Overnight Oats

Overnight oats seem all the rage right now.  

My teenage son tries to remember to make a smoothie with oats every night for his breakfast the next day, but it struck me that he could make several pots of overnight oats in advance.  So I tried him out on a chocolate one.

He seemed to like it (it's hard to tell with teenage grunts) so I am compiling a list of possible variations to try out over the next few weeks as his GCSEs start...

Serves 2

100g porridge oats
200ml dairy or plant based milk 

2 tbsp chia or flax seeds

1-2 tbsp maple syrup or honey

Flavourings

Chocolate - 2 tsp cocoa + 100g (frozen) raspberries

Coffee & Walnut - 25g walnuts + 1 shot expresso

Blueberry - 2 tbsp flaked almonds, 1/2 tsp vanilla essence, 100g (frozen) blueberries

Bakewell - 2 tbsp flaked almonds, 1/2 tsp almond essence, 100g (frozen) raspberries

Plain yoghurt

Mix all the ingredients together, including your flavourings.  If using whole nuts ie walnuts, liquidise  these up with the milk before adding to the oats.

Seal the container and place in the fridge overnight.

In the morning, stir in enough plain yoghurt to loosen the mixture to taste.

Overnight oats are best eaten within 5 days. The longer the oat are left, the softer they become, but liquid  may separate from the oats. However, this just needs stirring back in.

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Bavarian Bread Soup

For the first time in 10+ years I burnt 4 sourdough loaves meat for the local farm shop, forgetting to set a timer. Most has now been sliced and frozen, but the hard 'knobby' ends were diced into large croutons and left out to dry.

I had thought about making a Ribollita (Tuscan Bread, Bean & Kale Soup), but a quick google turned up a a new bread based soup to try - Brotsuppe, a Bavarian Bread Soup.

Unsurprisingly for a Germanic recipe, the original recipe is not vegetarian or vegan, using butter, beef stock, cream, and egg.  But it can easily be made vegetarian buy using vegetable stock, or vegan by using olive oil as I did, vegetable stock, vegan cream, and omitting the egg (or liquidising 100g tofu)

Serves a hearty 4-6 (makes 2 litres)

100g cubed brown bread or sourdough

2 tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, peeled & thinly sliced

1 large garlic clove, peeled & crushed

1 heaped tbsp plain flour

1.5 recently boiled water

3 crumbled stock cubes, beef, chicken, or vegetable

100ml dairy or vegan cream

1 egg or 100g tofu (optional)

Fry the bread in the olive oil in a soup pan over a medium heat until golden brown.

Add the onions and garlic and fry as best you can amongst the cubed bread.  After a few minutes stir in the plain flour, followed by the water and stock cubes.  Bring to the boil, scraping the bottom of the pan with a spatula or flat ended wooden spoon. Once boiling, cover, and turn down to a simmer for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes simmering, liquidise the soup with a stick blender.  Pour in the cream and egg, and liquidise again.  Heat gently, stirring continuously for about a minute for the egg to cook and thicken the soup slightly.

If you don't have a liquidiser, simply stir in the cream and beaten egg (if using) at the end of the cooking time.

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Carrot & Coriander Soup

I always have to google a tried & tested (and tweaked) Carrot & Coriander Soup recipe.  So I am documenting my recipe here.  The original recipe for a spicier, thicker soup is from Tesco's website - Ben's Mum's Warming Carrot & Coriander Soup

Makes 6x 500ml pots of soup

1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
650g carrots, roughly chopped (use 1kg of carrots if not using potato)
350g white potato, roughly chopped

1 large clove of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
2 vegetable stock cubes

2 litres recently boiled water
30g pack fresh coriander, roughly chopped

Gently fry the onion in the olive oil whilst you chop, and add, the carrots, potato, and garlic.

Add the hot water and stock cubes, cover and bring to the boil. Snip in the coriander, cover again, and turn down to a simmer.

Simmer for 20 minutes then liquidise.

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Chilli Bean Wholegrain Salad

On a cool damp spring day a chilli is definitely called for, rather than a salad.  But I'm not cooking a chilli for lunch, so have just added many of the raw Chilli con Veggie ingredients to some warmed up grains.

