Tag archives: cheese

Borscht – Beetroot soup with feta recipe

A friend gave me some home grown beetroot so I decided to make a bit of Borscht, or beetroot soup!

Ingredients – Makes enough for 3-4

600g (3-4 large beets), peeled and grated coarsely

500g (around 5-6) of ripe tomatoes, halved (I suppose if you’re really lazy you could use a tin of chopped tomatoes)

2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped

1 medium onion, peeled and chopped

A bit of olive oil

500ml of vegetable stock (I used 2 ‘Knorr Stock Pots’)

Freshly ground black pepper

Some feta cheese

Method

Place the halved tomatoes in an oven dish, pour a little olive oil over the top of them and throw on the chopped garlic.

Place in the oven at 190C (I’ve got a fan oven) until they’re soft, it took me about 30 minutes.

Place the tomatoes in a sieve and rub through into a bowl to remove the skins and pips.

Put a little more oil in a pan and sweat the onion with a twist of black pepper.

Add the stock and beetroot, give it all a stir and bring to the boil for about 10 minutes or until the beetroot is tender.

Stir in the tomato purée.

Using either a stick blender or a normal blender process the soup until completely smooth. If you’ve got white walls take care, it’s easy to spray the soup all over if you’re using a stick blender!

Transfer the soup to warmed bowls and crumble a little of the feta cheese on top.

Serve with crusty bread!

You might also want to…

  • Add a shot of vodka
  • Chill in the fridge and serve cold

Butternut Squash and Spinach Cannelloni Recipe

I’ve neglected the food part of the blog for a while so I thought I’d write this down, I had a butternut squash to use and came up with this!

Ingredients – Makes 6

A 1KG butternut squash, peeled and diced into 1-2cm cubes

A little olive oil

Freshly ground black pepper

1 onion, peeled and diced

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed

A sprinkle of dried sage

200ml of vegetable stock

175ml white wine

150g of spinach

30g of toasted pine nuts

125g of crumbled vegetarian blue cheese

50g of feshly grated vegetarian Parmesan cheese

1litre of passata

6 sheets of fresh lasagne

Method

Pour a little olive oil into a large pan and add the diced onion, sauté for 5 minutes or until soft.

Add the peeled & diced butternut squash and garlic to the pan, give it a good stir.

Add the herbs, vegetable stock and wine, you may as well pour yourself another glass whilst you’re at it.

Season with freshly ground black pepper, stir, cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until the squash is just soft.

If there’s any liquid left in the pan, drain it off then lightly mash the squash with the back of a spoon.

Add the spinach, crumbled blue cheese, half the parmesan and half of the pine nuts. Stir the mix and cover until the spinach has milted.

Lay out the lasagne sheets and place a hearty spoonful of the mix on each one, roll up and place in a greased baking dish.

Pour the passata over the cannelloni until they are almost covered and sprinkle with the remaining parmesan and pine nuts.

Bake in the oven at 200C for 20-30 minutes or until the pasta is tender.

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.

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 😛