Carrot & Coriander Soup

Ingredients:

600-700g carrots, peeled & sliced
1 onion, finely chopped
Olive oil
Bunch of fresh coriander
1 large potato, chopped into chunks
3 stems of celery (optional), sliced
500-750ml vegetable stock (I make with 2 veg OXO cubes)
1 tbsp ground coriander
Pinch of cumin

Method:

1. Heat the oil gently in a large pan & fry the onion until soft.
2. Add the carrots & celery to the pan & fry for a few minutes.
3. Add all the other ingredients to the pan, bring to the boil and simmer for about 30 minutes.
4. Allow the soup to cool for 10-15 minutes, then blend the soup to a puree.

Serve with some warm crusty bread.

Potato & Spinach Bake

Ingredients:

1 kg potato, chopped into inch cubes
1 small swede, peeled & chopped
2 carrots, peeled & chopped
200g spinach
handful of grated cheese
500ml vegetable stock (made with 2 OXO cubes)
black pepper

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Parboil the potatoes in boiling water for about 5 minutes.
3. Part steam the vegetables also for about 5 minutes until they begin to soften slightly.
4. Place the potatoes into an ovenproof dish, with the softened vegetables, spinach and cheese and mix together well.
5. Pour over the vegetable stock.
6. Place in the oven for 30-45 minutes until the potatoes & vegetables have softened & cooked through.

Handmade Coleslaw

Ingredients:

1/2 white cabbage, shredded

4 carrots, peeled & grated

1 small red onion or 1/2 a large red onion, sliced finely

6 tbsp mayonnaise

1 tsp mustard powder

2 tbsp lemon juice

black pepper

Method:

1. Place the prepared vegetables in a large bowl and mix well.
2. Add the mayonnaise, mustard & lemon juice and again stir well to coat everything in the dressing.
3. Chill & serve fresh from the fridge.

NB Will survive a few days in the fridge before being used but best fresh.

Vegetarian Herby Bean Hotpot

Ingredients:

4 large potatoes, sliced
2 onions, finely chopped
2 large carrots, sliced
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 tin of baked beans
1 tin of kidney beans, drained
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp mixed herbs
1 handful of grated cheese
1 tbsp olive oil

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Place the sliced potatoes in a pan of boiling water & simmer for 5 minutes to allow the potatoes to soften.
3. Heat the oil gently in a pan & fry the onion softly, until soft.
4. Add the carrots to the pan & fry for a few minutes.
5. Add the tins of tomatoes, baked beans, kidney beans, tomato puree and mixed herbs to the pan with the onion and carrot.
6. Heat the pan until the mixture is simmering, allow to simmer for 15 minutes.
7. Place into the bottom of an oven proof dish and arrange the sliced potatoes on top.
8. Sprinkle the grated cheese on top of the potatoes.
9. Place in the oven for 30 minutes until the cheese and potatoes on top are golden brown.

Vegetarian Sausage, Orange & Root Veg One Pot

Ingredients:

6 vegetarian sausages (I used Linda McCartney's)

2 oranges

1 red onion, chopped into chunks

1/2 a swede, peeled & chopped

1 small turnip, peeled & chopped

1 sweet potato, peeled & chopped

1 tbsp maple syrup

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp dried thyme

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. Place the sausages and chopped root vegetables into an oven proof dish.
3. Sprinkle the thyme and grind some black pepper over the sausages and vegetables.
4. Halve and squeeze the juice of the oranges into a jug. Add the remains of the oranges to the dish with the sausages and vegetables.
5. Add the olive oil and maple syrup to the orange juice, mix well.
6. Pour the orange juice mix over the ingredients in the oven proof dish and stir well, so that all the ingredients are coated.
7. Place in the oven for 45-50 mins, turn over in the middle of the cooking and remove from the oven when golden brown.

Serve with mashed or boiled potatoes.

NB Could probably be also made with meat sausages.

Bean Enchiladas

Ingredients:

Filling:
2 small or 1 large onion, chopped finely

2 garlic cloves, crushed

150g mushrooms, quartered

2 large carrots, chopped finely

An inch slice of a large swede

Few large leaves of kale

2 tins tomatoes

1 tin borlotti beans 

1 tin red kidney beans

1 tbsp paprika

1 tbsp ground coriander

Pinch of cumin

Sprinkle of dried coriander leaves (or some fresh chopped coriander if available)

2 tbsps olive oil

1 tbsp lime juice

Packet of tortilla wraps

Grated cheese

Method:

1. Gently heat oil in pan. Add the chopped onion & garlic, gently fry until soft. 
2. Add mushrooms, kale, swede & carrot. Fry for a few mins. 
3. Add the paprika, coriander (ground & dried), cumin & lime juice and stir well to coat all the vegetables. 
4. Add the tins of beans & tomatoes and mix well. 
5. Simmer on a low heat for 20 mins or until the vegetables are soft. 
6. Place a large spoonful into each wrap & fold them up, place them side by side in a rectangular ovenproof dish.
7. Sprinkle lots of grated cheese on top & grill for a few minutes until golden brown. Or if you prefer a crispier enchilada place in the oven at 180C for 20-30 mins.

