Planet Veggie

More Quorn for dinner tonight.  Blimey, anyone would think I got sent some free samples or something.

Still, I don’t really need an excuse to eat noodles.  Especially chilli ones.  And these Quorn Chilli Stir Fry Strips are already marinated so you don’t need to add any spices of your own.  I usually end up pouring more chilli sauce onto my dinner but these were tasty enough but not too spicy for The Meat Eater who’s a bit of a wuss when it comes to chilli.

Here they are, along with the rest of the ingredients I added to the stir fry.  (They’re the bright orange things in the black tray.  The other things are vegetables, which can be found in all good supermarkets.)

Oh yeah, there’s a jar of Lazy Garlic there that I got sent to try.  It’s chopped up garlic preserved in white wine vinegar and when you sniff the jar, all you can smell is vinegar and not garlic.  Tasted fine in the stir fry but wouldn’t fancy trying to make garlic bread with it.  Personally, I think white wine should be drunk out of a glass, not used to preserve garlic. 

Anyway, back to the Quorn.  The finished result, served with egg noodles.

Quorn Sweet Chilli Stir Fry
(serves 2)

250g (1 pack) Quorn Sweet Chilli Stir Fry Strips
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 red pepper de-seeded and sliced
1 red onion finely sliced
1 garlic clove crushed

stir-fry vegetables sufficient for two portions:
baby sweetcorn
mange tout sliced
pak choi

Rice or noodles to accompany the dish

Method

1. Pre-heat the oil in a wok and fry the onion, garlic and pepper for 2-3 minutes.
2. Add the Quorn Sweet Chilli Stir Fry Strips, mange tout and baby sweetcorn.  Stir fry for 5 minutes.
3. Add the pak choi, stir through and allow to wilt slightly. 
4. Serve with rice or noodles.

Quorn have added a new addition to their deli range; Quorn Roast Style Sliced Fillets which can be eaten straight from the pack or added to salads, wraps and sandwiches.

Low in fat and high in protein, you’ll find them in the chilled cabinet but I froze them and then left them in the fridge overnight to defrost before using them in my sandwich today.

Here they are in the pack:

And here’s the construction of my sandwich.  And yes, I know it’s white sliced (Kingsmill to be precise) but it’s what The Meat Eater fills the freezer with.  (Four drawers in the freezer and he fills three of them with bread.  Bah.)

Squeeze some squeezy mustard mayonnaise onto the bread and add the Quorn fillets.

Add some salad on top.

Two minutes later you have a nice sandwich. 

And very nice it was too.  And because I’m such a classy chick, I accompanied it with a mug of Cup a Soup.

As I was making this dish, I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out as I thought it might be a bit bland.  At the first mouthful, I did think it was a bit bland and needed ’something’ but the more I ate of it, the more I liked it.  Very nice indeed.

It’s another dish from the BBC Good Food website, but ignore what it says about being on the table in ten minutes, they are lying.

The ingredients call for 400g penne or macaroni but in the cupboard I had about 80g of macaroni and 140g of conchiglie, so I made up the difference with spaghetti that I snapped into pieces.  Also it said to boil the onion but I didn’t like the sound of boiled onion, so I fried it.  Another instruction I took no notice of was to grill it; I put it in the oven on about 200C for about ten minutes.

I won’t be blogging next week as I’m off to Naples on Monday to eat pizza for my birthday on Tuesday when apparently my life will be beginning.

Vegan Planet is a cookbook I’ve had for years but only made one recipe from; a recipe I didn’t really like but after recently reading good reviews about it on amazon, I thought I’d give it another go.  Rather than risk giving The Meat Eater something that would downgrade me from domestic goddess to domestic idiot, I thought I’d better experiment on myself first.

So, this week’s lunch for me is miso soup with tofu and spinach which sounds disgustingly healthy and as I was making it, I was a little worried that it would taste disgustingly healthy, with ‘disgustingly’ being the operative word and it certainly was one of those soups where you could feel healthiness coursing through your veins but it tasted very nice.

There is tofu in there somewhere, honest.

