Tag: Food

Vegetarian Paella

I love the beautiful colours of a Paella dish so here is my version which is vegetarian and free of fish and meat! Also I might mention I cook mine in a Paellera which is a special Paella pan made of steel. You can get one from Amazon: https://amzn.to/2Jh0TSG

You can of course you any normal pan for this too so don’t worry too much! 🙂

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons virgin olive oil

3 cloves of garlic

1/2 onion finely chopped

1/2 of each of a green, red and yellow pepper

2 medium size tomatoes

1/2 cup of frozen peas

1/2 cup of frozen green beans

1 1/2 cups of Basmati rice (this is my preferred rice)

1 litre of homemade veg stock

2 teaspoons of Turmeric

1 teaspoon Paprika

Salt to taste

Method:

Heat the oil in a paellera or a pan over medium heat and when it’s hot, add the garlic, onion, red, yellow and green peppers (chopped). Cook until brown.

Add the chopped tomatoes and cook for another 5 minutes.

Add the frozen peas and beans to cook a further 5 minutes.

Add in the rice and cook until rice begins to look translucent. Pour the vegetable stock in (water will do if you do not have stock), add the turmeric powder, paprika, also add salt to taste.

Stir the paella until all the ingredients are mixed and cook over medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes or until the rice is cooked. Add more vegetable stock / water if the rice is still uncooked.

Let stand the paella (covered) for at least 10 minutes before serving.

Savoury Lentil Cake (hanndvo)

This savoury, lentil cake is made with rice and different lentils. It is has a crisp outer shell and is soft on the inside. This is quite easy to make but preparation is key as is using the exact measures. This is an old family recipe; I have grown up eating this and it always reminds me of my mother. Enjoy x

Recipe will serve 6

Ingredients:

1 cup rice

1/4 cup toor dahl

1/4 cup urad dahl split with skin

1/4 cup chana dahl

1.5 tspn turmeric

1 inch ginger chopped

1 green chili 

1.5 tspn salt

2 tspn sugar

1/4 tspn asafoetida

1/2 cup yogurt

2 tbspns oil

1 cup butternut squash shredded 

generous squeeze of half lemon

1 tspn Eno fruit salt

For Seasoning

1 tbspn oil 

1 tspn mustard seeds

1/4 tspn asafoetida

1 tbspn sesame seeds

Also need

oil to grease the baking pan

8×8 baking pan

Method

Wash and soak rice and all the lentils in water for at least 4.5 hours.

After soaking, blend rice, lentils, ginger, green chili to a lightly coarse texture, (drain water beforehand). I use my food processor for this. Then add yoghurt, turmeric, salt, sugar and asafetida. Blend mixture again. Transfer the mixture into a bowl and let it ferment for about 11 hours.

Add the butternut squash, 2 tbspns of oil and lemon juice to the fermented lentil mix. Mix well. To make the savoury cake mix light and fluffy, we now add the Eno.

Grease the baking pan with oil and pour the fermented mix, spreading it evenly.

Sprinkle sesame seeds over the batter and set aside. 

In a pan heat some oil and then add the mustard seeds. Once these begin to crack add the asafoetida, turn off the heat. Pour this seasoning over the sesame seed topped batter mix.

Cover the baking pan with foil and place it on the middle oven rack; bake at 200c, preheated oven for 20 mins.

Remove the foil and bake for a further 20 mins until top of the savoury cake is light golden brown. 

Let the cake cool off for about 20 minutes. Cut them into desired pieces and serve with chutneys and a fresh green salad.

Roasted Red Pepper and Tomato Soup

Ingredients:

850g ripe tomatoes (halved or quartered depending on the size)

1 large red onion (cut into chunky slices)

3 red peppers (deseeded and cut into chunky pieces)

8 cloves garlic (left whole in their skins)

Generous coating of virgin olive oil

Sea salt

Black pepper

500ml vegetable stock

Chilli infused olive oil 

Basil leaves

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 220C In a baking tray add the tomatoes, red peppers, onion and garlic; generously coat olive oil. Season it well with sea salt and black pepper. Mix it all around with your hands so that it is evenly coated.

Bake in the oven for about 30-35 minutes until the vegetables are roasted and look slightly charred.

Pick out the garlic from the roasted vegetables and squeeze the juicy garlic flesh out of the skin and discard skin.

Boil the stock and add some chilli infused oil to it, and then add the vegetables and garlic

Puree with a hand blender to your preferred texture

Serve in bowl with a dash of chilli oil, basil to garnish. 

Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato Soup