Roasted butternut squash with spicy lentils

This recipe makes a lot of the lentils, you could add more squash or keep the leftovers and do something else with them, I had mine for lunch the next day! It could also be very easily made vegan by not using the butter!

Roasted butternut squash with spicy lentils

Ingredients

Olive oil

A little butter

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

2 cloves of garlic, crushed through a press

1 large onion, diced

1 ½ tablespoons of curry powder (mild, hot, whatever you like) or garam masala

1 litre of vegetable stock

1 ½ cups of dried red split lentils, rinsed and drained

1 can of chopped tomatoes

1 large butternut squash

Method

Heat the oven to 180C (I’ve got a fan oven).

Peel and quarter the butternut squash.

Place in a baking dish and drizzle over a little olive oil.

Dot a little butter on the squash pieces and season with salt and pepper.

Roast in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour or until the squash is tender and has turned brown in places.

Whilst the squash is in the oven add a little olive oil to a pan and add the onion.

Sauté the onion for a few minutes over a medium heat and add the garlic.

Cook for a few minutes more and add the curry powder, stir to combine and add half of the vegetable stock.

Add the lentils, stir and cover.

Keep checking to make sure the lentils haven’t taken on all of the stock, top up with some of the left over stock if needed.

When the lentils are almost cooked add the chopped tomatoes and stir to combine it all.

Your squash should be done by now! You did keep checking on it didn’t you?

Transfer the squash to some bowls and spoon over the lovely hot spicy lentil mix.

Enjoy!

Cannellini bean, artichoke and goat’s cheese salad recipe

I suppose it should be cannellini bean, artichoke, goat’s cheese, red onion and tomato salad really but that was a bit too long!

Cannellini bean, artichoke and goat’s cheese salad

Ingredients – Serves 3

Olive oil

½ teaspoon of English mustard

A pinch of sugar

1 red onion, thinly sliced

200g cherry tomatoes, halved

150g chargrilled artichoke hearts cut into pieces

400g tin of cannellini beans. drained

Juice of half a lemon

Your favourite salad leaves (I used spinach, rocket and watercress)

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

150g of goat’s cheese

Method

In large bowl whisk together 3 tablespoons of olive oil, the lemon juice, the English mustard, a pinch of sugar and some salt and pepper.

Add the red onion to the dressing along with the cannellini beans, artichoke hearts, cherry tomatoes and give it all a stir.

Serve on top of a large handful of salad leaves with a generous helping of crumbled goat’s cheese.

 

Espresso, chocolate and hazelnut shortbread recipe

I don’t think you can really go wrong when you’re cooking with coffee, but when you add copious amounts of butter, chocolate and sugar it just gets even better!

Ingredients – Makes about 20

30ml of freshly made espresso (or a teaspoon of good instant coffee dissolved in 2 tablespoons of boiling water)

250g of unsalted butter at room temperature cut up into chunks

125g of icing sugar

A small amount of caster sugar to sprinkle on top of the cooked shortbread

½ teaspoon of vanilla extract (Use real extract not “vanilla flavouring”)

300g of plain flour

200g bar of cold whole hazelnut chocolate chopped into small pieces (or just get some chocolate and add some chopped hazelnuts)

Method

Get your espresso ready, whilst you’re at it why not just make yourself a nice coffee to drink anyway?

Place the butter and icing sugar in a mixing bowl and beat for 3 or 4 minutes on a medium speed until smooth.

Add the vanilla extract and espresso, turn the mixer speed down to low and add the flour.

As soon as the flour has been incorporated into the mixture turn off the mixer.

Add the chopped chocolate with hazelnuts and fold in with a spatula.

Resist the temptation to eat the mixture right now, although it is pretty tasty at this stage!

Line a half inch deep baking tray with cling film, you might want to use a little butter to stick the cling film to the tray.

Spoon the mixture onto the tray and either flatten with a spatula or a rolling pin.

Cover the tray of shortbread with more cling film and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Heat your oven to 160C (I’ve got a fan oven).

Remove the shortbread from the fridge, turn out onto a board and discard the cling film.

Cut up into 2 inch squares and place onto a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Bake in the centre of the oven for 18-20 minutes, you don’t want to brown the shortbread so keep an eye on it.

Remove from the oven and place on a rack, dust with a little caster sugar and allow to cool (really, they’re hot, give them at least a minute!).

Nom!

Butternut squash gratin recipe

I made this up so that I had something quick to reheat and eat the next day, the recipe might not be exactly how I made it! The breadcrumbs were a prize for coming joint first in a pumpkin carving competition at a Halloween party I went to 😀 I suppose you could even use pumpkin but the ones in the shops right now aren’t too tasty!

