed to the shops to get some ingredients for a tasty breakfast/brunch and two course dinner.

Breakfast/brunch mushrooms on toast for 2

  • 250g chestnut mushrooms, roughly chopped
  • 1 clove of garlic, crushed
  • 1 tbsp chopped parsley
  • butter
  • really nice bread, toasted (we got a white pan loaf from Butler’s Pantry)
You could probably work this out for yourselves.
Fry the mushrooms for about 5 minutes in a knob of butter until they’re soft and your mouth starts watering. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.
Take the pan off the heat and stir in another knob of butter and the parsley.
Throw the mushrooms on top of your toast.
It’s nice to be home.

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Speedy Gaucamole

Posted in Food, Side dish, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , , , , on 10 April 2011| 2 Comments »

This guacamole takes minutes to make and is delish! Avocados are in season now too so you should have no bother picking up some nice ripe ones. Another side that we pulled from one of Jamie’s 30 minute meals. It’s so good we’ve made it twice in 48 hours!

  • 4 scallions
  • bunch of fresh coriander
  • 1 red chilli
  • 1 clove of garlic, peeled
  • 1 lime
  • 2-3 small ripe avocados
  • a handful of cherry tomatoes

Put the scallions into your food processor with the coriander, whole chilli (remove the stalk), garlic,  the juice from the lime and a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Whizz while you stone the avocados and quarter the tomatoes.

Stop whizzing and put the avocado flesh into the processor. Add the tomatoes and pulse until chunky (don’t start whizzing again or it will go smooth which you don’t want here).

Scrape it out into a bowl, season and add a bit more lime juice if you want.

Serve with tortilla chips, chilli or whatever you like.

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We didn’t think this would be good enough to blog, but …

Posted in Food, Healthy, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , , , , , , on 7 April 2011| 2 Comments »

… it was. You know when you read a recipe and it looks tasty enough, but nothing special; good for a weeknight. Well this looked like that, and then had such great balance of flavours it had to make the blog. It did take longer than we expected, but the pizza-like aromas from the oven had us salivating and it was worth the wait. More like a veggie pasta bake than a frittata we reckon.

Easy oven frittata (serves 4, or less if you’re hungry)

  • 1/2 tsp oilve oil
  • 85g fusilli, macaroni or small pasta – we used conchigle
  • 1 bunch of scallions, chopped
  • 85g frozen peas
  • 85g frozen or tinned sweetcorn
  • 1 red pepper, seeded and chopped
  • 2 large eggs
  • 150ml milk
  • 1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
  • 50g good Irish cheddar, grated (Bandon Vale worked well)
  • 2 tbsp parmesan, finely grated
  • a green salad to serve

Preheat oven to 190C / fan 170C and grease a 1.2 litre baking dish with olive oil

Cook the pasta in salted boiling water for 8 minutes. Add all the veg and cook for a further 2 minutes. Drain and tip into baking dish.

Beat together eggs, add thyme and milk and beat a little more. Mix in most of the two cheeses and some black pepper and a sprinkle of salt. Pour into the baking dish, stir, then scatter remaining cheeses on top.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until golden and set. Cool for a minute or two and serve with the salad leaves.

Surprisingly tasty and low fat too! What more could you ask for?

(Original recipe from BBC Good Food)

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Jono & Jules’ How to Cheat (just like Delia …

Posted in Food, Healthy, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , , on 5 April 2011| Leave a Comment »

… ONLY BETTER!)

Here’s something we do when we know we’re going to get in late and hungry. To call it a recipe might be pushing it but it tastes good and requires virtually no effort.

10-minute tortellini – to serve 2

  • 250g pack fresh spinach and ricotta tortellini (or something similar – we try to avoid the meat filled ones as there is something a bit dog food like about them)
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 250g pack cherry tomatoes
  • a big bunch of parsley, leaves roughly chopped
  • 3 tbsp finely grated parmesan

Boil the past for 2 minutes until just cooked.

Meanwhile, heat the oil in a frying pan and cook the tomatoes until they start to blister.

When the pasta is cooked, drain it quickly, reserving some of the water.

Tip the pasta, parsley, a splash of the cooking water and most of the Parmesan into the tomatoes and bubble it all together. Season with black pepper and salt.

