Specials Board: Roasted Courgette Couscous

Roasted Courgette Couscous & Vegan Mofo Day 8

If you are a regular reader you will know that I planned a mammoth cooking session yesterday, but it didn't happen! I can only blame myself, it was self inflicted, one too many vino's at a friends wedding the night before!

I was so mad at myself all day long but the last thing I wanted to do was be near food, yes I was that bad. Terrible isn't it? But enough about feeling sorry for myself the show must go on, even if that means I've put myself under pressure and have to cook, eat and post a recipe each night. Things could be worse, at least this is fun :o)

I got up extra early this morning to make this so I could take it to work for lunch and I was so looking forward to it all morning. Only, when it came to lunch time and I went to the fridge to get it, I found out that I'd brought the wrong container! Arghhhhhh! I'd only gone and brought a container full of cooked plain couscous instead- not very appetizing! Karma? Thank goodness for Marks & Spencer houmous!

Ingredients 

400g Courgette
1 Red pepper
1 Onion
1 Tsp Oregano
Salt & Pepper
Drizzle of Olive oil
1 Tbsp Tomato puree
2 Tsp Garlic granules
2 Tsp Paprika
1 Tsp Ground Coriander
1 Tsp Ground cumin
½ Tsp Chilli flakes
450ml Boiling water
300g Couscous
1 Tin of Sweetcorn, drained

Method
You don't need all the couscous for this recipe, but I cooked it all as I have another recipe in mind for tomorrow that uses couscous. Stay tuned! 

First cut up the vegetables and place in an oven proof dish. Sprinkle with oregano, salt and pepper and drizzle over a little olive oil. Toss the vegetables so that they are all coated with the herbs and oil. Bake in a moderate oven for 20 minutes.

Add the tomato puree to a measuring jug and top it with the herbs and spices. Pour in the boiling water and stir so that all the ingredients are mixed. Pour it over the couscous and give it a good stir. Leave for 5 minutes then break the couscous up with a fork. Transfer 160g of the couscous to a container and keep in the fridge for a different recipe. Or you could use it all but you will need a few more veggies, roasted mushrooms work very well in this dish.

Remove the roasted vegetables from the oven add the sweetcorn and give the veggies a stir. Tip onto the couscous and carefully mix through. Serve straight away or leave to cool and it as a salad.

I served mine with falafels and tahini sauce

I used one of my yellow courgettes for this recipe but regular green courgettes would work just as well. Look at my lovely mellow yellows I've picked!

Stuffed Nutty Peppers

Yesterday was the grand opening of the virtual Self Sufficient Cafe and I explained that at the start of each month I will share the months menu. Every week of each month I will post a recipe from the menu. That way you get at least 4 or 5 new recipes a month plus any daily specials as the menu board to the left details. 
Bonus? Right?

To start things rolling the first recipe I'm sharing is stuffed nutty peppers, it's that easy I shouldn't really call it a recipe. You only need 6 ingredients, one of which is the pepper which holds the 'stuffing' and another is the curly kale which serves as a bed for the pepper to rest upon. 

This leaves only four other ingredients which act as the 'stuffing', how is this possible? Easy! We cheat! All you need is two Goodlife nut cutlets!

Ingredients - serves 1-2

1 Red pepper
1 Onion
2 Goodlife nut cutlets, cooked

115g Spinach

2 Tbsp Tofutti herb & chive cheese
150g Curly kale

Method

Fry the onion is a little olive oil until translucent. Add a little water if the onions start to stick.

Wash the spinach and shake to loose excess water and roughly chop. Add to the pan with the onions and cook until wilted. You may need to keep adding a little water now and again to stop the spinach sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Dice the cooked nut cutlets and add to the pan and stir. Add the Tofutti cheese, stirring it through the mixture as it melts.

Halve the red pepper through the stalk, purely for aesthetic reasons and de-seed. Spoon the 'stuffing' into each half and bake in a moderate oven for 20-30 minutes or until the pepper is soft. 

While the pepper is baking, steam or boil the kale, drain and squeeze out a little water. Spoon the kale onto a plate/plates and top with the red pepper halves.

Simples!