Serve with a green salad, guacamole, salsa & sour cream dips, tortilla chips etc for a delicious Mexican meal.

NB Alternative: the filling could also be served with rice

Root Vegetable Pie

Again another real winter warmer...

Ingredients:

Tbsp veg oil

2 onions

1 tbsp thyme

1 large parsnip

3 large carrots

3 medium potatoes

Half a swede
4 tbsps pearl barley

1 heaped tbsp plain flour

1 litre of veg stock (I used 2 veg OXO cubes)

500g puff pastry

Milk or egg to glaze

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Chop onions finely & the other veg into small chunks.
3. Heat oil in a pan.
4. Add the chopped onion & thyme & fry for a few minutes.
5. Add the carrots, parsnips, swede, celery & potato, place the lid on the pan & gently fry for about 10 minutes.
6. Add the flour & mix well to coat the vegetables.
7. Add the pearl barley & stock, again cover the pan & simmer for 15-20 minutes until veg is softening.
8. Place in an oven proof dish or pie dish.
9. Roll the pastry til approx 0.5cm thick & cut to the shape of the dish. 
10. Brush the edges of the pie dish with milk or egg to allow the pastry to stick.
11. Place the pastry on top of the dish & with a fork or your fingers press the edge of the pastry to the dish.
12. Place a small hole in the centre of the pastry & brush with milk or egg to glaze.
13. Place in the oven for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown. 

Rosemary, Leek & Bean Ragu

I made this recipe using home grown leeks and carrots, it's a real winter warmer.

Ingredients:

A little olive oil
500g leeks, sliced
2 carrots, sliced

2 sprigs of rosemary

400g tin of butter beans, drained

400g tin of black eyes beans, drained

500ml vegetable stock 

1 tbsp of corn flour mixed in cold water

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a pan on a medium heat & add the leeks. Stir continuously for about 7/8 mins until soft.
2. Add the carrots, beans, rosemary & stock and mix together.
3. Bring the pan to simmer, add the corn flour/water mix & stir in well. 
4. Simmer for about 20 mins until it begins to thicken.

Serve with mashed potato, crusty bread or garlic bread.

Decadent Chocolate & Banana Tart

Ingredients:

Base:
225g ginger nut biscuits, crushed
125g butter, melted

Filling:
4 bananas
150g dark chocolate
280ml double cream
50g butter
2 large tbsps nutella

Method:

Base:

1. Crush biscuits finely. I used my pestle & mortar, which worked really well.
2. Melt the butter on a low heat.
3. Add the butter to the ginger biscuits and mix well.
4. Spoon into a loose bottomed cake tin & press into the base & sides to create a tart base.
5. Leave to cool in the fridge for 30 mins.

Filling:

1. Heat double cream til gently simmering, remove from the heat.
2. Add the chocolate & butter to the cream, stirring continuously until melted & smooth.
3. Whisk in the nutella until smooth.
4. Pour into the cooled biscuit & refrigerate for a minimum of 30 mins.
5. Before serving slice the bananas & gently press into the surface.

Optional: sprinkle the top with some icing sugar or top with whipped cream.

Serve as a dessert by itself or with some cream or ice cream.

Pesto Veg Pasta Salad

Ingredients:

750g pasta shapes

1 jar (190g) green pesto

5 tbsp olive oil

2 large carrots, finely chopped

150g frozen peas

150g frozen sweet corn

100g baby corn, finely chopped 

200g sundried tomatoes, finely chopped

5 tbsp dried basil 

Plenty of black pepper

Method:

1. Cook pasta, leave to cool a little.
2. Steam the sweet corn, carrots, baby corn & peas until soft. 
3. Add the olive oil & pesto to the pasta & mix well. 
4. Add the steamed veg, chopped sundried tomatoes, black pepper & basil & again mix well. 

Serve cold as part of a buffet or alone as a meal. 

Carrot and Coriander Soup

Vegetable soups are full of vitamins and good nutrition, so great for the new Year diets ;) but they're also delicious and warming on the cold winter days.

