Spiralized Salmon and Broccoli Balls with Carrot Pineapple Rice

This recipe comes from Ali Maffucci's book Inspiralized, and takes a bit of preparation but the cooking time itself is minimal - and more importantly, it tastes amazing. If you've only spiralized courgette or butternut squash and used it instead of pasta so far, you are really missing out - there are so many ways you can use your spiralizer, but you could also make this recipe even if you don't have one.

I don't want to repeat the entire recipe as I'm sure Ali would appreciate it if you bought the book but I'm going to describe what I did. The recipe consist of three elements - salmon and broccoli balls, which I thought would be like fishcakes minus the potato but actually were quite different; homemade teriyaki sauce; and carrot 'rice' cooked with spring onion and pineapple.

I started by making the salmon balls. Preheat the oven, and pulse some broccoli in a food processor. Add a piece of salmon, some garlic and ginger and onion or shallot and pulse again. Turn the food processor off, and scoop the mixture into balls. Place on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile make the teriyaki sauce by mixing soy sauce, mirin, honey, garlic and ginger.

After the salmon balls have baked for 15 minutes, drizzle over a couple of spoonfuls of the teriyaki sauce and bake for another 10 minutes.

Meanwhile spiralize some carrots -you need to choose quite thick ones otherwise it's tricky. I used three carrots; once they are spiralized, wash out the bowl of the food processor and pulse the carrots until you have a rice-like consistency.

In a small pan, heat a little coconut oil and fry some chopped spring onion, garlic and ginger. Add the carrot rice, some chopped pineapple and a little teriyaki sauce and stir fry for a few minutes. Serve the salmon and broccoli balls on top of the carrot. This was a delicious meal and I felt very healthy!

I'm entering this in Spiralizer Saturday, the blog challenge I run for all things spiralized. If you have any good recipes, link them up here!

I'm also sending this to Extra Veg, hosted by Helen at Fuss Free Flavours.

Oxo Butternut Squash and Coconut Milk Soup

Oxo is pretty much a store cupboard staple for me – I always have Oxo cubes and use them in all sorts of recipes. Recently I’ve come across Knorr stock pots and branched out a bit, so was pleased to be sent a selection of Oxo stock pots to try recently – and they even threw in an Oxo cookery book!

Oxo is an iconic brand in the UK and has been around pretty much forever. Did you know that Oxo was invented in the 1840s after a German chemist developed meat extract? And as official sponsor of the 1908 London Olympics, Oxo supplied marathon runners with fortifying drinks of Oxo (I can’t quite imagine drinking beef broth while running a marathon but never mind!). In the First World War, soldiers were given Oxo cubes in their ration kits.

The company has now launched three flavours of stock pots, which I would describe as a sort of concentrated gel. They are: garden vegetables with parsley and bay; beef with onion and rosemary; and chicken with garlic and thyme. They also do a range called ‘herbs and more’ of flavours like lemon and thyme, which are not stock but ‘flavour pots’, which I’d also like to try. The stock pots sell for around £1 for 4 from major supermarkets.

My only criticism is that once you open the pot, you have to use the whole thing – you could probably refrigerate the rest for a day or two, but as I only cook for one or two people, I often cut a traditional stock cube in half, wrap the other half back up and put it back in the box, and you can’t really do that with the stock pots. They do however add a real depth of flavour; you don’t have to boil a kettle and wait for the stock cube to resolve, as you can add them straight to a pan to melt. You do still need to add water or some other liquid (tinned tomatoes perhaps) as the flavour is quite concentrated.

They are really easy to use though and definitely gave a nice flavour to my recipe.

I was working from home one day just after they arrived so flicked through the Oxo cookery book and found something I could make from store cupboard ingredients: a spicy butternut squash soup with coconut milk. Be warned, it does have quite a kick from the coconut milk alone (so you could perhaps miss out the chilli).

