Wifey’s Vegetable Soup

Here’s one the wife cooked up, and it is fantastic!

• 2 Carrots, Diced
• 2 Sticks Celery, Sliced
• 1 Small Zucchini, Diced
• 1 Small Red Capsicum, Diced
• Cabbage, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Diced
• 440g can 4 Bean Mix, drained
• 120g tomato sauce
• 2.5 Litres of Vegetable Stock
• 1 Tablespoon chopped parsley

GLUTEN FREE: We make our own gluten free tomato sauce at home, so we used that, but you can buy gluten free tomato sauce at most supermarkets. Be careful of the stock you use too, we get the VEGETA stock which is gluten free.

Just bung the whole lot in a big saucepan, bring to the boil and simmer until it looks good!

We are thinking of throwing in a cup of lentils to thicken it up too.

Tomato Sauce

Now that wifey has been discovered as a closet Celiac, we have to watch what we eat more carefully; First step, gluten free tomato sauce, as all commercial sauces have gluten in them!

• 2kg Roma tomatoes
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 large brown onion, finely chopped
• 6 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 strip lemon rind
• 4 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 bouquet garni (see note)
• 2 teaspoon white sugar

If you’re like me, you had no idea what Boquet Garni was, but it turns out they are like tea bags with a specific blend of herbs in them. You’ll find them in the herbs and spices section, they come in little plastic bags, which are next to the jars usually.

Heat the oil in a large heavy based saucepan, and once hot, add the onion and the garlic; You want to cook these for a bit until the onion softens up, but don’t brown them up too much or your sauce will be a bit on the bitter side.

Now chuck in the tomatoes, lemon rind, lemon juice, boquet garni and the sugar. Bring the mixture to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for about an hour or so; I like to stir the mixture regularly; What you are aiming for is most of the water to evaporate off and leave you with a fairly thick mixture.

Once it’s thick enough, fish out the lemon rind and the boquet garni, and put the mixture in your blender and give it a good puree cycle to get it nice and consistent. When we make it, we get about 1.2 litres of sauce.

Roast Pumpkin Soup

This is a fabulous recipe that I cook once in a while; I tend to double or triple the ingredients and freeze the results so whenever I feel like some quality pumpkin soup, I can have some. It is a little time consuming with all the peeling and chopping and roasting, but its worth it!

• 4 Medium Cloves Garlic, unpeeled
• 1kg peeled, deseeded pumpkin
• 1 Tbsp oil
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• 1L vegetable stock
• Cream, for serving
• Ground Nutmeg, for serving

Set your oven to about 190 degrees, or 170 if its fan forced.

Chop up your pumpkin into evenly sized chunks. The smaller they are, the quicker they’ll roast, so I tend to go for smaller bits. Stick them and the garlic on an oven tray, drizzle the oil over the lot and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the garlic at that point so it doesn’t get too burnt, and continue roasting the pumpkin until its nicely roasted, but not burned. Burned BAD!

Heat some oil in a LARGE saucepan (I use this huge thing my wife supplied, not even sure what to call it, but I can make a heap of soup in it!), and toss in the onion, nutmeg, cumin, salt and pepper. Cook that for a minute, then throw in the roast pumpkin and the stock.

Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until onion is soft and stock has reduced, about 20 minutes. The more the stock reduces, the thicker the soup will be.

Peel roasted garlic and add to saucepan. We allow the soup to cool for about half an hour before pureeing in batches in a blender. Be careful if pureeing the soup while it is still very hot.

Serve the soup hot. Top with a drizzle of cream and a sprinkle of nutmeg, if desired.

Vegetable Casserole

A quick and easy casserole you can do in the microwave, and it turns out okay!

• 2 Onions
• 1 Clove Garlic
• 2 Tbsp Oil
• 1 Tsp Ground Cumin
• 1/2 Tsp dried basil
• 425g Can red kidney beans
• 310g Can creamed corn
• 125g mushrooms, sliced
• 60g green beans, sliced
• 2 Tomatoes, peeled and chopped
• 2 Carrots, sliced
• 1 Zucchini, sliced
• 2 Cups Water
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Place onion, garlic, oil, cumin and basic in a microwave safe casserole dish and cook covered on HIGH for 2 minutes, stirring at the 1 minute mark.

Blend in all remaining ingredients, cook, covered on HIGH for 10-12 minutes, stirring every 4-5 minutes.

Great served with couscous and crusty bread.

Beef & Vegetable Pasties

 

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 250g beef mince
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1 Tbsp tomato paste
• 1 1/2 cups frozen vegetables (suggest pea/corn/carrot)
• 2 sheets puff pastry
• 1 egg, lightly beaten

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees and prepare a baking tray with baking paper.

Heat oil in a large frypan and cook onion and garlic for about 4 minutes. Add the beef and cook until its all brown. Stir through curry powder, tomato paste and vegetables. Cook for 2 more minutes. Season with salt and black pepper, then allow to cool.

Cut each pastry sheet into 4 squares. Divide mince mixture into 8; Place in the centre of each square. Brush edges with water, pull pastry together over the filling and pinch edges to seal.

