RECIPE TIME.... Sunday dinner for veggies!

My household may consist of a bunch a vegetarians, but I don't mind saying, we do love a family Sunday dinner as much as anyone.  With all the usual trimmings. Crispy roast potatoes with rosemary, creamy mash (I like to mix it up with spinach, but recently I've taken to making carrot and potato mash since my teen daughter decided she doesn't like cooked carrots anymore), peas (with a little garden mint) and a home made onion gravy.  

This recipe evolved yesterday as I was making a nut roast.  I wanted to make the main feature protein rich and nutritious, as I've been feeling a bit neglectful of my family's diet (and probably my own).  Nut roasts can often be a little dry, so I've tried to counter that with plenty of succulent vegetables, and replacing half the amount of nuts with chestnut mushrooms, and half of the breadcrumbs with quinoa.  When I tasted the filling, it felt like it needed something sharp to cut through the sweetness of the veg and the earthiness of the nuts and mushrooms.  Hence the Cheshire cheese, but you could use any tangy cheese such as feta or perhaps stilton. Don't be put off by the savoy wrapping.  I simply removed the thick part of the lower stem, and blanched it in the potato water.  Be generous with the overlapping layers to ensure it holds together. 

CASHEW & QUINOA VEGGIE ROAST

Ingredients - serves 6

150g cashews, lightly toasted

100g quinoa (or couscous)

1 red onion, diced, pref 1/2 cm pieces

1/2 courgette, diced 

1 carrot, diced

1 leek, finely sliced

5 chestnut mushrooms, diced

1 thick slice of brown/seeded bread

1 free range egg (or use silken tofu if vegan)

120g Cheshire cheese (or feta, Lancs, blue etc)

Savoy cabbage, 6 outer leaves, trim thick stalk end

Oil or butter for frying & greasing

Salt & white pepper for seasoning

1 tbsp fresh or 1/2 tsp dried herbs, I used fresh thyme & marjoram

To prepare:

1. Grease a loaf tin with butter or oil.  Heat oven to 190 degrees.
2. Add onion, courgette, carrot, leek & mushrooms to pan with a little oil or butter, and cook for 8-10 mins until vegetables are soft.
3. Simmer quinoa for 4-5 mins in veg stock (or hot water with a smidge of marmite).
4. Toast cashews in a pan, then blitz in food processor into small pieces.  Avoid blitzing into a powder or you will lose the texture.

5. Blitz bread into crumbs.
6. Blanche cabbage leaves in hot water for 2 mins and set aside.
7. Mix the vegetables, nuts, breadcrumbs and egg (or tofu if using).  Add fresh or dried herbs and season to taste with salt and white pepper.
8. Line the loaf tin with the cabbage leaves, using five large leaves to cover bottom and saving one leaf to seal the top.
9. Half fill the loaf tin with mixture, firmly pushing down with back of spoon to ensure shape.

10. Crumble the cheese over the filling. Then add remaining filling on top, again pushing down to make a firm shape. If you're vegan, omit this layer and add squeeze of lemon to veg mixture.
11. Fold over edges of cabbage leaves to cover top of roast, and then layer final leaf over top and tuck into sides.
12. Cover loaf tin with foil and place on baking tray.
13. Bake in over for 15 mins, then turn over, foil side down on tray, and continue baking for another 10-15 mins.
14. Remove from oven, turn right way again and remove foil lid.  Turn onto chopping board and remove tin.

Hope you enjoy it!  Here's to family time :0)

A tasty recipe for quinoa... really? Try this Moroccan style vegetable claypot

Having a rare day off on Sunday, I was enjoying some sofa surfing and bad TV, when hunger drove me to inspect the half empty cupboards and fridge.  This is one of those recipes that comes from trying to make something out of only the things you already have.  Being slightly obsessed with spices, I have a well stocked dry store cupboard to be fair.  But the fridge was looking very lean indeed...

I had 2 aubergines and 1 yellow pepper leftover from a cooking class, an onion and loads of garlic.  There was also a very sad looking half cauliflower, which needed a good trim, half a jar of green olives, half a lemon and half a tube of tomato paste.  And the ubiquitous herbs from the garden....  

For those of you unfamiliar with quinoa, it's a kind of grain that originated in S America.  The Incas believed the crop was sacred, and hardly surprising given it kicks the nutritional backside of most other cereals and grains, containing essential amino acids as well as calcium and iron. 

The recipe looks like a lot of ingredients, but it is very much a 'chuck it in a pot' recipe.  Enjoy :) 

Moroccan style vegetable claypot with quinoa

1 or 2 white onions roughly chopped

4 cloves of garlic crushed

Olive oil for frying

1-2 aubergines, 1" pieces

1 yellow pepper, cut into strips

1/2 cauliflower, trimmed florets

300g frozen quorn pieces (optional, but adds nice texture & soaks up flavour; you could also use tofu mince or tofu pieces, or add more variety of vegetables)

1 can of chickpeas, washed

2 tbsp of tomato paste

2 tins of chopped tomatoes

2 bay leaves

Couple of sprigs of thyme

1 tbsp agave syrup

1/2 tsp saffron, steeped in hot water for 10 mins - then strain saffron water into pot

1 tsp sumac (optional)

1 tsp hot paprika or cayenne pepper

3 pints of veg stock

1-2 tsp cumin seeds, toasted

1/2 lemon, cut into thick slices & deseeded

1 cup of green olives, stoned

1/2 to 1 tsp salt (to taste)

200g quinoa, cooked for 10 mins in 1/2 pint veg stock, then leave to stand for 5 minutes (you could substitute with couscous or bulgar wheat also, soak in same way)

Handful of chopped marjoram (could substitute for coriander or parsley)

1. Prepare ingredients as above.

2. In a heavy bottomed deep pan (I use a creuset pot for this kind of food), soften onions in olive oil until translucent and then add garlic.  Cook for a further minute or two, then add aubergines, peppers and cauliflower (you could use any veg really such as carrots, sweet potato, courgettes). 

3.  Add all the remaining ingredients, except for the quinoa.  Ensure there is plenty of liquid in the pan, as this will be absorbed by the quinoa later.

4. Bring to simmer and cook on very low heat for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. 

5. Stir the ingredients well, then layer the soaked quinoa over the top.  Replace lid and leave to stand for 5 mins.  Sprinkle with some fresh chopped marjoram (or parsley or coriander) just before serving.

6. Serve with hot crusty bread and a green salad!