Squeeze My Lemons

Although I saved a bit of money, I’m trying to spend as little as possible doing as much as possible. However, in my first 2 weeks this has gone a little a miss as I’ve had so much fun doing every single activity I’ve ever wanted to do.Forever getting carried away. Forever got no chill. I’m only here once though.

Here’s a few things I’ve done so far!

  I’ve stayed in some varying hostels along the way, some nicer than others, and all of them have kitchens in which guests can cook in instead of spending money eating out every night.

The first few weeks my food choices have been quite poor, opting for easy, cheap, quick food that probably isn’t the healthiest. And I can feel it.

So I’ve decided to carry on blogging whilst I’m away but with a twist.

Every hostel I have stayed in so far has something called “free food” shelves in the cupboards and fridges. This is pretty self explanatory in which every day when checking out guests leave food they haven’t used yet and leave it to future guests for free.

The price of food in NZ is ridiculous! Where a cucumber would cost 50p in the UK here they work out about 3-4 pounds EACH depending on the shop! Thats just one example of mad prices!

So I’ve decided to blog recipes based on items I can gather from free food shelves keeping it as healthy as possible, only buying any ingredients I need to add to this, trying to spend under $10 NZD (approx 5 pounds).

I also did this because when trying to search for cheap, healthy, backpacker recipes the results were rubbish so thought id just give it a bash myself!

This surprisingly will keep me very occupied especially when like now its hammering it down with rain outside (such a geek I know) 😦

But today is Monday, and the happiest Monday I’ve had in a long time. I’ve got loads to look forward to, I’m dead happy and have loads of amazing people in my life keeping me motivated. I got back into my routine of going on a 5km run on my lunch break at work, and craving healthy food. So I decided to make a healthy pizza. Its a cauliflower base to keep it low carb with lots of veg 🙂

And ever being the crafty little git I am, I obviously made it rainbow coloured and heart shaped (because everything tastes better heart shaped).

I feel this pizza is an accurate metaphor of my life right now. Cheesey.

Ingredients

  Cauliflower base

1 big cauliflower

1 egg

2 garlic cloves chopped

half a ball of mozarella grated

passatta

basil chopped

dried herbs

loads of pretty coloured veg chopped up 🙂

          Chop all the ingredients ready to roll 🙂

Chop the cauliflower into chunks and put it into a blender and blitz up until it resembles rice. or grate it. But i’m lazy and hungry

Cook the cauliflower rice in a bowl in the microwave for approx 5 mins, stirring half way through. leave to cool for 5 -10 mins.

Squeeze as much liquid out as possible, put in a bowl with the egg, herbs, mozarella and garlic. 

  Spread the cheesey mix onto a baking tray and bake in the oven at 200c for 10-15 minutes.

remove from oven and top with approx 3 tbsp of passata and veg. arranging in cringey pattern optional….

Cook for 10-15 minutes until veg is cooked and crust is crispy. 

 Serve with salad and feel as happy and cute as me 🙂

So tonight I’m having George round post Yoga and having a throw back to when we were in The Philippines.

Not going to lie whilst we were there, food was a bit limited, to fresh fruit, plain boiled rice and a soy sauce mix with tomatoes, cucumbers and onions that everyone just seemed to live off! But there were a few dishes that stuck out at us that we decided to combine a few of them.

Ever being the greedy lass that I am, I took a cooking lesson out there, and one of the dishes was a “Moong bean” vegetable dish. basically like lentils but me and George LOVED this so this was an obvious choice for me to try to recreate.

Secondly asian aubergines are like no other, uk aubergines don’t compare, and that sounds pretty intense for an aubergine comparison but I guess this is as interesting as my life gets now. battle of the aubssss. Or egg plant if you’re american (aka wrong).

……and then it would be an insult to serve it with anything but plain ass rice and aforementioned soy sauce concoction.

This ones just a bit of fun and mainly for cheer up purposes, but yummy all the same!

Ingredients for the Moongo beans 

200g dried moongo beans

700ml veegtable stock

2 cloves on garlic fienly chopped

1 tbsp grated ginger

1 can of coconut milk

handful of spinach

            Instructions for beans

Add the beans and the stock to a pan, bring to the boil and simmer for 40 mins. checking on them regularly and giving them a stir as they can begin to stick.

