Lentil Love

I recently purchased some courgettes. I love having them on their own, steamed with a blob of soya butter, all soft and mushy. Eating them really brings back memories of my mum's cooking, when our garden used to yield copious amounts of this vegetable, along with many larger marrows! To me, a courgette is, along with butternut squash, one of my ultimate comfort foods.

















Not really knowing what to do with all the courgettes I bought (apart from the obvious but rather boring Ratatouille), I googled "courgette recipes" and was also recommended another by a friend. I don't use lentils enough either, and they are usually sitting in the cupboard for months, so both recipes enabled me to use up my leftover pulses and veg.

The first recipe is for Courgette & Lentil Stew. This garlicy, tomatoey, nourishing stew is perfect for a snuggly Autumn night in. I've been feeling a little poorly lately, so soft, comforting food is very welcome. The recipe I googled wasn't very informative, merely stating to throw in, bring to the boil and then simmer :

- 2 cups of cooked lentils
- 1 can of stewed tomatoes
- Half a can of vegetable broth
- 4 small courgettes (diced)
- 2 cloves of garlic
- Pinch of salt & pepper

I played around with the amounts of the ingredients a bit, and tossed in some paprika for a bit of extra taste.

The second recipe was for Lentil Spaghetti Bolognaise. I used the left overs from the recipe above, then added some stirfried onions and mushrooms, cooked carrots, extra tomato purée, and some marjoram. I served it over some wholewheat spaghetti and will be taking it into work tomorrow for my lunch. Gorgeous :)

I should have added the secret ingredient that I add to all my bolognaise dishes: CELERY! Alas I didn't have any in the fridge. Celery, grated into a bolognaise, really adds to the flavour. I know a lot of people who hate celery, but sneak it into a bolognaise and they're raving about it!

Remember, if you are cooking dried lentils it is advisable to soak them overnight (or for at least 6 hours), rinse them well, and then cook them for 30 minutes before eating.

"It's too Orangey for Crows!"

Today I made a Butternut Squash and Carrot 'Cobbler' for dinner. It's the same recipe as my father's friend cooked for us when we were in Wales, and is meant to be done in a slow cooker, but I don't have one so I decided to just make it as a casserole. I also realised, half way through, that with the amount of veg I had, if I were to make the topping as well, it would probably feed a family of four, for two nights running! So I have now renamed this dish: Butternut Squash and Carrot Cobble-less Cobbler! The original recipe calls for blue cheese in the topping, which could be easily veganised, but for tonight I decided to do without. It would be just as nice eaten with some bread or brown scones.

The result is a perfectly sweet, tasty, super-bright-orange casserole. I didn't cook it for as long as it recommended so the carrots still had a bit of a bite to them, which I was happy with as I don't like my veg completely soggy.

Casserole ingredients:

1 whole onion, diced
500g butternut squash or pumpkin, deseeded and diced
500g carrots, diced
400g canned chopped tomatoes
250ml vegetable stock
1 teaspoon of caster sugar (optional)
Season with a pinch of salt, pepper & rosemary to taste

For the topping:

150g (5oz) self-raising flour
pinch of salt
50g (2oz) butter
75g (3oz) blue cheese, diced
4 teaspoons finely chopped rosemary
4 tablespoons of water

Method:

1. Preheat the slower cooker if necessary. Heat some oil in a frying pan and add the onion and fry for 5 minutes until lightly browned.

2. Add the squash, carrots, tomatoes, stock, sugar and seasoning. Bring to the boil, stirring.

3. Transfer the vegetable mixture to the slow cooker pot. Cover with the lid and cook on 'high' for 2.5-3 hours until the vegetables are tender.

4. Meanwhile, make the topping. Put the flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Mix in the cheese ans rosemary, if using, then stir in enough of the water to make a smooth, soft, dough.

5. Pat the dough into a round 18cm (7 inches) in diameter then cut into 8 segments. Arrange these on top of the vegetable mixture. Replace the cooker lid and cook for another 30 minutes until the pastry is well risen and puffy. If the slow cooker pot fits under your grill, brown the topping before serving.

If anyone out there has a savoury cobbler topping recipe that is vegan, without the cheese, please let me know. Maybe the dough would still be ok without the cheese? I'll have to try it next time and report back!

Camping!

I went camping with the boy and two friends for 5 days this week, in Salthill, Co. Galway. It was so much fun! I was quite worried as a vegan about what I'd eat, but we got a lend of a wonderful little stove and managed to concoct a few lovely one-pot recipes. The first evening the boy and I had chana massala, using the Meridian tikka massala dairy free sauce. It was very good, much nicer than their Korma. I also made a Mediterranean mixed bean and olive tomato stew one of the nights, which turned out very well (both dishes are visible in the photo below):
















The rest of the time I snacked on salads from Supervalu's salad bar (I wish our local Supervalu had one!), bourbon and pink wafer biscuits (I had no idea these were vegan!), apples, soup, bread, peanut butter, Tuc crackers (another thing I never knew was vegan), some Nakd bars, a Julian Graves flapjack and delicious Marks & Spencers food... and I even discovered a vegan chocolate nougat bar at Evergreen. I would have taken a photo and reviewed this rare find - if only I hadn't consumed it whilst very, very drunk! Imagine the horror when I got up in the morning finding the empty wrapper on the floor next to me and exclaiming "NOOO! I  CAN'T EVEN REMEMBER EATING IT! I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT TASTED LIKE!!" ;)

It is worth mentioning that Joyce's supermarket in Knocknacarra is probably one of the best supermarkets I've come across in a good while. They have a very wide range of health foods, an excellent deli which even sells Indian snacks, and are very vegan friendly - quite unusual for a large supermarket. We had 3 amazingly sunny days and even managed to swim in the sea. However, the other days were absolutely miserable and we thought we'd blow away in our tiny tent at night! I really can't wait to go camping again though, this was my first time so next time I'm going to be much better prepared!