Tag archives: spinach

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.

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!

Butternut squash, new potato and spinach curry recipe

Turns out we had some butternut squash and new potatoes that needed using up so I grabbed some spinach and threw some other stuff in a pan. It turned out nice!

Ingredients – Makes enough for 3

1 tablespoon of good olive oil

1 organic butternut squash, peeled and diced

6 or so new potatoes, diced

1 onion, sliced

150g of organic spinach, roughly chopped

A tin of coconut milk, I used the “light” stuff

2-3 tablespoons of Madras curry paste

Method

The potatoes take a little bit of cooking so get a pan of water on the boil and add them to it. Parboil them for about 10 minutes.

Whilst the potatoes are boiling add the olive oil to a pan, add the onion and fry until soft, with any luck the potatoes will also be ready at this point.

Drain the potatoes and set aside.

Add the Madras paste to the onions and fry for a few minutes.

About now you might want to raid the freezer for some naan bread…

Add the coconut milk, give it all a good stir and add the potatoes and butternut squash. Give it about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Keep a lid on the pan so that it doesn’t get too thick.

When the potatoes are cooked and before the squash starts to fall apart add the chopped spinach, stir through until it’s wilted.

Serve in your favourite bowl!