In another pan add some oil, the onion, garlic and fry until soft.

Add to the bean mix and keep simmering.

Stir in the coconut milk and the spinach leaves.

Season with plenty of salt and yarsssss its ready

  Ingredients for the Breaded Aubergine -serves 2-3

5 Tiny asian aubergines sliced, i got mine from the world food store on bold street Liverpool, but non pretentious aubergines will do too probably 1 big one!

100g of chickpea flour(or normal flour will work too i just have too much of this stuff! honest)

1/2tsp turmeric

1tsp cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp salt

10 tbsps of water

coconut oil to fry in

Get friend slave to slice said aubergines…..

Mix together the flour, spices, lemon juice, baking powder and water in a bowl until a thick smooth batter is formed.

  Lay out ya dishes in an orderly manner. no messin’ and get dunking in said orderly manner. first into the batter and next into the bread crumbs. obvs #gallery-0-18 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-18 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 25%; } #gallery-0-18 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-18 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

  put about  a tbsp of coconut oil in the pan, and wait for it to melt, then fry the aubergines for a couple of minutes on each side until golden on the outside and soft in the middle.

  Serve with the rice and the beans and the soy sauce mix! (not very fillipino to say , but they go fab with sweet chilli sauce too 😉 )

  Soy sauce ingredients

Soy sauce

4 cherry tomatoes or a couple of big tomatoes

a couple of spring onions

quarter of a cucumber

    cube all the ingredients and place in a bowl.

stir in the soy sauce, i did this by eye until there was enough to cover the veg.

  Well that was a lengthy one but this was the final product ! it actually looks authentic, and to anyone whos not been to the phillipines I highly recommend you go! you wont regret it… but im not going to lie you’ll be fed up of the rice and fried food by the end of your trip hahaah

I love Gin and I love ice lollies (lolly ices if you’re scouse and WRONG). I also love space and happened to find these rocket ice lolly moulds in john lewis reduced to a fiver from like twenty-ridiculously priced pounds. So yay me.These will obviously take a while to freeze so ill be enjoying one of these after my first day of my new job…..probably needed. ENJOYYYYYYYY

Ingredients

makes about 6-8 ice lollies depending on your moulds

100g white sugar sugar

80ml gin

1 lime (or lemon) juiced

225ml tonic water

3-4 slices of cucumber cut in half

6-8 raspberries or any cute fruit :)

    .Put the sugar with 50ml cold water in small saucepan and cook over a low/medium heat (don’t let it boil) until the sugar has dissolved. Set aside to cool completely.

02.When cool, put the sugar syrup in a medium pouring jug with the gin, lime juice and tonic water, then mix. Put a cucumber slice and a raspberry into each of the lolly moulds, then pour the mixture evenly into the moulds. Add the lolly sticks and put in the freezer. Freeze until solid (ideally overnight).

  pour the sugar and 50ml of water (not the tonic) into a pan. Cook on a low-medium heat making sure it doesn’t boil and stir until the sugar has dissolved and the mix goes clear. Set aside to cool down! Probably the most boring part of the recipe soz!

  When its cooled down mix with the gin, tonic and lime juice.

Put some cucumber and raspberries into each mould then fill each mould with the gin mix.

  Freeze! I put mine in overnight.

Chill on the sofa with ya feet up like me and enjoy. happy sucking

So seen as it’s Sunday and I can have a bit of a chill day I decided to make something yummy. I fancied pastry but not pie so decided to make a wellington! It was dead easy and tasty and I couldn’t be arsed to make a nut roast so yassssssssss

Post walk with a pals doggy has made me dead hungry too so I’m probably going to eat it all but in reality it will probably serve 3-4 people

  Ingredients

5 BIG mushrooms- I used normal and chestnut, portobello would be good but tesco had none :(

3 onions sliced

3 cloves of garlic

200g spinach

fresh thyme

roll of pastry

1-2 tbsp mustard

Put the onions in a pan with 2 tbsp of oil, season with salt and peps and cook on medium heat for approx 10 mins, add the garlic and cook for a further 10 mins, stirring every few minutes.

Whilst they cook make a brew and take puppy dawg selfie……  

Once that’s done and the onions are a lovely golden brown set them aside to cool.

