Vegetable curry

Preheat oven to 180c / gas mark 5

Ingredients:

Curry paste- 2tsp ginger puree, 2tsp garlic puree, tsp curry powder, 1tsp turmeric powder, 1tsp chilli powder and a splash of water.

1 onion chopped

1 pepper coarse chopped

1 potato diced into small cubes

3 carrots diced

1 courgette  cubed

Small cauliflower

Tin of chopped tomatoes

Method:

Sauté onion, pepper and potato cubes in a casserole dish. Add curry paste and tomatoes. Add carrots and courgettes and stir. Place cauliflower in the centre and bake in oven until vegetables are cooked.IMG_20160425_201046

Roasted vegetable and cauliflower cheese tart

Preheat oven to 200c / gas 6. Prepare a 20cm loose bottom tin.

Ingredients:

Shortcrust pastry:

80 g rice flour, 140 g buckwheat or chestnut flour, 70 g ground almonds, 2 pinches of salt, 2 tsps ground linseed, 1/4 tsp xanthum gum, 100 g salted butter – chilled and diced, 2 eggs 3-4 tbsps cold water.

Method:

Mix all dry ingredients, rub in the butter with your fingertips until  it resembles  coarse breadcrumbs.

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Stir in the beaten egg with a fork. Add small amounts of water as you toss the crumbs together. Continue until dough is formed. I find that a gluten free dough takes up more water than a wheat dough and is quite a sticky dough.Knead briefly to bring to a ball. Wrap

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in parchment and chill for at least an hour.

Roll out and place in the flan tin. Prick the base with a fork ( I trim of the excess pastry after cooking to allow for shrinkage).Line pastry with parchment and baking beans.  Bake blind for 10 – 15 mins.

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Filling

Ingredients:

Carrots, peppers, parsnips and sweet potatoes prepared and roasted in olive oil

Halved mushrooms  – sauteed

1 onion sliced in to rings – sauteed

Tomato sauce: chopped tomatoes, 1tsp of chilli, handful of chopped basil leaves and small carton of passata – simmered to reduce the water content

Cauliflower -cooked

Cheese sauce

Basil leaves

Assembly:

Finally put back in oven to heat through – 15-20 minutes (moderate temperature).

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Meat…or not?

I have been contemplating for a while to try a meat free diet. Not just on a whim, more of an experiment to see the impact on my health. I have always thoroughly enjoyed meat dishes and do wonder how I will find this new diet approach. One thing I am very much aware of is that over the last couple of weeks I have felt my digestion processes to be much more sluggish (not wanting to be too graphic!) and over the last few weeks I have eaten more meat than I usually would. Is this related I wonder?

There are such a lot of conflicting views out there with everyone having strong opinions –  some say to help us live longer then all animal products should be avoided; some state that red meat is harmful whilst others say as omnivores we are designed to eat meat and should.

For me, I want to feel healthier. Actions I have taken so far – being gf and eating miminum fructose have made me feel better.. and so for the next 4 weeks (miminum) this is the additional change I will try.

Here goes…