Serve with the rest of the Parmesan.

Hey presto.

(We learned this from some other cheaters – BBC Good Food)

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Creamy Conchiglie with Gorgonzola & Pistachios

Posted in Food, Pasta, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , , , , , on 20 March 2011| 2 Comments »

We’ve been away all weekend, so after 2.5 hours in the car we needed a tasty treat: this delivered the goods really well and was quick and easy. The recipe is from our favourite pasta book, The Silver Spoon: Pasta, which never ever fails.

Conchiglie’s great for creamy sauces as all the cheesey goo gets caught in the shells.

Conchiglie con Gorgonzola e Pistacchi – serves 4 but easily halved

  • 50g pistachios
  • 100g Gorgonzola, diced
  • 2 tbsp double cream
  • 300g conchiglie
  • 40g Parmesan, grated

Put the pistachios into a heatproof bowl and pour boiling water over. Leave to stand for 3 minutes. Drain well and rub the skins off with your fingers – don’t burn yourself! Chop the kernels and set aside.

Cook the conchiglie in plenty of boiling, salted water until al dente.

Meanwhile put the Gorgonzola and the cream into a small saucepan and stir constantly over a low heat until smooth. Set aside until your pasta is done.

Drain the pasta and tip into a warm serving dish. Toss with the melted Gorgonzola, chopped pistachios and Parmesan.

Serve right away and enjoy.

Wine Suggestion: If we’d had one we would have drunk a Greco di Tufo with this – a full-bodied but crisp and minerally white from southern Italy. It also has a nutty character which would compliment the pistachios nicely.

 

 

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Easy Lemon & Pea Risotto

Posted in Food, Healthy, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , , , , , on 7 March 2011| 2 Comments »

An easy and healthy after-work dish done in under half an hour and using things you probably have in the cupboard. We had to buy a lemon, and only because the one on the shelf looked a bit past it.

Serves 2, but easily doubled

  • 200g risotto rice
  • 850ml hot vegetable stock
  • 50g frozen peas
  • 50g Parmesan, grated, plus a bit more for over the top at the end
  • juice and zest of 1/2 a lemon

Heat a large saucepan over a medium heat, then toast the rice, stirring constantly, for 1 minute.

Add one ladle of hot stock and keep stirring until absorbed. The first ladle will be really quick.

Add the rest of the stock, a ladle at a time, until the rice is almost cooked, keep stirring it all the time. It will take about 20 minutes for you to stir in all your stock.

Stir in the peas and cook for 3-5 minutes and remove the pan from the heat.

Add the cheese, lemon juice, seasoning and then stir. Stick the lid on and let it rest for a minute.

Serve in bowls with the zest and a bit more Parmesan over the top.

(Original recipe from BBC Good Food)

Wine suggestion: Have a glass of something white if you have some leftover from the weekend.

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Irish Potato & Bandon Vale Vintage Cheddar Cheese Tart

Posted in Cheese, Food, Irish Food, Potato, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , , , , , , on 5 March 2011| 2 Comments »

It’s another Irish Food Bloggers Association Cookalong and this time the theme is Irish. We were tempted to do an Irish stew but thought that was a bit obvious, we thought about beef and Guinness but that’s not all that original either and then to make things more difficult we invited a vegetarian for dinner.  It was then that we thought about using some Irish cheese as the base for a dish and after eating many variations of cheese and pastry all week we came up with this. Irish potatoes, leeks and a west Cork Cheddar all baked up in a pie. Delicious!!

Serves 4-6

  • 650g waxy potatoes
  • 750g leeks
  • 50g butter
  • 200ml creme fraiche
  • 180g Bandon Vale Vintage Cheddar, grated
  • freshly grated nutmeg
  • 500g puff pastry
  • beaten egg for glazing

Heat the oven to 200C.

Peel the potatoes and cut them into slices. Boil in plenty of salted water until tender (it’s ok if they go a bit mushy).

Meanwhile, throw away the very green bit of the leeks and slice the rest into rings. Wash really well in cold water to get rid of any grit.

Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the leeks. Cover and cook over low-medium heat until tender – about 20 minutes.