Next put the spinach in the pan for a few minutes until wilted. looks loads but its a filthy lying cheat and will shrivel into what looks like nothing so don’t panic! once cooked set aside to cool.

Put a tablespoon of oil in a pan and place the mushrooms top side down, into the pan and cook on a medium heat for five minutes, flip and cook for five minutes on the other side. Flip again and cook for another fives minutes until mushrooms are golden brown. Set aside to cool whilst you heat the oven to 200c.

  Grab the pastry and roll it out. I cut mine in half as I’m making 2 small ones but can also make 1 big one!

first spread half the onions onto the middle of the pastry. Then spinach.

  Spread the mustard over the mushrooms then place them on top of the onion/spinach. Season with salt and peps and the thyme leaves. Top with the remaining spinach and onion.

  Things got a bit messy but ignore that this isn’t instagram.

Next fold the sides over and pinch the ends. I made covered mine with pretty pastry shaped hearts because heart shaped food tastes better and Im forever trying to be cute (but failing miserably).

Brush with milk I used coconut but any will be fine!

Pop in the oven for 20-30 minutes until golden brown and serve with whatever the f**k you like :) 

Never had paneer before, but decided to give it a bash as i’ve always wanted to try it. For the record it tastes like a squishier halloumi which I have no complaints against :)

Ingredients

Serves 2-3

150g basmati rice

1 onion sliced

2 cloves of garlic sliced

1 pepper sliced

1 tsp onion seeds (nigella seeds) optional

5 cherry tomatoes quartered

2 tbsp tomato puree

300ml veg stock

1 pack of paneer cubed

1 tbsp curry powder

big thumb sized piece of ginger peeled and grated

2 tsp butter

pinch of sugar & salt

    Heat oil in a pan and add the paneer, stir and cook until golden all over. try not to steal bits as it smells soooo good. set aside once cooked.

Next add a 2tbsp of oil and the onions to the pan, with a pinch of salt and 2tsp of sugar. Cook on low until start to caramelize.

Add the pepper to the pan and cook for 5 minutes until starting to soften.

Add the ginger, garlic and curry powder and tomatoes to the pan and stir.

Add the tomato paste, paneer and stock , cover with a lid and cook for 10 minutes.

  Whilst that’s cooking make the rice. I made mine fancehhhhh. Because i’m a weirdo

Add rice, onion seeds and butter to a pan. melt the butter and stir for about a minute.

Add 375 ml of cold water, bring to a boil, cover and cook on low for 10 mins :)

Snobby but easy

  Serve the rice and curry together, with poppadums and an out of proportion glass of wine ….. obviously…..

So today i’ve been reminiscing and looking through my photos of when I travelled around Thailand. Thai has always been my fave food but looking at these photos made me crave it even more (especially after a trip to Chaophraya on saturday in Edinburgh). This is also for my friend Steph who is obsessed with this soup.

I’m not claiming that my recipe is as good as the authentic type, but I learnt this in Thailand and its good….. all im saying.

Some of the ingredients sound a bit odd and I do have a local “world food shop” which sells all the hipster shit I like to cook with. But lets not be a show of about it Nicola they sell all of this in sainsburys/tesco now days!

Side note – this is a delayed post as the night I began writing this all excited about reliving my Thai adventure I kind of got broke up with so my passion for food kind of died… along with my blog and love of all things thai for a while.

but breathe innnnn…. i’m good now. back on track.

Ingredients

serves 2

1 tin of coconut milk

1 thumb sized piece of galangal peeled and sliced

1 and a half lemongrass stalks, crushed and cut into 1 inch sized pieces (legit sell these in Aldi)

half a big white onion sliced

2 tomatoes halved/quartered whatever tickles you

3 kaffir limes leaves (mine were actually from Thailand what I brought back with me)

100g of mushrooms sliced

a chilli sliced…. depending how hot you like it use as you wish

juice of half a lime

small bunch of coriander

if you want to add chicken, do so at step 3 :)

  Chop all the ingredients ready to go! tips… Lemongrass– slice off the bottom of the lemongrass, pull off the outer layer crush with a knife, and slice into 1 inch chunks to release fragrance. Galangal– peel like you would ginger, cut into slices no thicker than a pound coin.

Grab a pan, and pour half of the coconut milk into it with the lemongrass and galangal.

