Thai green curry idea

It's been a while and to be honest I haven't cooked an awful lot that I haven't before. I find myself with a lot less time on my hands now than I used to, especially now I've picked up a new hobby as well. I might just do a "recipe of the month" from now on.

But anyway! Here's this rather cheaty thai green curry, as I didn't make the paste myself but was testing one ofthe only other curry pastes I know to be vegetarian from Tesco supermarket. It wasn't brilliant, too much heat and not enough flavour for my liking, but find a decent curry paste and the combination of veggies and coconut milk in this version will taste great.


Thai Green Curry

Serves 2

Takes 30 minutes


Half a block of tofu (enough for a good handful of small pieces each)

1 courgette

1 red pepper

5-6 babycorns

Half a white onion

A clove of garlic

1 tsp minced ginger

400ml coconut milk (I always use half-fat, but full fat tastes much better)

Thai green curry paste

Half a lime

Noodles or rice to serve.


* Drain and chop the tofu into small pieces. Fry on a medium heat for 7-10 minutes until getting nicely brown on all sides.

* In the meantime chop the vegetables as desired. When the tofu is nicely fried, add the onion, garlic and ginger and fry for a couple of minutes, then add the curry paste and coconut milk and simmer for 5 minutes.

* Tip in the rest of the vegetables and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. You may wish to add the courgettes a little after the others if you prefer them with a bit of bite.

* When ready to serve, squeeze in the juice from the lime and stir through.

An easy, quick dinner

Whoops! Consumed before imaging!

I suppose this idea is based on bruschetta, but it's not really like proper bruschetta at all. It uses lots of convenience ingredients so it's easy on your hands and easy on your time. I'm sure you can chop and change the vegetables used in here easily, as long as they are fairly swift to cook (no turnips!).


Quick 'bruschetta'

Serves 2

Takes around 20 minutes


2 bulbs of fennel

2 courgettes

Olives (amount to taste)

8 artichoke hearts

350g jar of your favourite pasta sauce

200g garlicky/herby cream cheese

Bread of your choice (I chose ciabatta rolls)

Garlic butter (or just use garlic bread)


* Slice up your veggies whilst heating some oil in a pan and preheating your grill (broiler, I think). Spread the garlic butter on the bread, if using.

* Gently fry the courgettes, fennel, artichoke hearts and olives until soft, which should take around 7-10 minutes.

* Pop the buttery bread under the grill. Stir in the cream cheese and then the pasta sauce into the veggies and lower the heat to simmer and thicken for about 10 more minutes. Keep an eye on it so it doesn't go dry.

* When the bread is lightly toasted serve with the veggie mix on top.

Green pesto rice

This is one of my easy, throw-together dishes when I fancied something with a really healthy kick. It makes generous portions and is filling in all the right ways. You can use the meat replacer of your choice or even use scrambled egg instead to fry with the rice. If you're feeling fancy you can even make your own pesto!


Green pesto rice

Serves 4

Takes around 40 minutes


1 crown of broccoli

2 courgettes

150g fresh shelled peas (petis pois are nice here)

300g Quorn chicken

500ml stock

2 x 250g packets of ready-cooked brown rice (I used Tilda brown basmati)

A jar of pesto of your choosing

3 chopped garlic clove or 2-3 tsps of minced garlic

1 tsp cornflour

One lemon


* Heat some oil in a large pan over a medium heat. Separate the broccoli into small florets and chop the courgette into small pieces.

* Fry the meat replacer a bit first, with the Quorn chicken just 5-7 minutes at the start to brown should be fine. Then add the garlic, courgettes, broccoli and peas and fry for 10 minutes.

* Once the veg is ready, prepare the stock and pour over. Make a paste with the cornflour and a small amount of cold water and add to the pan and stir. Bring to the boil while stirring then lower the heat to simmer for 10 minutes.

* Just before the veg is ready, heat the rice in the microwave as per instructions on the packet. When done, add to the pan and stir in.

