Tag: vegetarian dinner ideas

Roasted Cauliflower & Garlic Soup with Homemade GF Croutons

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cauliflower-garlic-soup

I can’t take the credit for this one, I got the inspiration from Waitrose recipes! It looked so delicious that I thought I’d try it and put my own spin on it. Honestly guys, it’s so delicious and so moreish, you must give this one a go for these cold winter days.

Ingredients

1 large cauliflower, cut into florets
4 large garlic cloves
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1.5L organic vegetable stock
1 onion, chopped in half
4 fresh bay leaves

For the croutons:
3 slices gluten free bread or sourdough, cut into cubes or strips
1 tbsp thyme leaves
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Place the cauliflower and garlic on a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and mix well. Place in the oven for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring the stock to the boil in a large pan.

Add the onion and bay leaves, cover and turn down to a gentle simmer.

Now make the croutons by using a handheld blender or small blending jug to blend up the thyme leaves, garlic and olive oil.

Add this to a bowl and add the bread and mix it all in with your hands to cover the bread pieces with the mix.

Line another baking tray with parchment paper and put the croutons on the baking tray and put in the oven for 15 minutes or until browned.

When the garlic and cauliflower are cooked, remove from the oven and add to the stock. Cook for 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat and take out the bay leaves. Using the handheld blender again, (or a normal blender if you don’t have one) blend until smooth and season to taste.

Serve with a drizzle of olive oil, some thyme leaves and the croutons.

Love & health,
Lauren

Sweet Potato & Spinach Slow Cooker Curry

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sweet-pot-spinach-curry

Mid-week meals are all about ease and convenience, without it being convenience food as such. Everything we have at home is fresh and cooked from scratch but that doesn’t mean it needs to take hours to cook; with a slow-cooker you just shove it all in and come back to it when you want to eat it. The only time-consuming thing that still stands is the peeling and chopping… sorry, I can’t change that for you (or for me, unfortunately!)

I apologise in advance to my Indian friends for what I am labelling as ‘curry’; I know this isn’t exactly an authentic curry, but let’s just call this a Jewish curry! It’s fast, easy, and filled with fresh ingredients and spices.

As those of you who have followed me for a while know, Braxton has had spices in his food since I started weaning him so he’s very used to these flavours.

Ingredients

1 onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
4 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
2 large white potatoes, peeled and diced
1 can full fat coconut milk
1 cup organic vegetable stock
Half tsp garam masala
Half tsp curry powder
Salt and pepper to taste
Half a bag of spinach

Method

The inside bit of my slow cooker is hob-safe which means I can brown the onions and garlic in coconut oil over the hob first without dirtying another pan, which is the whole point of using a slow cooker; ease. If yours doesn’t have this feature just brown the onion and garlic in a frying pan first, then add them to the slow cooker.

Now add the rest of the ingredients except for the spinach, give it a bit of a stir and turn the slow cooker on.

About an hour before you’re going to serve, add the spinach and mix it in. The heat will make it wilt into the mixture.

Love & health,
Lauren

Beetroot Mash

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beetroot-mash

How gorgeous and bright does this look for a dull winter’s day? I just love the colours of nature and colours are a great way to entice children to eat vegetables. Beetroots are full of nutrients and are such an important vegetable.

Beetroots are an excellent source of folte so a great food to eat when pregnant or trying to conceive. They are also high in iron, potassium and fibre and are great for the heart. Generally an all-round wonderful vegetable.

I had a bunch of fresh beets in the fridge and juiced a few but wanted something warm so I decided to make this beetroot mash. It’s more like a beetroot puree really as I blended it. So creamy and soft and moreish.

I made something very similar a while back and added horseradish, so if you like a kick to your mash, try that one out!

Ingredients

2 beetroot
5 white potatoes
Quarter cup almond milk
Quarter cup vegetable stock
Himalayan salt & black pepper to taste

Method

Peel and chop the beetroots and potatoes.

Put the potatoes in a saucepan with boiling water and boil. If you have a steamer saucepan, put this over the top of the potatoes and put the lid on so they can steam and boil together. If you don’t, boil or steam the beets separately.

When they are both soft, mash the potatoes with a masher.

Add the beets to the blender and blend until smooth, then add the potatoes, stock, almond milk, salt and pepper and blend until puree-like.

Add more stock or almond milk if you need.

Love & health,
Lauren

Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers

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stuffed-peppers

Look at my wrinkly peppers! 🙂  I recently came back from Spain and they seem to ‘stuff’ a lot of food there so it inspired me to do stuffed peppers. My mum always made them for us growing up so not sure why I don’t do them more often – probably because she made them with meat so I associate it with that but I’ve made these delicious veggie ones and they turned out so yummy.

You can of course leave out the goat’s cheese if you want them vegan. We don’t eat cow’s milk dairy here and rarely even goat’s milk but I don’t mind the odd bit of goat’s cheese and Braxton really loved it too. The lentils and beans mean this meal is filled with plant-based protein.

Ingredients (for 2 people)

2 large red peppers
1 cup brown basmati rice
Half a cup of lentils
1 tin organic black beans
1 zucchini
1 tbsp bouillon
¼ tsp cumin
Himalayan salt and black pepper
A bit of soft goat’s cheese, cut up in very small cubes

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Cook the rice first according to the instructions, along with the lentils in the same saucepan. They both take quite a while so allow ample time.

When it has been cooking about 10 minutes, add the bouillon.

Once the water from the rice and lentils is very nearly all evaporated but there is still a tiny bit at the bottom, drain the black beans or kidney beans and add them. Mix them through the rice and lentils and leave on a low heat for a minute.