Before it comes to a boil add the rest of the coconut milk and half a tin of water (i used the coconut milk tin, but its approx 200ml). Turn the heat to medium, never letting it boil just slowly bubbling else the coconut milk will taste gross…trust me.

Add the sliced chillies,the mushrooms, onion and tomatoes to the soup and stir.

Add the kaffir lime leaves, breaking gently to release flavour.

Add a pinch of salt.

Cook gently for 10 minutes.

Add the coriander and the lime juice and stir just before serving.

In Thailand they serve this with rice on the side which you dip into the soup with your spoon, which is what I did :)

Enjoy steph… not that you can cook ;)

Dead easy to make, basically a pretentious stir fry but satisfied me enough to close down just eat and spare my bank account a tenner. yay

This is one of those recipes where you can add practically any veg into it you might fancy in a stir fry so just swing with it, go crazy.

Ingredients

Serves 2

2 courgettes spiralised ( or shop bought pre-made courgetti from the shops

2 tsp sesame oil (or vegetable oil if you have none)

handful of kale chopped up

5 mushrooms sliced

A singular lonely carrot cut into matchsticks

3 spring onions sliced

2 cm ginger grated ( makes about a tbsp)

3 cloves of garlic chopped

Half a lime

For the sauce

150ml vegetable stock

1 tbsp ketchap manis (99p from tesco, bascially a sweet soy sauce, just use soy sauce if you cant get it kiddas)

splash of soy sauce

1 tbsp rice wine vinegar

1 tbsp cornsflour

To make the sauce

In a bowl mix together the vegetable stock, ketchap manis, splash of soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, half the juice of a lime corn flour and a splash of water (1-2 tbsp).

Leave to the side until ready to add to the vegetables.

To make the vegetables

Add the sesame oil to the pan and add the kale, mushrooms, carrots and cook until beginning to soften.

Add the ginger and garlic and spring onion to the pan and cook for a further 2 minutes.

Set aside in a bowl.

Spiralise your courgettes! try and have as much fun as me plzzz

In the empty pan add the sauce ingredients and cook on medium- high heat for 1-2 mins until it begins to bubble, thicken and darken.

Add courgetti to the pan with the sauce ingredients and cook on medium-high heat for 2 minutes.

 Stir the Veg back into the pan and heat through for a couple of mins

Serve with a sprinkling of cheeky cashews and half a lime to squeeze as ya please!

Serve with quorn or tofu if you want!

The thing I like about vegetarian/vegan food is it’s so easy and usually uses up ingredients I already have in my fridge/cupboards so I don’t have to make any extra journeys to the shop. Which is good because my flats on the fourth floor and the lift is broken today.

So basically this is a stew of scraps… which come together to make one bowl of something decent. Win

Ingredients

serves 3-4

2 small red onions diced

1 red pepper diced

3 cloves of garlic finely chopped

2 tins of tomatoes

1 tin of chickpeas

small bunch of parsley roughly chopped

1 tbsp of smoked paprika (MUST BE SMOKEY FOR FLAVOUR)

3 tsp ground cumin

1 tbsp of tomato puree

200g spinach

2-3 tsp sugar

flaked almonds to serve (optional)

  First of all chop all the ingredients!

Next fry the onion on a low heat for approx 5 min until it softens

Add the chopped garlic to the pan and stir for a 2 mins.

Add the paprika and cumin to the pan and fry for 30 seconds or so.

Add the tomato puree to the pan and cook for another 30 seconds.

Stir in the tomatoes and season with salt and pepper and half of the sugar.

Add the chickpeas to the pan and simmer for  15 minutes on a low heat until the sauce thickens.

Add the mountain of spinach to the pan and let it wilt, this may look like it will take a lifetime but it will take approx 5 mins and look like you didnt add any to the pan to behin with. ABRA-CADABRAAAA

Taste, if the tomatoes are still tasting a bit sharp  add some more sugar to sweeten it up.

Serve with rice or if you’re being a extra health boring soul like me, some boiled greens bleughhhhh (just kidding they were orate you know!). I served the rest up for others with halloumi….. not so vegan but vegetarian non the less.

Side note- if you’re a snob like me balsamic glaze on top is a winner. balsamic glaze on errreehhhhh thing

But now I’ve learnt how to do it right and it was yummy!