Soba Veganaise

No, the title doesn't mean I've been drunk and now sobered up! 

With all the fresh vegetables I bought on Wednesday I was excited about cooking tonight's tea. I randomly chose some vegetables from the fridge and decided to challenge myself to make something yummy. I was really pleased with the results.

The vegetables I chose were, mushrooms, carrot, onion, celery, red pepper, green pepper, baby corn and courgette.

After looking at the vegetables for what seemed ages, I decided I was going to make a vegan version of spaghetti bolognaise, no fake meats allowed. To do this I needed to add some standard store cupboard ingredients, which were, Vegetable bouillon powder, chopped tomato, paprika, oregano, herbamore salt, pepper, tomato puree and garlic.

I finely diced the onion, garlic and most of the peppers and then through all the other vegetables into my trust food processor to chop up.

I processed and pulsed until all the veg looked like this

I fried the onions in a little olive for about 5 minutes before adding the garlic and cooked for another two minutes before adding the chopped peppers and cooking for another 5 minutes. Then I added the processed vegetables to the pan and let them cook for another 5 minutes.

Next I added the chopped tomatoes and a little tomato passata  and stirred to combine. Next came the tomato puree, herbs and spices (including a pinch of chilli pepper), salt and pepper. I also added a little sugar, parsley and about a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar. I let this mixture simmer slowly whilst I boiled the soba noodles.

After boiling the soba noodles for about 6 minutes drain and rinse with cold water, this will stop the cooking process. Pour into a dish and top with the veganiase sauce.

Eat it up! Even though I say so myself this dish was amazing and one that I will make time and time again, it truly was delicious. It turned out far better than I'd hoped.

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Summer Vegetable Pie

This is becoming a regular feature of my blog, no not vegetable pie, but the fact that I haven't shopped! I really need to get more organised. In fact in a conversation with my sister yesterday I was saying just that. I used to be the most organised person I knew, but this has lapsed a little. 

I need to start with going shopping and buy some fresh fruit and vegetables of all colours and then I will be in heaven cooking up some vegan magic!

Anyhow, enough waffle, back to what I managed to magic up for tea. I'd told Hubby to pick something up for his dinner on the way home, so at least I hadn't got to magic up two dinners. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw in his shopping bag was a small bag of frozen peas and some mushrooms! 

After a quick check of my cupboards and fridge this is what I had.

As you can see the courgette and red pepper were a little worse for wear and needed eating up! The pastry suggested that tonight's dinner would either be a tart, a puff or a pie. I went with the pie. First I chopped up all the vegetables and measured out half the bag of frozen peas, after all I needed to leave some for Hubby!

Next, saute the vegetables in a little olive oil, onions first, then peppers, mushrooms and courgettes. I added a clove of minced garlic too. I also added 4 shredded sage leaves, a rosemary sprig finely chopped and some thyme from my garden.

Whilst the vegetables were cooking, I quickly made up a sauce. In a pan add soy milk, plain flour and vitalite (sorry didn't measure, just threw it in). As it thickens add 3 tablespoons of nutritional yeast, a teaspoon of herbamare (a herbal seasoning salt), half a teaspoon of vegetable bouillon powder, freshly ground black pepper and about 10 chive stalks finely chopped. Add the sauce to the vegetables and stir through.

Next, pour this mixture into an oven proof dish and top with the pastry. I only used half of the pastry so there's some more left for another day. Bake in a moderate oven for 20 minutes or until the pastry is golden.

This made three good sized portions, if you were serving it with potato or chips you could easily make four servings. I ate my portion as it is, on its own.

Thai Coleslaw

Yesterday I told you about the buffet we had last bank holiday and the dishes that I made, but I forgot to post the Thai coleslaw recipe, which was amazing.

The recipe was published in a Tesco magazine which you get free at the check out and I've changed the ingredients to make it vegan and to use vegetables that I already had.