To serve 4, you need:

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 small piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped

½ red chilli, finely chopped

900g butternut squash, peeled and diced (seeds discarded)

1 Oxo Garden Vegetables with Parsley and Bay stock pot, made up with 500ml boiling water

400ml coconut milk, reserving 2 tbsp to serve

1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander to serve

Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the onion, ginger, chilli and garlic, and fry for five minutes until softened. Add the butternut squash, stock and all but the 2 tbsp of coconut milk you are reserving.

Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until the squash is cooked.

Blend in a blender until smooth (you may need to do this in batches). Serve in bowls with half a tbsp. of coconut milk swirled on the top and sprinkle with the chopped coriander.

I'm sharing this recipe with various blog challenges: Meat Free Monday, hosted by Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes (who also runs the Food Blog Diary where you can find out about these challenges); Extra Veg, hosted by Helen at Fuss Free Flavours, and No Croutons Required, hosted this month by Lisa's Kitchen.

Sweet Potato Soup with Pomegranate and Sumac

Sumac is a spice I have only started using recently, and since I bought a packet I’ve kept a look out for any recipes that used it. When I was planning to have a vegan friend over for lunch (which didn’t actually happen in the end) I was looking for an easy recipe I could make in advance and heat up for lunch and came across this Sainsbury’s recipe for sweet potato, pomegranate and sumac soup.

As I’d bought the pomegranate already before the lunch was cancelled, I decided to go ahead and make it anyway and was glad I did! The soup did me a couple of days worth of lunches and was really filling and tasty.

To serve 2, you need:
half an onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 red chilli, deseeded and roughly chopped, or a pinch of dried chilli flakes or Very Lazy chopped chilli to taste
1/2 tsp sumac
1/2 tbsp. coconut oil
200g sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
150g tomatoes, chopped - the recipe said to use vine tomatoes but I used tinned as I wanted to make this using store cupboard ingredients
400ml vegetable stock
1 tbsp. pomegranate molasses (available in big supermarkets)
to garnish:
pinch of sumac
pomegranate seeds
thin slice of lime

Fry the onion, garlic, chilli and sumac in the coconut oil and 1 tbsp. water until the onion has softened.

Add the sweet potatoes, tomatoes and stock. Bring to the boil and simmer until the sweet potato is soft.

 Add the pomegranate molasses and blend until smooth in a food processor or blender.

I returned the soup to the pan and added a little more water as it was too thick

Finally, garnish with pomegranate seeds and a slice of lime.

This was a really tasty, filling soup and has the added advantage of being both vegetarian and vegan.

I'm sharing this with Extra Veg, the blog challenge hosted by Michelle at Utterly Scrummy this month and also Helen at Fuss Free Flavours.

I'm also sending it to No Croutons Required, the soup and salad challenge hosted by Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes.

Spiralized Vegetable Pad Thai

I love the idea of adding spiralized vegetables to a ‘normal’ recipe – they work really well in stir-fries particularly if you don’t like a lot of the veg that you get in stir-fry packet mixes or would normally add to the pan, like beansprouts, mange tout or mini corn on the cob. You can spiralize all sorts of veg you wouldn’t normally add to a stir fry to add some bulk and make sure you get an extra portion of your 5 a day!

 

My future mother-in-law came round for dinner this week and whenever we eat at hers we have a Thai takeaway, and we both always order a Pad Thai - chicken and prawn for me, and vegetable for her.

 

As I made a really good Pad Thai not long before I decided to use the same recipe again. This time however I left out the beansprouts (which are a key ingredient I know!) as my MIL doesn't like them, and put in some mange tout that she does like. I then got out my spiralizer and spiralized some carrot, butternut squash and mooli (a veg from the radish family I discovered recently).

 

 

I cooked the butternut squash first as I thought it would take longer, then the mooli and the carrot. I cooked some chicken pieces separately for me and some tofu for my MIL and added these into the plates at the end. With the delicious Pad Thai sauce, some noodles and a sprinkling of chopped peanut over the top it made a delicious meal.