* Make sure the mixture is heated through thoroughly, then add 3 tablespoons of pesto (can vary amount according to taste) and squeeze the lemon over to add a fragrant tang. Stir well and serve.

BBC Good Food - creamy courgette lasagne

I have to include this here, as it was so yummy that everyone should try it. Apologies for the weak picture, my dad has yoinked my camera for a while, and my phone doesn't cope well with our bad lighting. It shows the salad nicely though.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4716/creamy-courgette-lasagne

Don't be fooled by the name, there's no actual cream in it. The creaminess comes from ricotta, which I adore, which is stirred in to the courgette mix before assembling the lasagne.

I added a pint of white sauce because I like saucy pasta which added to the creaminess and also increased the moisture content. It also allowed me to get away with using less cheese than I would normally on the top (the recipe is very skimpy on the cheddar, in my opinion). I also added some basic dried mixed herbs to the courgette mix, as I felt the need for a little extra layer of flavour.

I would also recommend that it serves 6 rather than 4 if you add a couple of pieces of garlic bread and a bit of salad each. I served it as 4 with a salad of baby spinach, 2 beetroots and an orange pepper and I was stuffed 2/3 of the way through. Of course I still ate it all, and because there's a large amount of veggies the stuffed feeling wears off pretty quickly.

I must say that this is one of my favourite dishes. If you're not a fan of fake meat then you can't go wrong with this lasagne, especially if you get a good quality tomato sauce.

Creamy green soup

Another soup! I just love soup and it's so easy, plus it's an excuse to eat homemade bread. I was anticipating spring a bit to early with this one, but fancied something refreshing rather than stodgy. The greens used are 'light', spring type greens rather than the heavy leaves of winter.


Creamy Green Soup

Serves 4-5

Takes about an hour if you're speedy with your chopping, took me more like 1hr 10mins


2 Courgettes

2 trimmed leeks

A crown of broccoli

200g french/green beans

3 tbsp green pesto (can adjust to taste)

3-4 tbsp Creme Fraiche

1200ml vegetable stock

2 tsp dried thyme

3 cloves garlic

Salt and pepper to season, although with the pesto, salt isn't too necessary


* Prepare the veg - slice the leek in half lengthways then slice into thin slices (slice, slice, slice). Cut the florets of broccoli off the stem, chop the courgette into small, 1.5cm pieces and cut the beans in half or thirds if you're not blending at the end. Chop the garlic into small pieces.

* Heat some oil in a large pan and fry the leeks, garlic and thyme gently until soft but not brown (about 5 minutes)

* Add the rest of the vegetables and fry for 10 minutes, until just starting to go soft.

* In the meantime make up the stock, then add to the pan once the vegetables have finished their 10 minutes of frying.

* Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer for 25 minutes. This makes the vegetables very soft! If you prefer not to blend your soup and want to keep a bit of crunch to the veg, adjust the cooking times accordingly.

* Stir in the pesto and creme fraiche, then blend in a food processor or using a hand blender.

Roasted vegetable pasta with ricotta

Since the 11th I seem to have disappeared into a Skyrim-sized hole, and my allotted computer time has been eaten up by playing, rather than writing. But here's an easy, rustic and nutritious pasta dish to fll yourselves with in the long winter nights. Your choices of vegetables goes here, I used the classic mediterannean style.


Roasted vegetable pasta with ricotta

Serves 4

Takes about 40 minutes


2 small aubergines

2 courgettes

250g button mushrooms

2 orange peppers

330g dried pasta (I used shells)

A 250g bag of baby spinach leaves

A ready mix of spices to sprinkle onto roasted vegetables (I used Schwartz mediterannean chicken spices. If you can't get anything like it, use some herbs de provence with some paprika and dried garlic)

250g rictotta cheese

Extra virgin olive oil for roasting and dripping on the pasta to stop it from sticking

A dash of balsamic vinegar

Preheat the oven to 200C if fan, 220C conventional


* Chop up the veggies into inch-sized chunks while the oven is preheating.

* Put some olive oil into a roasting tin and chuck the veggies in, stirring to ensure they are well coated.

