Sweet Potato and black bean burritos

This was a delicious and very filling meal. It was very well received by the Very Tolerant Boyfriend and will definitely be made again.

We de-veganised ours with a scattering of cheese,  but this could easily be left out.

Take two sweet potatoes, peel and cut into bite sized pieces.  Shake with a tablespoon of oil and scatter over a pinch of chilli flakes.  Roast for 35 to 45 mins at 180C or until soft.

While the sweet potato is in the oven make the sauce.  Dice a red onion and soften in a little olive oil.  Add in 2.5 tsp of cumin and 1 tsp of paprika and a diced red pepper and cook until soft.  Add a tin of chopped tomatoes, a tin of black beans and a cup of sweetcorn.  Cook together until it has reduced to a thick sauce.

Take a wholemeal wrap and place pieces of the sweet potato down the centre.  Spoon the sauce over this and if you want sprinkle with a little sauce. Fold the edges in and roll into a burrito.

Caribbean Roasted Root Vegetable Soup

I've been really getting into the groove with the vegetable based/vegetarian/vegan diet thing.  The rules have been adapted so that I can still eat meat when we're eating out which I think pretty definitively proves that I couldn't ever become vegetarian full time.

This has been my favourite of the vegetable soups so far and I suspect will become a staple in our house.

2x sweet potatoes
3x carrots
3x tomatoes
2x red peppers
2x red onions
2x tbsp olive oil
1x tbspn grated ginger
1x tbspn smoked paprika
1x tsp cumin
1x tin light coconut milk
1x bay leaf
3/4 cup water
salt and pepper

Chopped coriander and a wedge of lime to garnish

Peel and chop the sweet potatoes and carrots into pieces.  Peel and quarter the red onions and deseed

and quarter the red peppers.  Toss in oil and roast in the oven for 35-45 minutes at 180C.  Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

Combine the rest of the  ingredients in a pan, add the cooled roasted vegetables and bring to the boil.  Simmer gently for 10 minutes and then let the flavours develop for 20 minutes. Blend together using a hand blender.

This will serve six.

In this as we had a really late breakfast so the soup has been packed up for lunch tomorrow and the rest has gone in the freezer for the next time I can't be bothered to cook.  Hopefully some delicious spicy soup should ease the pain of going back to work a little bit.

Friday night curry

Still sticking to the vegetarian/vegan challenge I cracked into the Friday night curry series with a dhal. This is a great store cupboard meal that's cheap and easy, which tastes just as great in the second day.  Which is just as well, as it's on the menu for lunch tomorrow (spoiler). I made enough for six and served it with wholemeal chapattis.

2 x red onions (diced (
6x tomatoes
400g red lentils
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp nigella seeds
2 cloves of garlic (minced)
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp dried chilli flakes
1 tsp ginger powder
1 tsp cinnamon
200g spinach
20g coriander

Soak the lentils while you start in the rest of the curry.

Fry of the onion in the heated oil with a large punch of salt until browned then add the minced garlic and cook until softened.  Add all the spices and cook until fragrant.  I needed to add some water at this point to stop it sticking.

Add the chopped tomatoes and cook until it has reduced to a thick sauce.  Drain and rinse the lentils and stir then into the tomato/spice mixture.  Add enough water to cover the lentils,  put the lid on and simmer until the lentils are tender.  Stir through most of the chopped coriander and then add the spinach and replace the lid until the spinach has wilted. Stir through the wilted spinach and serve with a further sprinkling of fresh coriander.

Spicy slow cooker cashews. Not cake.

These are about as brilliant as a tasty non cake snack gets.  They're really easy to make and you only need to eat about three of them. You just throw everything into the slow cooker, stir really well so all the nuts are coated and then leave for about an hour and a half.

The result are beautifully toasted spicy cashew nuts.

3 cups of raw cashews
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp sea salt

January. Vegetables and soup

After the excesses of December and Christmas the desire to cram all the vegetables in my mouth has got too much.  So the Very Tolerant Boyfriend and I have decided to have a largely vegetarian/vegan January.

Hopefully this will challenge me to get out of my cooking rut as well as lose the extra Christmas poundage. We started off with a sweet potato and red pepper spicy soup.

1lb sweet potatoes
2x red peppers
1x red onions
Tbsp olive oil
Clove garlic minced
Pinch dried chilli flakes
500 mls veg stock
Paprika and sour cream to garnish

Peel and dice the potatoes before roasting for 30 mins or until soft.
Roughly chop the onions, peppers and sweat with the garlic and chilli flakes in a little oil until soft. Add the roasted potatoes and stock. Bring to the boil and then blend with a hand blender.  Blend until smooth. Feel free to add more water if the consistency is too thick.