Stick those on your tray, brush over the top with egg and bake for 12-15 minutes until puffed and golden. Serve with a salad and tomato sauce.

No Fuss Teriyaki Stir Fry

The wife dug this one out of a recipe book, and it is super easy, and super tasty. We’ll be having this one regularly I reckon. We leave out the ham because the boy can’t eat it, and its still great!

• 3 Cups of cooked long grain rice
• 6 Cups of stir fry vegetables
• Red Capsicum, Green Beans, Broccoli, Carrot, Onion, Cauliflower, shallots
• 1/2 cup ham, diced
• 1/4 Cup Teriyaki sauce
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley

Heat up your wok or fry pan, and fry up the ham a little, before adding your choice of vegetables. As you fry, sprinkle teriyaki sauce over them, a little at a time, until you have used half of it.  Once the vegetables have softened, drop in the parsley and the rice, and sprinkle the rest of the teriyaki sauce until its all used. Its ready to serve.

Vegetable Curry

My wife cooked this up some days ago, and I have to say, it was delicious!

• 1 Tbsp brown mustard seeds
• 2 Tbsp Oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• 1/3 cup curry paste
• 400g tin of tomatoes
• 1/2 cup yoghurt
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 2 carrots, sliced
• 200g cauliflower florets
• 2 baby eggplants, sliced
• 200g green beans, halved
• 150g broccoli florets
• 100g baby button mushrooms, halved
• Salt to taste

Place the mustard seeds in a dry pan and heat until they start to pop. Add oil and onion and cook until the onion is soft. Add curry pste and stir until mixture is fragrant.

Add tomatoes, yoghurt and coconut milk, stirring until combined. Add carrot and simmer for five minutes; Add cauliflower and eggplant and simmer for a further five minutes, then add the rest of the ingredients and simmer uncovered for 10 more minutes.

Baked Fish with Broccoli

We had this for dinner last night, and it was fabulous.

• 500g Broccoli, cut into florets
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 Tbsp margarine
• 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
• 1/8 Cup  plain flour
• 1 1/4 Cups of Milk
• 2 Tbsp mayonaise
• 500g boneless, skinless white fish
• 30g flaked almonds
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 Cup low fat grated cheese

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Cook broccoli in lightly salted water for 2-3 minutes, drain well.In a saucepan, cook onion in margarine until soft, about 2 to 3 minutes; Add curry powder and flour, mix well, then cook for 1 minute. Add milk to pan, stirring continuously, bring to a bil, simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from heat, add mayonnaise, fish, almonds and broccoli, season to taste.

Transfer to a shallow baking dish, sprinkle with cheese and cook in oven for 15 minutes.

Beef & Vegetable Pasties

For those on a budget or wanting less meat in their lives, just forget the mince in this recipe and go double on the vegetables.

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 Onion, finely chopped
• 2 Cloves garlic, crushed
• 250g lean beef mince
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 1/2 Cups mixed frozen vegetables
• 2 Sheets puff pastry
• 1 Egg, lightly beaten

Preheat your oven to about 170 degrees (hotter if its not fan forced). Line your baking tray with baking paper.

Heat the olive oil in a large pan over high heat, then cook the onion and garlic for about 4 minutes, or until the onion is soft. Add the beef, cooking until it is all cooked through. Make sure you break up the lumps.

Now stir through the curry powder, vegetables and tomato paste, cook for another 2-3 minutes. Then you can season with a little salt and pepper, and let the mixture cool.

Cut the puff pastry into four squares, put a blob of the mixture in the middle of each square. Paint the edges of the pastry with the water and fold up and pinch together to seal them.

Brush them with the egg and shove em in the oven and bake until the pastry is golden brown. Serve with a leafy green sald.

Lentil & Spinach Quiche

This one sounds okay, I’ll have to try it out. The boy will undoubtedly turn his nose up at it, but sucks to be him, the rest of us want to eat healthy, yummy food

• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 tsp ground coriander seed
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 175g red split lentils
• 350ml boiling water
• 250g spinach
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• salt and pepper
• Something to use as the base

I say, “something to use as the base”, because I figure this can be changed up each time you cook it. The recipe I found called for creating a pie base out of wholemeal bread, but that doesn’t appeal to me. I think I’m going to see if I can get pre made individual pie bases, and make up a heap of one person size pies so these can be enjoyed at lunch time as well as dinner!

Here ’s what you do; Gently fry onions and spices for 3-4 minutes (dry, or with small amount of water). Add lentils to pan with the boiling water. Boil, and then simmer, covered, for 10-15 minutes until the lentils turn to a stiff puree. While lentils are cooking, wash the spinach, drain it well and cook it in it’s own juices in a covered pan for 6-8 minutes
until just done (or microwave it). Drain and chop. Mix into the lentils with the lemon juice and seasoning. Spread the filling over the prepared base. Cover loosely with foil and bake for 25-30 minutes

I’m going to use frozen spinach, as its all you can get around here. That means just defrosting it in the microwave, wringing it out, and I should be ready to go. I’m also thinking about upping the spice level a bit, as the wife and I enjoy spicy foods.