Category Archives: Quick & Easy

Easy Mushroom Pasta with Chilli Lemon & Garlic

Sometimes you need dinner on the table in 20 mins, tops.  This is so easy to throw together as the only fresh things you need on hand are mushrooms and fresh parsley – and if you have that growing in your garden – or on your windowsill, even easier!  I always have pasta in the pantry, chilli, garlic, lemons and wine in my fridge, so just keep some cashew cream on hand and you’re all set to make this dish.

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Easy Mushroom Pasta with Chilli Lemon & Garlic
 
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Recipe type: Pasta
Cuisine: Italian
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 300g wholewheat pasta
  • 600 g small white mushrooms, washed and quartered
  • 2 largish cloves garlic, microplaned
  • Zest of an organic (unwaxed) lemon
  • 6 tablespoons chopped parsley (about half a bunch)
  • Large pinch of semi dried chillies (Gourmet Garden pots) – or use fresh if you prefer
  • ½ cup white wine
  • 1 tsp tamari
  • 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
  • 2 Tablespoons cashew cream (cashews soaked, blended with enough water to make a thick cream)
  • ½ cup soy milk
  • Salt & pepper
Instructions
  1. Put your pasta on to boil.
  2. Heat a large frying pan over medium heat, add the mushrooms, stirring frequently until softened and liquid released and half-evaporated – about 5-7 minutes.
  3. Add the garlic and lemon zest, chillies and sauté for a further 5 minutes.
  4. Add wine, tamari, nutritional yeast, cashew cream and soy milk, turn down the heat and cook for a further 10 minutes, until the sauce comes together.
  5. Scatter with parsley, pour over your cooked pasta and mix well.
  6. Top with extra parsley if liked, and season well.

 

Simple Suppers: Freezer Green Soup

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This is a super simple and quick soup using items from the freezer – apart from the fresh mint (you can even get that frozen in some places too, I think  Aldi do it, or prep and freeze your own). Also Garden Gourmet now does it in semi-dried sachets.

It’s so sweet from the peas, but with added goodies from the other veggies.  A great way to get stacks of veggies into children and yet sophisticated enough for grown ups.  Wouldn’t be out of place at a dinner party either.

Frozen veggies are an amazing way to speed up your dinner preparation.  If you haven’t discovered ready chopped frozen onions (or make your own!) yet, give them a go, it’s a godsend on a busy school/work night.

We try to eat mostly organic vegetables and it’s great to see you can now get organic frozen vegetables in many places. Woolworths do the mix I use this in this soup in a big 1kg bag – cauliflower, carrots, green beans and broccoli.  Some frozen vegetables I feel don’t recover well from the freezing process, particularly carrots, so using frozen veg in a soup is a great solution.

Green Freezer Soup
 
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Recipe type: Soup
Serves: 8
Ingredients
  • 1 cup frozen chopped onion
  • 500g frozen mixed vegetables (cauliflower, green beans, broccoli and carrot)
  • 500g frozen peas
  • 2 tsp vegetable stock powder
  • 800ml water
  • large handful of fresh mint leaves
  • ¼ cup cashews (optional but makes it creamier)
Instructions
  1. Put the frozen veggies into a large saucepan and cover with water, but only just - about 1-2 cm above. I estimated I used about 800ml but it's best to add more later if needed than too much to begin with.
  2. Add the vegetable stock powder and the cashews if using.
  3. Bring to the boil, reduce to simmer, cover and cook for 20 minutes
  4. Blend with a stick blender, adding the mint and blend until very smooth.

 

Pressure Cooker Vegetable Curry

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Don’t worry if you don’t have a pressure cooker (though I seriously recommend you get one!) as you can do this in a regular casserole / large saucepan with a good fitting lid, it will just take longer.  I have this one if you’re interested, which combines slow cooker, pressure cooker, steamer, rice cooker, soup maker etc functions, but I use the pressure option most often.  We actually got ours with Flybuys points!

This cooks for 13 minutes, the same time as my rice cooker took to do the rice so it really does save time!  You can also cook dried beans without even soaking if you are running short on time, which also saves money as well, as bags of dried beans are way cheaper than the canned variety and also avoids the BPA issue.  It’s a big win win!