 

 

I'm entering this into the Spiralizer Saturday challenge I an running each month. Link up your own Spiralizer recipes!

 

 

I'm also sending this to Meat Free Mondays hosted by Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes, and to Extra Veg, hosted by Michelle at Utterly Scrummy and Helen at Fuss Free Flavours.

 

 

 

Roasted Cauliflower Steak with Stilton

 

Inspired by the meal I had at the Coin Laundry and making a real effort to do Meat Free Mondays (and make them a bit more interesting than just pasta and pesto) I decided to make my own roasted cauliflower steak. It was very straightforward so I’m not going to bother writing a whole recipe, but if this is a dish that you’ve never come across before then you might find it a nice change.

 

Take a cauliflower and slice through the middle to cut in half. If you want you can try slicing it into three to make flatter ‘steaks’, but my cauliflower was quite small and I didn’t think this was going to work.

 

Line a roasting pan with foil, and either rub the cauliflower with olive oil or spray with Fry Light if you are being really healthy. You can add any herbs and spices you like – sumac (commonly used in Middle Eastern cooking, available in supermarkets) works really well with cauliflower, as does coriander and cumin. A light sprinkling of salt also helps bring out the flavour.

 

Roast in a preheated oven at 175C for about 25-30 minutes until the cauliflower is tender and browned.

 

To serve, I simply crumbled up some stilton cheese and sprinkled it over the top. This is a good way of using up leftover cheese from Christmas on a healthier dish!

 

  

I served it with quinoa – serving it with another vegetable on the side seemed odd but it needed something. I’d also recommend trying couscous, especially if you go with a more Middle Eastern seasoning.

 

 

 

I'm sending this to Extra Veg, hosted by Helen at Fuss Free Flavours and Michelle at Utterly Scrummy. 

 

I'm also sending this to Meat Free Mondays, hosted by Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes.

 



 

Vegetable Tortillas and Spicy Chicken Tortillas

A few months ago I went to a cookery demonstration from Old El Paso, where I discovered the ‘stand and stuff’ tortilla kits – soft tortillas that stand up by themselves and resemble little boats; they are so easy to fill and eat and make Mexican food really fun.

 

Last Saturday I had two of my bridesmaids over for a dress fitting – we had a really nice day of trying on dresses (theirs and mine) and then discussing everything from shoes to nail varnish back at my house, while my long-suffering fiancé played computer games! They stayed to dinner and I made Mexican fajitas – a meat version and a vegetarian (actually, a vegan) version.

 

The tortillas are vegan and so is the seasoning mix that comes with the kit. To make the veggie one, I chopped half a butternut squash into cubes and decided the best way to soften it enough was to simmer it in a little water in the bottom of my Ozeri wok – so not boil in a pan of water as such, but I didn’t think frying alone would soften it enough.

 

 

When it had been cooking for about ten minutes I sliced a red pepper, green pepper and yellow pepper and added them to the pan with a sachet of the seasoning mix. With the water that was already in the pan it made a nice sauce. I also added some diced courgette.

 

For the meat option, I cooked three butterflied chicken breasts, again with a sachet of the seasoning mix (you can purchase them separately which I did as I wanted two and you get one in the kit) and when the chicken was cooked I shredded it with a knife and fork.

 

 

In the meantime I cooked some potato wedges in the oven and then heated some refried beans from a tin and put the sachet of salsa that came with the meal kit in one of the little bowls I bought in Mexico. I also grated some cheese, put some salad in bowls and quickly heated the tortilla boats in the microwave, and then allowed everyone to fill their own. It made for a really nice meal and was very easy to cater for both meat eaters and vegans or vegetarians.

 

I'm sending these to the Extra Veg food blog challenge as this is a fun way to eat more veg if you're not that keen perhaps - for some reason assembling your own and the little tortilla pockets are much more palatable than a plate full of veg! The challenge is hosted by Helen at Fuss Free Flavours.