Ingredients

3 Baby Bok Choy
1 Bunch Spring onions
1 Red Pepper
1 Large carrot
4 Tbsp coconut milk
3 Tbsp Sweet Chilli Dipping Sauce
3 Tbsp vegan mayonnaise
½ Lime
Salt & Pepper

Method

Finely slice the bok choy, red pepper and spring onions, and grate the carrot. Add to a bowl big enough to enable you to mix everything with the dressing. To make the dressing add the coconut milk, vegan mayonnaise and sweet chilli dipping sauce to another bowl and whisk until combined. Add the lime juice and salt and pepper and whisk again. Pour over the vegetables and mix so that all vegetables are coated. If the mixture is a little dry add more coconut milk.

I think this would make a lovely filling for lettuce wraps, just add a spoonful near to the edge of a lettuce leaf (iceberg would work well) and fold the left and right edges in and roll. Easy to eat to especially if you haven't got a fork and knife!

And...... just because the photo of the Thai coleslaw is so small, here's another of Marco watching a pigeon in the back garden. He is fascinated with pigeons and will watch them for hours! I'd love to know what he is thinking...............

Send me your photo captions!

Spinach, Red Pepper & Mushroom Tofumlette

Carrying on my theme of cooking with the top five nutritional vegetables, I decided a tofumlette was the perfect breakfast this morning. This looks a bit like an omelette but uses tofu instead of eggs, hence the name.  

I needed something substantial as hubby and I had decided, as the weather was nice we would clear out the garage. This has needed doing for some time and I'm happy to report it is done! The car is loaded to the brim with stuff to take to the tip, mainly old boxes and cardboard! Now the garage is clear, we intend to keep it that way! I wonder how long that will last.

This recipe makes three good size tofumlettes, after making one two this morning I stored the remainder of the mixture in a beaker in the fridge, ready to go for another morning.

Ingredients
1 packet tofu
1¼ Cup soy milk (unsweetened)
½ Cup gram flour
3 Tbs nutritional yeast
2 Tsp arrowroot
2 Garlic cloves, minced
½ Tsp tumeric
¼ Tsp salt
¼ Tsp ground black pepper
½ red pepper
Handful of spinach
5-6 Mushrooms
Tomato salsa

Method
First of all blend the ingredients for the tofumlette. Break up the tofu into a food processor I use, Cauldron Original Tofu and add the soy milk, gram flour, nutritional yeast, arrowroot, garlic, tumeric, salt & pepper and blend until smooth, until the mixture is thick like yoghurt. Pour into a jug or spouted bowl.

Finely chop the red pepper and mushrooms and finely shred the spinach and add to the mixture, stir to combine thoroughly. Get your frying pan really hot and add a little olive oil, I used a kitchen towel to wipe the oil over the bottom of the pan. When the pan is smoking hot add 2-3 ladles of the mixture and smooth out, so the mixture is even. Leave to cook, try hard not to prod and poke it, otherwise you will end up with scrambled tofu instead. I'm speaking from experience the first one I did ended up just like that, hence the second photograph is a different shaped tofumlette to the first! After about 3 minutes take a sneaky peak and if the edges are starting to brown and the the top looks almost set, quickly flip, patching up if needed! Squash it down with a spatula and cook for a further 2 minutes. Slide onto a plate and spread tomato salsa over the top if desired.

Pitta Bread Pizza

I was ravenous when I got home tonight and I needed something fast, easy and most importantly tasty! On opening up the fridge I had some Redwood Cheezly that I'd used sometime back and needed using up and in my crisper box was an odd courgette, a red pepper, a couple of mushrooms. I also had 2 pitta breads that needed using up. The others had been filled with houmous, falafel and salad for lunches. And so pitta bread pizza was born purely out of hunger!

Ingredients
2 Pitta Breads
Tomato passata
½ Courgette
½ Red Pepper
½ Onion
3 Mushrooms
2 tsp Mixed herbs

Method
Coat one side of each pitta with the tomato passata. Finely slice the onion, courgette, red pepper and mushrooms and layer them on to the tomato passata in that order. Grate the vegan cheese of your choice over the vegetables and sprinkle with the mixed herbs. Bake in an oven until the 'cheese' has 'melted'. Careful not to bake for too long as the pitta breads have a tendency of going hard and therefore difficult to cut saw through!

Quick Leftovers Lunch

Yesterday I posted the Get Well Soon Stroganoff I made, and today I enjoyed some leftovers over a baked potato. It tasted even better today and was a fine accompaniment to the spud!