I did mine in the slow cooker whilst i was at work, but this could always just be done in  a pan for quickness.

Ingredients

Block of Tofu – I used 369g block of cauldron tofu from tesco for £1.50 !

1 red pepper sliced

250g spinach

2 garlic cloves finely chopped

85g peanut butter

1-2 chillis deseeeded and finely chopped- depending how hot you like it, i used 2 and it wasnt spicy at all

1 tbsp finely chopped ginger

Juice of 1 lime

3 tbsp rice wine vinegar

2 tbsp sugar

2 tsp sesame oil

300ml vegetable stock

Small bunch of coriander chopped

   First things first any tofu savvy pirate should know that the key to a good tofu is to squeeze as much water out of it as possible to begin with. This is what 2012 nicola did wrong resulting in a plate of minging.

sooo heres how to do it. First put the whole block on a plate, put another small plate on top of it and squeeze over a sink. SIMPLE. watch all the water ooze out. you can even squeeze it gently by hand just be careful not to crumble the tofu, its a delicate creature. chop into chunky cubes.

  Heat some oil in a pan and add the cubes, fry on a medium heat for 3 minutes, then turn the cubes and fry on the other side for 3 minutes. they should look like this……

  Next chop all the other ingredients!

In a bowl mix the sesame oil, lime juice, peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, garlic, ginger, and chillis.

  Add the tofu, red peppers and sauce mix into the slow cooker with 300ml of the vegetable stock.

Cook and cover on low for 4 hours ( or if using a pan cover and cook on a low simmer for 30 mins)

15 minutes before serving add the spinach to the slow cooker/ pan and mix. cook for a futher 15 minutes until spinach wilts. stir in half the chopped coriander (approx 1 tbsp)

Serve with rice or noodles, topped with the rest of the fresh coriander and i spinkled a couple of cashews on top to be fancehhhhhhh.

I made mine Yasai Katsu so it’s vegan !

This is so so easy to make and so so worth it!

PS. YOU WILL NEED A BLENDER

Ingredients

serves 3-4

For the Katsu Curry sauce

2 onions sliced

5 cloves of garlic chopped

1 cm chunk of ginger (the tiny piece on my picture of ingredients)

1 heaped tbspn of curry powder – I used medium spiced

1tbsp flour

600ml veg stock

either a drizzle of honey or a tsp of sugar/maple syrup

2tbsp of rice wine vinegar

2tbsp of soy sauce

fresh chilli and lime to serve (optional)

For the Yasai Vegetables

Selection of vegetables such as sweet potato, aubergine, courgette and pepper sliced into 1/2 cm thick slices (about 4 slices of chosen vegetable per person is enough Eg. 2 aubergine, 2 sweet potato each)

2 cups of flour

1 cup of water

80g dried breadcrumbs

  To make the sauce

Heat a tbspn of oil in a pan and fry the onions on a medium heat for 10 mins until soft

Add the garlic and ginger and fry for another 5 mins

Stir in the curry powder and cook for 30 seconds

Add the flour and veg stock and simmer for 15 minutes

Blend!

Add back to the pan and drizzle in either honey or the sugar, the rice wine vinegar and soy sauce.

Continue to simmer on low for 15- 20 mins, stirring occasionally whilst preparing the Yasai vegetables.

Taste before serving as it may need more honey/sugar depending how salty your stock/soy sauce tastes.

To make the Yasai Vegetables

Prepare all the vegetables you are using by cutting into 1/2 cm slices, this ensures they will be soft all the way through. I set Chris this task and I’ve never seen him concentrate so much haha (they still came out wonky ;) )

concentration Chris cutting courgette

Get three small bowls

In one bowl add a cup of flour

In a second bowl add a cup of flour and a cup of water, stirring until it makes a thick liquid

In the third bowl add the bread crumbs

Take a vegetable slice and dip first into the flour, then the flour and water mixture, then finally into the breadcrumbs until evenly coated. Repeat until all vegetables are ready to fry.

Anna and Chris bonding having “fun” making the veg hahahahah 

In a frying pan add some oil, enough to cover the bottom of the pan in a thin layer, and add the slices, frying for 1-2 mins on each side until golden brown. check with a knife to see if soft

Serve with rice and the Katsu Curry sauce on top!

