veggie couscous

Well, I've been busy as all hell lately and haven't posted in a while. Here's a quick couscous recipe I whipped up tonight - and hopefully I'll post a few more recipes over the next few days.

What you need;
1 cup couscous
1 veggie stock cube
Tinned brown lentils
All purpose seasoning
Cumin
Tinned beetroot
Zucchini
Asparagus
Green beans
Carrot
Mushroom
Corn
Onion
Garlic

What you do;

1) Cook the garlic and onion in oil. When browned, add the chopped carrot and green beans, then 5 minutes later add the chopped mushrooms, asparagus and zucchini.

2) While this is cooking, bring a cup of water to the boil with the stock cube and a bit of oil. When it's boiled, add the couscous, take it off the heat and set aside with the lid on for 3 or 4 minutes. When it's absorbed the liquid, fluff it with a fork to separate the grains.

3) Rinse the tinned lentils and add those and the corn to the veggie mix to heat through. Take the mix off the heat and let cool a little. When it's not so hot, add the cooled couscous to the veggie mix and add spice to flavour.

4) As a final thing - and bearing in mind that this is a quick slap-stick recipe - I chopped up some tinned baby beets and put them on top. It added that final yum factor and went well with the subtle flavours.

It's quick, yum, filling and is a well balanced meal. It keeps well for two days worth of leftovers too - my work colleagues were very jealous last time I made this :)

You can use whatever veg you have in the fridge - last time I made a version of this it was the day before market day and I wanted to use up every last thing! You can play around with the spices too - these are just what i grabbed from the cupboard.

soup, soup, soup

Yep, Melbourne has turned on the cold again this weekend.

It's been a blustery, rainy Sunday afternoon, so of course I thought of soup.

I've spent the last few weeks moving house and STILL don't have the internet sorted at the new place, but thanks to a USB dongle, I'm able to post this soup I whipped up today with 'stuff I found in the cupboard/fridge that was going bad'.

Clearly choosing the ingredients was a very technical process *wink*.


 Stuff you need;

3 or 4 potatoes, chopped into small cubes
half a head of cauliflower, broken into small florets
400 gram tin crushed tomatoes
1 heaped tablespoon tomato paste
1 cup red split lentils
tinned corn
2 cloves garlic
2 and a half Massell vegetable stock cubes
olive oil
fresh parsley to taste

What you do;

1) Fry the garlic and potato in olive oil til it's browned.

2) Add a litre of water with the dissolved stock cubes and the crushed tomatoes. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and add cauliflower and lentils.

3) Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, until the lentils, cauliflower and potato are cooked through and soft. Then add the tomato paste and salt and pepper to taste.

4) Finally, add the tinned corn and chopped fresh parsley and heat through.

That's it! My very basic peasant soup. Cheap as chips and oh so easy. The beauty of it is that you can put whatever you want in it - I just happened to have potatoes and cauliflower I needed to use. Last time I used carrot and broccolini and it was great too.

oh my, what a pie

Well 'tis the season. Melbourne is f-f-f-freezing at the moment and there's nothing more warming than a yummy pie. Last week I baked this recipe from taste.com.au (minus the egg wash), and it was pretty good. So I decided to try it again but change it a bit.

The original recipe is a bit dry, so I ended up adding another half cup or so of Massel vegetable stock. I also added two teaspoons of tomato paste and fresh parsley.

I made 5 small pies instead of one big one, and to get the shine on top I baked them for 5 minutes or so then used spray oil on top and baked them for another 10 minutes - or until golden brown. Also, I used double the mushrooms (because I luuurv mushrooms) and a little less potato.

They were so very delicious - I'm drooling just looking at the pics! They're a slow cook but so worth it. My new favourite winter dish.

The recipe is a great base too, you could really add whatever you wanted to it. I'm going to be experimenting more with this little ditty.