Category Archives: Mains

Chunky Vegetable Mornay

chunky vegetable mornay

Tender vegetables simmered in a creamy sauce. Perfect for an Autumnal dinner served with mash & more veggies.

Chunky Vegetable Mornay
 
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Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 1 large leek, sliced
  • 1 large green capsicum / bell pepper, diced
  • 1 large carrot, diced small
  • 1 large stick celery, diced small
  • ½ cup white wine
  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 clove garlic, crushed
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
  • 1 cup soy / other plant milk
  • 1 cup boiling water
  • 2 tablespoons creamy style hummus
  • 1 tsp chicken style stock powder
  • 1 head broccoli, cut into small florets
  • 2 tsp cornflour mixed til smooth with a splash of soy milk
Instructions
  1. Salute the 1st 4 ingredients (leek to celery) in a large frying pan (skillet or casserole dish with a close fitting lid) until tender, adding a splash of water if necessary to stop sticking.
  2. Add the remaining ingredients apart from broccoli & cornflour mix and stir well, replace the lid and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the broccoli and replace lid, allow to steam until broccoli is almost done. Add the cornflour mix, and stir slowly until thickened and flour is cooked out. Turn off the heat, replace lid and allow to sit whilst you prepare the plates & accompaniments.
  3. Best served with mashed potatoes, or a cooked grain. May also go well with wholewheat pasta.

 

Cauliflower & Kale Dhal (pressure cooker)

cauliflower kale dhal

This was inspired by Fatfreevegan’s recipe for Dal Tadka, I wanted to include more veggies and tweaked the method and spices a little.

Cauliflower & Kale Dhal (pressure cooker)
 
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Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 2 brown onions, chopped
  • 1 inch piece ginger, grated
  • 2 large cloves garlic, minced, grated for finely chopped
  • 1 cup split red lentils
  • 3 cups water,
  • 1 teaspoon vegetable stock powder (optional)
  • 1 large tomato, chopped
  • 3 cups small cauliflower florets
  • ½ bunch kale, de-stemmed & finely chopped
  • 1 heaped tsp cumin seeds
  • 1 teaspoon turmeric
  • ½ teaspoon salt (optional)
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • ½ tsp chilli powder / to taste (optional)
  • 1 teaspoon garam masala / dhal spice mix / curry powder
Instructions
  1. Put rice on to cook if you are serving with rice.
  2. Heat the pressure cooker on brown function, add one of the onions, all the ginger and garlic and stir around for a minute, add a splash of water or stock if starts to stick.
  3. Add the lentils, water, stock powder if using, tomato, cauliflower, kale, cumin seeds, turmeric & salt and stir thoroughly.
  4. Lock down the lid and set to high pressure for 10 minutes.
  5. Whilst the dhal is cooking, heat a large frying pan and dry fry the onion with remaining spices for 5-10 minutes, over a medium heat. Use a lid to catch the steam and prevent them from sticking.
  6. Once the dhal is finished, release the steam and add the cooked onions and spices; stir well and serve.
  7. Great with mango chutney, freshly chopped coriander and a sprinkle of coconut if you wish.

 

Curried Brown Rice Salad

Indian Brown Rice Salad

Curried Brown Rice Salad
 
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Brown rice with chopped fresh raw veggies and an Indian inspired creamy dressing For a speedy week night dinner, cook the rice the previous day. This can easily be stretched to feel more mouths, depending on how much rice you add to the chopped veggies.
Author:
Recipe type: Salad
Cuisine: Indian
Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • 1 large stick of celery
  • 1 large carrot
  • 1 medium capsicum
  • ½ cup baby frozen peas
  • ½ cup frozen corn
  • 12 green beans, steamed and sliced
  • 2 fat spring onions, sliced
  • ½ cup raisins or sultanas (optional)
  • 4-6 cups cooked brown rice, chilled or at room temperature
  • Garnishes: (optional): Fresh chopped coriander, coconut, toasted cashews, chopped chillies
  • Dressing:
  • 2 tsp tahini
  • 2 desert spoons avocado
  • ¾ cup soy milk or other milk of choice
  • 3 tablespoons vinegar, any variety
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 2 tsp maple syrup or other liquid sweetener
  • 1 tsp curry powder
Instructions
  1. Put the rice on to cook if you're not using precooked rice.
  2. Whisk together, or blend in processor the ingredients for the dressing.
  3. Finely chop all the vegetables and mix together in a large bowl.
  4. Once the rice is cooked, spread it out on a large tray to cool down, or place in fridge for 30-50 mins if you have the time.
  5. Dish up the rice in to individual bowls and top with the vegetables and dressing, and optional garnishes.
  6. Leftovers can be mixed together and put in the fridge for lunches the next day! 🙂

 

 

 

 

Mexican Brown Rice Bowl (and Burritos!)

