Again, it’s Monday! I’m tired and hungry and need some fast but healthy food. I’ve been working away all weekend and whilst the food was free and delicious, it was generally junk (not complaining!!) So mushroom ‘steak’ and chips it is. As you can see there are very few ingredients to bother with and half of these are cupboard/freezer staples.

Ingredients

4 large mushrooms

2 cloves of garlic (chopped)

Olive oil

2/3 potatoes (depending on how hungry you are)

Frozen peas

Tinned sweetcorn

Salt & pepper

What to do

Firstly chop the potatoes into chip sized pieces. Put these in a bowl with olive oil, salt and pepper. Stir until the potatoes are well coated then lay these on a baking sheet in a single layer so they cook evenly.

Now prep the mushrooms. Remove the stalks and place on a baking sheet. Pour over olive oil and sprinkle evenly with garlic and a little salt and pepper.

Put the chips on a higher shelf in the oven and the mushrooms lower down. Cook on 180 for around 30 minutes or a little longer if needed.

In the meantime, boil the peas and sweetcorn and chop some salad.

In around half an hour or so you’ve got yourself a nutritious and delicious dinner.

Four mushrooms and three potatoes was a huge amount for the two of us so I would generally work on two mushrooms and one potato per person with all the accompaniments being enough.

I made most of this dinner with leftovers I had in the fridge so it was a quick and easy dinner to make after work but this would also be a nicer dinner to serve at the weekend or for a special occasion.

With the ingredients that I had I was able to make 8 parcels so we also had a meal for later on in the week too!

Ingredients

1 green leafy cabbage

Cooked leftovers – lentils/beans/vegetables (see notes below)

1 Onion

2 Carrots

1 stick Celery

3 cloves Garlic

1 jar passata

What to do

Firstly mince the onion, carrots, celery and garlic in a food processor until they look like this:

Fry this mixture in a spoonful of coconut oil for a few minutes until it starts to soften.  Add salt and pepper to taste and the whole jar of passata.  Leave on a low heat to simmer slowly and develop flavour whilst you get on with the rest of the dish.

(This amount of sauce made way more than I needed for the dish but the leftover was used as a pasta sauce later in the week).

Whilst the tomato sauce is simmering, pull the cabbage leaves and de-stalk the thickest part as shown below on the right:

You now need to boil the leaves in plain water for a minute or so to soften them then pat dry on a clean towel.

Boiling them now makes them easier to work with when you fill and roll them.

Place a spoonful or two of the leftover mixture onto the centre of the cabbage leaf but be carful not to add too much mixture as it will make the parcels difficult to roll.

Now just roll them up (easier said than done!)  The first few times I tried this they didn’t look very beautiful but as with everything, practice makes perfect.  I start by pulling in the left and right side of the leaf and rolling up from the bottom (where you de-stalked) to the top.  Turn it over and place into an oven proof dish.  Repeat this process with the rest of your cabbage leaves (and don’t worry if a bit of stuffing escapes into the dish).

Add the tomato sauce you’ve had simmering and cover the parcels well.

Bake this in the oven for around 30 minutes to make sure everything is thoroughly warmed through inside and serve with your favourite vegetables.

If you are making this from fresh you can use lentils and beans as I have here or you can substitute these for rice, cous cous, bulgar, quinoa, barley etc but just factor in the time to cook these first.

The vegetables that I had lurking in the fridge to stuff the parcels with were peas, sweetcorn, leek and broad beans but again, just use what you have around and what you enjoy.

Monday night dinner always needs to be quick and easy in my house but this week I needed something nutritious, delicious and with as few ingredients as possible due to the busy weekend I’d had.

There was very little food in the house this week and there was no way I was going to do battle with a supermarket so, I checked the cupboard and found lentils, the veg rack had onions and sweet potatoes and the fridge was harbouring some leeks so that’s what I cooked and it turned out delicious.

Ingredients

1 tbs coconut oil

1 onion (chopped)

1 leek (chopped into half moon shapes)

2 cloves garlic (chopped)

2 tbs liquid aminos (yeast extract/soy sauce will substitute if you need to)

1 cup green lentils (this will cook up and expand into two cups)

Stock/water

Sweet potatoes (I used 3 to feed two of us with a little leftover for Tuesday lunch but cook as many as you will eat)

Green veg to serve (I had asparagus)

Salt & pepper

What to do

Sautee the onion and leek in the coconut oil then add the garlic and black pepper when they have softened.  If you have them, add the liquid aminos (or soy sauce) at this point (if using marmite add it later with the liquid).

