Colourful Beetroot Risotto for a veggie meal or side dish
If you’ve seen my Beet, Carrot and Barley Salad you’ll know that thanks Grigson’s Vegetable Book, my bible for all things vegetable, I now know how to prepare and cook beetroot! This recipe brings together the heavenly combination of beetroot and goats cheese with risotto.
Quick and Easy Potato Gnocchi
This is an old recipe that has been handed down from grandmother to mother to granddaughter and I’m feeling very privileged that it’s now been passed to me by my fairy godmother! The recipe was hand-written on a piece of paper and included just the raw ingredients, no measurements. So we’ve been eating a lot of gnocchi recently (not that we’re complaining!) in the trial and error process of finding the perfect balance. And we think we’ve cracked it!
Parmigiana with a pinch of healthiness. A great vegetarian option on its own or as a side dish
The origins of this traditional dish are disputed. Jamie Oliver refers to it as a “classic northern Italian recipe” and is in good company: Antonio Carluccio confesses “I’ve never known whether this dish is called ‘parmigiana’ because it comes from Parma, or because it’s made with Parmesan cheese”. But although the name may be claimed by the north, Carluccio concedes that the recipe stems from Sicily in the South.
My own Parmigiana story has less exotic origins! Continue reading
Whilst browsing my Twitter feed this week, I came across an interesting little recipe for quinoa bites from Organix and thought I’d give it a go. You’ll find the recipe at https://www.organix.com/food-planner-recipes/recipes/quinoa-bites. Despite the growing popularity for this pseudocereal (particularly as a low gulten, wheat-free alternative), it isn’t something I’ve ever used before myself, although I have eaten it. This made me even more curious to try out these little bites.
They were quite easy to make and have passed the Lentil test, although we’ve renamed them “quinoa cakes”. We’ve had a few birthdays recently, which Lentil now “gets” and as a result anything with “cake” in the name seems to go down a treat! A collective of birthdays has also meant listening to Lentil sing “happy birthday” at least four times a day such that I can’t get the tune out of my head…..
I’ve also been meaning to create a healthy little snack with couscous for a while. I thought a cheesy couscous ball would pass the Lentil taste test. But my couscous balls have become mini muffins as despite going into the oven as perfect almost equally sized spheres they came out anything but perfectly rounded!
Makes 30 mini muffins, so good for parties or you can freeze some.
The what:
160g couscous
4 medium eggs, lightly beaten
1 large onion, finely chopped
70g Parmesan, grated
30g mozzarella, grated
2 tsp sage, finely chopped
large handful (approx 1tbsp) parsley, finely chopped
The how:
Pre-heat oven to 200 (180 fan).
For the couscous follow instructions on the pack. Generally, this involves putting the couscous into a large bowl, adding about 200ml boiling water, mixing and covering for 5 minutes). Then leave it to cool.
Add all the other ingredients to the cooled couscous and mix well. Cover a baking tray with parchment/baking paper, mold your couscous balls / muffins and place on the paper. Cook in the oven for 20 minutes until golden.
Enjoy!
Moussaka with courgette
Moussaka with courgette?? It’s my take on a traditional Moussaka: a Moussaka in disguise if you will. My recipe doesn’t use the traditional aubergine – I simply wasn’t feeling the aubergine love the day I made this – but you can of course add it if you’re a traditionalist! Instead I use courgette. It passed the Lentil taste test and I actually used a mix of aubergine and courgette when I last made it for us parent people. Of course I’m going to say I think it’s nicer with the courgette addition….but I really do!
This is a toddler (and parent!) favourite and a good dish for hiding a few veggies. The butternut squash and sweetcorn make it quite sweet tasting, which seems to appeal to little tummies….for some reason?!
This is a firm favourite in our house. We usually make extra and once I re-add the mince, I put some bolognese into another pot for the grown-ups and add some white wine in place of the grape juice.
Makes about 4-6 kiddie portions.
CocoandLentil 