Serves 2 as a light lunch

200g cooked pearl barley, quinoa, or brown rice

1 can black beans, drained 

1 pointed red pepper, diced

2 fat spring onions, sliced (or half a small red onion)

1 tbsp chopped picked jalapeños 

1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp dried oregano (optional)

2 tbsp mixed seeds (optional)

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

A sprinkle of chopped fresh parsley or coriander (optional)

Dice all your ingredients whilst your grains are cooking, if you do not have any pre-cooked (I have begun batch cooking grains at weeks and freezing it in single portions for such an eventuality).  Diced tomato and avocado could be added if you have any to hand.

Stir everything into the warm grains, season to taste, and tuck in.

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Potato & Beef Goulash

Most goulash recipes call for at least 1kg of beef for 4 people, but I found this recipe for Goulash Soup in my saved recipes.  In fact it only called for 250g of beef and 250g of potato to make a soup for 6.  So I increased both the beef and potato to make a soupy frugal stew for 4.

Serves 4

1 large onion, peel and finely sliced
1 large clove of garlic, peeled and finely sliced 
500g braising beef, cubed 

1 red pepper, chopped

1 tbsp olive oil
1tbsp paprika
1tsp hot smoked paprika
1 tsp caraway seeds

400g chopped tomatoes

1 litre beef stock

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 kg potatoes

In a casserole dish, fry the sliced onion in the olive oil over a medium high until golden brown.

Push to one side and fry the beef until outside of the cubes looks browned/cooked.  Stir in the red pepper and garlic, and fry for a few minutes.

Take off the heat for a minute and stir through both kinds of paprika and caraway seeds. Then stir in the chopped tomatoes, beef stock, and vinegar. Return to the heat, cover and bring to the boil.  Once boiling turn down simmer, keep covered, and cook for 1 hour.

After one hour, chop the potatoes into large chunks and push under the liquid in the stew.  If there is not enough liquid, add a little boiling water to ensure everything is covered by about 1cm of liquid.

Simmer for 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.

Serve with leafy greens or a salad.

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Air Fryer Tortilla Chips

We have run out of tortilla chips, and Big Boy (now 15 and 6'2") wants a high calorie snack as part of his bulking up diet for the gym.

I remember reading that tortilla wraps can be baked in the oven to make crispy tortilla chips, so googled whether this could be done in the air fryer rather than turn the oven on for one helping.  They can.  So I have dug out the two remaining tortilla wraps from the freezer than no-one wanted to use as they break when folded, and have stirred grated onion and garlic into some soured cream, and made guacamole. 

Serves 1

1 tortilla wrap
Extra virgin olive oil
Paprika or chilli powder 

Brush a light film of oil onto a wrap and sprinkle with paprika/chilli.

Snip into tortilla chips.

Place in a single layer into an unlined air fryer and cook for 5 minutes at 180C. No need to turn as they blow around in the air fryer! One large tortilla wrap will need to be cooked in at least 2 batches.

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Suzie Lee's Beef Fried Rice

Stumbled across Suzie Lee's (winner of BBC’s Best Home Cook 2020) recipes on iplayer on a quiet Friday night in.  Last night I made her Beef Fried Rice recipe, which went down a treat with my teens. Below is the recipe copy & pasted from the BBC website

Serves 4

4 eggs
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
40g of ginger
2 carrots
1 courgette (pak choi, peas, or edamame beans)
500g lean beef mince
500g cold cooked basmati rice
3 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp oyster sauce

2 Spring onions to garnish
Pinch of white pepper
Vegetable oil

Start by chopping the onion. Peel ginger and mince garlic cloves. Peel the carrots and take the ends off the courgette. Slice spring onions for garnish and set to the side.

Heat a large deep pan or wok and fry off beef mince without adding any oil. Break the mince up in the pan with a wooden spoon or spatula so that it breaks into smaller pieces and cooks evenly. Add a tbsp of soy sauce and white pepper to the mince to season. When the mince is cooked, remove from the pan and place to one side.

In the same pan add some vegetable oil. Beat the eggs together in a bowl or jug. Add the eggs to the pan and cook them like an omelette, until you have a cooked ‘disc’ of egg. Be careful not to overcook the egg, slightly under is better than over. When the egg is cooked take it out of the pan and put to one side.

