Category Archives: Quick & Easy

Spinach & Tofu Cannelloni


Spinach & Tofu Cannelloni
 
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You might look at the name of this recipe, or the photo and think you haven't got time to make this, but you'd be wrong! With a food processor and using wholewheat square wraps instead of pasta this can be on the table inside an hour! This is in regular weeknight rotation in our house and everyone always wants seconds! 🙂
Author:
Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: Italian
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 4 square wholewheat wraps, cut into ÂĽ to make 16 squares
  • 1 500g jar pasta tomato & basil style sauce
  • Topping:
  • 1 slice wholemeal bread, torn into pieces
  • ÂĽ cup walnut pieces
  • 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
  • ½ tsp salt
  • Filling:
  • 350g baby spinach
  • 350g firm plain tofu, broken into pieces
  • 1 shallot / very small onion, chopped
  • 75g hummus
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp Italian herbs mix
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 180 C.
  2. Place the topping ingredients into your food processor and pulse until you have a regular crumb with no large pieces. Tip into a bowl and set aside.
  3. Place the baby spinach into a large bowl and cover with boiling water, pushing it down so all the leaves are submerged.
  4. Take your lasagne dish and pour about ⅓ of the jar of sauce over the bottom and tilt the dish so there is an even cover across the whole surface.
  5. Tip the spinach leaves and water into a colander over the sink, and run cold water over the spinach. Taking handfuls at a time, squeeze as much as the water out as you can, then roughly chop each handful into a few pieces, break up the clumps, and pop into the food processor (no need to clean out after breadcrumbs).
  6. Place all the other filling ingredients into the food processor with the spinach and pulse until it is well mixed and in tiny pieces, but not a puree.
  7. Take one square of wholewheat wrap, spoon 1 heaped tablespoon (about the size of a golf ball – around 35-40g in weight) of filling along one side. Roll up to create a sausage shape and place it in a corner of the dish. Keep going until you have used up all the filling and your dish is packed full.
  8. Pour the rest of the sauce over the top of the rolls and make sure all the bread is covered.
  9. Sprinkle the topping over the rolls and bake for 30 minutes. Cover with foil during the last 10
  10. minutes if your breadcrumb topping is starting to catch.

 

Pressure Cooker Savoury Lentils (with a no-PC option)


Pressure Cooker Savoury Lentils (with a no-PC option)
 
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A quick and easy version of shepherdess pie filling. If you do not have a pressure cooker, follow the same procedure in a casserole dish or large saucepan with a lid and either bake in the oven for 45 minutes or simmer on the cooktop for 30 minutes.
Author:
Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: English
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 1 large onion - finely diced
  • 2 sticks celery - finel diced
  • 1 very large or 2 medium carrots - finely diced
  • ½ cup Puy (french) lentils
  • ½ cup red lentils
  • 2 heaped tablespoons tomato paste
  • 1 heaped tsp chicken style stock powder
  • 1 cup passata or chopped tomatoes, blended
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 tsp granulated garlic
  • 1 tsp mixed herbs
  • 2 large bay leaves
  • ½ cup frozen corn
  • ½ cup frozen peas
Instructions
  1. Assemble and measure out all your ingredients first.
  2. Sauté the onion, celery and carrot in your pressure cooker, on the sauté or brown function for a few minutes.
  3. Then add the rest of the ingredients and set to cook on high pressure for 13 mins
  4. Release pressure
  5. Stir in the corn and peas.
  6. Close the lid and keep on warm function until potatoes or rice / pasta is ready

Sweet & Sour Tofu

I had a craving for this dish which I used to love as a child when we would very occasionally go to a Chinese restaurant.  Of course it wasn’t tofu back then, was probably chicken or pork but it was the way that sweet tangy sauce soaked into the rice that I loved so this satisfies that completely!  After trying a few recipes I found on the net, I combined the best of them plus a few variations to make this version.  We usually enjoy it with some steamed bok choi or broccoli on the side. You can also add other vegetables such as snow peas or bamboo shoots / beansprouts at the end if you like.


