Tag Archives: savoury

Bean and Pear Pie

Ingredients

  • Filo pastry
  • Beans – mixture of butter beans, cannellini beans, lentils, black turtle beans, anything you can find
  • 2-3 pears, chopped
  • Aubergine, chopped
  • Onion, chopped
  • Cream cheese
  • Milk
  • Sesame seeds
  • Spices and herbs (I used mint and ground coriander, but whatever you fancy is fine)
  • Vegetable stock cube

Method

Preheat the oven to about 180°C.

Mix vegetables and cheese in a pan, heat gently and add the stock cube and a splash of milk. Mix together to make a creamy sauce. Once the sauce is made you can turn the heat up a bit (but not too much) until it starts to bubble.

Once the vegetables are slightly sloftened, pour into a casserole dish.

Separate the filo sheets. Hold one by a corner, and with the sheet on the work surface, start turning the pastry so that it twists into a loose rose shape. Put on top of the mixture in the casserole dish. Repeat for all of the sheets of filo until the whole mixture is covered in pastry.

Sprinkle over the seeds.

Cook for about 20 minutes or until the pastry is nicely browned. (Keep an eye on it though!)

Thursday Night Pasta

Yummy comfort food – and even better, it’s super quick!

Ingredients

  • Pasta, cooked
  • tin of chopped tomatoes
  • mozzarella ball
  • 70g smoked cheese
  • herbs to taste
  • smoked paprika
  • ground chillies
  • coarsely ground black pepper

Method

Once the pasta is cooked and drained, return to the pan, roughly chop the cheese and add to the pasta, reheat and add the tomatoes and the rest of the ingredients except for the black pepper.

Heat through. When piping hot, share between plates and sprinkle with black pepper, and a some fresh herbs if you’re feeling fancy.

Peanut Hotpot with Couscous

Ingredients

  • Aubergine
  • sweetcorn
  • onion
  • pepper, chopped
  • allspice
  • peanut butter
  • chilli powder
  • 2 vegetable stock cubes
  • water
  • tinned chopped tomatoes
  • tomato purée
  • carrots
  • herbs to your taste
  • couscous

Method

Chop the vegetables and cook together with some boiling water and the stock cubes in a large pan until slightly softened.

Add the tomato purée and tinned tomatoes along with the peanut butter, herbs and spices. Gently simmer.

Add boiling water sparingly to the coucous and then gently fry, this makes the coucous light and fluffy and not stodgy and heavy.

Serve together with maybe some fresh bread.

Banana Curry

Ingredients

  • Small aubergine, chopped
  • 1 large onion, peeled and chopped
  • Can of coconut milk
  • 1 dessert apple, chopped
  • 4 bananas, sliced
  • 100-200g cashew nuts
  • Turmeric
  • Cumin
  • Dried chillies
  • Pint of vegetable stock
  • A little oil for frying

Method

Lightly fry the onions and cashew nuts. When the nuts are browned, add the remainder of the ingredients, and the spices to taste.

This is a remarkably quick meal to make, once you’ve chopped the vegetables. If your curry is too runny, you can thicken it with flour (any type will do).

Serve with rice and/or flatbread.

Baked Squash

This is a tasty little side dish and has a variety of textures; it looks good, and tastes expensive.

Ingredients

  • 1 butternut squash, in coarse chunks
  • 1tbsp peanut butter
  • 2tbsp honey
  • 1tbsp olive oil or groundnut oil, or similar
  • Liberal scattering of seeds (I use a combination of poppy, sunflower and pumpkin seeds)
  • Spices (cumin, ground coriander, chilli powder or flakes)

Method

Mix them all together in a casserole dish, and bake for about 40 mins or until tender. Every 10-15 minutes, check it’s doing OK, and give it a stir round to coat the squash with the honey, oil and peanut butter.

Serve it with pretty much anything.

Cheesy Peas

This is a nice snack if you fancy something a bit yummy but don’t want to get fat. This is the recipe for a whole batch (more efficient use of oven) but if you’re cooking something at the same time, you might like to just do a few peas, in which case just swap the pack of dried peas for a tin of chickpeas, and don’t soak overnight (obviously).

Ingredients

  • 1 pack of dried chickpeas, soaked in cold water over night.
  • Conservative splash of oil (olive, groundnut, vegetable or sunflower, whatever tickles your fancy).
  • 100g-ish of grated cheese, doesn’t really matter what sort as long as it melts well; Cheddar is good, Halloumi won’t work.
  • Spices (I use a combination of turmeric, smoked paprika and hot chilli powder).

Method

Drain the chickpeas and tip into a large bowl. Add the ingredients to taste, and then spread out in a shallow casserole dish or on a baking tray.

Cook at about 160°C for ages – it depends how crispy you like them.

They’re yummy as an accompaniment to a meal or as a snack. Fabulous on car journeys.

Pear and Walnut Pasta

Serves 2 hungry people. It’s also nice as a side dish if you have more people coming round. It can probably be cooked from start to finish in about 15 minutes.

Ingredients

  • 2 pears, chopped
  • A handful of chopped walnuts
  • 1 tub of low fat cream cheese
  • milk
  • black pepper
  • herbs to your taste (fresh rosemary is nice)
  • pasta
  • olive oil
  • courgette, chopped
  • other chopped  vegetables if you desire

Method

Cook the pasta. Add the rest of the ingredients (apart from the milk) to a large pan over a medium heat. Add splashes of milk and mix well so that it combines with the cheese to make a lovely creamy sauce. When the sauce is ready and the pasta is ready, combine and serve. You can sprinkle some black pepper and herbs on the top if you wish.

Gnocchi Bianchi

Serves 2 quite hungry people or 3 normal people. It’s yummy, filling, and if you do it right, it tastes rather posh.

Ingredients

  • Gnocchi (either homemade which is best, or a pack from the shop which is still nice)
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 courgette, chopped
  • Broccoli, in florets
  • Herbs, fresh is best, dried is OK. I used thyme and mint
  • Olives
  • Low fat cream cheese or ricotta
  • Milk
  • Ground black pepper

Method

First make the cheese sauce. Put the cheese in a pan and add a splash of milk; heat gradually and stir constantly. Keep adding the milk until you have a smooth sauce.

Boil the kettle for the gnocchi.

Add the water to a large pan and bring to a rolling boil.

Add the vegetables and olives. to the cheese sauce.  Cook until the vegetables are starting to soften. At this point, when the water is boiling well, add the gnocchi to the large pan.

When the gnocchi begins to rise to the top, remove from the heat and drain. Divide between plates.

Ladle the vegetables in cheese sauce over the top.

Sprinkle the pepper over the top.

Enjoy.

Ginger Noodles

Serves 2

Ingredients

  • Courgette
  • Carrot
  • Red onion
  • Broccoli
  • Ginger, grated
  • Bamboo shoots
  • Soy sauce
  • 1tbsp sugar
  • Oil (nut or vegetable)
  • Fine egg noodles

Method

Chop all the vegetables. Heat the oil in a pan and add the carrots, soy sauce and sugar. When the carrot has started to soften, add the rest of the vegetables (except the bamboo shoots) and the ginger. Add more soy sauce if necessary.

When the vegetables are almost cooked (they need to have a slight crunch, yet still be tender), cook the noodles in boiling water for about a minute. Drain and serve with the vegetables.