Spicy Noodle Soup

One of us had man flu tonight. So, I decided a spicy, warming noodle soup would be both restorative and cleansing. This is a recipe I turn to often, I got the idea when tsting recipes for a book.

Simply heat up some stock (about 600ml for 2) and by stock I mean bouillon powder dissolved in water until just boiling, then switch off. Meanwhile, chop lots of garlic, ginger and chilli finely and throw it into the stock, leaving it to infuse whilst you get on with the rest. If you have coriander, try chopping the stalks as finely as possible and adding to the broth now, I also add a drizzle of sesame oil. This create a delicious broth full of flavour, the perfect base for most things. Try it with or without noodles, I like to cook the noodles in the broth itself, although it's often a tight squeeze, as the take on the flavour and the starch thickens the soup slightly.

Next onto the vegetables. Use whatever you have, sliced mushrooms, carrots cut into matchsticks, shredded greens, diced courgettes, baby sweetcorn, green beans. Bring the stock back to the boil and add a couple of noodle nests, poke them around in the broth until softened and throw in the veggies. Stir as best you can, cover and leave to steam for 5 or so mins until the noodles are soft and the vegetables cooked. Finish with a drop of soy, stir well, scatter over coriander if you have it and eat. The noodles and vegetables take on the flavours of the spicy aromatic broth and you're left with a comforting, healthy dinner in next to no time. Read more...

Red Rice Stir Fry with Poached Eggs

We get our vegetable box on a Friday and if we get cabbage and potatoes, I've taken to making bubble and squeak for brunch at the weekends. A spoon (or more) of baked beans on the side and a poached egg, what could be better? Now, this isn't bubble and squeak in the strictest sense, I literally peel and boil and rice potatoes, then stir fry shredded cabbage in butter and garlic and mix together. A bit of a hassle, but so good.

As I'm still trying (somewhat in vain) to eat a bit lighter, I started looking for inspiration for alternatives. 101cookbooks is always a good place to start for healthy recipes and I soon decided to try some of the more intresting grains out there. Off I went to Waitrose after work and came home clutching a bag of red and wild rice.

This isn't a brunch dish as sorts, but I did eat it about 1, which is brunch time in my book. Red rice is similar to brown rice in nuttiness, it's ability to fil you up and the length of time it takes to cook. I stirfried some cabbage with garlic and chilli, added the cooked rice, a splash of soy sauce and sesame oil. Top with a poached egg, some finely diced red onion and toasted cashew nuts. Simple, tasty and healthy.

Below is the version I made for Pete, I made an egg omelette first, shredded it and added it the rice instead of a poached egg.


Ingredients.

4 eggs
200g Red rice (or brown rice), cooked
75g cashew nuts
3tbsp sunflower oil
2 red chillis, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 green cabbage, shredded
2tsp soy sauce
2tsp sesame oil
1 red onion, finely diced

• Poach the eggs using Delia's method.
  
• Meanwhile, heat the cashew nuts in a dry frying pan until golden. Remove and roughly chop.
• Now add the oil to the pan. Add the chilli and garlic and fry for a minute.
• Add the cabbage and fry for a few minutes until softened.
• Now add the rice, soy sauce and sesame oil. Stir in the onions and chopped cashews and serve.

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Pappardelle with Sausage and Savoy Cabbage

Possibly the best way to eat savoy cabbage (along with colcannon). There aren't many vegetables that don't benefit from being paired with pasta and cream or cheese. Faced with another cabbage in the veg box, I rustled this up and it's definitely one to make again.

The cabbage is definitely the star, you're not trying to mask it with all the other ingredients, simply enhance. So don't be alarmed at the amount of raw cabbage you have to fit into the frying pan, it will cook down. This is all about using what you have, any other pasta will do, try mozzarella in place of the parmesan or strong cheddar. Any other greens would also work well, kale, chard, or spinach.


Ingredients

serves 4

400g pappardelle
1 pack sausages, approx 250g
2 fat cloves garlic, finely chopped
50g butter
1 Savoy cabbage
200g grated parmesan
3 tbsp pine nuts, toasted

• Cook the pasta in plenty of boiling salted water until al dente. Drain and reserve a mugful of the cooking water.
• Meanwhile, quarter the cabbage, remove the core and slice as finely as possible.
• Heat a large frying pan and add a little oil, split the sausages, and add the insides to the pan, use a wooden spoon to break the meat up into chunks whilst you're frying. Once golden, add the cabbage, garlic and butter.
• This will look like a huge amount of cabbage, but it will cook down. Stir as best you can and try to coat it all in the buttery juices. Continue frying and stirring for about 5mins until the cabbage is completely cooked, season well.
• Tip the pasta into the pan along with the cheese and 2 tbsp cooking water. Stir the pasta into the cabbage, be patient after a minute or so, the cheese will melt and form a lovely shiny sauce that clings to the pasta, add some more pasta water if you need to.
• Sprinkle over the pine nuts and serve.