I served mine with a side salad drizzled with hoisin sauce (PS hello feet)

I bought these fancy ass mushrooms the other day that look like they have the capabilities of making me hallucinate (hope so). So what better way to use them than Chinese food mmmmmm

This was so easy to make and probably the most tastiest Chinesey thing I’ve ever made.

Non-pretentious mushrooms will work just fine too……

Ingredients

Serves 2

250g of mixed mushrooms (or just use whatever you can get)

1 white onion finely chopped

2 garlic cloves finely chopped

2cm chunk of ginger

2 pak choi halved

2tbsp soy sauce

1tbsp rice wine vinegar

3 spring onions sliced

Red chilli and lime to serve (optional)

      Heat tbsp of oil in a pan and fry the mushrooms for 2 minutes until starting to soften and turn golden then set aside.

  Heat another tbsp of oil in the empty pan and add the onion and stir fry for 2 mins, then add the ginger and garlic to the pan and fry for about 30 secs.

Throw the pak choi into the pan with a splash of water and cook for 3 mins until they are soft when you stab them with a knife.

  Add the mushrooms back to the pan with the soy sauce, vinegar and spring onions and cook for a further 2 mins.

  thats it !

I served mine with cooked wholewheat noodles with hoisin stirred through and a sprinkle of sesame seeds and a wedge of lime (but rice will do too)

Hes always letting me try out my weird and wonderful creations because like me, he likes his food….except prawns because apparently they have attitude problems ….. but that’s another story.

So I took some inspiration from my new veggie cookbook Anna bought me as a surprise (east smart- niomi smart) changed the recipe more to suit me and made some apricot veggie balls , homemade tomato sauce and butternut squash spaghetti :)

Chris said these had more taste than meatballs  and to be fair they were orate you know ;)

Ingredients

for the balls – serves 4 – makes 12

100g dry green lentils cooked for 30 mins prior to beginning…or use a tin of them precooked, i just had none

half a tin of kidney beans

100g mix of cashews and walnuts

8-10 dried apricots finely chopped depending how many you fancy

2 small or 1 large onion finely diced

1 garlic clove chopped

2tbsp flour (any i used gram)

1 tbsp dried mixed herbs

oil for frying – i use coconut oil

for the butternut squash spaghetti – for 2

1 large butternut squash

olive oil

for the tomato sauce ….. or just use a jar

4 vine tomatoes

1 clove of garlic

handful of basil

2 small or 1 large onion chopped

1 tsp maple syrup or honey

1 tsp dried mixed herbs

      Lets get ballsy…..

Fry half of the chopped onion in a tsp of coconut oil for 5 mins until softened then add the garlic and fry for another minute.

Whilst that cools, blitz the nuts in a blender until they’re in small sized chunks.

Add all the other ingredients apart from the remaining onion and apricots (cooked onion, lentils, kidney beans, herbs, flour). Blend until well mixed then stir in the remaining onion and apricots.

  Shape the mixture into 12 balls, they make quite big ones I do say

Bake on a preheated oven at 180c for 15 mins, flip dem balls, then cook for a further 15 mins.

balls before

balls after

  EASYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

I served it over the butternut squash spaghetti tossed in the tomato sauce then drizzled some balasamic over the top :)

Butternut squash spaghetti

you can purchase this from most supermarkets now pre made but if like me youre a nerd who owns a spiralizer then its cheap to make your own :)

I saved this job for chris and he actually broke my spiralizer RIP :'(

soooooo…..

Whilst the balls are baking away in the oven

Peel the squash then spiralize it

Toss the spiralized squash with olive oil in a baking tray and pop in the oven for 10- 12 mins, mixing every 3 minutes or so

Tomato sauce

you can either use shop bought but i decided to go the full mile and make it all from fresh. why am I not Italian?

Fry the onion in a tsp of coconut oil on a medium heat for 5 mins.

Add the rest of the ingredients and cook on a low heat for 15- 20 mins

Blitz it all up in a blender :)

Stir into the butternut squash spaghetti! 

After a gruesome 15 hour night shift all I needed was a nice big pie in my belly but lots of veg to make me feel human again.

This is quite a hefty recipe than what  I’m used to but it’s Anna and Chris approved so there….