You can use whatever vegetables you have around, maybe follow mine the first time so you get an idea of the volume required.  Also we often use this tofu in curries as it’s got such a great texture.  Not in this picture though, I just used regular plain tofu, cubed.

This makes a huge amount (I can never make a small amount of curry for some reason…!), enough for us for 2 meals.

If you’re not using a pressure cooker this will probably need to simmer for around 30-40 minutes.

Pressure Cooker Vegetable Curry
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Curry
Cuisine: Indian
Serves: 8
Ingredients
  • The vegetables you choose are completely up to you, I've made this twice recently with 2 different combinations. To give you an idea of volume, this is what I used yesterday:
  • 2 medium sweet potatoes
  • 4 small potatoes
  • 1 large carrot
  • 1 large zucchini
  • 1 leek
  • 1 large handful green beans
  • 1 cup frozen peas
  • Then the other ingredients:
  • 250 g plain firm tofu, cubed, or a packet of marinated tofu pieces
  • 1 can chickpeas, or home-made - 1.5 cups.
  • 1 can chopped tomatoes
  • 1.5 cups passata / canned tomatoes - blended
  • 1.5 cups water
  • 1 heaped tablespoon vegetable stock powder
  • 1 tablespoon ground cumin
  • 1 tablespoon ground turmeric
  • 1 tablespoon (mild or to your taste) curry powder
  • ¼ cup raw cashews
  • ½ cup soy /almond milk
  • 1 teaspoon coconut essence
  • To serve:
  • Chopped coriander
  • Low fat plain soy yogurt
  • Mango chutney
  • Dessicated coconut
Instructions
  1. If you have soaked cashews all the better but if not, place them in a small pan and cover with water and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer.
  2. Chop the potatoes and carrot into large pieces. Slice the leek and zucchini into 1cm slices, top and tail the beans and cut them in half. Measure out the peas.
  3. Heat your pressure cooker on the brown function if it has one (mine is electronic, if yours is the old type you can just heat it up!) and throw in the leek, stir it around for a minute or two then add all the other vegetables.
  4. Put on your rice to cook.
  5. Add all the other ingredients, stir thoroughly, close the lid, set the cooker to High Pressure and set for 13 minutes, and Start.
  6. Drain your cashews, place in a high speed blender, add the soy /almond milk and coconut essence. Blend until very smooth.
  7. Once the curry has finished cooking, reduce the pressure, then stir through the cashew cream and the peas. Serve with the rice and necessary accompaniments!

 

 

Quick Creamy Tomato Tofu Casserole

Creamy Spanish Tofu Casserole

I’m quite happy it’s a bit rainy at the moment.  Apart from the farmers who of course need this all day drizzle so desperately, it means it’s comfort food season and being originally from England, I have a special place in my heart for hearty steamy stews and casseroles.  So here is one!  I’ve sneaked kale into it again, and it’s packed full of other veggies in a lovely rich tomato sauce.  You can throw others in it too, I often add frozen corn and peas as well (you can easily increase the quantities, you might just need to add a bit of extra stock and / or tomatoes), which bulks it out if you suddenly find you have extra mouths to feed and adds a splash of extra colour.  We used regular tofu this time, but often make it with smoked tofu which accentuates the smokiness in the paprika.  We love this brand, it never lasts long in our house…

I’m lucky enough to have a 5-1 cooker which is a pressure cooker / steamer / slow cooker / soup maker etc. and I’ve used the pressure cooker and soup function in this recipe which really speeds things up.  If you don’t have a pressure cooker you can still make this, the speed also comes from the all in one method, so it won’t take ages anyway.

We served this with Rice Plus which is brown rice with added grains and seeds and is totally delicious.

