Butternut Squash,Cabbage and Green Lentil Curry

Say whaaaaaat? Curry that's healthy? AAAAND vegan? Yes! Yes, it is!

I am a super fan of curries. I am not, however, a super fan of the aftermath of curries. Yes, the bloats, the gurgles and the inability to move.

So I found a curry recipe online that included lentils and decided to put my own twist on it using the basic recipe I found. Of course I included my all time favourite veg - the Butternut Squash. Seriously, this guy ca do no wrong in my eyes! AND! You only need one pan! Plus a tray to roast the butternut squash and parsnips.

I thought i'd need to accompany this dish with rice, but I found the lentils helped fill out the meal and there really was no need for any side dish. Which is a step in the right healthy direction as a) no naan is involved and b) no stodgy rice.

You can obviously add and subtract veg depending on what your personal taste is and of course make it hotter and mix it up with different spices.


So here's my spin (Serves two - and some for lunch the next day)

For the roast veg;

1 Butternut Squash - peeled and cubed
2 Parsnips - peeled and cubed
1 tsp Olive Oil
1 tsp Madras Curry Powder
1 tsp Garam Masala
Salt and Pepper

For the Curry;

1 tsp Olive Oil
1 Onion - diced
3 Garlic Cloves - or less depending how much you love garlic!
2 tsp Garam Masala
2 tsp Madras Curry Powder
2 cups Veg Stock/Broth
Half cup Green Lentils (or any other type you fancy!)
A few leaves of Cabbage - or a handful of Spinach

Preheat your oven to 220oC/Gas7/fan 200oC. Place the Butternut squash and Parsnips into a bowl and add the oil, spices and salt and pepper (about a pink of both) and toss until all is covered. Place on a baking sheet and cook for about 30 minutes until soft and brown at the edges.

Heat the oil and add the garlic and onion. Cook until the onion starts to look transparent.

Add the spices and give a good ol' stir until the place smells amazing! Add the lentils, cabbage and the stock and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat then simmer for about 10/15 minutes or until the lentils have soaked up the stock and you're left with a thick curry.

Taste to see if you need to add anything - Salt? Pepper? More spice?

Serve into bowls and add a good old dollop of Creme Fraiche or Yoghurt. Prepare to eat it all as it's so goddamn YUM!

Okay, so that's me done with the recipes for today! Hope you find them as delicious as I did and as easy to make!

Garlic, Sea Salt and Herb Focaccia

Hey guys! Sorry for the lack of posting recently! Things have been manic busy the past few months :) The only good thing to come of it is that i'm planning to up roots and move 140 miles north to the Highlands to be with the love of my life :) very excited about that!

Anyway! We're not here to drink tea and gab (although that does sound tremendous, no?) we're here to BAKE!

I've seen ALOT of baking programmes recently where they've been making focaccia bread. I must admit after watching the Great British Bake off where there was THAT episode with the focaccia, it kind of made me a bit scared. However I do not get scared of baking or cooking. No, I go in gung-ho and give it a bash - after all whats the worst that could happen?

I must admit, the initial dough formation made me panicky. I did actually wonder if I had put in too much water (which I hadn't) and the fact that it didn't act like normal white bread made me a bit out of sorts. however I am more than pleased with the final outcome and I am pleased to say that this lovely tasty bread will be taking pride of place next to my Flammkuchen tonight at dinner (recipe for that alternative German pizza to follow!)

So give it a bash and let me know how you get on :)

So, you will need:

500g/1lb 2oz white flour (you can also use bread flour)
2 tsp sea salt
3 tsp dried easy blend yeast (or buy 2 sachets)
2 tbsp olive oil
400ml/14 fl oz cold water
olive oil (for drizzling)
sea salt
1 large garlic clove, crushed
selection of herbs chopped finely

Place Flour, yeast, oil, salt and 300ml/10fl oz water into a bowl and mix together until a dough is formed (this is messy!), knead the dough for about five minutes while gradually adding the remainder of the water.

Stretching the dough by hand, fold the edges of the dough into the centre for another five minutes, turn the bowl 180 degrees and repeat the process.

Tip the dough onto a well oiled surface and continue kneading for five minutes until it looks a bit more smoother and manageable. Place the dough in the bowl, cover with cling film and place in a warm place until it's almost doubled in size (I put mine under the radiator!)

Line two baking sheets or dishes with spray oil (this makes the bread easier to remove!) and set aside. Tip the dough out and half. Using your fingers, flatten the dough onto the baking sheets until all the area has been covered. Cover in cling film and place in a warm place to prove for about an hour.

Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas Mark 7. Drizzle each loaf with olive oil, sea salt, garlic and the herbs (or whatever you fancy!) and place in the oven for 20 minutes.

Once cooked, drizzle more oil over the bread.

If you are reheating it, just drizzle more oil over the top afterwards :)

Good luck!

Tomato & Red Onion Chutney

I've only started looking into chutney recipes recently when I got it into my head that i'm going to make everyone a jar of chutney for Christmas. So rather than going a bit gung-ho a week before Christmas and end up making a right pigs ear of things, I thought having a bit of practice would probably be the best and the most sensible idea!