Sweet & Sour Tofu
 
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Cooking time may be extended depending on how long it takes to cook your rice. I use a rice cooker and ours takes around 30 minutes.
Author:
Recipe type: Dinner
Cuisine: Chinese
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 1 300g pack of firm tofu (we like to use smoked but plain is fine)
  • 2 tablespoons brown rice vinegar
  • 3 tablespoons tomato ketchup
  • 2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce or tamari
  • 1 tablespoon lime juice
  • Juice from 1 400g can pineapple pieces
  • ½ cup water
  • Pineapple pieces from the can
  • 2 tablespoons brown unrefined sugar
  • 2 heaped teaspoons corn flour
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced / microplaned
  • 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
  • 1 large red capsicum cut into strips
  • 1 large green or yellow capsicum, cut into strips
  • 1 large red onion, sliced into strips
  • 1 small can water chestnuts, drained - optional
  • 4 tablespoons roasted cashews - optional
Instructions
  1. Put your brown ride on to cook
  2. Mix together the pineapple juice, vinegar, tomato ketchup, soy sauce and lime juice in a small bowl, whisk in the corn flour and water and mix thoroughly until smooth with no lumps. Put the tofu in to a shallow dish and pour the sauce over and leave to marinade.
  3. When then rice is almost ready heat a large non stick frying pan over a medium heat and saute the onion and peppers until softened. Add the garlic and ginger and stir around for 5 minutes, adding a tiny splash of water if any sticking is occurring. Put on the lid and allow to cook on a low heat for a further few minutes until peppers are tender.
  4. Add the tofu and sauce to the pan, along with the pineapple, water chestnuts and cashews. Stir consistently until the sauce thickens and becomes transparent. Add a splash more water as needed to create as much sauce as you'd like.
  5. Serve with the rice and accompanying vegetables as desired.

 

Spicy Spinach & Mushroom Rice Bowl

This is based on a thing I’d kind of throw together for myself for lunch when I was a stay-at-home-mum and one day when I was marvelling at the deliciousness of it I realised I was being selfish to keep it to myself so I made it into a proper family meal and everyone loved it. Better still this is a quick and easy weeknight dinner, whilst not skimping on plenty of veg.  It’s kind of like a risotto so should be soupy and not a dry pilaf-type thing. If you like it hot spicy feel free to add chopped chillies or chilli powder at the start.  Otherwise this is totally kid friendly. 🙂


Spicy Spinach & Mushroom Rice Bowl
 
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Author:
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 1 red onion, diced
  • 1 red capsicum, diced
  • 4 field mushrooms, diced or a bag ready sliced
  • 2 tsp turmeric
  • 2 tsp coriander
  • 2 tablespoons salt reduced soy sauce
  • 2 tsp smoked (or regular if you're' not a fan) paprika
  • 1 bag baby spinach, 2-300g, chopped
  • 1 cup frozen sweetcorn and / or peas
  • 3 cups ready cooked medium grain brown rice
  • 2 cups vegetable stock
  • 2-3 tablespoons tahini (or ½ cup fat free hummus)
  • 1.5 cups tomato pasta sauce
  • Juice of a (juicy) lime
  • Freshly chopped parsley
Instructions
  1. Prep all your vegetables.
  2. Heat a large, deep non stick pan (which has a lid preferably)
  3. Saute the onion, capsicum and mushrooms with the spices and cook for 5 minutes until the capsicums are softened a little then add handfuls at a time of the chopped spinach, stirring until it wilts in to the mixture - should take around 5 minutes.
  4. Add in the cooked rice, frozen corn / peas, the stock, the tahini (or hummus) and pasta sauce and stir well. Once it starts to bubble put on the lid and turn down to gentle simmer. After 5 minutes check the vegetables are all done to your liking. Stir in the lime juice, scatter with the parsley and serve!