Ingredients

1KG butternut squash, peeled and diced into chunks

1 large onion, peeled and chopped

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced

Olive oil

1 free range egg

¼ tablespoon of salt

Freshly ground black pepper

5 tablespoons of mayonnaise

100g of vegetarian extra mature cheddar cheese

100g of vegetarian Parmesan style cheese

100g of breadcrumbs

Method

Preheat your oven to 180C (I’ve got a fan oven).

Place the butternut squash in a pan and cover with boiling water, place a lid on the pan and boil for around 10 minutes. You want the squash to still be a little firm.

Whilst the squash is cooking add a little olive oil to a pan and throw in the onion and garlic, sauté until soft.

Check the squash, if it’s done, drain it and set to one side.

Once your onion is done, take it off the heat and let it cool a little.

In a bowl, beat the egg and add the salt, a twist of black pepper and mayonnaise, half the cheddar, half the Parmesan, onions and most of the breadcrumbs (save a small amount to go on top at the end). Stir the mixture together and gently fold in the butternut squash without breaking it up.

Pour the mixture into an ovenproof dish, mix together the remaining cheeses and breadcrumbs and sprinkle on top.

Bake in the oven for around 1 hour, until the cheese on top has melted and is golden brown.

I made this in advance, only baked it for half an hour, removed it from the oven, allowed it to cool, covered it and put it in the fridge overnight. The next day I reheated it for 30 minutes at 180C.

Please Mars, just tell me!

“You can’t eat them.”

“What?”

“You can’t eat them.”

“Why the fuck not, they’re only M&M’s.”

“They’re not suitable for vegetarians.”

“Oh yeah, peanut M&M’s, chocolate, peanuts, horse lips, says it right there on the ingredients list.”

The conversation didn’t quite go like that but as it turns out peanut M&M’s aren’t suitable for vegetarians, possibly to do with animal rennet used in the production of the whey…

So I thought, what else can’t I eat, sometimes it’s confusing and annoying having to read through all of the ingredients and make a choice. What if there’s nothing obvious in the ingredients that would point to it not being suitable for vegetarians? So I’ve found myself more and more just avoiding anything that doesn’t say it’s suitable.

I had a look on the Mars Nutrition website, it helpfully lists nutritional information and the ingredients of products, but nothing about suitability for vegetarians.

“Contact Us“, yes please! So I did.

Hi, do you have an up to date list of your confectionery products that are NOT suitable for vegetarians?

It would be very helpful if you also labelled your products that weren’t suitable for vegetarians.

Cheers

Rich

A week or so went by and then today I got a reply from the very helpful Paula Ricketts who works on the Consumer Care Team at Mars…

Dear Richard

Thank you for contacting us about a list of products that are not suitable for vegetarians.

Unfortunately, we’re not currently able to confirm the suitability of individual products or provide you with a list.

Once again, thank you for contacting Mars.

Yours sincerely

Paula Ricketts
Consumer Care Team
0845 045 0042

So, I’m sat open mouthed, do they not know, is it a closely guarded secret? Tap, tap, tap I composed my reply…

Thank you Paula, for your in depth and expedient reply.

I am however a little confused with your reply, do you not know which products are suitable for vegetarians or do you just not want to tell me?

I look forward to your reply!

Kind regards,
Rich

So, only time will tell if Mars will admit to not knowing, not wanting to tell me or just not being bothered!

Incidentally, Cadbury have a very helpful website which lists everything you need to know about their products, if they’re vegetarian, vegan, kosher, etc. Have a look!

http://nutrition.cadbury.co.uk

UPDATE – 2/11/11

I got another reply from Mars…

At Mars, we’re always trying to provide our consumers with the biggest choice possible of chocolate products. We’re making great progress in making sure our products are suitable for vegetarians where possible.

Unfortunately, we’re not currently able to confirm the suitability of individual products or provide you with a list, but most of products are suitable and have ‘Suitable for vegetarians’ on the back of the pack. This labelling ensures that these products are in line with the FSA’s guidance on vegetarian labelling.

As always, our advice would be to make sure you check the packaging so you can guarantee the suitability for your diet. If the product does NOT say ‘Suitable for vegetarians’, we would suggest that you avoid it.

I can only guess that sometimes they have to make changes to the way they manufacture their products. Sometimes they can do it without using ingredients dirrived from animals, sometimes they can’t and they have to change the label based on this.

It’s a shame that the FSA doesn’t issue very useful guidelines on this, wouldn’t it be easier for everything to just state the suitability either way instead of the consumer having to guess or go without because there just isn’t a simple label. I noticed that on the label for some Divine chocolate I was looking at it didn’t say it was suitable for vegeterians but later when I checked on their website it said it was, but they missed the sale.