Mix the  leeks, potatoes, creme fraiche and cheddar and season well with salt, pepper and a little bit of nutmeg.

Roll the pastry into two rectangles (about the size of your baking sheet).

Pile the potato mixture into the middle  of one sheet and leave a good rim around the edge. Brush the edges with beaten egg and lay second piece of pastry over the top and press the edges down, pinching firmly to seal. Trim off any excess.

Brush all over with the egg and cut 3 or 4 slits along the width of the top.

Bake for 40-45 minutes until golden.

(Original recipe from Nigel Slater Tender Vol 1 – A tart of leeks and cheese)

Wine suggestion: A full-bodied white was nice with this. We had a Santenay Blanc followed by an oaked Semillon from the Clare Valley.

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Italian Vegetable Soup

Posted in Food, Healthy, Pasta, Soup, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , , , on 21 February 2011| 1 Comment »

We had this every day last week for lunch and it was so tasty we didn’t get sick of it one bit. The pasta makes it really filling and the beans add a creamy texture, add Parmesan and sugar and you get a touch of tomatoey sweetness but really savoury at the same time. Sound strange? You’ll have to trust us and try it for yourselves.

Italian Vegetable Soup – serves 8

  • 2 onions, chopped
  • 2 carrots, chopped
  • 4 sticks of celery, chopped
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 4 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 2 tbsp tomato puree
  • 2 bay leaves
  • a few sprigs of thyme
  • 3 courgettes, chopped
  • 400g can of butter beans, drained
  • 400g can of chopped tomatoes
  • 1.2 litres vegetable stock
  • 100g Parmesan, grated
  • 140g small pasta shapes – we used orecchiette
  • small bunch of basil

Gently cook the onions, carrots and celery in oil in a large saucepan for 20 minutes or until soft. Splash in a bit of water if they start to stick.

Add sugar, garlic, tomato puree, herbs and courgettes. Cook for 4-5 minutes on a medium heat.

Add beans, tomatoes and stock and simmer for 20 minutes (you can freeze it at this stage if you want).

Add half the Parmesan and all the pasta and simmer until your pasta is cooked.

Sprinkle basil and the rest of the Parmesan over to serve.

Tasty!

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Healthy Egg and Chips

Posted in Food, Healthy, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , , , on 2 February 2011| 4 Comments »

We realise that we’ve been cooking lots of healthy stuff lately, but please don’t think that what we post is tasteless – if it doesn’t work, or IS tasteless, we don’t post it. This was really good and just as satisfying as the fried version. Only 5 ingredients in this one and we had all of them in the cupboard already.

Oven egg and chips (to serve 2)

  • 450g floury potatoes, cut into thick chips – we used Roosters
  • 2 garlic cloves, sliced
  • 4 fresh rosemary sprigs
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 eggs (or 3 if you have a greedy person)

Preheat oven to 220C/gas 7/fan 200C.

Tip the chips into a roasting tin (non-stick if you have it) and scatter the garlic and rosemary leaves over. Drizzle with oil, season well and toss to coat.

Roast for 35-40 minutes until just cooked and golden – give the tin a shake every now and again.

Make gaps in the chips and break your eggs into the gaps.

Put back in the oven for 3-5 minutes or until your eggs are cooked.

Wine suggestion: we mention below that eggs can be hard to pair with wine. I think we’d go for a glass of cold beer with this instead.

 

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Healthy satay stir-fry

Posted in Food, Healthy, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , , , , , on 26 January 2011| Leave a Comment »

This tasted way too good to be this healthy but it’s true and we have the calorie count to prove it (286 if anyone’s interested). Can all be thrown together in 15 minutes tops which is great on a week night.

Satay stir-fry to serve 4

  • 3 tbsp crunchy peanut butter
  • 3 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
  • 2 tbsp soy sauce
  • 300g pack straight-to-wok noodles
  • 1 tbsp oil
  • thumb of fresh root ginger, finely chopped
  • 300g pack stir-fry vegetables (we used M&S aromatic mix and added some sugar snap peas and sliced red chilli)
  • handful of basil leaves
  • 25g roasted peanuts, roughly chopped

Mix the peanut butter, chilli sauce, 100ml water and soy sauce to make a smooth satay sauce (it will look a bit gross but don’t panic it works in the end).