 

 

Super-Fast Chilli and Cheese Beer Bread and Vegetable Soup

Last weekend I decided to make soup and bread for lunch. I had a packet of diced vegetables that were called 'soup mix', the idea being you just bung them all in a pan with some stock. I'd planned to set my breadmaker machine the night before so we could have nice fresh bread in time for lunch - and completely forgot.

Was I going to have to give up on the idea of having fresh bread with soup (or send the reluctant other half out to buy some)? Surely there must be a quick bread recipe out there that I could make in a couple of hours from start to finish (I didn't get up very early on the Sunday morning so lunch was only a couple of hours away!). Luckily, there was: there are bread recipes you don't need to leave to prove, and this is one of them.

It's a recipe from the Telegraph for 'easy beer bread with parmesan and garlic'. I think the beer replaces yeast and all you have to do is mix everything and cook it for just under an hour.

I did change the recipe a fair bit as I didn't have buckwheat flour, polenta, fresh thyme and couldn't be bothered to go into the garden to see if I still had any rosemary (it was raining!), oh and I did't have any parmesan either! Instead I looked in the fridge to see what I did have and decided to create my own flavour of mature cheddar and chilli. I also forgot to add the little bit of butter at the end but it was fine without. So here's what I did:

Super-Fast Chilli and Cheese Beer Bread - an original recipe by Caroline Makes

260g strong white bread flour
100g wholemeal plain flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
60g caster sugar
3 cloves garlic, crushed
50g mature cheddar, diced
2 tsp Very Lazy chopped red chillis
300ml bottle beer

Preheat oven to 190C and grease a loaf tin. Mix all the dry ingredients.

Add the beer and mix in well

Spoon into the prepared loaf tin and bake in the oven for 50 minutes

In the meantime here is my soup mix, which I simply simmered with some vegetable stock until the veg was soft, then put it in a blender.

I added some more water as it was a bit thick

 

 Here's the finished loaf of bread

The garlic, cheese and chilli flavours all came through really strongly, so this is a good bread to serve alongside a simple soup - one that perhaps doesn't have an overpowering flavour of its own.

Lunch! And possibly the fastest loaf of bread I've ever made.

I'm sending this to Bready Steady Go, hosted by Jen's Food and Michelle of Utterly Scrummy.

And also to Extra Veg, hosted this month by Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary on behalf of Michelle at Utterly Scrummy again, and Helen at Fuss Free Flavours.

Mini Pumpkin Stuffed with Cauliflower Rice

It may be a little late now but perhaps you have your Halloween pumpkin left over and are wondering what to do with it? Providing it isn't too past it - or you haven't left it out on your doorstep all night for passing wildlife to nibble on (or worse) then of course you can eat it!

I bought a couple of mini pumpkins or 'munchkins' from Sainsburys for 90p each which I thought were just the right amount for one person - though I forgot that once you scoop the seeds out, there's not a huge amount of pumpkin left. So I would do these as a side vegetable rather than as the main course -though you could use the same recipe with a larger pumpkin for a main course.

I roasted the whole mini pumpkin in the oven for about half an hour, by which point it was soft enough to cut in half and scoop out the seeds (if you can, just cut a small section off the top and scoop it out that way as it looks better when it's served).

For the filling, I mixed some cauliflower rice - which I explained how to make here, but in this case I bought a tub of it from Tesco - with some diced red pepper and red onion, though you can add whatever veg you like. I fried it until the peppers and onion were soft and then filled the pumpkin with it.

 I served it on a bed of spiralized carrot which I also bought in Tesco.

 

I'm sending this to the Extra Veg challenge hosted by Helen at Fuss Free Flavours - I don't often have entirely vegetarian meals and I don't even like pumpkin all that much but these are fun and seasonal so I can't resist!