* Sprinkle herbs/spices on top, toss for an even coating, then pop in the oven for around 30 minutes.

* In the meantime boil the pasta according to package instructions. Set aside when done and toss with a bit of oil to stop it sticking.

* When the veggies are done, take them out and first stir the spinach into the pasta. Then stir in the vegetables evenly, then dollop the rictotta on top and mix well.

* Drizzle with a bit of balsamic vinegar and season if you only used herbs on your veggies.

"Green" Pasta

So named because it uses green pesto and green vegetables! Ever since I tried pesto pasta in a Bella Pasta restaurant I've been hooked on pesto stirred through pasta. In my opinion the best pasta for this is spaghetti, but any can be used. For a healthy kick use wholewheat pasta. I'm afraid I've drawn a blank when it comes to remembering the exact amount of ingredients that I used, but in this sort of thing it's easy enough to wing it!

When I was shopping for this the vegetables in my local supermarket were buy one get one free, and had the last broccoli grabbed from right under my nose, so had to make do with what else they had, which were packs of tenderstem broccoli and baby courgettes together. It worked just fine. I also made the addition of low-fat cream cheese mainly to add some protein. It doesn't alter the taste, only makes the texture less 'slippery'.


Green Pasta

Serves 2

30 minutes cooking time if you're organised!


150g of dried spaghetti (75g per person is usually a good guide)

A jar of green pesto with enough for 2 generous tablespoons

Around 6 baby courgettes (I'm sure one large one will do fine)

A handful of tenderstem broccoli or half a crown of standard broccoli

100g of baby spinach

A clove of garlic, finely chopped or a teaspoon of minced garlic

150g low-fat cream cheese (optional)

A jar of sweet, pickled hot peppers for garnish (optional. Can also use pine nuts, sun-dried tomatoes...)

Cheese for sprinkling on top (optional)


* Chop the broccoli into florets and courgettes into 1cm slices. Cook according to preference (I used a steamer)

* Bring a pot of water to the boil and add the spaghetti, cooking as per packet instructions (usually 8-10 minutes)

* When the pasta is cooked, drain in a colander and refresh under cold water. Set aside while heating some oil in a pan (if you haven't frid the veg previously). You can use the same pan that the pasta boiled in

* Lightly fry the broccoli, courgettes, spinach and garlic for a few minutes. Whilst frying, if you're using any garnish such as the peppers these can be chopped to the desired size

* Stir in the pasta and 2 tablespoons of pesto, ensuring the pasta is heated through. Then, if using, stir in the cream cheese and garnish

Spring soup

This is a big, chunky broth that I put together to celebrate the fact that spring was coming! I overestimated the size of my pan though and ended up leaving out some of the ingredients, including some extra stock which would have been useful as I kept it overnight. Make sure you use good quality stock, as the vegetables by themselves aren’t especially tasty. I used Knorr’s premade vegetable stock.

Spring Soup

Serves a generous 4

Time to make close to an hour with inefficient time keeping and inexperienced chopping!

1.5 litres of good vegetable stock

1 crown of broccoli

4 plum tomatoes

100g green beans (French beans)

1 large courgette

Bunch of spring onions

3 measures of garlic (cloves, sliced, or tsps. of Bart’s)

1 bulb of fennel

Few springs of thyme

75g pasta for soup or broken spaghetti

Seasoning

Optional: a dollop of pesto or cream cheese or parmesan (or all 3?) for on top.

Optional: bread to serve with

* Prepare the veg – separate the broccoli into small florets. Slice the courgette thin, long slices. Chop the green beans in half and deseed the tomatoes and slice thinly. Finely slice the fennel and the onions. Heat some oil in a large saucepan.

* Fry the fennel, garlic and spring onions on a medium heat for around 15 minutes, making sure they don’t brown too much.

* Add the rest of the veg, the herbs, the pasta and the stock and seasoning then bring to the boil. Cover, then simmer for 10 minutes.

Serve hot with dollops of pesto (or whatever your prefer) and some good bread.