Mexican Rice Bowl and Burritos
Ever since electric pressure cookers came into my life I’m always on the lookout for the simple “dump and forget” recipes where you can chuck everything in at once, switch it on and go about your business – knowing that you can come back to a meal that has not only been cooked perfectly but has been kept warm for you until you’re ready . This is one of those recipes – mainly pantry ingredients you can always have on hand so this can be a weeknight life saver!!

Mexican Brown Rice Bowl (and Burritos!)
 
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One pot pressure cooker dish which magically transforms into a burrito or wrap filling on day two! Soupy and sumptuous on day one but rice keeps absorbing stock so is much thicker next day for filling burritos.
Author:
Recipe type: One Pot, 2 dishes
Cuisine: Mexican
Serves: 8
Ingredients
  • 1 stick celery
  • 1 red onion
  • 1 red capsicum
  • 1 medium carrot
  • - all finely diced
  • 1 cup corn
  • 2 cups brown medium grain rice, rinsed
  • 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 500g jar Dolmio extra spicy red peppers sauce or similar
  • 4 cups water
  • 1 heaped teaspoon stock powder
  • 2 cloves garlic crushed
  • 1 heaped tsp ground cumin
  • 1 heaped tsp ground coriander
  • ½ tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp oregano
Instructions
  1. Put all ingredients into pressure cooker*, stir thorougly, lock on lid and cook under high pressure for 23 minutes.
  2. Stir and allow to sit for 5 minutes
  3. Top with salsa / avocado/ coriander & hot sauce to taste.
  4. Place remainders in fridge overnight and use as burrito filling next day
  5. * If you have no pressure cooker, combine ingredients in a large casserole dish with a lid; add an extra cup of water, bring to the boil, put on the lid and simmer for 30 minutes or until rice is tender. You may need to add extra liquid during the cooking process but it should be quite soupy. 🙂

 

Smashed Chickpea Sandwich Spread

Smashed Chickpea Sandwich Spread
 
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Recipe Type: Sandwich
 
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Tasty filling for a sandwich. Keeps for a week in the fridge.
Author:
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 1 can chickpeas
  • ½ cup finely diced celery
  • ½ cup grated or diced carrot
  • ¼ cup finely sliced spring onion
  • ½ red capsicum, finely chopped
  • 1 tablespoon yellow mustard
  • 1 heaped tablespoon creamy style hummus
  • pinch of kala namak or black salt (gives an egg flavour)
  • 1 tablespoon of commercial fat free mayo (there are a few egg-free varieties on market)
  • salt & pepper
  • squeeze of lemon - to taste
  • Optional: finely chopped parsley
Instructions
  1. Rinse and drain chickpeas, put in a shallow bowl and roughly mash with a fork or potato masher
  2. Prepare the vegetables and add to the bowl
  3. Mix the dressing ingredients together and stir into the chickpeas and vegetables. Season well with salt and pepper and add lemon juice to taste. Add parsley if desired. Some people might add a dash of chilli sauce too 🙂
Notes
Quick food processor method:
Pulse the chickpeas in the processor with S blade 2 or 3 times.
Add the capsicum and pulse again until chickpeas are broken and the capsicum is finely chopped.
Remove blade, insert the grating attachment and grate the carrot over the chickpeas.
Replace grating with slicing attachment, and add the celery and spring onions.
Mix the dressing in a large bowl
Tip the contents of the processor into the bowl and mix well.

 

Sweet Potato, Capsicum & Chickpea Soup with Spinach

This is really a meal in a bowl and yet another easy way of getting fantastic nutrition into children – you can puree this soup if you want to hide the awesome but yet suspicious ingredients!  Along with a hunk of wholegrain bread this is dinner on the table in 30 minutes.

Sweet Potato, Capsicum & Chickpea Soup with Spinach
 
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Recipe type: Soup
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 1 medium / large brown onion
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 large red capsicum (bell pepper), diced
  • 2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon ground coriander
  • ¼ teaspoon ground chllies
  • 2 cups cooked chickpeas
  • 500g sweet potato - diced
  • 1.2 litres vegetable stock
  • 1 small glass white wine
  • 2 large handfuls of baby spinach leaves
Instructions
  1. Heat large soup pot over a medium heat and sauté the onion, garlic, and capsicum until softened a little, be careful not to burn the garlic
  2. Add the spices, chickpeas, sweet potato, wine and stock and bring to the boil.
  3. Once the potatoes are tender, stir in the baby spinach and stir until wilted.
  4. Use a potato masher or stick blender if liked to make a little smoother, or serve chunky.

