This is a really quick dish to make and is delicious on its own or with crusty bread and a salad or baked potato.
Ingredients:
Can of chick peas – drained
Small butternut squash peeled and cubed
Onion – finely chopped Olive oil
2 cups of red lentils 1 tsp ginger
Carton of passata 1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp turmeric 500 ml vegetable stock
Method:
Fry the onions until soft. Add the spices and heat for another minute. Add all the other ingredients and simmer until the lentils are soft.
Am a little bit in love with my bundt tin…transforms any cake in to a pretty cake needing very little extra adding in the way of icing.
Preheat the oven to Gas mark 5 / 180 C Prepare a Bundt tin (no need if you use a Prestige tin) or 18cm round cake tin,
Ingredients:
170 g gluten-free self-raising flour 1/2 cup dried cranberries
115 g muscovado sugar rind and juice of one orange
140 g butter – softened heaped tsp of nutmeg
4 eggs (3 if using non gf flour)
3 tbsp granulated sugar (combine with the orange juice to make the drizzle)
Method:
Put the flour, muscovado sugar, butter and eggs in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Add the nutmeg, cranberries and orange rind and stir until combined.
Put in to the bundt tin ( or cake tin) and bake for 20 – 25 mins.
If you have used a cake tin then spoon the drizzle over the top whilst the cake is in the tin. If you have used a bundt tin then tip the cake out on to a cooling rack and spoon the drizzle over the fluted top.
We eat roasted vegetables at least once a week. It is such a versatile dish and one that involves minimum effort – perfect 🙂
Invariably we have it as a supporting dish but it is worthy of being a main dish.
This dish posted is simply an assortment of vegetables – carrots, parsnips, peppers and sprouts – roasted in a drizzle of coconut oil for about 40 minutes with the occasionally gentle turning.Then I mixed in a tin of chopped tomatoes and a generous tsp of chilli powder and topped with grated cheese. Back in to the oven to heat through. Serve with crusty bread.
I don’t use my microwave very much – heating up milk for my coffee, defrosting some things. However, when a speedy pudding is needed then it comes in to its own. From getting the ingredients out of the cupboard to eating the pudding takes about 12 minutes!!
Ingredients:
170 g self-raising flour – gluten-free 4 eggs (3 if not using gluten free flour)
140 g butter – softened
100 g muscovado sugar
4 pieces of stem ginger – chopped in to small pieces
2 tsp ginger powder
1 tbsp syrup from the stem ginger jar
Method:
Put all the ingredients (except stem ginger and syrup) in to a bowl and mix well. Add the stem ginger pieces and syrup and mix until combined. Put in to a microwave proof dish / bowl – I line a 2 lb pudding bowl with cling film so the pudding turns out easily.
Cook on a high setting for 5 – 6 mins and check whether the sponge is cooked – skewer test. It should not take any more than 7 minutes to cook.
Delicious with custard 🙂
On a cold evening nothing warms me through like a steaming bowl of chilli. It can be made really quickly, freezes well, tastes even better on the second warm up and fills the house with wonderful aromas. I always add chocolate to my chilli dishes….the Aztecs were on to something 🙂
Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil 1 large onion – chopped 500 g lean mince
400 g can chopped tomatoes 410 g can red kidney beans – washed and drained
1 heaped tsp hot chilli powder 1 tsp paprika 1 tsp ground cumin
5 squares of dark chocolate
Method:
Heat the oil in a large oven proof pan. Add the onions and cook until soft. Add the mince and stir untill browned. Add the tomatoes, kidney beans and spices and stir thoroughly. If the mixture seems dry add half a tin of water. Before putting the chilli into the oven to finish cooking add the chocolate and stir until melted.
Serve with rice and a bowl of melted cheese laden tortilla crisps.
I do love a bundt cake – makes an ordinary cake look so pretty. i was thrilled when I discovered the mini bundt tins 🙂 Of course these would be just as tasty in cupcake tins.
Preheat oven 180 c / Gas 5 Makes 12
Ingredients:
140 g butter 1 banana mashed
120 g muscovado sugar Rind of an orange
170 g gluten-free self-raising flour 1/2 cup currants
4 eggs (3 if using non gf flour)
Method:
Put all the ingredients in to a bowl and mix thoroughly. Spoon the mixture in to the tins and bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes.
I always make this type of soup using leftovers. When I make a roast dinner or a dish involving roast vegetables I ensure there are some leftover to make soup the next day. Perfect if the roast was chicken as the scraps can be added to the soup and the carcass can be boiled / simmered to make a nutritious stock.
So, to a few leftover roasted vegetables – including potatoes – I add a bag of watercress and pint of stock. I simmer this for 10 minutes, blitz and then add the chicken scraps. Quick. Easy. Delicious.
Prepare a 2 lb/ 900 g loaf tin
Preheat the oven to 180c / gas mark 5
Ingredients:
170 g Self raising gluten-free flour 120 g light muscavado sugar 2 or 3 tbsp poppy seeds
140 g softened butter 4 eggs ( 3 if using non gf flour) 1 tsp baking powder
Juice and rind of 2 lemons – juice of 1/2 lemon for cake and 1 1/2 for drizzle topping
80 g sugar for topping (mix the sugar and lemon from 1 1/2 lemons together)
Method:
Put all of the ingredients for the cake (except lemon juice, rind and poppy seeds) in to a bowl and mix well. Add the lemon rind, juice from half a lemon and poppy seeds and combine. Put mixture in to the prepared tin and bake for about 35 mins – until skewer is clean.
Whilst the cake is still hot and in the tin spoon the lemon/sugar mixture all over the top of the cake. Once cool, remove the cake from the tin.
A delicious dish that is assembled and then baked to heat through and crisp up the topping. Takes about 35 minutes from starting to eating 🙂
Ingredients: Broccoli, cavolo nero kale, large cod fillet, cheese sauce, plain tortilla chips, grated cheese and black pepper.
Method:
Steam the broccoli and kale. Gently simmer the cod in milk. Make a cheese sauce.
Once all cooked or made then assemble:
1.Put steamed broccoli and kale across the bottom of an oven proof dish
2.Break the cod fillet in to large pieces and arrange
3.Cover with the cheese sauce
4. Sprinkle crushed tortilla over the top and cover with grated cheese and black pepper
5. Bake in the oven until heated through and the topping is crisp
I served this with gf tortilla wraps smothered in garlic butter and baked till starting to crisp.
A deliciously simple desert that reminds me of autumnal suppers as a child.
Take a large cooking apple and remove its core. Place on a oven proof dish. Stuff dried fruit of your choice into the hole and place a heaped teaspoon of set honey on top. Bake in the centre of the oven- gas mark 5 / 180 C until the apple is soft. I served this with a generous pouring of cream. If you wish to play around with the flavours and make it a grown up pudding – a drizzle of a liqueur on the dried fruit before cooking is a tasty addition.
Personally I like the simplicity of the flavours as it is.
Jo's food bites. 