mains

I had a heap of sweet potato and found this awesome recipe on Rustic Kitchen. I followed it near almost perfectly, except I was sharing the food with someone who doesn’t like coriander so I used parsley instead. I also changed the spices and method slightly and omitted the salt. Perfect comfort food and I LOVE the addition of raisins. I served it with brown rice.

Serves 6

INGREDIENTS

2 tbs olive oil

2 medium brown onions, diced

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tbs finely grated ginger

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 large sweet potatoes, diced

2 cups cooked chickpeas

1/2 cup raisins

800g can crushed tomatoes

1 cup vegetable stock

1/2 cup minced parsley leaves

METHOD

Heat oil and cook onions for about 5 mins, stirring occasionally. Add the ginger and garlic, give it a quick stir and add all the spices. Cook for a couple of minutes (until everything is coloured) and make sure you’re stirring it often enough so you aren’t burning anything.

Add everything that is left (except the parsley) and simmer for around 25 minutes. Remove from heat, stir through parsley and serve.

salmon, kale & mushroom sauce

May 17, 2012

mains, pasta, seafood

pumpkin & soba laksa (with home-made laksa paste)

May 11, 2012

gluten free, low fodmap, mains, soup

5 Comments

This laksa is wonderful! I bought some pumpkin and tofu this week and had no idea what I was going to do with it. I found a bunch of green curry recipes but none of them really stood out. I then stumbled upon this amazing recipe and was immediately sold. PLEASE do yourself a favour and make it, whether it is the original version or mine. The pumpkin in this recipe melts in your mouth and it is really awesome.

I have changed the recipe around and I thought it turned out beautifully – I used 100% soba noodles because I try not to eat wheat and I wanted more fibre. I also swapped the fish sauce for salt-reduced tamari, as fish sauce generally tends to be quite high in salt and I left the coriander out altogether. There is a couple of other small differences but overall it still tasted quite like a restaurant bought traditional laksa soup base. I garnished mine with parsley but I recommend using coriander. The best thing about finding this is that I now have a go to recipe for laksa paste.

This serves 2 hungry people (or makes 3 modest sized servings).

INGREDIENTS

Laksa paste

1 1/2 tsp crushed chilli

2 cloves garlic

3 pieces of ginger, grated

2 lemongrass stalks, sliced

2 tbs olive oil

Laksa

500g pumpkin, diced into big pieces

200g firm tofu (use a good quality organic tofu if possible)

4 cups salt-reduced vegetable stock

1 1/3 cup low-fat coconut milk

2 tbs salt reduced-tamari sauce

juice of 1 lime

180g 100% buckwheat soba noodles

METHOD

Steam pumpkin for 25 minutes, or until really soft. Set aside and cover with foil, to keep it warm.

Cook soba noodles according to packet directions. Rinse, drain and set into bowls.

Blend all laksa paste ingredients in a food processor until it becomes a nice thick paste.

Cook the paste for 2 mins or until aromatic. Add the stock, coconut milk, tamari, lime juice and simmer for 10 minutes, chucking the tofu in after 5 minutes.

Ladle the soup out over the prepared noodles and top it with the pumpkin and parsley (or coriander). Serve immediately!

curried vegetable bowl

April 14, 2012

mains

2 Comments

I know, the picture is pretty dodgy. But the food is tasty. I’ve been working on my assignment all day and I couldn’t be bothered doing too much else now. I nearly bought take away tonight but felt too lazy to even leave the house, so I ended up with this curried vegetable bowl. It’s a bit of an experiment but it worked. The bonus is that it doesn’t take too long to cook. Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend.

Serves 2.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 tbs coconut oil

2 large potatoes, cubed

1 carrot, cut into half moons

1 large celery piece, cut into half moons

1 small red onion, diced

200g green beans, chopped into bite sized pieces

200g kidney beans

2 tbs tomato paste

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp freshly grated ginger + small dash of ground ginger

1 clove garlic, crushed

1/2 tsp crushed chilli

1/4 cup water

METHOD

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add potato and carrot, boiling for around 5 mins. Remove and add beans for around 1 minute. Remove and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking process.