Now grate the zucchini directly into the saucepan and mix that around. Add the cumin, salt & pepper and mix. Now add the goat’s cheese and mix. Save a few pieces of goat’s cheese for after. Turn off the heat.

Cut the tops off the peppers and take out the insides and wash thoroughly.

Place them on a baking tray upright and fill with the rice mixture.

Put them in the oven for about 20 minutes. After 20 minutes add a few pieces of the goat’s cheese to the top and leave in for another 5-10 minutes.

Serve hot.

Love & health,
Lauren

Pea & Edamame Fritters (for baby led weaning and generally humans who like food!)

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Pea Edamame Fritters

You all know how much I love my weekly Abel & Cole organic food delivery and last week, I got a bag of peas in their pods which was such fun. I also had some edamame in the fridge so decided to add them and make some fritters as they are great for baby led weaning and I do like to give Braxton some food he can hold with each meal even if I am spoon feeding him also.

Ingredients

Half a cup of fresh podded peas (you could use frozen if you can’t get fresh of course)
Half a cup of edamame beans (shelled)
2 eggs
1 tbsp chia seeds
4 tbsp buckwheat flour
Handful chopped parsley
Handful chopped mint
Half a lime
Some coconut oil

(see below for optional dipping sauce)

Method

Beat the eggs in a bowl and add the chia seeds.  Mix, and leave to soak for 5 minutes. While they are soaking, add the peas and edamame to a saucepan of boiling water and boil for 5-7 minutes, until they have softened but not overcooked.

Drain the peas and edamame and add them to the egg mixture then add the buckwheat flour, parsley, mint and lime. You can add a little Himalayan salt if you want or keep it salt free for young babies.

Heat some coconut oil in a pan then spoon about 2 tbsp of the mixture into the pan. It will be too runny to shape it into patties, you just have to spoon it onto the pan how it is and it will take shape. Do a few at a time but don’t fill up the pan too much, you can do it in stages. They only need around 3-4 minutes on each side and remove when they are golden on both sides.

I made a little dipping sauce to dip them into by putting quarter cup olive oil, half an avocado, 6 brazil nuts, handful pine nuts, handful of mint and some Himalayan salt into the blender.

Health & happiness,
Lauren

Cauliflower ‘Couscous’ with Sesame, Sweet Potato & Asparagus

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Cauliflower Couscous

Who would have thought you could take a vegetable and turn it into a carb substitute? Sometimes we just fancy a bit of stodge for dinner, right?? Cauliflower is such a versatile vegetable and by blitzing it in the Vitamix, we can turn it into a couscous-like consistency. You can pretty much add anything you like to it and, as usual, I’ve added whatever I already had in my fridge. This entire meal is plant-based and super healthy.

Ingredients

1 large cauliflower
2 sweet potatoes
Tsp coconut oil
A bunch of asparagus
About 8 chestnut mushrooms, chopped (or any mushrooms will do)
5th of a cup of water
Handful coriander
1 tbsp sesame seeds
Some sesame oil
1/2 tsp paprika
Handful sundried tomatoes
Himalayan salt & ground black pepper

Optional:
1/4 cucumber, diced
1/4 red onion, diced
1/2 red pepper, diced
Gluten free tacos
Halloumi – if not vegan

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Peel and dice the sweet potato then put them on a baking tray with a tsp coconut oil and some Himalayan salt. Once the oven heats up the coconut oil will be melted and you can pull out the tray and mix it around to make sure it covers all the pieces of the potato. Cook for around 20 minutes, or until soft.

Cut the cauliflower into florets and put them in the blender and blitz until a couscous-like consistency is formed. Leave to the side.

Heat some sesame oil in a pan and add the asparagus and mushrooms. Mix around then add about a 5th of a cup of water and add this so the steam will cook the vegetables. Season with salt and pepper and once cooked, remove from pan and set aside.

In the same pan, add a tiny bit more sesame oil then once hot, add the cauliflower couscous to the pan and turn the heat to medium. Mix around for 1-2 minutes then add the sesame seeds and let it all heat through. Add the coriander, paprika some salt and pepper and mix for another minute, then re add the asparagus and mushrooms and mix.

Once heated through, put it on a plate or bowl, remove the sweet potato from the oven and add it to the top.

At this point you can add all the optional extras to the top or put it all inside a gluten free taco or wrap and devour!

Enjoy!

Love,
Lauren

Potato & Spinach Frittata

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Frittata

Healthy yet easy to make dinner ideas – it’s a constant battle right?? We’re trying to add as many of our lunch and dinner recipes to the site as possible to help you all out with easy dinner ideas for the whole family. This one was a winner and I served it with a fresh salad of lettuce, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, radish, carrot and spring onion.

Ingredients

6 organic free-range eggs
2 potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly
Half a bag of spinach
About 8 cherry tomatoes
Handful of parsley
Splash of almond milk
Salt & pepper (I used Oryx desert salt)
Coconut oil or spread of choice for the pan

Method

Boil your potatoes (already sliced) for no more than 5 minutes. Drain and set aside. Cut up the tomatoes into quarters, roughly chop the parsley and wash and drain the spinach.

Beat the eggs in a bowl, then add the almond milk, salt and pepper.

Melt the oil or vegan butter in a large frying pan. Once hot, add the egg mix, then add the potatoes, pushing them down so they are semi-covered by the eggs. Then add the rest of the veg and do the same thing.

Turn the heat to medium-high and let it cook for around 5 minutes. While it’s doing this, turn on your grill.

Once the frittata has cooked on the bottom, put the pan under the grill for a further few minutes, until you can see it has cooked through.

Serve with a crisp, fresh salad.

Enjoy!

Love,
Lauren