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Steak with Colcannon Mash and Creamy mushroom Sauce

Yes, this was as outrageous as it sounds, not exactly in keeping with January healthy eating. but sometimes when its cold outside, you need something fortifying and creamy. All is not lost, there must be a good 2 portions of veg in the colcannon and mushroom sauce!

I've already written about steak, so has Jamie Oliver, it goes without saying that you need to start with good quality meat (preferably organic). Really, with something this simple and good, its all about starting with the right ingredients, proper butter, decent potatoes... I really think you can taste the difference with organic potatoes. I've given lots of variations on mash here, and the colcannon recipe is here, if you don't fancy a creamy mushroom sauce, you could try this port and mushroom sauce instead.


Creamy Mushroom Sauce

Ingredients

Serves 4

250g chestnut mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
squeeze lemon juice
1tsp grain mustard
1 small tub creme fraiche

• Heat a frying pan and tip in the mushrooms. I always dry fry mushrooms for a while first as they tend to eat up oil. Fry until beginning to brown.
• Add a knob of butter along with garlic and continue to fry until the mushrooms are cooked through.
• Add the mustard, lemon juice and creme fraiche. Warm through and season generously with lots of black pepper and a little salt.

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Venison Sausages with Mash and Mushroom Sauce

Mmm... this was a seriously decadent, rich and comforting dinner. We got some venison sausages with our veg box this week (they were on offer). Naturally we immediately thought of sausage and mash and I had a little braised red cabbage in the freezer. It was the wine and mushroom sauce (inspired by our Abel and Cole Cookbook) that really made this into something extra special even though it was cooked in the time it took to boil some spuds and grill the sausages.

Ingredients

Serves 4

20g dried mushrooms
250ml stock (chicken or beef)
50g butter
1 red onion, finely chopped
250g mushrooms (preferably a mix of wild and chestnut), sliced
250ml port or red wine
1tbsp cornflour

Make your sauce whilst the spuds are boiling anf you grill the sausages.

Cook the onions in the butter for 5 mins until soft
Turn up the heat and throw in the mushrooms, fry for 5 more mins until starting to turn golden.
Pour in the port and allow to bubble away for a few mins until most of the liquid has gone.
Mix the cornflour to a smooth paste with a little water and slowly stir into the pan. Add the stock, bring to the boil and cook a for another few minutes, stirring until the sauce thickens, add a little more stock or water if the sauce gets too thick.



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Braised Red Cabbage

Another inspiration from The Big Bang, I'd never really had it before I had it there, so now I always associate it with sausage and mash and that is really where it comes into its own, kind of like a warm chutney, but better...

Other strong flavours pair well, such as a Sunday roast or salmon and mackerel. either way, its delicious, cheap as chips and you can make a big and save leftovers, which as you've probably realised is always a good thing in my book.

Recipes vary, most braise it in red wine and typical Chritmassy flavourings, but I've had great success with apples and cider. What follows is my current favourite, but as usual its all about using what you have so feel free to experiment. This does benefit from being made the day before and allowing flavours to develop

Ingredients

50g butter
2 onions, sliced
1kg red cabbage, quartered and finely sliced
4 apples, peeled, cored and cubed
1 orange, zest and juice
100g brown sugar
3tbsp cider vinegar
300ml cider

• Cook the onions slowly in the butter for about 10mins.
• Tip in the red cabbage and stir well.
• Add the rest of the ingredients, stir well, cover and simmer for 1 hour.
• Season well before serving.

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Bacon and Cabbage soup

This is a hearty and healthy soup perfect for a chilly wintry day. Even better with lots of toasted potato bread slathered in buttered. I came up with this to use up yet more cabbage, along with various odds and ends in the vegetable basket.

The base is a simple vegetable soup, and here lies the beauty as you can use whatever vegetables you have to hand, we used leeks and potato, but carrot, parsnip or celery would all work equally well. Blend it up, add the finely chopped cabbage and simmer for about 5mins until soft. I then added some flagelot beans, just for added texture and to make it into more of a meal, of course leave these out if you like and you're still left with a delicious filling soup. A bit of salty crispy bacon at the end and you're done, optional too!

Ingredients

1 onion, chopped
3 leeks, sliced
25g butter
2 cloves glaric, sliced
500g floury potatoes peeled and cut into cubes
2 bay leaves
1l vegetable stock
½ green cabbage such as a savoy (about 200g), shredded finely
1 can flagelot beans, drained (or butter or cannellini beans), optional
8 rashers streaky bacon, cut into strips

• Sweat the onion and leeks in the butter over a low heat for 10mins until really soft.
• Add the garlic, bay leaves and potatoes, stir to coat in the buttery juices and pour in the hot vegetable stock.
• Simmer for about 15mins until the potatoes are completely soft.
• Remove the bay leaves and blend until smooth. Season to taste (easy on the salt!)
• Pile the cabbage in, stir and simmer for about 5mins until the cabage is soft.
• Meanwhile heat a frying pan unti very hot, fry the bacon until golden and crisp. Tip into the soup, with a smuch of the bacony juices as possible.
• Serve with lots of bread and butter.