Add enough oil to the pan to coat it. Grate in the peeled ginger and add minced garlic. When you can smell the aromatics, add the onion and grate in carrots and courgette. Cook for a couple of minutes, stirring them round until they soften and the liquid evaporates

Make sure the pan is on a high heat and make room in the pan for the cold rice. Add the rice to the pan and stir through. Add 2 tbsp of soy sauce and add the mince back to the pan. Pour the sesame oil in, making sure it hits the metal of the pan to release the flavour. Season with white pepper. Add the oyster sauce and stir through before returning cooked egg to the pan. Mix everything through thoroughly, breaking up the egg as you go. 

Garnish with spring onions.

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GCSE Food Tech Bean Burgers

This bean burger recipe was in my daughter's GCSE Food Tech recipe booklet when she first began studying it in 2018.  It was such a tasty yet simple recipe that I copied and saved it.

Makes 4-5 burgers

2 ×400g cans of beans in water (borlotti, butter, kidney, black, chick peas or any other type – a mixture is good), drained 
handful of fresh coriander leaves and stalks
1 onion, finely diced

½ tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground coriander

½ tsp paprika

¼ tsp cayenne pepper

zest of 1 lemon or lime

3 tbsp plain or gram flour

salt and pepper

oil (sunflower or rapeseed) for frying

To serve (optional)

2 tbsp mayonnaise, piccalilli or chutney

¼ iceberg lettuce, shredded

bread rolls

1 small red onion, thinly sliced into rings

1 large tomato, thinly sliced

1. Place all the burger ingredients in a food processor and process for a few seconds. Alternatively, this can be done by hand, but you will need to mash the beans with a fork.

2. Using your hands and some extra flour, shape the mixture into four equal-sized burgers to fit your bread rolls. Editors note; add more flour 1 tbsp at a time if your mixture is too wet. I've had to add quite a lot more flour on occasions, particularly when using home cooked beans.

3. Chill the burgers in the refrigerator for 15–20 minutes until they are firm.

4. Shallow fry the burgers in some oil over a medium heat, turning them over every few minutes until they are golden and crisp on both sides (approximately 10 minutes altogether).

5. Before serving, prepare the dressing: mix together the mayonnaise (or piccalilli or chutney) and lettuce. Cut the bread rolls in half and toast under the grill on both sides. 

6. Spread the bottom halves of the bread rolls with the dressing, add a slice of tomato and some onion rings, then the burgers. Cover with the top halves of the bread rolls.

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Whole Vegetable or Wet Brine Fermentation

After the success of my Red Cabbage Sauerkraut aka Red Cabbage Coleslaw Sauerkrat, I thought I'd try fermenting my Piccalilli ingredients ie cauliflower and green beans using the @ZOE fermentation guide

Whole vegetables, or vegetables that contain less water, require a wet brine to ensure they are submerged below the brine and kept away from airborne bacteria.

Makes a large 2L  jar

1 cauliflower

200g green beans

Salt

Water

Break the cauliflower into bite sized pieces. Top and tail the beans and cut in half. 

Mix the cauliflower and beans in a large mixing bowl. Place the jar onto digital scales, zero them, and weigh in the mixed vegetables plus the water required to cover them.

Note down the total weight of the vegetables and water. 2% of this weight is the required amount of salt.

Weigh the required amount of salt into the mixing bowl, then with your hand over the mouth of the jar to stop the vegetables falling out, pour the water into the mixing bowl. Stir the water until the salt has dissolved and then pour back over the vegetables in the jar.

Use a pickle weight or smaller water filled jar to ensure the vegetables are covered by the brine, and put the lid on if you can. Leave to one side on the kitchen counter.

In a few days the odd bubble will rise up the side of the jar.  Burp the jars daily, or leave the lid on loosely. Mine is in a cheap preserving jar and seems not to seal properly, so I have had to stand it on something to collect the overflowing brine caused by fermentation, but I do not have to burp it.