Ingredients:

1kg carrots

a potato or swede or any other root vegetables

a litre of vegetable stock (made with 2 OXO cubes)

1 tbsp dried coriander

2 tbsp ground coriander

1 tsp cumin

Method:

1. Peel and chop the vegetables into chunks.
2. Place into a pan with the stock, coriander leaf, ground coriander and cumin.
3. Pour over the vegetable stock and boil until the vegetables are soft.
4. Blend til smooth with a hand blender or food processor.

Enjoy on a cold winters day with crusty bread and butter.

Honey and Orange, Sausage and Root Veg Roast

Ingredients:

1 large onion, sliced

a selection of root veg, ie swede, carrots, parsnips, sweet potatoes, turnips etc

8 sausages

2 tbsps honey

an orange, zest and juice

olive oil

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 190C or Gas Mark 6.
2. Peel and chop the root veg into inch squared chunks.
3. Mix chopped vegetables and onion into olive oil.
4. Place in roasting tin with the sausages and roast for 10-15 mins.
5. Mix together the honey, orange zest and juice.
6. Turn over the vegetables and sausages in the roasting tin and drizzle over the honey and orange mix.
7. Return to the oven for another 20-30 minutes until the veg is soft and sausages are cooked through.

Serve with some delicious creamy mashed potato as a Sunday roast alternative.

Carrot & Sweet Potato Mash

I was planning on cooking sausage and mash for my family tonight but wanted to make it with a difference, so we had sausage, homemade potato wedges and vegetable mash with onion gravy. It was delicious.

Ingredients:

5 medium carrots, peeled & sliced

3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled & chopped

3 garlic cloves, crushed

1 tsp ground cumin

25g butter

black pepper

Method:

1. Place the carrots, sweet potatoes and garlic cloves into a pan of water and bring to the boil.
2. Simmer until the vegetables are nice and tender (easy to mash).
3. Drain the vegetables and add the cumin, butter and other seasoning if required and mash.

Serve as an alternative vegetable side dish to many amazing meals or as I did an alternative to sausage and mash!

Sprouts with bacon

Ingredients:

2 slices of bacon, chopped into fine strips

450g sprouts, halved

2 garlic cloves, chopped finely

half a chicken OXO cube, dissolved in 120ml of boiling water

salt

pepper

Method:

1. Pan fry the bacon on a medium-low heat, until crispy.
2. Remove the bacon from the pan with a slotted spoon.
3. Add the sprouts to the pan and saute for a few minutes, until browning.
4. Add the garlic and continue to saute for a few more minutes.
5. Add the chicken stock and cover for 5 minutes. Uncover and continue to simmer for another 5 minutes or until the liquid has evaporated.
6. Add the crispy bacon and season as necessary.

Serve as a vegetable side dish alongside a roast or other meal.

Ratatouille

Ingredients:

1 aubergine, chopped

2 courgettes, chopped

1 carrot, chopped
2 peppers, chopped

1 red onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

a handful of fresh basil, finely chopped (I was able to use fresh basil from the garden)

2 tins of tomatoes

1 tbsp of red wine vinegar
Olive oil

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a pan. On a medium heat fry the onion, garlic and half the basil for a few minutes.
2. Add the aubergine, courgettes, peppers and carrots for a 4-5 minutes.
3. Add the tinned tomatoes, red wine vinegar and rest of the basil and bring to simmer.
4. Simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the vegetables are soft.
5. Serve with pasta or crusty bread, topped with some grated parmesan cheese.

Aubergine Vegetable Lasagna

Ingredients:

1 large aubergine

150g lasagna sheets

4 cherry tomatoes, halved

Sprinkling of basil

For tomato sauce:

1 onion

1 garlic clove

1 tsp basil (fresh is best but dried is ok too)

1 courgette

1 carrot

1 tin of tomatoes

1 vegetable stock cube

1 tbsp tomato purée

For the cheese sauce: 