I still have some soy cream left over and need to use it up so in a day or so I will post my Mushroom Stroganoff recipe, it tastes divine even if I say so myself!

I remember one of the first meals I had out in a restaurant when I turned vegetarian at 15 was Mushroom Stroganoff. I'll never forget that first mouthful it blew me away. I just knew I had to veganise it as it was one recipe that I couldn't do without. I honestly think mushrooms are my favourite food. What are your favourites?

Get Well Soon Stroganoff

After two weeks of going to hospital and mixing with all the bugs flying around I was bound to fall ill, wasn't I? I was tired from trying to fit work in after an 8 hour shift at the hospital and then organise and cook tea for two people who eat at differing ends of the spectrum! Don't get me wrong friends had offered to help with shopping, cooking, cleaning and dog walking, but I thought I was Wonderwoman and tried to do everything. The result was falling flat on my face with a cold and chest infection! I didn't want to surrender to it but there was no way I could carry on visiting S while I felt this poorly and besides I didn't want to pass on the illness to S, she has enough on her plate at the moment fighting Guillain Barre Syndrome.

I figured I needed some good honest healthy vegetables and herbs and put together Get Well Soon Stroganoff.

Ingredients
1 onion
1 clove garlic
1 packet green beans
1 packet spinach
1 red pepper
500g mushrooms
Soy sauce
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp dried thyme
Soy cream
Salt and black pepper to taste

Method
Finely chop the onion and garlic and saute in a little olive oil until the onion is translucent. Finely chop the green beans and add to the pan, saute for another 5 minutes stirring all the time. Finely chop the red pepper and add to the pan, with a little soy sauce to prevent the vegetables from sticking. Add the paprika and thyme and stir to combine. Add a little water if the mixture starts sticking, slice the mushrooms and add to the pan and continue to saute until the mushrooms are cooked and the green beans are al dente. Shred the spinach and add to the pan, stir through the vegetable mixture until the spinach wilts. Add salt and black pepper to taste. Slowly add the soy cream until you reach your desired consistency. I used about ½ a carton and heat through, do not boil else the soy cream may split. Serve over rice or pasta. I enjoyed mine in a bowl on its own, the flavour of the vegetables worked really well together, with the herbs and soy cream.

I decided not to post about the vegan swap box that I sent to Bindy as she has yet to collect the parcel from the post office and I didn't want to spoil her surprise.

Taco's!

As promised my taco recipe and yet another Mexican night! I love Mexican food, I must visit the Country, although I have heard that the food is nothing to what we class as Mexican here! A bit like Chinese I suppose.
This was ready in half an hour so don't be put off with the ingredients and length of the instructions! It was extremely tasty and one recipe I will repeat over and over again now I've written down what I actually did! Before writing this blog I could never remember what I cooked up all I remembered was "that tasted GOOOOOOOD".  This blog is a good record of what I get up to in the kitchen when my creative juices are flowing, so I can go back and recreate the tastiest of all my recipes.

Ingredients
2 celery stalks, diced
1 onion, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 courgette, diced
½ red pepper, diced
10 standard size mushrooms, diced
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp chilli flakes
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika
½ tsp chilli powder
200g passata
200g refried beans
Soya 'mince'*
1 tsp mixed herbs
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground black pepper
½ tsp cumin
Boiling water

* I forgot to weigh the soya mince but I think it was round about 1 cup. Follow the instructions on the packet of soya mince and add the required water

Method
Saute the onion until translucent then add the garlic and saute for a couple more minutes. 
Add the celery and red pepper and saute for another couple of minutes before adding the courgette and mushrooms. 
When the mushrooms have released their liquid add the spices and stir to combine.
Add the tomato passata and simmer over a low heat for 5 minutes
Add the refried beans and stir through so they are evenly distributed.
Add the mixed herbs, black pepper, paprika and cumin to the soya mince and stir to combine.
Add the boiling water and leave to sit for 5 minutes. Mix thoroughly and add to the vegetables.
Simmer for another 5 minutes and serve with taco shells, lettuce, tomato and cucumber.
I also add some vegan mayonnaise which you can see in the second photo.