Miso soup with tofu and baby spinach (serves 4)

6 cups water
1 ½ cups baby spinach leaves, cut into thin strips
½ cup thinly sliced white mushrooms (I didn’t have any mushrooms, so poured in some mushroom ketchup instead)
3 tablespoons minced scallions (that’s spring onions to us English people)
1 tablespoon tamari or other soy sauce
¹⁄₃ cup mellow white miso paste (I only had brown miso, so used that)
4oz extra-firm silken tofu, drained and cut into 1/4-inch dice (I used normal tofu; the stuff that comes in a box; isn’t silken tofu that runny stuff that comes in a carton?)

1. Place the water in a large pot and bring to a boil over high heat.  Add the spinach, mushrooms, scallions, and tamari.  Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the vegetables soften, 3 to 6 minutes.  Reduce the heat to low.
2. Place about 1/4 cup of the hot soup mixture in a small bowl and add the miso, blending well.  Stir the mixture back into the soup, add the tofu, and simmer for 2 minutes, being careful not to boil.  Taste, adjust the seasonings, and serve hot.

There’s quite a lot of ingredients in this, although most of which should be in your store cupboard.  In fact, I only had to buy a carrot, so it’s kind of like a free meal.  Result.

What is even more of a result is that it’s delicious.  The Meat Eater ate a mouthful, declared it ‘yum’, finished before me for the first time ever and asked me to make it again.  Fine praise indeed.

It’s not the most lowest of calorie dinners, with it containing cheese, flour, milk, lentils and pasta, but I’m going for a run tomorrow and can therefore eat what I like.

I wish.

Macaroni bake (serves 4 – I halved the ingredients to serve 2)
Taken from Leith’s Vegetarian Bible

For the lentil layer
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, crushed
2 carrots, finely diced
110g/4oz red lentils
1 x 400g/14oz can of chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoon tomato puree
a pinch of sugar
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 bay leaf
a few drops of Tabasco sauce
2-3 tablespoons mango chutney

For the topping
110g/4oz macaroni
20g/¾oz butter
20g/¾oz plain flour
a pinch of cayenne pepper
425ml/¾ pint milk
salt and freshly ground black pepper
wholegrain mustard
85g/3oz Cheddar cheese, grated
85g/3oz Parmesan-style cheese, freshly grated
1 teaspoon dried breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon mustard seeds (optional)
1 teaspoon sesame seeds (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6.
2. First make the lentil layer: heat the oil in a saucepan and add the onion, garlic and carrots.  Cover and cook over a low heat for about 5 minutes or until the onion is softened and transparent.
3. Add the lentils, tomatoes, tomato puree, sugar, salt, pepper, bay leaf, Tabasco and chutney to the pan.  Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes until the lentils are cooked and the excess liquid has evaporated, leaving a thick but not dry mixture.  Discard the bay leaf and transfer the lentil mixture to a deep ovenproof dish.
4. Make the macaroni topping:  bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil, add the macaroni and cook, uncovered, until al dente.  The water must boil steadily to keep the macaroni moving freely and prevent it from sticking to the pan.  Drain thoroughly and rinse under boiling water.
5. Melt the butter in another saucepan and add the flour and cayenne.  Cook, stirring, for 1 minute.  Remove from the heat, pour in the milk and mix well.  Return to the heat and stir until boiling, then lower the heat and simmer, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes.
6. Add the cooked macaroni to the sauce and season to taste with salt, pepper and mustard.  Stir in all but 1 tablespoon of the grated cheeses and spoon the macaroni mixture on top of the lentil layer.  Mix the reserved cheese with the breadcrumbs and the mustard and sesame seeds, if used, and sprinkle evenly over the surface.  Place on a baking tray and bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until the cheese has melted and the topping is golden-brown.

A cookbook I haven’t used for a while is Vegetarian Express by Rose Elliot so I had a flick through it yesterday looking for inspiration for this week’s soup and came across a recipe for spinach and potato soup.

It was very nice.

And very green.