 

Easy Enchiladas

I have been trying to come up with really easy recipes for after work suppers which involve little in the way of chopping, measuring etc as after  hard day at work that’s all just too much sometimes.  There’s really nothing wrong with canned beans, tomatoes, and frozen vegetables etc so finding ways to use them to speed up your evening meal is a no-brainer.
Here I’ve used canned beans along with frozen kale, wraps and jarred tomato sauce to create a delicious enchilada bake.  I topped ours with my Quick Cheezy Sauce which only takes 5 minutes to make but if you really don’t feel like even slicing a leek you can omit and top with purchased breadcrumbs, homemade breadcrumbs with walnuts or just the tomato sauce itself. I hope you try it!  A possible variation, if you like a refried beans type of filling is to substitute the can of chilli beans and sauce for one of refried beans instead.  Either works well, it’s just your preference.  If you can’t get or don’t like frozen kale, you can use spinach instead.  :

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Easy Enchiladas
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: Mexican
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 1 can black beans - rinsed & drained
  • 1 can lentils - rinsed & drained
  • 1 can kidney beans in chilli sauce - not drained
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp coriander
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tablespoon semi dried coriander (Gourmet Garden range)
  • 1 pack frozen kale defrosted and water squeezed out
  • 3 tablespoons salsa
  • 2 cups passata
  • Thin wraps - I used BeFree gf sweet potato ones or mountain bread ones are ok
  • ½ batch my quick cheezy sauce
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade.
  2. Mix the beans, seasonings, spices, coriander, kale, salsa together in a large bowl. Add some chilli if you like it spicy!
  3. Pour one cup of the passata into the bottom of a lasagne style dish and tip to cover evenly.
  4. Spoon a generous amount of filling in to each wrap and then roll up and place into the dish.
  5. Continue until all the filling is used up, 5-6 wraps is usual.
  6. Pour the other cup of passata over the top and then the cheezy sauce if using.
  7. Bake in the oven for 30 mins, covering with foil for the last 10 minutes to prevent burning if necessary.

 

Potato & Pea Pie

Not really a pie so don’t get excited – there’s no pastry!  But delicious all the same!  It’s kind of a variation on bubble and squeak.  I used to make a dish of potato and onion which had peas on the side and one night just thought damn it, I’m just mixing them in!  So good!  There’s something about the texture of peas mixed into mashed potatoes that I just love; maybe it’s childhood memories of Sunday lunch.  Either way this is a great midweek meal as there’s only a few steps and adding the peas makes it a complete meal so you don’t need any sides if you are pushed for time or just not inclined.  We had ours with just some wilted spinach and sweetcorn.

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Potato & Pea Pie
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: English
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 1kg white potatoes, peeled (we used Desiree)
  • ½ cup oil free hummus (we use SSS brand from Woolies)
  • 2 medium brown onions
  • 3-4 tablespoons freshly chopped mint
  • 1 cup or 150g baby frozen peas (minted if you like!), defrosted
  • Seasoning
Instructions
  1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade.
  2. Cut the potatoes into 2 inch chunks and steam the potatoes for 15-20 minutes
  3. Meanwhile, defrost your peas, finely chop the onions and cook them in a large frying pan, stirring frequently until starting to brown. Turn off the heat and they will unstick themselves naturally.
  4. Rinse the bunch of mint under the tap and finely chop.
  5. Once your potatoes are tender drain and then tip back into the pan and mash with the hummus until smooth, season to taste.
  6. Scrape in the onions and add the peas and stir to thoroughly combine.
  7. Line a baking tray or pizza tray with baking paper, scrape the contents of the pan into the centre of the pan and smooth it out into an even round shape about 4-5cm tall.
  8. Bake in the oven for 20-30 mins until starting to brown on the top.
  9. Cut into slices and serve!

 

 

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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Author:
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.

 

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.

 

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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Author:
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.

 

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