Fennel, Broccoli and Potatoes

I refused to go to the grocery store until I used up the broccoli.
It's like punishment.

So I made up a dish to serve to the husband when he came home from work.
Basically it involved sautéing the fennel, garlic and an onion. Then slicing and cooking the potatoes until they were nicely browned. Boil the broccoli for no more than 5 minutes and then combine all of this in a dish.

Make a gravy of sorts with vegetable stock and maizena or a roux if you prefer and pour it over the veggies with a hand full of grated parmesan cheese on top. Place into a hot oven for 30 minutes and serve up.

I actually quite liked it... definitely not a bad combination!

Couscous with Chicken and Broccoli

Why is it that I can never follow a recipe to the letter?
I'll tell you.

1. I'm a fussy eater and inevitably the recipe will contain something I don't like so I 'substitute' ingredients. (you ever wondered why things like bell peppers never ever show up in anything I make? Well now you know!)
2. I like to use what I have in the kitchen but when I do go and buy ingredients specially for a recipe there is a big chance that I will forget one or two things...
3. Apparently I like to improvise.

Jamie's 15 minute meals is turning into a hit in my house. Clearly not because I am following the recipes the way they were written, but because it is a source of inspiration for my improvisation.

Take Jamie's recipe for a delicious chicken salad with bulgur wheat. I love the idea of it, but not all the ingredients so my recipe substituted bulgur wheat with couscous, radish with red onion, pumpkin seeds with pine nuts, pickled lemons for fresh lemons and finally red wine vinegar with white wine vinegar. Yes, you would be right if you are thinking it deviates significantly from his recipe... but it was delicious!! I'm making it again and it took less than 30 minutes :-)

Here is the improvised recipe which should happily feed 2 to 3 persons:

Make the couscous first by using a ratio of 1:2 couscous to liquid (e.g. 1 cup couscous plus 2 cups boiling water). Add some salt, lemon zest and juice of half a lemon. Cover it and let it rest.

Cut the broccoli into florets and add to boiling water. Cook for 5 minutes or until tender but not soft.

Now season two chicken fillets with salt, pepper and ground coriander seeds.
Place them in a baking sheet and pound them with the intention to flatten them to about 1,5 cm thick thereby reducing the cooking time.

Add a dash of olive oil to a pan and cook the chicken breasts until golden on both sides, turning regularly.

Drain the broccoli and let it rest while you work with the rest of the salad ingredients. Slice up some spring onions, finely chop fresh mint leaves (half a handful of leaves should do), and slice a nice red onion into rings. Place into a bowl and add a dash of extra virgin olive oil, a dash or two of white wine vinegar, salt and pepper and mix it all up. Slice the cooked chicken and toss with the salad ingredients.

Place the broccoli on the couscous, then add the chicken and salad mixture.
Sprinkle some some garden cress (tuinkers) and pine nuts on top of the salad. Squeeze the juice of half a lemon over the salad.  Lastly add a tablespoon or two of fat free yoghurt with a teaspoon of harissa.

Enjoy!

Vegetable Pot Pie

There is nothing better than enjoying a vegetable pot pie in the middle of winter. It is warm and comforting and just makes me happy.

In essence I chopped up a whole lot of veggies, added vegetable stock and let it simmer for a while. Think potatoes, pumpkin, green beans, mushrooms, carrots, broccoli, onion and a courgette. Then I stirred in maizena mixed in cold water and let it thicken a little on the heat while stirring. Dish out all the veggies into an ovenproof bowl. Next you need to cover the whole bowl with pastry (see pastry recipe below).

Place it in the oven for about 35 minutes and serve!

I found the pastry recipe on this site.

Here is a copy of the recipe:

1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup whole-wheat flour
¼ tsp. salt
4 Tbs. cold soy margarine, cut into pieces

Whisk together flours and salt in bowl. Cut or rub margarine into flour mixture until no large pieces remain. Stir in 3 to 4 Tbs. cold water until smooth dough forms. Wrap in plastic wrap, and chill while making Filling.

Oven Roasted Broccoli

We eat a lot of broccoli.

Mostly because it is green and very good for you.

It is served in a dish at least twice a week in our house.

One of my favourite ways of preparing broccoli is to roast it in the oven.

Simply cut the broccoli head into florets, drizzle with a tablespoon or two of olive oil, season and pop into a preheated oven (200 degrees Celsius) for about 20 minutes.

Hope you all have a good week ahead!

Kids Food# 14 - Potato Omelette with Broccoli and Ham

This recipe came from Opperdepop, one of my favourite Dutch children's recipe books.
However, if you ask me this recipe is plain wrong.
Somewhere they made a mistake with the ingredients because my version did not look anything like their version!

But hey, we tried it and it was not really a success... firstly because it didn't look anything like an omelette, and secondly the kids did not want to eat it.

Sigh.

You win some, you lose some.

I'm not going to bother with giving you the recipe but if by chance you've made it and it came out well then do let me know!

Kids Food #6 - Broccoli Soup

Do you want to know the easiest way to get vegetables into kids?
Just make a soup!

Well it works for my kids :-)

Heidi likes 'green' soup so my favourite is broccoli soup.
Combine onion, carrots, tomatoes, broccoli and any other vegetable that you might find in the house.

Add a litre of vegetable stock and bring to the boil. Then let it simmer away gently for 20 minutes or so.

Blend and then add a tablespoon or two of cream cheese.

My secret ingredient is a sliced vienna sausage.
Just stir it through the soup before serving to the kids.

As usual, I use hardly any seasoning in the kids recipes, and the soup is no exception. I've added no salt since the vegetable stock already has sufficient salt in it.