Ingredients
(serves 5)
1 small onion, chopped
400g spinach
400g potatoes, diced
1400ml vegetable stock
1 tbsp olive oil
Ground nutmeg
salt and pepper

1. Fry the onion in the olive oil for about 5 minutes
2. Add the potato and cook for about 5 minutes
3. Add the spinach and press down, stirring occasionally until it softens and wilts, about 5 minutes
4. Add the stock, bring to the boil and simmer for about 10-15 minutes, until the potato is tender
5. Remove from heat, add nutmeg, salt & pepper and blend

Two friends said on Facebook how nice pumpkin soup was and I said if it was anything like butternut squash, then I couldn’t be bothered with trying to peel it and one of them said no, you just cut it in half and scoop the flesh out, so I thought oh, ok then, pumpkin soup this week it is.

Unfortunately, is turned into was, as Tesco had no pumpkins (why didn’t I think of this a week earlier?) and so butternut squash it was.  My original recipe called for buttermilk but I couldn’t find it in Tesco (where would it be?  I looked on the fresh milk aisle, the long life milk aisle and near the cooking ingredients but couldn’t find it) and so as my original recipe called for a pumpkin and buttermilk and I came home with butternut squash and no buttermilk, I thought I’d better find a new recipe.

I found this recipe which is a Gary Rhodes’ recipe and I’ve decided that Gary Rhodes is either a) a spiky-haired tight git; or b) anorexic or c) neither of the above and I’m just a fat pig, as his recipe says that it serves 4 but I had a third extra amount of butternut squash and stock and it only serves three.

Still, even though it didn’t make a huge amount and it was a pain in the you know what peeling that butternut squash, the soup was thick, creamy, velvety smooth, delicious and a gorgeous orange colour.

Hurry up tomorrow lunchtime.

Butternut squash soup
Prep time: 10 mins [I took flipping ages peeling the butternut squash]
Cook time: 40 mins
Serves 4: [more like 3 and that's with my extra butternut squash and stock]

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, sliced
1 clove garlic, crushed
675g butternut squash seeds removed and cubed [I used just over 800g I think]
1/2 tsp ground ginger [I used about 3/4 tsp to go with the extra squash and stock]
600ml vegetable stock [I used 900ml, as I didn't use orange juice [see below] and had extra butternut squash]
100ml orange juice [I didn't use this as I'm not a fan of sweet stuff in my food]
salt and black pepper

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan.  Add the onions and garlic to the pan and fry until softened, but not coloured.
2. Tip in the butternut squash and add the ginger.  Cook for a further 5 minutes, stirring from time to time.
3. Add the stock and orange juice and simmer for about 30 minutes until the squash is tender.
4. Leave the soup to cool slightly, before pureeing with a hand blender until smooth.  Season to taste, reheat if necessary and serve.

Ingredients

As I’ve recently rediscovered crumpets, I thought I’d have a go at making my own as, although they only cost 57p for 8 in Tesco, I don’t like the huge list of ingredients you get on packaged things and after scouring the internet for a crumpet recipe, found out I already had all the ingredients in the cupboard.  Result.  The only thing I didn’t have were rings to cook them in, which was easily resolved by a trip to the local hardware shop.  Although with two rings costing £4.25, I’m going to have to make a lot of crumpets to break even.

So, on with the making of crumpets.

First, I got stuck when I re-read the recipe and it said dried yeast.  Is that the same as fast action yeast?  I tried Twittering but got no reply so re-scoured the internet for another crumpet recipe using fast-action yeast but they all looked a bit of a faff, so I decided to risk it and use fast action yeast in the recipe I’d already found.

Ingredients (makes 6 – I halved the original recipe)

4 oz strong plain flour [the other recipes said plain flour so I got confused again but I used strong white flour, the type you use for making bread].

1/2 level teaspoon salt

1/2 level tablespoon dried yeast [I used fast action yeast]

1/2 teaspoon caster sugar

1/4 pint milk [I would have used soya milk to make them vegan but didn’t want to open a new litre carton just to use a tiny bit of it so used the moo juice that was in the fridge]

1 fl oz water

Equipment
Cooking rings [I bought the kind used for making poached eggs]
Frying pan

Preparation

Heat the milk and water together in a small saucepan till they are ‘hand hot’.  Then pour into a jug, stir in the sugar and dried yeast and leave it in a warm place for 10-15 minutes till there is a good frothy head on it [it’s November and therefore not very warm but it did go frothy].