Ingredients

2 big white potatoes, peeled and chopped into chunks

1 big big big sweet potato, peeled and chopped into chunks

3 onions ( mine were tiny, use 1 big one if ya fancy it), sliced

2 carrots, sliced into medium sized chunks

2 sticks of celery, finely sliced

3 garlic cloves, 2 for the filling, 1 for the topping, finely diced

approx 350g mushrooms – i used a mix of chestnut and white, roughly chopped

sundried tomatoes – I bought a jar and used about 10, roughly chopped

1 lemon, zested not squeezed ;)

fresh rosemary, flat leaf parsley & thyme – tesco sell a “roasting selection” which has all 3 in a pack for 70p- YAY!

tin of chickpeas

tin of green lentils

100ml veg stock

a splash of red wine

2 tbsp of balsamic vinegar

1tbsp coriander seeds ground – i battered mine in my pestle and mortar

40g dairy free butter

30g breadcrumbs

1 tsp smoked paprika

olive oil

Thats it………

Once all your veg is chopped like sooooo……

…… put all the potatoes into a pan of boiling water and cook until soft, mash with the butter and some salt, then set aside ready to top this little pie of goodness.

To a pan add a splash of oil, the chopped onion , carrot, celery, 2 of the garlic cloves, the bashed coriander seeds and half a bunch of time leaves and cook for approx 10 minutes until softened.

  Add the mushrooms , sundried tomatoes (and a little bit of the oil from the jar) and the vinegar to the pan. cook on low for 10 mins then add a splash of wine and allow the wine to cook away.

Stir in the stock, the lentils, the chickpeas, smoked paprika and cook for a further 5-10 mins until thickened up.

Finely add the chopped parsley leaves, some salt and pepper, give it a stir then lob it into a baking dish.

Breadcrumb topping

This gives the top of a pie a lovely zesty crunch in which Chris strongly approved :)

In a bowl mix the breadcrumbs, rosemary leaves, lemon zest and a tsp of oil. mix well then sprinkle over the mash to give it a lovely crisp topping.

Place the pie in the oven for approx 10 minutes and serve with veg !

BEFORE

AFTER

Scared that she’ll probably “ground” me if I don’t, I’ve finally made a creation out of only a small portion of the abundance of those dirty little beetroots she gave me !

Hope you like it mum, I made sure I used ingredients that you’d be able to get handy, not the pretentious rubbish I usually fill my cupboards with haha

Enjoy!

Ingredients

Makes about 4-6 burgers depending how big you like them!

400g raw beetroots, peeled and grated

200g of feta cheese

1 egg

8 spring onions, finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

small bunch of mint, finely chopped

1 lemon- using the zest and juice

2-3 tbsp of flour

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground coriander

salt and pepper to season

To serve

yoghurt, cucumber & mint sauce (optional) – small tub of natural yoghurt – I used about 3-4 tbsp for 2 servings, a quarter of a cucumber grated, 2 stalks of fresh mint finely chopped and salt for seasoning

salad leaves

tomatoes

onions

crusty cobs

  To make the yogurt, cucumber & mint sauce

Add all ingredients to a bowl and mix! EASYYYYYY

  To make the burgers

 Peel then grate the beetroots. This is the best (worst) arm workout you will ever do.

Beetroot mountain

  Squeeze the grated beetroot to get as much water out of it as you can else the burgers will just fall apart!

note to self and others, maybe wear gloves next time haha

  In a bowl mix the grated beetroot, spring onions, garlic , mint, lemon zest and juice, 2 tbsp of flour, egg and salt and pepper  to season. Once mixed well crumble in the feta and stir again. 

  Form the mixture into 4-6 burger patties depending how big you want them. then dust on both sides with more flour.

Heat oil in a pan and fry on a medium heat for 5-8 minutes on each side!

Here’s the mini frying pan my boyfriend got me as a mean joke because I desperately needed one….. Well joke’s on you Christopher because I LOVE it

  Serve with the yogurt, cucumber and mint mixture! ( or just use mayo)

So it’s Halloween!!!! And every year since the age of 3 I’ve probably carved a pumpkin, and I will never ever ever stop doing so, you can’t make me! But now I’m older and love the environment ✌🏻️ When I have anything food related in my vicinity I like to make the most of it! 🌏✌🏻️☮️ Therefore after murdering my pumpkin and scraping out it’s insides, I decided to recycle its guts….the seeds, and…