Beetroot and Goat's Cheese Tart

Inspired by Hugh's Saturday column - I made this delicous beetroot and goat's cheese tart. Obviously I tweaked it a little to suit what I had (no wine or thyme unfortunately) but the essential idea was the same and boy, is it a good one. Buttery pastry, sweet roasted beetroot and sharp goats cheese - a trio made in heaven. All you need is a simple salad on the side or even better a potato salad slick with mayonnaise.

This is definitely a good way to eat beetroot as although I love it, I know it's not always the easiest thing to cook with, least of because of the stained fingers. This soup is another favourite, as is eating it raw in salads - it has a carrot-like sweetness and is wonderful in a grated carrot, apple and beetroot salad sprinkled with pine nuts.

This recipe makes enough to fill a standard 24cm tart tin. Hugh suggests using a loose-bottomed 20cm sandwcih tin for a deeper tart. As you can see, I used my new favourite rectangular tin and so made less of the filling.

Ingredients
1 tart case, baked blind
25g unsalted butter
3 red onions, halved and finely sliced
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
500g small beetroot, boiled, peeled and sliced.
1 small bunch spring onions, finely sliced
280g goat's cheese log

• Preheat the oven to 200C.
• Melt the butter in a pan and gently fry the onions until soft.
• Add the beetroot slices, balsamic vinegar and a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Cook until almost all the liquid is absorbed and the mix is glossy.
• Cut the cheese into 1cm slices and lay a few on the base of the tart.
• Tip in the beetroot mix and put the rest of the cheese on top. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the cheese is bubbling and golden.
• Sprinkle the spring onions on top to serve.

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Easy Flatbread Pizza

These pizzas are a great last minute dinner. So easy to make and a great (healthier) alternative to takeout pizza. You need to start with flatbreads rather than tortillas (try a turkish corner shop for the best) as they are sturdier and will hold up to the toppings better.


I often make an absurdly quick tomato by sizzling some garlic and chilli in olive oil, pouring in a can of chopped tomatoes and simmering for 15mins or so until thick and seaoning well. But you could just as easily use halved cherry tomatoes.

Top with whatever you like and bake for 10-15mins until the cheese is bubbling and golden. The key here is restraint - keep it simple and don't pile on the toppings if you want to keep your pizza crisp otherwise, and I'm speaking form experience here, you end up with a soggy mess.

Some ideas for toppings:

• A thin layer of tomato, a little mozzarella and some pine nuts. Top with shredded basil when cooked.
• Top with rocket and avocado
• Goats cheese, walnuts and a few dollops of onion marmalade
  
• Chargrilled aubergine and pine nuts (a little oregano would be good here)
  
• Any combination of anchovies, capers and olives
• Thinly sliced pear, gorgonzola and pine nuts, topped with some rocket or watercress.
  

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Easy Recipe Search

We get our veg box on a Friday and I like to spend a bit of time at the weekend thinking of what to make with our bounty. I also like to get ahead and make one or two things on Sunday for the week. Now that I'm trying to actually cook from the plethora of food mags I have, I start with my current issue of Olive and Waitrose Food Illustrated, then maybe consulting Nigella or Jamie.

To be honest, and I'm sure there are lots of you out there who do the same, more often than not, I just google the ingredient I have and wait for inspiration to strike. There are a few websites that I generally use:

101cookbooks - for beautiful pictures and generally unique and healthy recipes
BBCGoodFood - for sheer voume of recipes
Delicious - for more interesting recipes than BBCGoodFood
Jamie Oliver and Nigella - for food porn

So, in order to make my life easier, I've made a google custom search that only searches the websites above, giving preference to website I use often means I'm more likely to find recipes that I actually want to cook instead of trawling through pages of results. I've added it to the sidebar, I hope you find it useful! Let me know if there are other websites you use that would be helpful. Read more...

Cauliflower Pasta

A reworking of this Cauliflower Pasta recipe taking inspiration from this recipe on 101cookbooks. Instead of braising the cauliflower, I stirfried it in a large frying pan with some onion until golden and nutty. Add some pasta and spoonful or two of creme fraiche to finish. Some chopped parsley, basil or toasted pine nuts would be a welcome addition here.

This is a great way to cook cauliflower. The key is patience, you need to stand over the pan for a good 5mins, turning the cauliflower regularly as it browns and tuns golden on each side, this is the key to giving the cauliflower the nutty caramelised flavour.

Try this as a base to a simple cauliflower curry, frying the cauliflower in curry powder and ading chopped tomatoes at the end.
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Courgette and Pistachio Bulghar Wheat Salad

A zingy bulghar wheat salad packed full of parsley and coriander, pistachios and orange. I also chopped some courgette into small pieces, fried in a little olive oil and added it to the salad, finishing off with a squeeze of orange juice to freshen things up. Pistachios are fast becoming a new favourite, mixed with orange juice, its an exotic combination.

As with most salads, this is a chop and assemble job. As ever, bulghar wheat holds up quite well, so make plenty for lunch and snacks later. Try adding some shredded roast chicken for a more substantial meal maybe eating with a simple tomato salad.


Ingredients

200g bulghar wheat, cooked
2 courgettes
3tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1 bunch parsley, chopped
1 bunch coriander, chopped
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 orange, zest and juice of 1/2
75g pistachios, chopped

• Top and tail the courgettes, slice into 4 lengthways and slice into chunks.
• Heat a frying pan with 2tbsp olive oil and fry the courgettes for 5 mins or so until golden brown and cooked through. Season well and a splash of orange juice.
• Mix with the bulghar wheat and add the rest of the ingredients saving some pistachios to sprinkle over later.
• Serve with a spoon of yoghurt and sprinkled with the reserved pistachios.

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