Meanwhile, sift the flour and salt into a mixing bowl and make a well in the centre.  When the yeast mixture is frothy, pour it all into the mixing bowl.

Slowly work the flour into the liquid with a wooden spoon.  Beat well at the end to make a perfectly smooth batter.

Cover the mixing bowl with a tea-towel and leave to stand in a warm place for about 45 minutes – by which time the batter will have become light and frothy [once again, I had trouble finding somewhere warm and I don’t know about light and frothy, but it did change appearance].

When you’re ready to cook, grease the insides of the cooking rings very well and add a little oil to your frying pan before placing it over a medium heat.

When the pan is hot, arrange the rings in the frying pan and spoon 1 tablespoon of the batter into each ring [1 tablespoon is nowhere near enough.  I used about 3 or 4].

Let them cook for 4 or 5 minutes: first tiny bubbles will appear on the surface and then, suddenly, they will burst, leaving the traditional holes.

Now take a large spoon and fork, lift off the rings and turn the crumpets over.  Cook on the second side for about 1 minute only.  Re-grease and reheat the rings before cooking the next batch [I used a bit of tea-towel to lift the rings off, they slid off easily.  I didn’t re-grease the rings as the first two crumpets I cooked were quite greasy.  The crumpets were quite brown underneath; I don’t know if I cooked them for too long?]

I ate one as soon as it had been cooked and while the taste and texture were pretty much identical to shop-bought ones, they were a bit greasy and really not worth all that time, effort and mess to make, so Tesco will be pleased to know its profits won’t be dwindling by 57p a week after all.

I love mushrooms.  They taste nice, they go well on things, in things, they’re inexpensive and contain only 13 calories per 100g.  And today’s soup must be one of the easiest soups in the world ever.

Ingredients (serves 5)

Big bag of mushrooms
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
2,500ml vegetable stock
Mushroom ketchup
Dried thyme
Salt and pepper

1. Chop up the onion.
2. Cook the onion in some stock while you’re chopping up the mushrooms.
3. Add the mushrooms and the rest of the stock to the onion.
4. Add the garlic, mushroom ketchup and dried thyme.
5. Simmer for about 15 minutes.
6. Add the salt and pepper and blend it a bit.

A nice, chunky, warming dish made with potato, beans and pasta for these cold evenings from Good Housekeeping Step by Step Vegetarian Cookbook. It came out thicker than I expected, as in the colour index it says it’s somewhere between a stew and a hearty soup which I suppose it is, but you only need a fork to eat it, not a spoon.

Pasta e fagioli (vegan if the cheese is omitted)
Serves 6

1 onion
1 leek
1 carrot
1 large potato
2 celery sticks
60ml (4 tbsp) extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
10ml (2 tsp) chopped fresh thyme
5ml (1 tsp) finely chopped fresh rosemary
500g (1 lb 2 oz) carton passata
600ml (1 pint) vegetable stock
225g (8oz) small conchiglie or ditali pasta
two 400g (14oz) cans borlotti beans, drained
60ml (4 tbsp) chopped fresh basil
Salt and pepper

TO SERVE

75g (3 oz) Parmesan-style cheese, freshly grated
a little extra-virgin olive oil

1. Peel and chop the onion; slice the leek; peel and dice the carrot and potato; dice the celery.
2. Heat the oil in a large sauce pan, add the onion, leek, carrot, potato, celery, garlic and herbs and fry gently for 10 minutes until softened slightly, stirring occasionally to prevent them from sticking.
3. Add the passata and stock.  Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.
4. Meanwhile add the pasta to a large pan of lightly salted boiling water and cook for 5-6 minutes until al dente (tender but firm to the bite).  Drain and immediately refresh under cold water.  Drain well and toss with a little olive oil.
5. Add the beans to the stew.  cover and cook for a further 10 minutes until the vegetables are tender.  Stir in the pasta and basil, heat through and season with salt and pepper to taste.
6. Spoon into warmed bowls and sprinkle generously with Parmesan-style cheese.  Drizzle with olive oil to serve.