Serve with a sprinkling of paprika and and splash of sour cream. No sour cream for the vegans. 

Pecan Pie

As I might have mentioned the Very Tolerant Boyfriend and I had an American themed dinner party a few weeks ago.  Things have been a bit hectic since then, so I’ve only just got round to writing up the dessert.

Pastry ingredients: 

• 220g unsalted butter 
• 550g plain flour 
• 160g caster sugar 
• 1 large egg
• Tablespoons of iced water as required

Pie Filling Ingredients:

• 110g unsalted butter
• 226g light brown sugar 
• 110g golden syrup 
• 3 large eggs 
• 260g pecans chopped (save some as halves to decorate the top) 

25cm loose bottomed tin.

Blitz together the pastry, adding the water at the end as required.  I used a food processor rather than rubbing it in by hand.  Wrap the pastry in clingfim and leave in the fridge for half an hour.

Roll out the pastry and line the tin.  I left the edges hanging over after a disastrous experience with shrinking pastry on the first attempt.  Prick the bottom of the pastry with a fork and return to the fridge for another half an hour.  Line the bottom of the tin with baking paper and place baking beans on top of this, then bake blind at 150C for ten minutes, before removing the paper and beans and baking for another ten minutes.

Remove the tin from the oven and leave to cool. 

Make the filling by melting together the syrup, butter and sugar, once melted together set aside to cool slightly. Roughly chop the pecans and scatter in the bottom of the pastry case.  In a separate bowl whisk together the eggs, just enough to break them up.  Add the slightly cooled sugar, butter and syrup mix to the eggs, be sure to stir continuously while you are doing this.

Pour the resultant mixture over the chopped pecans.  Take the saved half pecans and use them to decorate round the edge of the top of the pie.  Return to the oven and bake for 30 mins at 150C, reduce the temp to 140C and continue to bake for another 20 mins.  The pie should be slightly wobbly in the middle when you remove it from the oven.

Leave to cool.  For added decadence I served this with a small scoop of pecan and bourbon ice-cream from my last post.  It went down pretty well at the dinner party, but there was loads left over. I could have used 2/3s of the recipe and a much smaller tin.

Salted pecan and bourbon ice cream

It's been gorgeous weather recently, so good that I've indulged in another gadget that I won't use nearly as much as I should and that will prevent me from ever selling my house as I realise I'll never have as much cupboard space as I do now; an ice cream maker.  I remember my mother buying one of these in what must have been the early nineties and making mars bar ice cream for us.  I found the flavour idea for this on pinterest then adapted a BBC Good Food recipe for the base custard.  The result is very good and I'll update with some pictures when I've actually served it to people.

I should probably start by saying that I’ve made far too much of this for a dinner party of four people.  Half quantities would be LOADS.  Seriously.  Half everything.  The Very Tolerant Boyfriend will be eating this for ages.  I am not sure that’s a terrible thing as it is very nice.  Also, it’s too much to fit in an ice cream maker in one go, so it had to be made over two days.  Have I mentioned half would be fine?

600ml carton double cream

600ml full fat milk

230g golden caster sugar

Vanilla Essence

6 large free-range egg yolks

¼ cup Bourbon

120g pecans (oven roasted in butter and salt)

Take the Pecan, toss in some melted butter, scatter over some sea salt and pop on a lined baking tray in the oven for 30 minutes at 180C.

Ensure that the canister from the ice cream machine is properly frozen (at least 24 hours, don’t be tricked into thinking it’ll be ok after 2 hours.  It won’t be)

Mix together the cream, milk, vanilla and bourbon in a pan and bring to the edge of the boil.

Put the egg yolks into a bowl with the rest of the sugar and beat with an electric hand beater for about 2 minutes until the mixture has thickened, is paler in colour and falls in thick ribbons when you lift the beaters. Using a measuring jug, scoop out about half of the cream mixture and beat into the egg yolks to slacken them. Reheat the cream until it just comes to the boil, take off the heat and stir in the egg yolk mixture.

Return the whole lot to the heat and cook, stirring all the time with a wooden spoon.  The mixture will thicken to a custard and stay separated on the back of a spoon when tested.  Allow the mixture to cool, stirring occasionally to prevent a skin forming.  Put in the fridge overnight so it is properly cooled.

Add to the ice cream maker and churn for 30-40 mins.  Once the ice cream is done, stir through the pecans and put in a sealed container in the freezer until required.