Avocado salsa with paprika cracker cups

eye spy ...

Serves for 6

Ingredients:

·         4 medium fresh tomatoes

·         ½ medium green pepper

·         ½ medium yellow pepper

·         ½ medium orange pepper

·         2 medium ready to eat avocados

·         2 limes to serve with

·         1 red onion

·         1 garlic clove

·         Olive oil

·         1 whole lime zest

·         Salt

·         Big hand full of fresh coriander

·         6 paprika cracker cups (see previous post)

 

Method:

Wash and cut the tomatoes, sweet peppers in the same size. Thinly slice the onion in a way to obtain half circles.

Halve the avocado, remove the stone, score and bathe in lime juice. Chop the coriander.

In a big bowl, combine, the tomatoes, peppers, red onion, crush the garlic on top, add the lime zest, coriander & salt toss.

Serve the avocado in the cracker cups with the salsa on the side. Drizzle with oil and leave the guest to squeeze the lime on their own plate…

Enjoy!

Don’t forget to let me know what you think! x

Encased Stuffed aubergine

All Stuffed

Serves 4

 

Ingredients:

• 
  1 medium aubergine (about 300g)
• 25g potatoes flakes or 1 tablespoon plain flour
• 40g minced dry soya
• 50g fresh parsley
• 1 small red onion
• 50g roast or sundried tomatoes from the jar or fresh tomatoes
• 1 ready rolled puff pastry
• 20g raw sunflower seeds
• 1 table spoon paprika
• Salt & white pepper
• 20ml room temperature water.
• 1 Lemon
• Olive oil

Preheat the oven at 180C

Prep:

Cut the aubergine in half, remove some of the flesh leaving about 1cm of flesh all around the skin. To prevent the inside of the aubergine darkening, rub a bit of lemon juice in it and set it aside.

Cut in small pieces the flesh of the aubergine and place in a bowl.

Chop the parsley, onion and seeds. Keep them in separate bowls. Grate the lemon and set aside.

Rehydrate the soya mince by pouring on it 200ml of salted boiling water. Leave it aside for 10 minutes then, sieve & squeeze out the salted water. Set aside.

Method:

In a bowl, mix the cut aubergine flesh, potatoes flakes, half of the parsley, sunflower seeds, paprika, sundried tomatoes, salt and white pepper, lemon zest, mix well.

If you have chosen to use fresh tomatoes, the juice from the later will help to bind the stuffing. But since we are using roast tomatoes, it is the reason water is need to combine. The stuffing should be able to hold together.

Now that the mix is ready, stuff both halves of the aubergine and

stick them together then, drizzle about a table spoon of olive oil on the stuffed aubergine, then wrap in the pastry.

Place the aubergine on a buttered baking tray, score and pierce the sides of the pastry to allow stream to get out while it is cooking. Place in the oven at 180C for 1 hour.

Once the aubergine is ready, leave to rest for 10 minutes, then serve,

In the meantime stir fry the mince to accompany the dish:

Heat 2 table spoons of olive oil, add the onion and stir for 1 minute on high heat. We are not looking for the onion to brown here we need its flavour and the crunch.

After 1 minutes, add the mince soya and continually stir until the remaining water from the rehydration has evaporated. This should take 3-5 minutes.  Leave the mince to crisp a little bit add pepper and adjust the seasoning. Stir again and then add the other half of parsley. Stir for 2 minutes. That is ready. The mince should

take in all 10 minutes to get ready and can be done while the aubergine is resting.

Though the aubergine may still be moist, I recommend to serve this dish with some kind of sauce or dip. Mine here is served with a carrot sauce.

I will be posting the recipe of the carrot sauce here soon.

Thank you for reading and don’t forget to tell me what you think!

 

Et voila!

Bon Appétit!

Nash

Spaghetti plant carbonara with avocado cream

Shaz pic of the monster - Also called spaghetti squash

Before my friend Shaz mention this the Spaghetti plantvegetable, I have never heard of the thing. Her dad grew this in the allotment and she gave me half of the monster so I can create something original. I came up with a vegan version of carbonara.

 

This dish was created completely off hand and for the first time as are most dishes on this blog.

Ingredient for 3:

200g Spaghetti plant (cooked & deseeded)
2 ripe small avocados
100 red cabbage
50g of whole dried Shiitake mushrooms
1 medium onion
100 ml of rice milk
5 garlic cloves
Sunflower oil
1 stock cube

 Prep:

1 - Cut the spaghetti plant in big wedges so they can fit in a single pot. Place the wedges in the pot face up with just enough water to produce steam. Cover the pot and steam for 20 minutes. When this vegetable is cooked it actually become stringy like very thin spaghettis.

Ready avocado cream

2 - Remove the veges from the stove and let cool down. Once cooled. Take it apart and remove the pips then, separate the strings and rinse out all the starch. Squeeze out the water and set aside.

3 - Now peel the avocadoes, chop a put in a mixer. Add the rice milk and the peeled garlic cloves. Blend and set aside.

