Category Archives: Vegetarian

Sweet Potato & Spinach Bake

04 Monday Mar 2013

Posted by in Lunch, Vegetarian

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The advantage of having your own vegetable garden is that you have a ready supply of fresh vegetables that you know are free from chemicals.  The downside is sometimes you have a glut of something.  This summer it was spinach, I didn’t expect it to seed so well, or grow well with all the rain.  Fortunately I also have lots of friends who I like to cook for and so a glut turns into lunch.

I also helps that I love having people over for lunch at the weekend, so I needed to find something to use up lots of spinach as well as being filling and delicious.  A quick search and I found this fabulous bake courtesy of BBC Food.

Sweet Potato & Spinach Bake

Sweet Potato and Spinach Back

  • 300ml single cream (or double if you feel indulgent – I always do)
  • 1 garlic glove, peeled
  • 2 sprigs thyme (or rosemary)
  • 250g bag frozen spinach
  • freshly grated nutmeg
  • butter
  • 850g sweet potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced (about 3mm think) – I used my mandolin
  • 25g grated hard cheese (Parmesan or veggie equiv.)

Directions

  1. Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Put the cream, garlic and herb sprigs into a small saucepan and slowly bring to just below boiling. Turn off the heat, season and leave to infuse.
  2. Put the spinach into a colander, pour over a kettle of boiling water and leave to drain for a few mins. Then squeeze out as much water as possible. Season with salt, pepper and freshly grated nutmeg.
  3. Grease an ovenproof dish generously with butter and spread half the sweet potato slices across the bottom. Top with a layer of spinach, then the remaining potato. Pour over the cream mixture, through a sieve to remove the garlic and herbs, then sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 45-55 mins until golden and tender.

That’s it, easy-peasy.  I probably used more fresh spinach and just wilted it with almost boiling water from the kettle, and a couple of garlic cloves rather than just one.  I also used thyme – although the original recipe says you can use rosemary, it didn’t appeal to me.  I just served this with a huge bowl of salad (mixed leaves, halved baby plum tomatoes, sliced cucumber, sliced red and yellow peppers and finely sliced half-moons of red onion) and lots of fresh crusty bread with butter.

This is a delicious vegetarian lunch dish.  You could use it as a side dish (like dauphinoise potatoes), but why complicate things?  It should feed 4 people easily and perhaps 6 as a side.  I made a dish and a half for 6 as a main.  Oh and I apologise for pinching the photo…..I made this long before I started taking photos of everything I eat.

Sweetcorn Risotto

06 Sunday Jan 2013

Posted by in Chicken, Dinner, Rice, Vegetarian

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Its the end of the festive holidays and I wanted something comforting for dinner, but also something that felt a bit indulgent.
IMG_0044 A few weeks back I had friends over mid-week for dinner and I made sweetcorn risotto and it was really excellent.  This was inspired by a fabulous bistro in Edinburgh called Spoon where I had first tried this dish and I wanted to make it for myself.

Sweetcorn Risotto with Ginger Soy Chicken

for the risotto (serves 6)

IMG_0042

  • 2 x 340g tins of sweetcorn drained and rinsed (use fresh if you can get it about 2 1/2 cups or 4 ears of corn)
  • 2 onions chopped finely (I used red onions)
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1/2 tbsp butter
  • 2 ltrs chicken or vegetable stock
  • 2 cups arborio or carnaroli rice (ie risotto rice)
  • 3/4 cup dry white wine (I substituted this with white port)
  • 2/3 cup grated Parmesan

for the chicken

IMG_0041

  • 12 skinless, boneless chicken thighs (ie 2/person)
  • 3 tbsp soy sauce
  • 3 tbsp garlic infused olive oil
  • 3 tbsp honey (or agave nectar)
  • 1 inch ginger grated or finely chopped

Directions:

IMG_0043

  1. Trim any excess fat from the chicken and place it in a sealable bag with the ginger, soy, olive oil and honey.  After ensuring that all the chicken is well coated, place in the fridge for a couple of hours, or overnight.
  2. Blitz about half the sweetcorn in a food processor or blender until they are roughly chopped and milky.  Scrape out and remix with the remaining whole kernels.
  3. In a large soup pot (and make sure its a large pot), saute the onion in the olive oil and butter until its softened and translucent.
  4. At the same time in another saucepan have your stock warmed through to just below simmering.
  5. Once the onions are soft, add in the rice and stir gently with a wooden spoon for two minutes.  Next add in the wine (or port or vermouth) and stir until this has been absorbed.
  6. Now add in a ladle full of the heated stock and all the sweetcorn and stir.  Keep this at a gentle simmer until almost all the stock has been absorbed into the rice, then add in another ladle of stock.
  7. Keep repeating the process of adding in a ladle of stock until its absorbed and add another, stirring frequently.  This will take about 25 minutes (setting a timer might be a good idea), or until the rice is al dente.  You may not need to use all the stock and the rice should be firm and no longer crunchy, with a creamy sauce formed around it.
  8. At this point add the Parmesan and if you want a little chopped parsley.
  9. When there is about 10 minutes to go take the chicken from the bag and either griddle, fry or cook under a grill until ready.
  10. Plate up, sprinkle with chopped herbs (coriander is nicer than parsley in my book) and few shavings of Parmesan, serve and eat!

This really is delicious, and in fact don’t bother with the chicken and have a bowl of this on its own for a really nice supper.  In the photos I’d halved the amount of the risotto ingredients and it still made enough for 3 people, which means I have leftovers for tomorrow.

I also didn’t have any white wine in the house so used some white port instead and it worked really well.  For a nice vegetarian dish use vegetable stock and roast some butternut squash with a little oil and thyme in the oven and serve on top of the risotto.

Risotto is a lot of stirring at the hob, but the results are worth it and you won’t believe how good this tastes.