Put the noodles in a bowl and pour boiling water over them, stir to separate and drain.

Heat the oil in a wok, then stir-fry ginger and the harder bits of veg for 2 minutes. Add the noodles and the rest of the vegetables and stir-fry on a high heat for another minute or two or until just cooked.

Push the veg and noodles to one side of the pan and pour the sauce into the other side, tilting the wok. Bring the sauce to boil and then mix everything together. Sprinkle basil and peanuts over to serve.

Eat and then lick the bowl.

Original recipe from BBC Good Food.

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Jamie’s 30 minute mushroom risotto and spinach salad

Posted in Australia, Food, Riesling, Vegetarian, Wine, tagged , , , , , , , , on 16 January 2011| 13 Comments »

This was our first attempt at a Jamie 30 minute meal but we didn’t really try to do it in 30 minutes as we like to relax when we’re cooking. We didn’t bother with dessert either. The result was pretty good – very nice risotto and a fabulous salad which we’ll definitely do again with other dishes. We found the recipe quite confusing to follow and it’s particularly difficult if you’re not cooking the entire meal (dessert included). We’ve given you the recipes below but they’re in old-fashioned format, i.e. prep first and cook second, so sorry if that’s not your style but we find the traditional format easier.

Mushroom risotto to serve 4

  • 1 large white onion, halved and peeled
  • 1 stick celery
  • 15g dried porcini mushrooms
  • 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, finely chopped
  • 300g risotto rice
  • 1/2 a glass of white wine
  • 1 vegetable or chicken stock
  • 1 litre boiling water or stock (we used Marigold swiss bouillon)
  • 500g mixed mushrooms, wiped clean and torn (we used a mixture of chestnut, shiitake and oyster mushrooms)
  • 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
  • a small bunch of thyme, leaves picked
  • a large knob of butter
  • 40g Parmesan, grated
  • juice of 1/2 a lemon
  • small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Put the onion, celery and dried porcini into a food processor and pulse until finely chopped.

Heat a large saucepan on medium and add a good lug of olive oil. Scrape in the processed mixture and cook for a few minutes.

Throw in the chopped rosemary and rice; stir well for a minute. Pour in the white wine and crumble in the stock cube. Stir until the wine is absorbed and then season.

Add a couple of ladles of the stock or water and stir in well. You need to then keep coming back to the risotto every minute for about 16-18 minutes – stirring in a bit more stock each time. Add half the mushrooms after a couple of minutes.

Heat the grill.

Heat a large ovenproof frying pan and add a couple of good lugs of olive oil, the remaining mushrooms, garlic, and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Stir for a second, add half the thyme and take off the heat. Add the remaining thyme to the rice.

Put frying pan of mushrooms under the grill to crisp up, turn the grill off when they are golden and crispy.

When the rice is al dente stir in the butter and most of the Parmesan, add lemon juice and taste for seasoning.

Stir in half the parsley and throw the rest over the grilled mushrooms.

Put the lid on the risotto and let it rest for a minute or two – you could dress the salad at this point.

Ladle the risotto onto plates and spoon some grilled mushrooms over the top with some extra Parmesan.

Spinach salad to serve 4

  • 100g pinenuts, toasted in a non-stick pan
  • 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • juice of 1/2 a lemon
  • 200g baby spinach, sliced roughly into 1cm thick strips
  • 3 large sprigs of fresh mint, leaves picked
  • 5 sun-dried tomatoes in oil, roughly chopped
  • 1 medium cucumber, halved and sliced on an angle about 1cm thick

Put balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, 3 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil and a good pinch of salt and pepper into a large salad bowl and add the pine nuts.

Add the spinach, mint leaves, sun-dried tomatoes and cucumber. Don’t toss until the last minute.

Serve with the risotto (or anything else you fancy a nice salad with).

Wine suggestion: we had a really nice Riesling from Mount Horrocks in the Clare Valley, South Australia. If you come across anything from Mount Horrocks it is well worth a try as everything we have tasted has been really special (Jono got a bottle of their Semillon, which is barrel fermented, for a Christmas gift and we loved it!). Also has a nice label if such things matter to you.