4 - As for the Shiitake mushrooms, remove them from the package and place in a bowl with the stock cube. Pour over it about 150ml of boiling water. Leave to hydrate for about 30 minutes, then remove from the water and roughly cut them in 3 or 4 pieces each. Do not throw away the water as it will be used in the cooking later.

5 - Take about 10 leaves of red cabbage and slice them finely. Set aside do the same for the onion.

Method:
In a hot wok, heat 4 table spoons of sunflower oil, throw in the finely slices onion and brown for about 2 minutes. Drop in the mushrooms with a pinch of salt continue to stir, then add the chopped cabbage and the stock. Cover and let simmer for 5 minutes.

By now the mushrooms and cabbage should be well flavoured. Now, add the “spaghetti” and mix well adding black pepper and adjust the salt. Add the avocado cream and mix well making sure that the cream is well incorporated.

Cover the pot, and turn the heat down. Keep an eye on it and stir from time to time to allow the liquid from the cream to dry out a bit. By now, the cream should be sticking to the other vegetable in the pot. 

After the avocado cream is incorporated, the pot should only remain on the fire for about 5 minutes as everything goes so quick.

It is ready.

Serving suggestion

Note: This dish tasted really good! Using avocado as cream really came up in a dream (I know crazy right?), but, I had never heard of it before. I will definitely use avocado in other dishes that call for cream in the future. The texture is really original and the shiitake mushroom gave the chewiness needed in such dish. I am really surprise that the spaghetti plant despite the cooking and the manipulation didn’t disintegrate… Wow. Two unknown in ingredients, one great dish!

Nutty spinach with wedges

Alt name: Mouth-watering Hazelnut & Almonds spinach with potatoes wedges

Serving suggestion

Lunch for 1

Ingredients:
200 grs whole spinach leaves
½ a medium red onion - roughly cut
2 garlic cloves - minced
Salt & Pepper
8 pieces of sundried tomatoes - finely chopped
25grs dairy free butter
3 whole raw hazelnuts and 3 whole raw almonds – finely chopped

Method:

In a deep pan, melt the butter and brown the onion and garlic for 2 minutes.

Add in the chopped sundried tomatoes and the chopped nuts stir until brown for 3 minutes on medium heat.

Now add the spinach with salt and white pepper. Mix-stir for about 3 minutes until the spinach is completely wilted.

Remove from heat and cover.

Now, time to cook your potato wedges. Just follow the instructions on the package. It shouldn’t take you more than 5 minutes to get your chips or wedges ready once the chip oil or oven is ready.

The spinach can be eaten on their own. This dish tastes as good as it looks and is full of moisture.

this tastes soooo good!

Enjoy!

Roasted butternut squash, spinach & a tahini sauce plus potato rosti

Make it crispy!

Ingredients for 2:

All the ingredients for the dish

·         1 onion

·         1 potato

·         ½ of a small butternut squash

·         1 red sweet pepper

·         50ml of rapeseed oil

·         2 tablespoons of tahini paste (sesame seeds paste)

·         2 tablespoons of mild sugar free mustard

·         8 cubes of frozen spinach leaves defrosted.

·         Salt & pepper

·         3 Brazil nuts

·         3 garlic cloves

 

METHOD:

Roast the butternut squash:
Cut the butternut squash into quarters (with or without the skin) and place in an oven proof dish. Season the butternut with salt, black pepper and a splash of oil. Roast in the oven for 40 minutes at 200C. Once cooked and browned, switch off the oven and leave the dish inside to keep warm.



Frying the rostis

For the potato rostis:  While the squash is in the oven, peel and grate the potato then squeeze the water out of it.  Season with salt and coarse black pepper (there is no need to shape the rostis’).  Heat a non-stick pan and add a dash of rapeseed oil. Deposit a hand full of the grated potato mixture in the pan then flatten with a spatula. Cook each side of the rosti for 2 minutes until golden brown. Then remove and place on a kitchen towel. Repeat until all the rostis’ are done.

For the Spinach: If using frozen spinach cubes, defrost them and squeeze out the water. Chop 1 half of the onion and the 3 garlic cloves, fry them with the 3 finely chopped Brazil nuts until they are brown. Once this is done, add the spinach. Stir with a sponged spatula whilst separating the leaves. Add a bit of salt and pepper then stir again, and add 4 tablespoons of water. Cover and simmer for 2 minutes. That is done

For the sauce: Chop the other half of onion into really fine pieces. Heat 2 tablespoons of rapeseed oil in a pan, brown the onions, don’t let them burn. Now add the tahini paste and the mustard. Stir for 2 minutes then add a glass of water and leave to simmer gently for 5 minutes uncovered. Stir from time to time so it doesn’t stick. The sauce is ready.

Serving suggestion

Now all you need to do is serve before it gets cold. The dish is best served with the sauce on the side.

 Voila!