Add the lentils and stock to the pan.  I don’t measure the amount of liquid but the lentils will soak up a lot so make sure you keep checking to make sure they’re not boiling dry.

Bring the lentils to a boil then turn down to a fast simmer so the lentils will cook before all the liquid boils away.  They should take around 40 minutes to cook completely.  If you’re using marmite, add a large teaspoon now – your dinner won’t taste like yeast extract but it will have a deep savoury flavour.

In the meantime, chop the sweet potatoes into rounds as shown below.  Put some olive oil into a bowl, add salt and pepper and the sweet potatoes.  Give them a stir to coat with the seasonings and lay onto a sheet pan in a single layer.  Bake these in the oven at 180 degrees for around 25-30 minutes until soft.

Whilst the potatoes are cooking, prepare your green veg.  I just griddled the asparagus in a pan until soft enough to eat but cook what you enjoy.

Plate up and enjoy.

This was enough to make two dinners and leftovers for one Tuesday lunch (but my husband eats an enormous amount, much more than pictured below, so these amounts would probably stretch to four ‘normal’ sized portions).

Let me know if you enjoy this simple to prepare but delicious dinner

Today I managed to find Jackfruit in the supermarket!!  There seems to be a national shortage at the moment as I can’t find it anywhere so I stocked up and bought six cans while I could!

There are a couple of ingredients in this recipe that you may not be familiar with – nutritional yeast and amino acids but don’t worry, both can be easily found in your local heath food store.

Ingredients

1 tbs coconut oil

1 onion

1 carrot

1 stick celery

2 cloves of garlic

1 fresh red chilli

1 tin jackfruit (400g)

1 jar tomato passata (700g)

2 roast peppers (I use the ones from a jar – easier and tastier!)

1 tin kidney beans

2tbs amino acid

1tbs tomato puree

1tbs coconut sugar

2tsp cumin

2tsp smoked paprika (I use heaped spoons as I love the smokey flavour)

1tsp chilli flakes

2tbs nutritional yeast

Salt & pepper

There is quite a lot of chilli and spice in this recipe but if you prefer it a little milder just add a bit less.

What to do

Sautee the onion, carrot and celery in the coconut oil for a few minutes until they start to soften then add the garlic, fresh red chilli and black pepper.

Add the jackfruit and fry for a couple of minutes longer.

Now add the tomato passata, roast peppers, drained kidney beans, amino acids, tomato puree, coconut sugar, the rest of the spices and simmer for a good 30 minutes.

When the carrots are cooked to your liking, stir in the nutritional yeast, add your salt and serve.

I normally serve this with wild rice but due to eating a large cake with my afternoon cup of tea I wasn’t really hungry!

This will serve four people with a rice/tortilla accompaniment.

Served with sprouted seeds.

On the left is jackfruit straight out of the tin and on the right after I have shredded it with a fork.

This is what you’re looking for if you need to buy amino acids and nutritional yeast.  The aminos add a deep salty kick and the nutritional yeast adds a savoury flavour to dishes.

 

This is one of my favourite hummus flavours at the moment but there will be more flavours to follow in the future.

There are a few ingredients on the list but nothing out of the ordinary and one surprising addition that makes all the difference!

Ingredients

1 clove of garlic

1 tin chick peas (drained)

5 sun dried tomatoes (I use the ones in oil as they are softer but you could easily re-hydrate dried ones if you have them)

1tbs tomato puree

1tbs tahini paste

1 lemon/lime – juiced

2tsp apple cider vinegar (the surprising addition)

Salt & pepper

Olive oil

These are the ingredient amounts that I use but feel free to play around and add more or less of them to get your perfect flavour.

What to do

Firstly, I do not chop the garlic separately – just chuck it in the food processor and give it a whizz until it’s finely chopped.

Add in the rest of the ingredients (except the olive oil) and blend.  Scrape down the sides of the processor a couple of times.

Check for consistency and add the olive oil until you like the texture – some like it chunky but I prefer mine a little less thick so I add a little extra.

Serve with crusty bread, crudités or crackers.

Simple, delicious and only five minutes in the making!

Let me know what you think.

 

Thanks for joining me!

 

These pages are chock full of delicious vegan food using (mostly) basic kitchen and pantry staples so no dashing around trying to find random ingredients that you will only ever use in that one recipe.

 

If you’re already vegetarian/vegan, looking for ideas for a visiting vegan or trying to reduce your own meaty intake then you’ll find plenty of ideas for simple recipes, one pot wonders, fancier foods and loads of tasty side dishes on these pages.

 

Have a look through and see what you fancy for tea tonight.

 

This is me !