Frozen Broccoli Soup - Part 2

In December I made a healthy broccoli soup which I froze.
It simply waited for us in the freezer compartment.
For about a month.

And then the moment arrived when Heidi asked for 'green' soup.
Yes!

I started off by placing the rock hard frozen soup in the microwave on defrost.
For a very long time.
At least 35 minutes.
Probably longer.
It took a while for the iceberg to melt away.

Eventually I heated up the soup and served it like I usually do with some fresh wholewheat bread.

It tasted fine... maybe a little watery.

Not sure if I will be freezing soup in the near future again but that's just because I do like my soup fresh. And since it took so long to defrost, I might as well have made the soup from scratch.

You live, you learn.

Frozen Broccoli Soup

For the first time in my life I decided to make something with the sole purpose to freeze it.
I am just not a big fan of frozen food but I find myself getting home later and later in the evening. That means that we sometimes end up eating very late, especially late for the kids.

Broccoli soup is my first experiment with freezing soup.

The soup is a basic vegetable soup with onion, carrots, broccoli, vegetable stock and a can of butter beans. Bring to the boil and then let it simmer for 30 minutes until the vegetables are tender and ready to be blended.

I used a hand blender to get it to a nice smooth consistency.

Then it has to cool down completely. Once it is room temperature you can pour it into the freezer container of your choice. I used a freezer bag since I don't have a very big freezer compartment.

Now all I have to do is take it out of the freezer first thing in the morning and heat it up in the evening when I get home.

Sounds easy enough so let's hope it works!

Chicken and Vegetable Red Curry

I've been threatening to make a red curry for a while now.
Mostly because I happen to have a can of coconut milk just waiting to be used.

I was going to make a vegetarian curry but I had two chicken breasts in the freezer that had to be used or thrown away and you know by now that I hate to waste food.

Ingredients:
300 gr chicken breast
1 head of pak choi
1 head of broccoli
1 fennel bulb
1 white onion
1 clove of garlic
2 tablespoons red curry paste (I buy ready made curry paste because I am lazy)
1 can of coconut milk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
A handful of cashew nuts - roughly chopped
Seasoning
Basmati rice - enough to feed 2 to 3 people

Method:
Wash and chop up the vegetables.
Boil water in a pan and add the basmati rice - follow the instructions on your packaging.
I cook the rice for about 8 to 10 minutes, drain and then rest it for about 10 minutes.
Heat up a tablespoon of vegetable oil in a wok, add the onions and saute until slightly softened.
Add the garlic and saute for a minute.
Add the rest of the vegetables and stir fry until al dente, which should be about 5 to 10 minutes.
I add a tablespoon or two of water to the wok while the veggies are cooking since this gives off a little steam and cooks my veggies quicker.
Put the vegetables aside.
Add a bit more vegetable oil to the wok and then add the chicken with a dash of soy sauce.
Stir fry for a couple of minutes just to give it some colour. Set aside.
Add the curry paste and stir for a minute - a lovely curry aroma will develop.
Now add the coconut milk and mix well.
Stir for a minute and then add the chicken back into the wok.
Let it simmer for a few minutes, until the chicken is cooked through.
Now add the vegetables and mix well ensuring the curry sauce covers everything and the veggies are heated through.

Dish up the basmati rice and add generous helpings of the curry to the plate.
Sprinkle the cashew nuts on top and enjoy.

P.S. If you have some fresh coriander then go ahead and add that at the end. I had basil which I added with the nuts but I think coriander is better with a curry.

A very basic vegetable soup

In sticking to my mission of using up the ingredients in the house, I emptied the fridge and found a whole lot of vegetables. I decided to make soup.
Plus it was raining outside and a hearty warm soup just felt right.
This soup is pretty basic though, and I must admit that there are probably a lot of other ingredients that I would have liked to add... but alas, I made do with what I had.
I am not going to lie, this soup needs quite a bit of seasoning and I personally found it a little bland.
Another day, another meal done so I am not complaining.

Ingredients:
One head of broccoli
Half a cucumber
Two shallots
Two cloves of garlic
One tomato
Three carrots
One potato
One litre of vegetable stock
One tablespoon of vegetable oil
Seasoning

Method:
Peel the shallots, garlic, carrots and potato.
Chop up all vegetables.
Heat up the oil in a large pot and add all the ingredients except for the vegetable stock.
Saute for a minute or two then add the stock.
Simmer on medium heat for 20 minutes or until the veggies are soft.
Blend or serve it as is with whole wheat bread rolls.

I tend to blend the soup because I am more likely to get Heidi to eat the soup that way. In fact, I think this soup will probably be better eaten as is since it will have more texture. The choice is yours.

Tip: Add a can of butter beans to vegetable soup - yummy!

Noodles with veggies and stuff

In the pursuit of using up everything in my food cupboard, I stumble across some Thai rice noodles.
They are wheat and gluten free, and even the packaging looks inviting.
Combine them with courgette, broccoli and vegetarian sate in peanut sauce and you have yourself an excellent dinner.

Ingredients:
One packet of Thai rice noodles
One head of broccoli
One courgette
One packet of vegetarian 'sate' in peanut sauce
One tablespoon vegetable oil
Seasoning

Method:
Slice the courgette into 3mm slices, toss in oil and add a bit of salt
Heat up a griddle pan and grill the courgette slices - I usually grill on each side for 2.5 minutes
In the meantime, heat up some water in a pot and add the broccoli
Boil for maximum 8 - 10 minutes, nice and tender but not overcooked
Heat up the sate in peanut sauce for about 5 minutes
Once the broccoli is done, cook the noodles for 3 minutes
When everything is cooked, combine all ingredients and mix it all up together
Serve and enjoy.

You will definitely be pleasantly surprised by this dish - I was!