Soysauce free chinese soup

 
Ingredients for 2:
·         1 green and 1 red sweet pepper  - deseeded and cut length ways
·         1 medium sized onion  - half to be finely chopped and the other half cut as other vegetables
·         10 baby corn – cut into halves
·         Half a leek  - cut length ways
·         2 sticks of celery -  cut length ways
·         A handful of French green beans
·         A handful of mange tout -
·         1 chilli pepper
·         1 vegetable stock cube - crushed
·         5  garlic cloves – each cut length ways

METHOD
1.       Since we are not using soy sauce due to its sugar content, to create the dark colour for the soup, start by frying the chopped onion with the crushed vegetable stock cube in 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Stir until we obtain a dark mixture.
2.       Add 500ml of water to this and mix well until the mass is dissolved in the pot.
3.       Add all the baby corns as they are the hardest to cook amongst the vegetables. Leave it the pot to simmer for 5 minutes.
4.       Add the rest of the vegetables, chilli, salt and pepper. Cover and leave to boil for another 5 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning.
5.       If the vegetable are still too crunchy for you, cook for a few minutes longer.
6.       The dish should be ready to serve. This dish is best served immediately after cooking or the vegetables will become limp in the heat…

The preparation takes longer than the actual cooking. However it can all be done under 30 minutes.

Lentils, Quinoa and soya chunks salad



Salad without parsley

Salad ingredients

  Ingredients:

• 20 or more soya chunks
• 1 small onion few
• 3 twigs of fresh thyme
• 1 medium tomato
• 1 lemon
• 1 glass of precooked quinoa
• 1 glass of precooked lentils
• A small bunch of flat parsley (optional)
• Olive oil  3 spoons
• Salt

Method:

Soak the soya chunks in a bowl with salt and boiling water. Make sure there is enough water to cover the chunks. Cover the bowl and leave the chunks to rehydrate for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes squeeze out the water and cut the chunks in smaller pieces… 2 to 3 pieces per chunk perhaps?

Cut the onion and fry into 2 spoons of olive oil with the twigs of thyme. Fry for 2 minutes and then add the cut soya chunks with one spoon of water. Simmer fry until the water dries and the chunk start browning and become crispy. The purpose of this is so that the soya chunks absorb the flavours from the onion and thyme.

Remove the chunks from the pan and set aside.

Now cut the tomato in small pieces, grate the lemon to obtain zest and squeeze the juice.

In a salad bowl, pour your lentils, the quinoa, the fried onion and soya chunks, the tomatoes, lemon zest and juice, a pinch of salt and the chopped parsley. Drizzle the last spoonful of olive oil. Mix well and leave in the fridge to cool.

This dish is best served on its own very cold. Do prepare some additional lemon quarters for serving is needed.

Serving suggestion wit parsley

This would be great for brunch and for the pack lunch.

Enjoy

Stuffed onion (“Olivier") with parsnips chips

So, my friend came to work the other day, pulls out this massive onion from her bag and say… look! I brought this for you!

I took the onion and It was the most perfect onion I have ever seen; the colour, the shape… I proceeded to make and exposé to my colleagues about the onion for the rest of the week. I displayed it on my desk and everyone passing by asked me why I had this onion on my desk… we had by now named it “Olivier”. Unless you can see beyond the fact that it was an onion, you’d know why “Olivier” was on my desk. I thought about exhibiting it in the London National gallery but the urge to cook something special with it was much stronger! So here it is:

Stuffed “Olivier” with parsnips chips and tahini sauce.

Ingredients:

Olive oil

“Olivier” the onion

Fresh parsley

 5 Brazil nuts

1 table spoon of flour

3 garlic cloves

1 carrot

10 soya meat balls

3 parsnips

1 vegetable stock cube.

1 table spoon of Tahini and mustard paste.

Ready to be stuffed!

Start by hollowing the onion leaving at least 3 layers for the shell.  In a hot frying pan with olive oil, brown the extremities of the onion shell and leave aside.

Prepare the stuffing:

Boil some water and pour over the soya meat balls with a pinch of salt. Leave to soften for 10 minutes, then squeeze out the water and cut finely.

The soya meat is a bit like a sponge and need a lot of seasoning. So, after cutting it finely, fry it for 3 minutes in Olive oil and chopped onion. Set aside.

Roast and grate the brazil nuts, peel and grate the carrot, finely chop the parsley, chop onion and garlic.

Now in a hollow dish mix all the above with the flour and 3 table spoons of water, a bit of salt and pepper, half a crushed vegetable stock cube and the fired soya meat.

Olivier halves ready for the oven

Scoop the mélange into the onions halves, put them in an oven dish and drizzle olive oil on the top. Cover the dish with aluminium and put in the oven at 175C for 1hr.

The aluminium will help produce the steam needed in to cook through the mince. Remove the aluminium after 30 minutes and leave the onion to finish cooking and browning for the other 30 minutes.

For the tahini sauce.

In a frying pan, add a table spoon of olive oil, add a hand full of onion and brown. Add the tahini paste and mustard paste with half a glass of water. Leave to cook for about 5 the time for the water to dry and you can no longer smell the mustard on it own or taste the bitterness of the tahini.

For the parsnip:

Peel, cut and fry like regular potatoes chips… (simples!)

All is ready to serve.

Here it is... Stuffed "Olivier with parsnips chips & Tahini sauce". Enjoy!