I had a trawl through recipes and - seeing that I had a ton of tomatoes that i'd grown kicking about - I decided on a tomato-based recipe. However, most of them had a few different ingredients like cardomom seeds and chilli that I just wasn't into in a big way. So I concocted my own recipe using the base of red wine vinegar, brown sugar and tomatoes and kind of just added anything that I could find!

This does take quite a bit of preparation so make sure you have plenty of time to do this!

I do hope that you try and enjoy this recipe as I think I actually done really well considering this is my first attempt!

This makes about two standard jam-sized jars, however you can increase or decrease the ingredients accordingly :)

2 medium red onions
750kg tomatoes
1 or 2 peppers
4 garlic cloves (crushed and chopped finely)
half teaspoon of ground ginger
1 teaspoon of dijon mustard
250g light brown muscovado sugar
1 braeburn apple (or any type of cooking apple)
150ml red wine vinegar

First of all peel and deseed your tomatoes and peppers. To peel them, plunge the tomatoes and pepper into boiling water for about 30 seconds, drain then fill with icy cold water. This makes is so much easier to peel them! Cut into quarters and remove the seeds (WARNING! Your hands will actually stink of tomatoes afterwards!)

Dice the apple and onion into small bits and slice the tomatoes and the peppers.

Add all the ingredient to a stainless steel pan (not brass or copper as it reacts with the the vinegar and leaves a metallic taste apparently) and bring to the boil stirring occasionally. Once boiling, reduce to a medium heat and simmer for about an hour.

In this time you can sterilise the jars. There is a few ways which you can do this:

  - Wash the jars in hot soapy water and rinse thoroughly. Shake off any excess water and place in the oven on a LOW HEAT for about ten minutes or until dry.

  - Place in a saucepan of cold water and bring to the boil. Once the water is boiling, boil for about ten minutes.

  - Or simple place in the dishwasher and fire it on a warm rinse (this is the method I chose!)

You should do this so the jars are just done and warm for when your chutney is ready.

So after the hour, the chutney should be looking a lot darker in colour and have a jam-like consistency. Like this...

It will reduce dramatically as all the ingredients sort of mush together. I left it on a low heat and stirred for about five more minutes just to make sure it was cooked properly.

I then placed into the warm jars and covered in kitchen paper until cooled. If you place the lids on right away, the condensation will settle on top of the chutney and make for a runny consistency.

This keeps for about 6 weeks.

So there you go! Some yummy chutney to make, right on time for this freeeeezing weather! It goes amazing with hard cheese and oatcakes. You could also mix up the vegetables and add or take away certain ingredients.

For hints and tips a great website to visit is here as it gives you ideas on how to prepare certain fruits or vegetables for the chutney and also whats a complete no-go for it!

Seasonal Spiced Lentil Soup

So here in good old Scotland it's just gone September and already it's time to pull on some slipper socks and a big jumper and make some soup to warm those cockles!

I LOOOOVE making soup and find it so relaxing. Plus it's so easy to make!

I don't generally follow recipes for soup. It's a theory of mine that firing a selection of veg into a pot with stock and leaving for 45 minutes, while you go sew/crochet/have a cup of tea, will make something gloriously comforting.

I've decided to post a recipe for this today as a few people i've spoken to recently have claimed they have no idea how to make soup. One even mentioned buying a soup recipe book. My answer? "Why ever would you do that?" so hence I am here and typing out a recipe (not so much a recipe as an idea for people) for lentil soup :)

Okay doke :) so for this you will need:

250g red split lentils (or there about i normally buy a 500g bag and put in just under or over half depending how generous i'm feeling!)

2 stock cubes (for extra veggie flavour)

some potatoes (however much you fancy i used 4 medium sized ones)

carrots (I found a bag already sliced in the supermarket for 50p! BARGAIN! Again just add what you want however if you're a bit unsure i would say about 3 medium sized)

half an onion

quarter of a teaspoon of ground ginger

a pinch of nutmeg 

I also added a leek just because there was one kicking about the fridge

some oil for cooking

You will also need a large saucepan, a seive and a blender.

That's the joys of this, is that you can add whatever you feel like and it will still taste amazing!

First of all give the lentils a bit of a rinse using a seive (some packets may say to soak them for an hour but I never do that as they're getting cooked anyway) then place in a pot and half fill with water. 

Place on a high heat and let it boil for 15/20 minutes. While this is happening, peel and dice the veg and place aside. Place the potatoes in a pot of water to let the starch escape. Heat a small amount of oil in a pan on a medium heat and add the leek and onion, cook for 2/3 minutes until softened but don't allow to brown.

So the lentils should be ready and looking transparent and a bit yuk! Add all the veg into the pot and top up with water. Add the stock cube, ginger and nutmeg. Bring to the boil then drop the heat to a medium heat and allow to simmer for 45 minutes. This will allow the veg to soften the the flavours to merge :)

Once the 45 minutes is up, blend and season to taste. If the consistency is too thick just add water a bit at a time and stir throughout until desired consistency is achieved.

This can be frozen and defrosted when needed. However in this household it doesn't make it to the next day! I love serving it piping hot in a big bowl with some toasted crusty bread placed on top.

Enjoy!