 

Mexican Chickpea Quiches

These are real crowd pleasers, perfect as part of a party banquet, but equally at home as part of dinner with maybe some rice and salad.  These are flavoured a la Mexican, with cumin, coriander, red and green capsicum, onion and red kidney beans, but they can be themed any how – swap out the spices for fresh shredded basil, drop the beans but add sliced black olives and they become pizza quiches.  Try sweetcorn and Thai curry paste and make Thai inspired quiches, or try potato, pea and maybe cauliflower, with curry powder and they’re Indian!  The sky’s the limit! 🙂

Mexican Chickpea Fritters

Mexican Chickpea Quiches
 
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Recipe type: Snacks
Cuisine: Mexican
Serves: 15-18
Ingredients
  • 2.5 cups of chickpea flour (also known as besan flour / garbanzo flour)
  • 3 cups of water
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • chilli powder - to taste (optional)
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast (optional)
  • 1 medium red capsicum (bell pepper), diced small
  • 1 medium green capsicum (bell pepper) diced small
  • 1 medium red onion, diced small
  • 1 cup red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1 cup sweetcorn, frozen or canned
  • Equipment: 12 hole muffin tray (I used silicon for easy removal) - stand on a large baking tray before filling if you are using a silicon one.
Instructions
  1. Heat the oven to 200 degrees C
  2. In a large bowl, combine the chickpea flour, herbs and spices, water and salt and whisk well. Set aside.
  3. Heat a large frying pan over a medium heat and fry off the capsicum and onion until tender. Tip the vegetables into another bowl and mix in the beans, corn, & olives
  4. Pour the batter into each muffin tray, filling ⅔ full.
  5. Using a small spoon, add a heaped teaspoon of the vegetable mixture to each muffin hole.
  6. Stir each muffin hole to distribute the vegetables.
  7. Place into the oven, bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden and firm to the touch. Allow to cool until able to handle them. Place upside down on the baking tray (use baking paper to line) and pop back into the oven for another 10-15 minutes until bottoms are also golden.
  8. You should have enough batter left to make a few more.
  9. Lovely served hot, warm or cold.

 

 

Kale & Red Pepper Bites

These are fantastic little crispy bites, with whole grains, lentils, kale, onion, red pepper, and flavoured with Italian herbs. The grain and lentils all cook together into a fabulously textured kind of porridge which is an amazing base to make burgers, and sausages with.    Perfect for parties, lunchboxes or just snacks to keep in the fridge when hunger strikes!

Kale and Red Pepper Bites2

The other ingredients are then just stirred in and I used a mini muffin tray for easily shaped and uniform results.

mini muffin tray

Impossible to eat just one!  We love them topped with hummus and a red pepper relish.

Kale and Red Pepper Bites

Kale & Red Pepper Bites
 
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Crispy and delicious, this little bites are perfect party or lunchbox items
Author:
Serves: 30-34
Ingredients
  • ½ cup medium grain brown rice
  • ¼ cup millet
  • ¼ cup split red lentils
  • ¼ cup quinoa
  • 1 box of frozen kale
  • 1 red capsicum, finely diced
  • 1 large onion, finely diced
  • 1 tsp Italian dried herb mix
  • ½ tsp garlic granules
  • ½ tsp onion powder
  • 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
  • 1 tablespoon low sodium tamari / soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon of tahini - optional
  • juice of half a lemon
  • zest of a whole lemon
  • ¼ cup ground almonds - optional (makes them more crispy but you can leave out for school lunchboxes).
  • Equipment: mini 24-cup muffin pan
  • Sesame seeds - optional
Instructions
  1. Rinse the grains and lentils in a fine sieve under running water for a couple of minutes.
  2. Place them in a rice cooker (or saucepan - but you may need to add an extra half a cup of water before the grains are fully cooked, depending on how tight fitting the lid is) with 3 cups of water, and put it on to cook.
  3. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees centigrade. / 375 Fahrenheit.
  4. Meanwhile, put the kale into a sieve over (in which the sieve will be enclosed) and cover in boiling water.
  5. Place a large frying pan over a medium heat, and "fry" the capsicum and onion, adding a splash of water or stock to stop them sticking. Do not allow to get too moist. Once softened after a few minutes, add the herbs and garlic. Cook until the moisture has evaporated out and the vegetables are fairly dry but not sticking to the pan.
  6. Drain the kale, and squeeze all the water out of it with your hands - I find it easiest to do this in 3 or 4 small handfuls, and set aside.
  7. Once the grains are cooked, (they should be fairly dry also) tip them into a large bowl, and tip in the contents of the frying pan. Sprinkle in the kale, breaking up any lumps, then add the nutritional yeast, tamari, tahini, lemon, zest & almonds and thoroughly mix (clean hands are best for this!).
  8. Sprinkle some sesame seeds if using into the bottom of each muffin hole, then pack the mixture firmly on top, pushing down to ensure no air pockets which will stop them coming out cleanly. Sprinkle some more sesame seeds on top.
  9. Pop into the top of the oven for 20 minutes. Take out, allow to sit for 5 minutes then invert the tray onto a cooling rack, making sure they all come out (you might need to loosen stubborn ones around the side with a plastic knife), place that on top of a baking tray and then pop back in the oven for 10 minutes to crisp up the bottoms.
  10. My mixture made 34, so you can use the tray again to use up the mixture for another 6-10 bites.

