Sunday 13 December 2015

Roasted Red Pepper, Tomato & Lentil Soup

Soup is one of my favourite meals. If I puree the soup I can usually get my kids to eat it as well.  They don't have as big a bowl as I do so tend to have a bit more bread. They did love this soup though! I think the sweetness from the roasted red peppers helped!


Ingredients
3 Red Peppers (diced)
8 Tomatoes (sliced in half)
Drizzle Olive Oil
Pinch Sea Salt
Freshly Ground Black Pepper
1tsp Cumin Seeds
1tsp Ground Coriander
1tbsp Coconut Oil
1 Onion (diced)
2 Garlic Cloves (crushed)
125g Red Lentils
700ml Vegetable Stock (I use a Kallo Stock Cube)

Method
Pre-heat the oven to 200°C.
In a roasting dish add the red peppers and tomatoes.  Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle a pinch of sea salt.  Roast for 40 minutes turning every so oven.
In a casserole dish fry fry the cumin seeds and ground coriander for a minute then add the coconut oil, onion and crushed garlic.  Fry for a minute being careful not to let it burn.  Remove the roasted peppers and tomatoes from the oven and add to the casserole dish. Add the red lentils and stir well.  Pour in the vegetable stock, stir and leave to simmer for 15 minutes on a low heat.

Puree, sieve if preferred and serve with a healthly bread.  I love Deliciously Ella's Superbread recipe. For my kids aged 5 and 3 I serve with a slice of buttered wholemeal bread and ask them to try a small piece of superbread.  My 5 year old son always says yum but when you ask if he wants more he politely says no thank you.  

Tuesday 8 December 2015

Broccoli Pesto

I love making pesto.  I love how such a tiny spoon of something so easy to make can really turn around a simple pasta dish.

This recipe makes a big batch which you can freeze and will last you ages! 

Ingredients
250g Broccoli
100g Walnut Pieces
150g Grated Hard Goats Cheese
100ml Olive Oil
Squeeze lemon juice
2 cloves garlic

Method
Cut the broccoli florets off the stem and blanch in boiling water for 5 minutes.  Meanwhile dry fry the walnut pieces for a few minutes tossing regularly to ensure they don't burn.  Add the broccoli and the toasted walnuts to the food process with all the other ingredients and zap until combined.



I find these great ice cube (though advertised as baby food) silicone trays by Zeal are great of distributing my pesto. And once frozen I pop them in freezer food bags and then just zap a stick in the microwave for 40 seconds before adding to pasta.

As a general rule I weigh my pasta and serve 40g dried pasta per child, 75g dried pasta for me and the hubbie likes a bit more!

Jamie Oliver’s Apricot, Ginger & Cashew Energy Balls

I don't often go supermarket shopping as I tend to shop online but I visited sainsburys about 4 times over the space of two weeks and I just kept seeing Jamie Oliver's new Everyday Superfood book.  I'd seen a few of his TV programmes so every visit I had a flick through wanting to try every recipe and my last visit I put it in the trolley.

Now due to copyright issues (although I couldn't find the small print) I can't copy and paste his recipe here however I will let you know that they are easy to make and have you'll have the majority of the ingredients in your cupboard; cashew nuts, sesame seeds, dried apricots, fresh ginger, mixed spice and manuka honey.  The only extra ingredient you will need to purchase is puffed brown rice which I managed to source on the reliable Amazon!

Jamie suggested his recipe made 12 portions but I like to be able to put a whole ball in my mouth in one go (comes as part of secret eating when working around toddlers!).  I made each ball to be about 10g and made 20 in total.  Using my trusty Mac Numbers spreadsheet these worked out at under 20p each!