Quick Creamy Tomato Tofu Casserole
 
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Recipe type: Stew / Casserole
Serves: 4-6
Ingredients
  • 400g tofu, cubed (smoked tofu works well too)
  • 1 stick celery, diced
  • 2 carrots, sliced
  • 1 small red, 1 small green capsicum, diced
  • 1 can chopped tomatoes
  • 1 cup passata (sieved tomatoes)
  • 1 T tomato paste
  • 2 cups vegetable stock
  • 1 T maple syrup
  • 3 medium potatoes – about 450g – large cubes
  • ¼ - ½ cup frozen corn (optional)
  • ¼ - ½ cup frozen peas (optional)
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp oregano
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp granulated garlic
  • 4 cups chopped kale
  • 1 cup soy milk mixed with 3 tsp cornflour til smooth
  • Lime juice - to serve - optional
  • Chilli sauce - ditto
Instructions
  1. Place all ingredients apart from soy milk & cornflour mixture and lime juice in a pressure cooker and cook on high pressure for 15 minutes then on soup setting / simmer for another 10 minutes. Stir in the soy milk with cornflour and simmer until flour cooked out and sauce is thickened.
  2. If not using a super-duper appliance, put all ingredients apart from soy milk and cornflour mixture and lime juice in your pot and bring to the boil, and simmer for around 20-25 minutes or until your potatoes are cooked. Then add your soy milk and cornflour, and stir until the flour is cooked out and the stew is thickened.
  3. Serve with rice or other grain or mashed potatoes.
  4. Squeeze fresh lime juice over the top if liked, it adds a lovely piqancy. This also lends itself very easily to being pepped up with chilli sauce for those who like it...

My Buddha Bowl

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Google “Buddha Bowl” and you will be inundated with versions of this.  Basically it’s a bowl of steamed veggies with brown rice or another grain like quinoa, with a sauce over the top.

I’ve already posted my son’s favourite dish, well this is my teenage daughter’s!  It’s the sauce that makes it of course, and this is such an easy weeknight dish you will be tempted to have it several times, just changing the veggies or grains, and adding tofu or tempeh etc.

My Buddha Bowl
 
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The sauce makes enough for 3-4 servings, I haven't given quantities for the rice or veggies so just prepare as much as you need.
Author:
Cuisine: Asian
Serves: 3-4
Ingredients
  • Sauce ingredients:
  • 1 T cashew butter
  • 1 T tahini,
  • 2 T vegetarian oyster sauce or other Asian stir fry sauce
  • 1 T sweet chilli sauce
  • 3 T lemon and/or lime juice - either or both, mixed together (orange is also good!)
  • 2 T tamari
  • ½ cup soy milk
  • 1 T sweet soy sauce
Instructions
  1. Put your rice on to cook, or even easier, use packets of ready cooked brown rice which just need warming through! (you can put itin the steamer along with the veggies if you like)
  2. Whilst your rice is cooking, prepare and steam your desired vegetables – broccoli, carrot, capsicum, celery, mushrooms, baby corn etc, and top with a packet of ready marinated and cooked tofu cubes to heat through (if desired - this is optional) – sweet chilli / garlic variety.
  3. Blend all the sauce ingredients in a blender (we use the Magic Bullet for this) or a jug with an immersion/stick blender until very smooth and creamy. Taste the sauce and adjust a little if necessary - different people like it more salty / more sour / more sweet etc. Pour it into a saucepan and heat gently for a few minutes when your rice and veggies are almost ready.
  4. Divide the rice, veggies and tofu between your bowls and pour the sauce over the top. Also nice scattered with fresh chopped coriander / toasted sesame seeds / etc.

 

2 Lentil Bolognese

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Whenever I ask my son (11) what he would like to put on the menu for next week he ALWAYS says Spag Bol.  It really is rather good.  This is an easy midweek meal as once it’s all in the pot you can just leave it pretty much unattended for ages and then just pop on your spaghetti once you’re ready.   It only improves the longer you cook it, just watch it doesn’t catch and burn on the bottom (one of those heat diffusing pads is useful here) and that it doesn’t become too reduced.   It also “cheats” a little by using a small jar of ready made pasta sauce as one of the ingredients.  If you don’t have one to hand you could sub with another can of tomatoes, or equivalent of sieved tomatoes / passata type of thing.

It’s called “2 Lentil Bolognese” as it uses both the wonderful Split Red Lentils which break down so beautifully to that dhal-like creamy mush and the slower-cooking Puy Lentils which are those beautiful little round green/blue ones which keep their shape and add great texture to the dish.

