Category archives: Food

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!

Seasame potatoes recipe

You can have these with pretty much anything, or on their own the next day, if there’s any left…

Ingredients

Olive oil

1KG potatoes, I used new potatoes

Sesame seeds

Sea salt

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 220C, a little lower for a fan assisted oven.

Bring a large pan of water to the boil.

Cut the potatoes into manageable sized chunks and add to the boiling water.

Par-boil for about 20 minutes, you don’t want to cook them, just get them on their way.

Whilst the potatoes are cooking add a splash of olive oil to a baking tray and place in the oven to warm up.

Drain the water and with a lid on the pan give the potatoes a good shake the rough them up a bit, don’t be too rough you want to keep them whole.

Add the potatoes to the baking tray and toss them around in the hot oil.

Add a good handful of sesame seeds, as much or as little as you want. Add a sprinkle of salt and give the potatoes a good stir so they’re all covered.

Bake in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour, turning occasionally.

(The most amazing) Veggie stir fry recipe

We were cooked this by one of our friends and this is mostly how the recipe was written down for me, it makes a lot, so plenty left over to pick at a few hours after you’ve eaten (it’s that good) or the next day.

Ingredients

Olive oil

1 bag of frozen quorn pieces

2 bundles of spring onions, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, minced

3 large carrots, peeled and thinly sliced

1 courgette, sliced

1 leek, sliced

1 big handful of green beans, chopped into inch long pieces

2 red peppers, thinly sliced

1 pack of asparagus, chopped into inch long pieces

5-6 vegetable stock cubes

1 pack of egg noodles, rice noodles would work equally well!

Method

Place a pan over a medium heat and add a splash of oil. Add the spring onions, quorn pieces and a clove or two of minced garlic. Give it all a good stir and let it cook for a minute. Crumble over a stock cube, stir and let the quorn pieces brown. Put to one side, try not to eat it all.

Over a high heat add another splash of oil to a wok or big open pan. Add the rest of the veg apart from the courgette and asparagus, the last 2 cloves of minced garlic and crumble another stock cube over it all. Give it all a good stir and keep stirring until it all looks a bit limp. Add the asparagus and courgette and give it another stir. Check it all tastes nice, add another stock cube if you want!

It’s now time for wine if you haven’t started on it already…

Boil a pan of water with 2 or 3 stock cubes and add the noodles, they’ll only take a few minutes so let’s get everything else sorted.

Add the chicken and spring onion goodness to the wok but keep it at a low heat because by god it loves to burn.

When the asparagus and courgette is cooked (you should know this by having eaten most of it whilst no one was looking), check the noodles are cooked, drain and add them to the stir fry. Stir it all up and serve it only to lovely people, no one else deserves it.

Veggie August 6th – 9th

A quick update on Veggie August, it’s been easy work the last few days. Saturday I had mushroom burgers and some tasty veggie burgers from Sainsbury’s and Sunday morning consisted of scrambled egg wraps with veggie sausages from Sainsbury’s. Sunday we went out with some friends for lunch, the vegetarian option was pasta in tomato sauce with goats cheese? I felt cheated that I didn’t get a carvery 🙁

Monday night we met up with family at a restaurant, it consisted of potato skins, bruschetta, pasta with a load of roast veg and a goats cheese and red pepper pizza. Pleasing but fairly obvious!

Tonight we had red pepper and goats cheese quiche (a pattern is emerging!), it was quick and easy.

Tomorrow it looks like I’m going to do butternut squash, new potato and spinach curry, I’m craving a bit of variety!