25g butter

1 heaped tbsp flour

500ml milk

Handful of grated cheese

Black pepper

Sprinkling of nutmeg

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C/Gas Mark 6.
2. Top & tail the aubergine & slice into 0.5cm slices.
3. Coat in olive oil & lie them on a baking tray.
4. Bake for 25 mins turning in the middle. 
5. Whilst the aubergine is cooking, chop the onion, garlic, carrot & courgette finely.
6. Put a little olive oil into a sauce pan & gently fry the onion, garlic, courgette & basil. 
7. Once soft add the tinned tomatoes, carrots, tomato purée, half a cup of boiled water & the stock cube. Stir well.
8. Leave to simmer until the carrots are soft and the sauce has slightly reduced.
9. In another saucepan on a low heat melt the butter.
10. Once melted remove from heat & stir in the flour to form a paste.
11. Return to heat & little by little add the milk stirring constantly until it is the required consistency. Add the cheese, pepper & nutmeg and extra milk if required to make it thinner. Simmer for a few minutes. 
12. Once the tomato sauce, cheese sauce & aubergine is cooked layer the lasagna sheets followed by the tomato sauce, cheese sauce, more lasagne, aubergine, tomato sauce, cheese sauce... & repeat layers until all the sauces & aubergine is used up. 
13. Top with grated cheese, the cherry tomatoes & a sprinkling of basil.
14. Heat in the oven until the topping is nicely browned for about 30 mins. 

Serve with garlic bread & green salad. 

My Growing Garden

My garden is growing, much to my delight!

Coriander

...I usually manage to kill plants but so far I am doing quite well with only a few casualities...

Spinach, Peas, Beans, Carrots and Raspberries

...a late frost caught some of my bean plants and also my tomatoes :( 

Blueberries

I also have some basil, parsley, more beans and tomatoes, a butternut squash plant and others still in my conservatory, waiting to be planted outside

Strawberries

I am looking forward to harvest :)

Slow Cooked Cauliflower Curry

I have been looking for creative ways to cook cauliflower and make it more interesting, as neither my partner or little boy seem to want to eat it steamed or as cauliflower cheese, so what could be more interesting than an self-invented cauliflower curry!

Ingredients:

Cauliflower Curry ready to slow cook

Cauliflower, chopped into florets

2 large potatoes, chopped into inch cubes

sweet potato, chopped into inch cubes

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

onion, chopped finely

tin of chick peas

2 tomatoes, chopped

100g red lentils

2 tsps ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

2 tbsp mango chutney

1 tbsp dried coriander

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp mustard

1 tsp chilli flakes

1 tsp garam masala

1 tbsp tomato ketchup

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

1 tin of coconut milk

1/2 cup of water

Method:

1. Place all the ingredients into the slow cooker, mix together well.
2. Cook on low heat in the slow cooker for 4-5 hours.

Serve with rice or couscous.

My First Raised Bed in the Garden

The weather has been glorious and it has been the holidays which means more time to spend in the garden.

I have been wanting a bed to grow some vegetables in this summer and seen as I had planted the seeds already and many were beginning to germinate I needed to find somewhere to plant them out. There was an area at the bottom of our lawn which was south facing and gets lots of sunlight, but it gets rather waterlogged in heavy rain and is full of weeds. A raised bed seemed to be the perfect idea for this area, to avoid the it becoming waterlogged. I knew that I did not have the time to build a permanent raised bed and then I saw this at Tong Garden Centre . . .

. . . it was the perfect solution to my problems. This afternoon was spent digging up the weeds and their roots and turning the soil in preparation for my raised bed - it was hard going but my little companion helped out by getting muddy and enjoying the taste of soil EUGH!

Once it was assembled and secured in the correct place we filled it with 3 bags of compost and watered it, although we're now hoping for some rain to water it more overnight. Once it has been adequately watered we will be ready to get planting :)

The completed bed (excuse the corrugated plastic my husband thought it might help collect water off the shed roof and channel it to my bed for watering purposes!)

The completed raised bed

Spring has Sprung in the Garden

Daffodils

Violas

Spring has finally sprung, which is allowing me to get out in the garden. This is the first spring I have lived in a house with a garden, so I am very excited about what we might grow this year. We visited the local garden centre a few weeks ago and I spent lots of my Christmas money on garden equipment including a raised bed, seeds and plants, etc (my husband says I can't go back for a while as I spent too much money!).

Carrots

I have planted:

• herb seeds - coriander, basil & parsley
• daffodils along the edge of my lawn
• blueberry bushes
• raspberry canes
• runner bean seeds
• pea seeds
• butternut squash seeds
• spinach seeds
• a tomato plant
• carrots
• violas

My windowsill

Many of the potted seeds are sat on my window sill in the conservatory whilst they germinate and I am really enjoying watching new shoots appear most days with the beautiful warm sunny weather we have been having. I cannot wait to get them planted outside especially if this beautiful weather continues.

Blueberry bush

Previously I have not been so successful at growing plants and keeping them alive so this year is my year to prove myself wrong and harvest bumper crops to feed the family!!!

Tomato 

Daffodil