Heat oil in a pan over medium heat. Add onion and stir for a couple of minutes. Throw in the tomato paste, spices, water and mix well. Put in the potato and carrot and simmer for 5 minutes. Add green and kidney bean selection and stir well again. Cook for around 2 minutes. You still want your green beans to be crunchy.

Remove from heat and serve!

(Inspired by this post)

super yummy lentil “meatloaf”

April 10, 2012

light meals, lunch, mains, pies

4 Comments

I don’t have a whole lot of time, as I’m about to work on an assignment but thought I’d share this recipe that I found on Healthful Pursuit. I’ve been craving some sort of meatloaf and this lentil loaf is perfection. I switched things up a little to make it easier on myself but not a whole lot. It takes a bit of preparation but is well worth it. Healthy, hearty and super flavoursome. I can’t wait to have the rest for lunch tomorrow.

Makes 4 large pieces or 8 sides.

INGREDIENTS

2 tbsp ground flax seeds

6 tbsp boiling water

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 cup swiss brown mushrooms, diced

2 cups fresh baby spinach & rocket

1 tbsp fresh thyme, roughly chopped

3/4 cup BBQ sauce (i used a nice store bought organic sauce, free of nasties)

pepper, to taste

2 cups cooked green lentils, cooled

1 cup rolled oats, run through a food processor quickly (use gluten free oats for a gf loaf)

1/2 cup almond meal (i just threw some almonds in a blender – too easy)

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius. Add the ground flax to a small bowl, pour the boiling hot water over and stir to combine well. Set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan, add the onion and garlic and sauté until the onions are tender. Add the mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms are tender, adding in the thyme and spinach. Cook until the spinach is wilted. Add in 1/2 cup of the BBQ sauce, stir to combine and turn off the heat. Add pepper if necessary.

Mash the oats and lentils together well. Spoon the mixture into a large bowl with the flax mix, almond meal and vegetable mixture. Stir well to combine. Mash it up well with your hands, so it’s sticking together nicely.

Spoon the mixture into a parchment paper lined pan of your choice. Press the mixture in well, smooth it out and brush the remaining BBQ sauce over it.

Bake uncovered for 40 minutes. Cool in the pan for a couple of minutes, pull the loaf out by grabbing the sides of the parchment paper and lifting up and allow it to cool for another 5 to 10 minutes on a cooking rack.

Slice and serve.

spicy sweet potato, leek & peanut soup

April 9, 2012

mains, soup

3 Comments

I’ve been pretty sick the last 5 or so days. It started with a bit of a snuffly nose and just sort of transferred everywhere. To date, I have a stuffed nose, I’ve lost my voice, and my throat, chest, head and ears hurt. There have been no doctors open for the last little while, so I’ve been drinking tea and doing things like eating garlic cloves to try and get myself well. I have been a little slack though – I’ve been eating shitty take away, haven’t been drinking enough water and I’m not resting nearly enough. I haven’t been able to concentrate, so I haven’t gotten much done which irritates me a little. I just can’t focus right now!

Recent life highlights: I saw my mother for the first time in AGES, my friend kindly made me a batch of ‘get well’ soup, I fostered and re-homed a beautiful pound puppy, I got taken out for a nice dinner with a really lovely group of people, friends came to visit me and I finally got some proper sleep today. I slept until 2pm (lazy). I also found out that a friend is pregnant, which is super exciting for the family involved. It was a bit of a surprise but everyone is right on board and I know that baby is going to be well loved and well looked after. I really enjoy seeing other people happy.

For the first time in ages, I made myself a comforting meal and it has cleared out my stuffy nose a little. I found this recipe and thought it might help to kick my cold in the butt. I’m looking forward to feeling better and getting my uni work out of the way, so I can enjoy some relaxing ‘me’ time.

Serves 4.

INGREDIENTS

1 tbs olive oil

1 leek, white and light green parts thinly sliced (2 cups)

1/2 tsp fresh ginger, crushed

1 clove garlic, crushed

1.5 tbs no added salt tomato paste

1.5 tbs peanut butter

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp crushed fresh chilli

1 1/2 medium sized sweet potatoes (I used a combo of white & orange sweet potato)

400g cooked chickpeas, drained

2 cups vegetable stock

METHOD

Heat oil in a pot over medium heat. Add leek and cook for a couple of minutes. Add ginger and garlic and cook until fragrant. Stir in tomato paste, peanut butter, turmeric, cumin, paprika, and chilli; cook, stirring for around 1 minute. Add sweet potato, chickpeas, and vegetable stock. Simmer over medium-low heat, partially covered, about 25 minutes.

