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!

(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.

Cheese and onion pie recipe

Quick and easy cheese and onion pie, it can be eaten hot or cold! Day 4 and 5 of Veggie August, we had it with Sesame potatoes!

Ingredients

1 onion, peeled and chopped

500g of your favourite mature cheese, grated

1 large free range egg

2 x 450g bags of shortcrust pastry mix

Method

In a large bowl combine the grated cheese, the egg and the onion.

Make up the shortcrust pastry as instructed and roll out into two sheets large enough to cover the base of a dish and cover the pie.

Place a layer of pastry on the base of the dish, add the cheese, egg and onion mix and top with the other sheet of pastry.

With the tines of a fork press the edges of the pastry down, trim the edges with a knife and cut a hole in the middle of the top of the pastry.

Bake in an oven at 180C until the pastry is golden brown.

Lentil Shepherd’s Pie with Sweet Potato Mash recipe

Blatantly stolen from Becka Eats this is the first meal we had in Veggie August. The lentils give it a great texture and the sweet potato mash with nutmeg tastes amazing!

Ingredients – Makes enough 4 with leftovers for lunch.

Olive oil

Freshly ground black pepper

Half a cup of Puy lentils (I could only find Lentille Verte)

Half a cup of green lentils

2 bay leaves

2 onions, peeled and chopped

3 cloves of garlic, crushed (Just like your hopes and dreams)

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

3 tablespoons of tomato purée

1 tablespoon of dried oregano

3 large carrots, peeled and diced

1 vegetarian stock cube (I used a Knorr Stock Pot)

250ml of red wine (Why not drink the rest of the bottle?)

3-4 large sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into equal sized chunks

A splash of milk

A wedge of butter

Freshly grated nutmeg

Method

Wash the lentils, add them to a pan with the bay leaves. Cover with water and and bring to the boil. All in all they probably want around half an hour, you don’t want them to turn to mush so keep an eye on them.

Meanwhile put your sweet potatoes in a pan, cover with water and get them onto boil, they probably want 20-30 minutes.

After you’ve got that sorted, add a little olive oil to a big pan and add the onion, carrots and garlic. Over a medium heat sauté them for about 10 minutes but don’t let them brown. Add the tomatoes, tomato purée, wine, pepper, oregano and stock pot. Give it all a good stir and cook for another 10-15 minutes until it’s thickened.

Now would be a good point to pre-heat your oven on to finish off the dish, 200C should be enough.

Around now the lentils should be done, drain them and add them to your tomato sauce. Give it all another good stir and keep warm on a low heat.

Once the sweet potato is cooked drain the water from it, add a good wedge of butter, a splash of milk and half a grated nutmeg. Give it a good mash and check the seasoning.

Spoon the tomato lentil sauce into a baking dish and top with the sweet potato mash, rough it up with the tines of a fork and put it in the oven for 10 or 15 minutes until the mash starts to brown.

Shovel a generous helping into a bowl and enjoy!