Author archives: Rich

Pasta with chili, garlic, ginger and tomatoes recipe

You’ll make sex noises throughout the whole time you’re eating this, I guarantee it! It’s quick to make and it’s got the got the right combination of heat from the chili & garlic and sweetness from the tomatoes.

Ingredients

150g of your favourite pasta

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

1 red chili, finely chopped

4 cloves of garlic, minced

A piece of ginger bigger than a big thumb, peeled and grated

125g of baby plum tomatoes, quartered

Olive oil

Freshly ground black pepper

Method

Bring a pan of water to the boil and get your pasta in there cooking away

In another pan, over a medium heat add a little olive oil and add the plum tomatoes, give them a stir and mush them up a bit. Cook for a few minutes.

Add the garlic, chili, ginger and chopped tomatoes. Add a twist of black pepper and give it all a good stir.

Let it bubble away whilst the pasta finishes cooking but don’t let it get too dry.

Drain the pasta and add it to the tomato sauce.

Enjoy!

Vegetarian Haggis recipe

Can you call vegetarian haggis, haggis? Either way, I had some in Edinburgh when I was there last week and it was so tasty I decided to make it myself. Sorry for listing some of the measurements in cups, that’s how I got the recipe and I didn’t think to weigh out the ingredients once I’d measured them.

Ingredients

Olive oil

1 carrot, peeled and finely diced

1/4 of a peeled swede, finely diced

1 onion, peeled and finely diced

6 mushrooms, finely diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 cup of whole mixed nuts, hazelnuts, almonds and walnuts

1/3 of a cup of red lentils

600ml of vegetable stock

1/2 cup of cooked kidney beans

1 teaspoon of dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon of dried rosemary

1/4 teaspoon of ground cayenne pepper

1/4 teaspoon of freshly ground cinammon

Freshly ground black papper

1 tablespoon of soy sauce

1 and 1/2 cups of pinhead oatmeal

The juice of half a lemon

Method

Heat the oven to 170C.

Spread the mixed nuts out on a baking tray and roast in the oven for 10 minutes, don’t over-roast.

Let the nuts cool and finely chop them, I put them in the chopper I got with a stick blender.

Add a little olive oil to a large pan and add the onion, sauté for 5 minutes.

Season with some black pepper, don’t add too much right now, we’re going to add more later.

Add the carrot, swede, mushrooms and garlic and sauté for another 5 minutes.

Add the lentils, 450ml of the stock and stir.

Add the kidney beans to the remaining 150ml of stock and give them a little mash, don’t break them up too much.

Add the nuts, soy sauce, herbs and spices to the stock, stir it all together and add it to the vegetables. Cook for 5 minutes.

Add some more black pepper, keep tasting so you don’t over do it but you want to be fairly heavy handed with the amount of pepper you put in for a more authentic taste.

Add the pinhead oatmeal and cook for another 5 minutes. Add a little water of it gets too dry, the mixture should end up moist but not runny.

Add the lemon juice and stir it in.

Spoon the mixture into two lightly greased loaf tins.

Bake for 30 minutes at 190C.

Serve with mashed neeps and tatties!

Leek and cheese pie recipe

Fairly quick and cheap to make, there’s enough for 6!

Ingredients

1kg leeks, washed and chopped into inch long pieces

2 free range eggs

100g of extra mature cheddar cheese, grated

150ml single cream

Freshly ground black pepper

Pastry, puff, shortcrust, whatever you like. Make your own or buy the ready rolled stuff.

Method

Bring a large pan of water to the boil and add the leeks to it, simmer for around 10 minutes until the leeks are just cooked.

In a large bowl add the eggs, cream, cheese and as much black pepper as you like, give it all a stir to mix in the eggs.

Pre-heat your oven to 180C.

Once the leeks are cooked, drain them in a colander and press them lightly to remove any excess water.

Add them to the eggy, cheesy, creamy mixture and give it all a stir.

Pour the mixture into a pie dish and cover with pastry, place in the oven for around 20 minutes.

Vegetable frittata recipe

A friend gave me a load of veg from her allotment, potatoes, courgette and spinach. So I threw it all together with a few other things that I had in the fridge…

Ingredients

Olive oil

2-3 potatoes, sliced

1 courgette, sliced

Some spinach, cut roughly

1 pointed sweet red pepper, de-seeded and sliced

A bunch of spring onions, chopped

Freshly ground black pepper

6 free range eggs, beaten

100g mature cheddar cheese, grated

Method

Bring a pan of water to the boil and add the potatoes, boil for 6 minutes. Don’t let them cook too much or they’ll fall apart.

Whilst the potatoes are boiling add a splash of oil to a deep frying pan and add the courgette. Fry for a few minutes over a medium heat, turning occasionally so they brown on both sides.

Add the red pepper and spring onions, add a twist of freshly ground black pepper and give it all a stir.

A few minutes before the potatoes are done put a steamer over the potato pan and wilt the spinach.

Drain the potatoes and remove the spinach from the steamer.

Add the potatoes and spinach to the frying pan and give it a mix, being careful to not break up the potatoes.

Pour over the beaten egg and cook on a low heat for another 10-15 minutes, whilst that’s cooking preheat your grill.

Once the bottom of the frittata is cooked the top will probably need a few minutes under the grill to finish and brown.

When the top is cooked add the grated cheese and place back under the grill until it’s melty and delicious.

Serve with whatever you have handy, I had tomato sauce 😛

Spinach, Sweet Red Pepper and Ricotta Lasagne recipe

Another recipe shamelessly stolen from The Waiting Room but changed slightly, serve it with sesame potatoes and some garlic bread to wipe the plate.

Ingredients – Makes enough for 6

Olive oil

4 sweet pointed red peppers, deseeded and cut into large chunks

3 red onions, sliced

1 large onion, sliced

3 cloves of garlic, minced

250ml of vegetable stock

500g organic spinach

250g ricotta cheese

Dried egg pasta sheets, I used 15

300ml of good bechamel sauce, make your own if you want!

300g of vegetarian mature cheddar cheese, grated

Freshly grated nutmeg, don’t use ready ground

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C, slightly lower for a fan assisted oven.

Add a little olive oil to a large roasting tray and place in the oven for a few minutes.

Place the chunks of red pepper and all the red onion in the roasting tray, turn the veg to cover in the hot oil and place in the oven for around an hour, turning every 15 minutes or so. Keep an eye on it in case it starts to burn.

Remove the roasted red pepper and onions from the oven and set to one side.

In a large pan, gently fry the onion in a little olive oil for about 10 minutes then add the minced garlic.

Stir and fry for a few minutes until the onion is soft but not brown.

Add the vegetable stock and the spinach, stir until the spinach has wilted.

Add the red pepper and onions to the spinach mix along with the ricotta and give it all a good stir.

Add half the cheese to the bechamel sauce and stir to combine.

Layer the mix in a deep oven dish alternating between that and the pasta sheets, I did three layers ending on a layer of pasta.

Pour the bechamel and cheese mixture on top of the pasta and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top of the sauce.

Grate as much nutmeg over the cheese as you like!

Bake in the oven for about an hour, make sure the pasta doesn’t burn but the cheese goes brown and gooey!