Category: Vegetarian

Two out of One: Couscous & Yellow Split Pea Stuffed Tomatoes and Couscous and Yellow Pea “Falafel”

Splendid, fat, juicy and sweet – served on a summer evening with a green salad only a dollop of thick creamy Turkish yoghurt is needed.

First we make Veggie Stuffed Tomatoes and here I used couscous so no need to pre-cook and yellow split peas – which I did pre-cook. As I had stopped off at the Turkish store on the way to Caroline’s “petite cuisine” things took a  Turkish turn… some sumac, mint and allspice went in the mix.

As the mix was made with couscous, or perhaps as I was over enthusiastic there was quite a lot of stuffing left over and so to…

Couscous and Yellow Pea Falafel

 

Delicious little fried or baked patties ..

Here we added lots of extra things to give flavour to the  couscous and yellow peas . So for this they are great for little bits and pieces lurking around the fridge awaiting a recipe home.  We found chopped black olives, garlic, lots of parsley, more herbs some salt and pepper and bound the lot together with an egg.  If the mixture is too crumbly then more egg and more water may be needed.  It should stick together when you hold it in a clenched fist. 

We grilled some and we fried some – with extra spring onions and little tomatoes – for a great light lunch.  Make them as small balls or as flattened mini burgers and serve with a green salad or inside a wrap with a yoghurt or tahini sauce or just  box them up and take to work/ school as a healthy snack. 

 

Raspberry & Redcurrant Streusel Bars

Favourite things …think shortbread , jam and streusel, able to be wrapped up as brown paper packages ..how could these not be stupendously great bakes? And they are.  Ive long been thinking how to make a crumble bar but crumble? too crumbly. The answer is streusel.

These are the way to use up left over jam – fillings are endless.  A few improvs and ideas: Apple chunks with salted caramel sauce, mincemeat (when mince pies become too much) , apricot and white chocolate, prune, plum and dark chocolate, marmalade and quince and my favourite apple chunks with blackberry jam.

These are pretty simple to make because the base is just pressed into the tin and streusel is well…lumpy crumble 😉

Ingredients for 1 x 13 x 9 inch baking tin (the aluminium one from IKEA)

Base

  • 130g butter
  • 80g sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 125g wholemeal flour
  • 250g white flour

Filling

  • 2 jars of leftover jam; or
  • 1 jar of jam and 1 pack of fresh or frozen fruit

Streusel

  • 80g oats
  • 130g light brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 cup (75g) white flour
  • 120g very cold and cubed butter (I freeze it then cube it)

Drizzle

for showing off – totally unecessary

The juice and a little zest (the rest add to the jam) of 1 lemon and enough icing sugar until the glaze fribbles off a spoon.  I didnt have an icing bag to hand so I used a plastic bag and snipped the corner off and froze the rest for another batch.

How To:

  • Preheat the oven to 160C. Line the bottom and sides of the baking tin with baking paper
  • Make the base: Stir the melted butter, sugar, vanilla,  together in a medium bowl. Add the flour and stir until everything is combined. Press the mixture evenly into the prepared baking pan. Prick with a fork which will prevent the base “bubbling”
  • Bake for 15 minutes – do not let the base brown.
  • Remove the crust from the oven, and turn the oven up to 180C
  • Spread the jam/ fruit over the warm base  (make sure the choice is not too watery)
  • Make the streusel as the base is baking:  Place the oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour together in a medium bowl. Cut in the chilled butter with a knife.  I blend the butter with my hands into crumbs because Ive been doing this since childhood.  For streusel the crumbs should be slightly larger than the fine sand of crumble.
  • Sprinkle the streusel over the filling. Press down because these are bars and you want them to all hold together.
  • Bake for 20-25 minutes until just golden.
  • Zig zag the glaze over if you feel like it
  • Chill in the fridge or eat warm as a dessert.
  • Top Tip: Cut into squares while still warm.  They freeze perfectly

No knead sourdough multiseed bread

my go to multiseed gets the sourdough treatment

Remember spaceships that used to pop and fizz in your mouth? well this bread with the seeds that ‘pop” is kind of the adult  equivalent. kind of. I know some people like my white bread addicted sister will never be convinced but I like the satisfying crunch factor all the same.

Ingredients for 3 small loaves

300g sourdough starter
400g organic strong white flour
100g organic rye flour
2 tsp salt

350g seeds: sunflower, pumpkin, flax, sesame,poppy
350g warm water

How To

Mix all the ingredients  (except the salt and the seeds) together as if making cake batter, in a large bowl.

Cover with a wet tea towel and leave at room temperature

With a bowl of water to wet your hands in, to stop the dough sticking, fold it every 30 minutes for 3-4 hours.  If you don’t it will not be a disaster.  If this sounds like hassle, think of it as “bread therapy”…there is just something very very relaxing and rewarding about messing around with bread dough and this should be timed to be done in the evening.

Put in the fridge over night to rest and in fact all of the next day… the following night is baking night

The next day….Remove from the fridge and allow to come to room temperature and start to prove

Now add the salt and the seeds  (sometimes I have forgotten the salt…thats when the bread has ended up with a “salt crust”)

Shape and form into the loaves – freestyle or in tins

Allow to prove – 2-4 hours

Bake at 250C or as hot as your oven allows.  The sourdough version of the bread takes longer than the yeast version – it seems to take 30-40 minutes.  Bake until they sound hollow when you tap them.