 

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Super Healthy Veggie Balti

Posted in Food, Healthy, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , , on 11 January 2011| 7 Comments »

This is exceptionally filling, very tasty and virtuous to boot. The recipe below says it is to feed four but we reckon it’d feed six; and we’re greedy!

Vegetable Balti – serves 4-6 (takes about an hour and a half to make).

  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 large onion, thickly sliced
  • 1 large clove garlic, crushed
  • 1 eating apple, peeled, cored and chopped into chunks
  • 3 tbsp balti curry paste (we like Patak’s)
  • 1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cut into chunks
  • 2 large carrots, thickly sliced
  • 200g turnips, cut into chunks
  • 1 medium cauliflower, broken into florets
  • 400g tin chopped tomatoes
  • 425ml hot vegetable stock
  • 4 tbsp chopped coriander, plus extra to serve
  • 150g pot low-fat natural yoghurt

Heat the oil in a big pan, add the onion, garlic and apple and cook gently, stirring now and again, for about 5-8 minutes. Stir in the curry paste.

Throw in the vegetables and add the tomatoes and stock. Stir in 3 tbsp of the coriander. Bring to the boil, turn the heat to low, and cook with a lid on for half an hour.

Take off the lid and cook for another 20 minutes until the vegetables are soft and the liquid has reduced a bit. Season with salt and pepper.

Mix 1tbsp coriander into the yoghurt. Serve the curry in bowls, drizzle over some yoghurt and sprinkle on a bit of coriander. Serve with the rest of the yoghurt and warm naan breads. Enjoy.

Wine suggestion: Have a beer instead.

Find the original recipe on BBC Good Food.

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Roasted beetroot with watercress & horseradish apple sauce

Posted in Healthy, Side dish, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , , , on 5 December 2010| Leave a Comment »

This is the first of three side dishes which we served with a delicious baked ham (scroll down to see the other dishes and final result).

If you are having guests between now and Christmas we highly recommend this tasty menu (much of which can be prepared in advance). We served this up on a Friday night after work, as part of the Irish Foodies Christmas Cookalong,  and it was entirely hassle free.

We boiled the ham and roasted the beetroot the night before.

Menu to serve 8:

  • Ginger beer & tangerine glazed ham
  • Roasted beetroot with watercress & horseradish apple sauce
  • Chilli & tangerine braised lentils
  • Roasted cauliflower with garlic, bay & lemon

Roasted beetroot with watercress & horseradish apple sauce (to feed 8 as a side dish)

1kg raw unpeeled beetroot

2 apples, peeled and chopped

1 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp cider or red wine vinegar

6 tbsp freshly grated horseradish

4 tbsp soured cream

watercress

  • Heat oven to 180C (gas 6). Leave the beetroot whole – wash and pat dry.
  • Wrap individually in foil and roast until tender (1-2 hours depending on how big they are). Cool in the foil before peeling.
  • Heat a small frying pan and toss in the apples with the sugar and a tbsp of water. Cover and cook until mushy. Remove from the heat, add the vinegar and whizz in a food processor (or use a hand blender).
  • Stir the horseradish and sour cream into the sauce and season with salt.
  • To serve, cut the beetroot into wedges, put in a bowl and mix with the sauce. Serve on a bed of watercress.

Click here for original recipe from BBC Good Food.

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A tasty carrot soup

Posted in Food, Healthy, Soup, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , on 24 November 2010| 1 Comment »

We actually make soup almost every week but rarely put them on our blog… not sure why but perhaps we’ll stick them up more often.

Here’s what we’ll be eating for lunch for the rest of the week:

Honeyed Carrot Soup (makes a big pot full)

  • Melt 2 tbsp butter in a big saucepan.
  • Add a big sliced leek and cook for a few minutes until starting to soften.
  • Add 800g of roughly chopped carrots, 2 tsp clear honey, a pinch of chilli flakes and a bay leaf and cook for another couple of minutes.
  • Pour in 2.5 litres of vegetable stock, bring to the boil, and simmer for half an hour.
  • Whizz the soup until smoothish and season.

Find the original recipe here: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4852/honeyed-carrot-soup

Julie

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