 

Cauliflower, Coriander & Orange Pilaf

 

Cauliflower Coriander and Orange Pilaf

Cauliflower Coriander and Orange Pilaf

Cauliflower, Coriander & Orange Pilaf
 
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Recipe type: Rice dish
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 1.5 cups rice & lentil mix
  • ¼ cup quinoa
  • 1 tsp "Chicken Style" stock powder
  • 7 spring onions, sliced
  • 1 green (or other colour) capsicum, diced
  • 1 medium cauliflower, separated into florets
  • 2 tablespoons ground coriander
  • zest and juice of a large orange
  • 3 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce / tamari
  • 1 bunch of coriander, chopped
  • Dessicated coconut - garnish
Instructions
  1. Put your rice, lentils and quinoa on to cook (same pot). I use a rice cooker and added 3 cups of water and 1 tsp of chicken style stock powder. You may need a little more water if you're using a lidded saucepan.
  2. Meanwhile, toast your pine nuts and chop / prepare all the other ingredients
  3. Once your grains and lentils are cooked, in a large frying pan or wok which has a lid, stir "fry" the onion and capsicum for a couple of minutes. Add the ground coriander and move it around until you can smell it toasting.
  4. Add the cauliflower florets, half a cup of water and cover for 5 minutes or until the cauliflower is tender.
  5. In a large bowl, tip your cooked grains & lentils, the cauliflower mixture, the orange zest and juice, soy sauce and toasted pine nuts and stir well to combine.
  6. Dish up and top with the chopped coriander, and coconut if desired.

 

Incan Salad

2014-10-30 12.55.562014-10-30 12.55.36

South American deliciousness in Incan Salad: Quinoa, Sweet Potato, Rice, Corn and Beans with an avocado, lime and chilli sauce. Sprinkled with some spring onion greens, chopped coriander leaves and hemp seeds. This one will keep you full for hours!

Incan Salad
 
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Recipe type: Salad
Cuisine: South American
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 2 cups or 300g cooked quinoa (about ½ cup dry)
  • 2 cups or 360g cooked short grain brown rice (about ¾ cup dried)
  • 2 cups frozen corn, defrosted
  • 1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
  • 180g cooked sweet potato cubes (2 large sweet potatoes, peeled, diced, roasted)
  • Garnish (optional):
  • 4 spring onions, chopped
  • small bunch of coriander, chopped
  • hemp seeds to garnish - optional
  • Dressing:
  • 1 medium avocado (about 220g of flesh)
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 75ml lime juice
  • 100 ml water
  • 1 tsp semi dried chopped chillies (Gourmet Garden brand) - or to taste
  • 1 heaping teaspoon rice malt syrup or other liquid sweetener
  • zest of a lime
Instructions
  1. To make this salad really easy to throw together, peel, dice and roast your sweet potato the night before or earlier in the day, then refrigerate.
  2. You could also cook your grains too and refrigerate so you don't need to wait for your grains to chill before assembling the salad. You can also leave out the rice altogether and double the quinoa but as it's quite an expensive ingredient this does help to cut the cost!
  3. You can cook brown rice and quinoa together in a rice cooker, just combine the ½ cup quinoa and ¾ cup dried grains with 2 cups water.
  4. Make the dressing by blitzing all ingredients apart from the lime zest in a blender, or jug and a stick blender, or a fork and some elbow grease will do the same job. Stir in the lime zest, taste and adjust the salt / lime juice etc to your taste. It should be quite tart to contrast with the sweetness from the potato.
  5. In a very large bowl, combine the rice, quinoa, sweet potato, beans, corn and cubes of potato and combine well. Stir through the onions and coriander - or leave in bowls if you have sensitive taste buds around the table so everyone can add their own.
  6. Serve with the sauce and hemp seeds to sprinkle if liked.