Add a little hot water, blend the soup and serve!

(Adapted from For the Love of Food)

spicy pumpkin, split pea & rosemary soup

March 5, 2012

low fodmap, mains, soup

10 Comments

I had a great night tonight. I got some reading done in preparation for my first day at university tomorrow and I went out with a group of my friends to catch a movie. I hadn’t laughed like that in a minute and I had a wonderful time. I’m really lucky to have so many great friends. I was feeling a little nervous about tomorrow and it was great to let out some tension with laughter. Tonight I made this soup and enjoyed it with some spelt bread. Pumpkin is cheap at the moment, so I am using it a fair bit. If you don’t like cinnamon all that much, remove the stick after around 30 minutes, so you’re not overwhelmed by the flavour.

Serves around 6 people

INGREDIENTS

1/8 cup olive oil

2 large cloves garlic, crushed

1 tsp crushed chilli

1 cinnamon stick

large nub of ginger, thinly sliced

1 tbs whole cumin seeds

5 carrots, washed and coarsley chopped

1-1.5 kilo of pumpkin, peeled and chopped

1/2 cup yellow split peas

4 tbs fresh rosemary, chopped

METHOD

Heat olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat and cook the garlic, stirring for around 1 minute. Make sure it doesn’t stick to the pot. Add the chilli and spices and stir for around 30 seconds. Add the vegetables and peas and stir to coat in the spice mixture.

Add 1.5 litres of later and bring to the boil. Simmer for around 50 minutes.

Remove from heat, stir the rosemary through and remove the cinnamon stick. Blend the soup in small batches for only a short amount of time – you don’t want it to be too thin. (I like my soup a little chunky though).

Serve, garnished with some more rosemary, if you like.

tomato & vegetable curry

February 29, 2012

gluten free, low fodmap, mains

11 Comments

I keep forgetting this blog exists, with all of the stuff I have going on right now! Job interviews, meetings, welcome lectures, driving here and there, cooking, cleaning, bill paying and budget sorting – it’s been non stop. I haven’t had time to check my favourite food blogs or do as much reading as I’d like. Somehow, things are getting done and coming together though.

In under a week, I start ‘big girl school’ aka university. I’m nervous, proud and all sorts of things! At 26, it finally seems that I am starting to get a better idea of how to live day to day (though I slip quite a bit). I’m living healthily and doing my best to look after myself, I’m much happier than I have ever been in many ways and I’ve managed to shake the past and get myself into uni. I am in constant disbelief about it all, lately.

It’s going to be SO hard. But I’m SO excited now. Today I attended a meet and greet lecture for my course and I am impressed with the staff at the university. They are passionate and kind and I am looking forward to their lectures. I also had a meeting this evening that addressed all of the issues one might face as a mature age student, which was helpful. I just need to remember that I can do it, that I’ve done other things similar to this now and that I won’t fail if I try my best.

I’ve been living pretty tightly recently. Not working full time has been challenging and I feel overwhelmed by the financial responsibilites I have and how I’m coping with part time work. My loan and bills are a little more of a burden, to say the least! As such, I’ve been working on eating on a budget. Which means no fancy ingredients! Vegetables are cheap, which is great as it forces me to eat more. This particular meal cost me around $5 to make, which I am pretty happy about. Next time I’ll throw some spinach in and I thought raisins would go very well, although I didn’t have any. Garnish with coriander if you wish to do so! I love using spices and I am starting to feel like I have a better idea of what works well together. I really liked this particular blend.

Serves around 3.

INGREDIENTS

garlic infused olive oil

1 large red capsicum, chopped

2 medium potatoes, chopped

2 large carrots, chopped

2 large tomatoes, chopped

1 heaped tsp curry powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp ground cloves

large pinch of cayenne pepper

large pinch of ground coriander

large pinch of turmeric

cooked brown rice, to serve

METHOD

Steam potatoes & carrot until just soft. Drain.