Zoe Nutrition recommend waiting at least 2 weeks before starting to eat your fermented vegetables. After 2 weeks, the jar can be put into the fridge to slow down the fermentation.  However, you can always leave it out at room temperature to continue fermenting until it is all eaten. Mine is about 5 days old.  I tasted it a few days in, as soon as it started to ferment/overflow.  The cauliflower has a slight garlic taste, even though there is no garlic in the jar.  The beans seem a little tough. 

Already, I am planning my next fermenting combination; red cabbage & grated beetroot, and cauliflower & crinkle cut baby beetroot which should be an interesting colour.

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Warm Yoghurt & Spinach Soup

I love Chilled Yoghurt Soup, Cucumber Raita, Indian Salt Lassi but in this cold and damp weather I wanted something warm.

I found a recipe for a Turkish yoghurt soup, and added a little more fibre.

Serves 1

150ml water

1 large handful baby spinach

1 tsp dried mint

1 tbsp extra olive oil

1 tbsp flaxseed or cooked brown rice (optional)

1 tsp vegetable stock powder

150g Greek yoghurt

1 small garlic clove, peeled and crushed

1 free range egg

Liquidise the spinach, garlic, olive oil, and flaxseed/rice, with the water.  I added flaxseed to add a little fibre to this soup, and as the Turkish recipe I based this soup on used a watery white rice base, but it is optional.  You could, of course, add a portion of cooked rice to the finished soup to make it into a meal in itself

Pour the liquidised mixture into a small pan, bring to the boil, then turn down to a simmer

Beat the egg and crushed garlic into the yoghurt.  

Stir a couple of tablespoons of the hot stock from the pan into the yoghurt, then slowly stir into the stock in the pan.  The soup will start to thicken with the egg.  Keeping stirring, and take the soup off the heat just before it boils otherwise the yoghurt may split.

Season with pepper and salt to taste, and serve with an optional drizzle of chilli oil.

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Cauliflower Korma Soup

Inspired by The Doctor's Kitchen Masala Cauliflower Soup, and the many @Zoe and @mob bean based recipes I realised my own Cauliflower Korma recipe would make a very tasty soup.  

On a damp February day it is both filling and warming, and contains 16+ plants.

3 tbsp coconut oil

1 large onion, peeled and roughly chopped

2.5cm ginger root, roughly chopped

5 garlic cloves, peeled and halved

500g cauliflower florets, leaves or stalk roughly chopped

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tbsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp ground coriander

1/8-1/4 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp garam masala

1 tin chopped tomatoes

1 tin coconut milk

100g almonds or cashew nuts

1 litre recently boiled water

2 vegetable stock cubes 

Salt & pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a heavy based pan over a medium high heat, and fry the onion pieces until until they start to brown.

Stir in the dry spices, and then the rest of the ingredients. Cover and bring to the boil. Turn down and simmer for 20 minutes.

Liquidise and serve.

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Creamy Hummus Soup

Making Tahini Dressing a few days ago inspired me to make this quick filling soup, based on hummus.

Serves 2

1 tin chickpeas, incl liquid

1 small onion, peeled and roughly chopped

2 cloves of garlic, peeled

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 tbsp tahini

1 tsp ground cumin

500ml vegetable stock

Brown the onion in the olive oil in a soup pan. 

Once browned, add rest of the ingredients apart from one of the garlic cloves and the lemon juice, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, turn off the heat, add the second garlic clove and lemon juice and liquidise with a stick blender.

Serve with an optional drizzle of chilli oil, cumin, parsley or teaspoon of harissa.

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Tahini Dressing

I've been meaning to make Tahini Dressing for ages. I finally got round to it this week, to dress a feta, roast squash, chickpea, kale, and quinoa salad bowl.  It's quick and delicious.

Serves 2

2 tbsp tahini 

Juice of 1 lemon

2 tbsp water

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 

1 small garlic clove, peeled and crushed 

A pinch of salt

Break down the tahini with the lemon juice, water, and salt.  Once smooth, stir in the rest of the ingredients, adding more water if needed to make a pourable dressing consistency.

This dressing goes well with many roast vegetables; beetroot, parsnip, carrots, cabbage/sprouts, aubergine, and is great on a warm salad (I microwaved my salad bowl before dressing it).  

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