by Linda on March 20, 2013
Today is just the second day in the last two months that it hasn’t rained, a gorgeous sky blue day but my garden is still too wet to plant. The zucchinis have struggled in the wet, but the tromboncinos have done really well right through all this rain. (And the Suyo Long cucumbers – very impressed with their mildew resistance).
So my glut crop is tromboncinos rather than zucchini, but this recipe works equally well with both.
Zucchini, Carrot and Sunflower Seed Slice
Turn the oven on to heat up.
Grate 1½ cups of carrot, 1½ cups of zucchini, and one onion.
Put them all in a heavy pan with a good swig of olive oil and fry, stirring occasionally, for a few minutes. The idea is just to heat the vegetables through, soften them, and evaporate a bit of moisture.
While they are cooking, blend together:
- ½ cup of cottage cheese
- 3 eggs
- a good handful of flat leaf parsley leaves
- 1 big tablespoon of wholemeal plain flour
- salt and pepper
Grease an ovenproof dish well. I have a square, pyrex dish 20 cm square that is perfect for it. You may like to line the base with greaseproof paper – it does come out without it but it makes a little less risk of sticking.
Mix the egg, cottage cheese and parsley mix with the vegetable mix. Add 1/3 cup sunflower seeds and mix well. Tip into the oven dish and smooth out the top. Sprinkle the top with grated cheese.
Bake in a hot oven for 15 minutes until golden on top.
Allow to cool for about 5 minutes, then tip it out and slice into little squares or fingers.
Serve on a platter to share, with chili jam or chutney or homemade tomato sauce, or cold in a lunch box or picnic basket.
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by Linda on July 26, 2012
Second of the cauliflower season Tuesday Night Vego Challenge recipes. It’s an oldie but a goodie. This is a fairly low fat, low GI version of the ultimate cold winter night comfort food. I like cauliflower cheese soup kept very simple, and I find adding potato tends to make it gluggy, so this version has no potato and low fat cottage cheese.
The Recipe:
For two adult dinner serves.
Gently sauté an onion in a little olive oil in a large, heavy pot with a tight fitting lid, or a pressure cooker.
As it softens, add
- 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped,
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
- ½ teaspoon dill seeds
- grating of black pepper
As soon as the seeds start popping, add ½ cauliflower, stems and all, chopped into flowerettes, along with 2 cups of vegetable stock. If your stock is homemade, you may like to add a pinch of salt too, depending on how salty you make your stock.
Simmer for around 15 minutes or pressure cook for 5, until the cauliflower is quite soft, then add
- ½ cup of low fat milk.
- ½ cup of low fat cottage cheese
- ½ cup of grated tasty cheese
Blend until it is very smooth. I find my stick blender the best tool for this, but you could use a food processor or even pass it through a mouli or sieve. I like cauliflower soup very smooth.
Put it back on the heat and bring it back up to temperature, stirring all the time and not boiling. If you boil it at this stage it will curdle, and if you don’t stir, it will stick. It just needs to be brought back up to eating temperature. Taste and add salt if needed.
Serve with a sprinkle of chopped dill as garnish and some good wholegrain toast for dipping.
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by Linda on July 10, 2012
Saag just isn’t photogenic. Unfortunately, because it is very delicious, and I have bucketloads of silverbeet (chard if you are not in Australia) in the garden at the moment and saag is one of the very best recipes I know to use bucketloads of it (and still want to come back for more tomorrow).
Saag is a northern Indian spiced puree of spinach (or silver beet). This far north I never have spinach in those kind of quantities, but I do have silver beet – it’s a garden no-fail this time of year, and it’s a superfood for a whole heap of reasons. It has lots of antioxidant beta carotene, good for protecting against aging inside and out due to cell damage. And it’s a good source of folic acid, which is good for the immune and nervous systems and with the number of colds and flu’s going round right now, that’s a good thing. And it has heaps of calcium and magnesium and vitamin K which are all important for bones.
The Recipe:
Serves two generously.
Into a cup, put:
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
- 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
- 1 teaspoon fennel or dill seeds
- the seeds from 5 cardamom pods
(It’s better if you use whole seeds for this)
Chop and have ready to add:
- 2 finely diced chilis (more or less, depending on how strong your chilis are and how spicy you like your food. Saag is best mildly spiced though).
- 2 cloves of garlic
- a heaped teaspoon of grated or finely diced fresh ginger
- a heaped teaspoon of grated or finely diced fresh turmeric (or substitute a scant teaspoon of turmeric powder)
Heat quite a decent swig of oil in a big pot or pressure cooker. Traditionally it would have been ghee, but I don’t like to use quite that much butter. Olive oil is a bit strong flavoured though. I use macadamia oil, but any sweet or mild flavoured oil would work.
Add the seeds and cook, stirring till they start to pop. (Don’t let them burn). Then add the chili/ginger/turmeric/garlic mix. Cook stirring for another minute or two, then add
- a cup of vegetable stock, with some salt in it
- the shredded leaves from a BIG bunch of silverbeet. Just the leaf stripped from the stem, chopped reasonably fine. Lots – at least two packed cupfuls. I often add a few mustard leaves too.
- 3 bay leaves
- 3 cm of cinnamon stick
Pressure cook for 5 minutes, or simmer for 15, then reduce until there is just a little bit of liquid left. Take it off the heat and blend in 3 or 4 heaped dessertspoons of cottage cheese (low fat works fine). I use a stick blender for this, but you could use a blender, food processor, or even a mouli.
Serve with naan bread for scooping.
Do you have a favourite Tuesday Night Vego Challenge recipe for this time of year? Links are welcome in the comments.
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