In a large frying pan, heat some garlic infused olive oil. Throw in the spices and cook for around 30 seconds, or until fragrant. Throw in the vegetables and tomatoes and cook, stirring, for around 5-10 minutes (depending on how you like your veggies).

Serve atop some brown rice.

pumpkin, green lentil & parsnip soup

February 22, 2012

lunch, mains, soup

9 Comments

Wow, what a disaster I had in the kitchen last night! It was just ‘one of those days’, where things didn’t come together too easily. I took ages to actually prepare any food, burnt myself a few times, broke my most valuable/expensive piece of cookware, then forgot to put the blender on while puréeing the soup and made a mess. I finally sat down to dinner at 11 and although the soup was lovely, I was glad the whole cooking ordeal was over! Does anyone ever have days like that in the kitchen? I tend to every now and then and it feels like such a relief to get it over and done with! Either way, this gorgeous soup was worth the fuss and mess and the toasted pumpkin cumin seeds were a good treat. I also loved the colour of it.

Today was a good day. I worked at the farmer’s markets selling organic produce (dips and muesli) and then spent my sunny afternoon studying with friends. I got a lot of reading done, although I worry about my ability to absorb information sometimes. I can spend 20 minutes or more reading one page over and over, simply because it’s not processing. I seem to eventually get it, though I wonder how much I’ve actually learned because sometimes when I reread things, I can’t remember the words! Right now, the thought of taking on 4 subjects for my first experience of university gives me butterflies. I really hope I can pull it off! 2 weeks until I find out, I guess.

One batch of this soup will feed 6 people.

INGREDIENTS

1.5kg of pumpkin, diced into 1cm cubes

2 large parsnips, diced

1 cup french green lentils

saffron strands (optional)

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 litre salt-reduced chicken stock

1 cup boiling water

1 litre water (to add later)

pepper

pumpkin seeds from the pumpkin

1 tbs cumin

olive oil

METHOD

Pumpkin Seeds

Place seeds under the grill. Coat with cumin. Grill for a couple of minutes or until you hear a bit of pre popping noises.

Soup

Preheat oven to 180.

Put the pumpkin, parsnip, garlic, saffron, stock and water into a heavy baking dish.

Cook in the oven for 40 minutes, ensuring the stock doesn’t get all soaked up and dry.

Remove and put in a stockpot with the extra litre of water and lentils. Reboil.

Cook on a simmer for 20 minutes, or until the lentils are soft. Season well.

Place in a blender for a short while to get a soup that is a nice mushy texture.

Serve and garnish with roast cumin pumpkin seeds and a drizzle of olive oil.

(Adapted from Low GI Cooking)

mushroom, caper and parsley pasta

February 21, 2012

mains, pasta

11 Comments

I had some mushrooms handy and wanted a flavoursome pasta sauce. I skipped the creamy sauce recipes I found; this recipe looked so simple and it was. A perfect combo of flavours too. I served it on spelt pasta and garnished it with some delicious parmesan. I have been craving cheese so much lately! I had toasted cheese on spelt bread for breakfast and this for dinner. I’ve also been gawking at the Camembert cheese in the fridge for 5 minutes at a time each time I open the fridge. This is a good recipe if you couldn’t be bothered with effort.

Serves 2

INGREDIENTS

2 tbs olive oil

1 red onion, halved, thinly sliced

30g drained capers

200g cup mushrooms, thinly sliced

3/4 cup roughly chopped fresh continental parsley leaves

finely grated parmesan, to serve

pepper

wholemeal spelt pasta, cooked to packet directions and set aside

METHOD

Melt oil in a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Add the onions and capers, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes or until the mushrooms are tender. Stir in the parsley, pepper and remove from heat.

Heat through pasta with hot water, drain and place in bowls.

Top with sauce.

Sprinkle with parmesan and serve.

(Adapted from Taste)

—Scrambled Megs

Archive

mains

sweet potato & chickpea tagine

salmon, kale & mushroom sauce

pumpkin & soba laksa (with home-made laksa paste)

curried vegetable bowl

super yummy lentil “meatloaf”

spicy sweet potato, leek & peanut soup

spicy pumpkin, split pea & rosemary soup

tomato & vegetable curry

pumpkin, green lentil & parsnip soup

mushroom, caper and parsley pasta

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