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Breakfast Potato Cakes

This is the perfect way to use up leftover mash, although I would actually make extra so I could fry these up for breakfast the next day, mashed potato and baked beans is possibly one of my favourite combinations, so any excuse really... all you need to do is shape the mash into little cakes, dust in some flour and fry until golden and warmed through. you end up with little cakes of creamy mash inside a crispy fried shell, heat up some beans whilst you're frying and maybe poach an egg to sit atop the cakes, a perfect breakfast!


I actually made these from scratch, admittedly a bit of hassle for a Sunday morning, but I was already boiling up potatoes to make potato bread (and here's the perfect excuse to urge you to make this divine bread!) so it was no biggy, plus I always like to get ahead on Sunday and cook up big batches of food for the week...

Ingredients
Makes enough mash for dinner and breakfast the next day!

800g organic floury potatoes
1 small green cabbage (savoy cabbage or kale also work well)
50g butter
1 clove garlic, finely chopped.
125ml milk, preferably warmed through
flour for dusting

• Peel, the potatoes, cut into chunks and boil in salted water for about 20mins until very soft.
• Drain well and either push through a ricer or mash throughly.
• Add the milk and half the butter along with lots of salt and pepper.
• Now you need to beat furiously with a wooden spoon to get a really smooth mash. Cover and set aside.
• Meanwhile, half and quarter your cabbage, cut out the heart and slice as finely as possible.
• Boil or steam for about 5mins (this will depend on the type of cabbage used) until soft and drain.
• Heat the rest of the butter in a frying pan with a little oil until sizzling, add the garlic and the cabbage and fry for a few mins, season generously and stir the cabbage through the mash, making sure you get all the buttery juices in too.
• This is where you would eat it with anything that has a sauce to soak into the mash or some fish or maybe just on its own from a bowl.
• To make the cakes, coat your hands in flour and sprinkle some onto a plate.
• Take a small handful of mash, roll into a ball and flatten, dip both sides in the flour and place into a hot frying pan with a little oil, fry for a few mins on both sides until golden and warmed through.

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Throw it in Spicy Soup

This is one for using up any vegetables languishing in the bottom of the fridge. Save them from the compost and make soup! Now that the weather is turning, its the perfect time for a warm bowl of comforting soup. Soup is possibly the easiest thing to make with the least output for maximum pleasure. What's better that a steaming bowl of homemade soup?

Now, most soups require time, not that they're difficult, you just need to leave a pan to putter away on a stove top for a while, ideally eating it the next day once the flavours have developed. Don't get me wrong, this is fabulous for cooking in advance so that you can come home to dinner already made, or freeze portions ahead, for that, try these recipes.

This soup is all about knocking up a batch in 20mins flat and having endless variations, when you can't think what to make to make for dinner, but you want to feel like you're eating something 'homemade'.

This is barely a recipe, simply fry a tablespoon or two, depending on how hot you like it of thai curry paste in a large pan until the heady fragrance are released. now throw in your vegetables, whatever you've got, think stir fry, you want everything sliced or finely chopped. Give them a stir until they start to catch. Now add a can of coconut milk, fill the empty can with water and add this too, maybe a little bouillon powder too to boost flavours. Let this simmer happily for 5mins or so. To bulk it out, add a couple of nests of noodles, perhaps adding some extra water, make you stir well and untangle them as they soften.

Try chickpeas, noodles, tofu, shredded roast chicken, sweetcorn, carrot, mushrooms, greens, chunks of salmon, bean sprouts... the list goes on. then you get to garnish, a squeeze of lime, a flutter of coriander leaves, sliced spring onions.... Read more...

Piece of Plenty - Winter Coleslaw

This is another recipe I developed whilst working at the fantastic Piece of Plenty, what started off as a plain carrot salad (delicious in itself with some toasted sunflower seeds) and with a little inspiration from Jamie Oliver... we came up with this slaw.
It basically involves either grating or slicing thinly any winter veggies you can get hold of, a combination of textures and colours works best. We usually use red cabbage, white cabbage, savoy cabbage, carrots, swedes and turnips.
A decent food processor makes this job really easy, I just pushed the cabbages through the slicing blade and grated the carrots, swedes and turnips.
We skipped the usual mayonnaise and make this wonderfuly mustardy dressing that is fabulous on any salad. Some kind of chopped nuts or seedy sprinkles would be a welcome addition.
We used to have it for lunch with pitta and hummus, tasty!

Mustard Dressing

• 1tsp honey
• 1tbsp dijon mustard
• 1/2tbsp english mustard
• 3tbsp cider vinegar
• 100ml olive oil

Mix together the honey, mustards and cider vinegar. Whisk the olive oil in slowly to form an emulsion. Store in a clean airtight jar and it should keep for a few weeks. Read more...