I like to blend the sauce just a little using the immersion blender to break up some of the lentils and make a thicker sauce, but that’s completely up to you.  Smaller children may well like it much smoother as they often object to the presence of lentils.  🙂

This usually makes enough for 2 dinners for 4 so the rest goes in the freezer for next time!

5.0 from 2 reviews
2 Lentil Bolognese
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Pasta
Cuisine: Italian
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • 1 medium onion
  • 1 large garlic clove
  • 2 small sticks celery
  • 1 medium carrot
  • 1 field mushroom/ 6-8 button mushrooms
  • :- all diced small
  • ½ cup red lentils
  • ½ cup Puy (French) lentils
  • 1 400g can chopped tomatoes
  • 2 (use empty tomato) cans water
  • 2 heaped Tbsp tomato paste
  • 1 heaped tsp "chicken" or vegetable stock / bouillon powder
  • 1 rounded tsp dried mixed Italian herbs
  • 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1 small (375g) jar tomato and basil pasta sauce / your favourite
Instructions
  1. Fry or dry fry / water sauté the onions and garlic for a few minutes whilst you chop the other veggies.
  2. Add the celery, carrot and mushrooms and sauté for another 10 minutes over a gentle heat.
  3. Add all the other ingredients, bring to the boil, then turn down and simmer for 30 minutes or until the lentils are soft. Cover if required to cook longer without reducing volume.
  4. Test for seasoning, add more water if too thick.
  5. Use immersion blender if required to thicken / smooth the sauce as required.

Kale Stuffed Potatoes

This is more of concept than a recipe so quantities are a bit vague.  Anyway, this is what I do:

Bake 4 large baking potatoes in the oven on a baking tray (I put a metal skewer through each one which speeds up the cooking – don’t bother microwaving – you know it’s not the same!) and bake for a good hour – hour and a half depending on their size and your oven.

Whilst they’re baking boil or steam a smallish bunch of kale until tender then chop finely, and steam-fry a finely chopped medium onion.

Make sure they’re soft and fluffy all the way through before halving them lengthwise, and across the widest part so they will sit flat on the plate without wobbling.

Scoop all that soft fluffy potato out into a bowl, leaving a thin shell that helps the potato keep some sort of integrity and not collapse in a heap.

Add whatever you like to add to your potatoes to mash – we use creamy soy milk, (low fat), houmous, salt and pepper, nooch etc, mash thoroughly, then stir in your onions and kale until really well combined.

Pile this filling back into  your potato shells place back on the baking tray and bake for another 15 minutes or so or until you can’t wait any longer.  Mmmmmmm.

NB: I will add a photo to this post when I remember not to eat them all so quickly…

Pasta Primavera

Another family favourite.  Creamy but low fat sauce with garlic and lemon poured over wholegrain pasta and your favourite springtime vegetables.  Top with toasted pine nuts and / or a parmesan type topping.  Try grinding almonds with some nutritional yeast, salt, and lemon zest for a delicious sprinkle.

Pasta primavera

Pasta Primavera
 
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Creamy sauce with spring green vegetables over wholegrain pasta
Author:
Recipe type: Pasta
Cuisine: Italian
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 300g wholewheat pasta shells/penne
  • 30g raw cashews, soaked
  • 100-200ml Soy Milk
  • 1 tsp lemon zest
  • 1 clove garlic
  • Slice of onion
  • Salt & pepper
  • Green vegetables of choice:
  • asparagus, broccoli / broccolini, peas, snow peas, etc
  • Bunch of basil, leaves torn
  • Toasted pine nuts, for garnish - optional
Instructions
  1. Put pasta on to boil.
  2. Meanwhile, in a high speed blender blend cashews, soy milk, lemon zest, garlic, onion until smooth and creamy. Amount of milk will depend on how thick you want it and how much it’s sucked up by the pasta, you can always add more milk to the pasta once you combine it.
  3. Put the vegetables on to steam .
  4. Taste cashew cream and adjust seasoning/flavourings as desired: more lemon / garlic or onion/salt pepper.
  5. Once pasta is and vegetables are ready, drain and return to pan over a very low light, add the cashew cream, vegetables (once ready) basil and pine nuts.
  6. Serve!