This recipe came about after having quite a few hydroponic tomatoes needing to be used.  In this new house, I cannot stand to waste any food and when I saw the tomatoes, a simple pasta dish came to mind.

The actual tomatoes aren’t really cooked, they are added in to warm them through and to be honest, they don’t really need to be cooked.  The tomatoes have so much flavour and I find that cooking these, can sometimes loose all the delicious fresh taste you can get when you bite into a fresh tomato!

Adding the tapenade just adds another dimension to the dish and if you get some home-made tapenade it’s even better! A note to vegetarians and vegans - always make sure you check the ingredients for the tapenade.  Some traditional versions do include anchovies.  Always ask if you are unsure.

The pasta is your simple bought variety, it doesn’t need anything more as it allows the tomatoes and tapenade to shine through.

Makes:

• 2 serves

Ingredients:

• 1-2 tbs good quality extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp garlic mince
• 2 tbs olive tapenade
• 4 ripe tomatoes, diced
• pinch salt
• pinch pepper
• 2 tbs fresh parsley, chopped fine
• 2 serves spaghetti

Instructions:

1. Boil your spaghetti and drain, leaving a little bit of water in the bottom.
2. Keeping the pasta in the pot and on a low heat, mix through your seasoning and garlic.
3. When the garlic has cooked through, mix in your olive tapenade.
4. Take the pot off the heat and add your parsley, olive oil and tomatoes.  Stir through thoroughly and serve!

I have an Aunt who is from Russia and I remember how in love I was with her potato salad.  For some reason, I always thought it was a German potato salad but I’ve only just realised that it is in fact a Russian potato salad.

What got to me about this salad was the intense flavour and how delicious it was to have cooked carrots and also peas included in it.  The salad itself is quite simple, but every single ingredient seems to star in this dish and I’d have to say it’s one of my all time favourites because of this.

My take on this wonderful salad includes some home-grown ingredients which I’m extremely proud of – my spring onions and dill.  I do have beetroot growing and it is almost ready, but I bought some from a farmer’s market which needed to be used first.

You’ll see also in the background that there is another salad.  It’s a basic green salad with hydroponic tomatoes.  The greens are all home grown also – lettuce, spring onions and garlic chives.

Making use of your home grown vegetables and herbs makes cooking even more worthwhile!

Other salad recipes you may be interested in:

• Tomato and Onion Salad
• German Potato Salad
• Wrapped Falafels
• Warm Chickpea’d Tempeh Salad

Makes:

• 6-8 serves

Note:

• I cooked my potatoes and beetroot the day before to ensure they were cool.  It’s not necessary but I do think the flavour is much better by doing so!

Ingredients:

• 6-8 large potatoes
• 3 beetroots
• salt
• pepper
• 3 tbs egg mayonnaise
• fresh dill – handful
• 2 spring onions

Instructions:

1. Dice your potatoes, leaving the skin on.  In some boiling water with salt add the potatoes and allow to cook.
2. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C or 360 degrees F.  Roughly wash the beetroot, chopping the ends and leaves off.  Wrap in some foil and place in your oven for an hour and a half.
3. Cool both of these ingredients by placing in the fridge overnight.
4. Unwrap the beetroot from the foil and peel the skin off.  By leaving overnight, it will slip right off.
5. Dice the beetroot and add to your diced potatoes.
6. Season quite liberally with salt and pepper (I use white).
7. Dice the spring onions and tear the dill and add to your bowl.
8. Add the mayonnaise and stir through lightly.  The dye of the beetroot will change the colours instantly.
9. Enjoy!

What’s better than roast vegetables on any given day?  Roast vegetables in a pie or quiche!

Make your vegetables the day before, or, make a heap for your normal Sunday roast and cut them up the next day to place into your pie.

It’s a very simple dish, which just requires the cooking of the vegetables the day before.  Why the day before?  You want the vegetables to be totally cool for when you mix it in with the eggs.  That way, your eggs will cook slowly in your oven on a moderate heat.

Apologies for the lack of photos, the meal was eaten before the chance of taking some snapshots!

Makes:

• 1 large pie serving 8 people

Ingredients:

• your choice of roast vegetable chunks – 2 handfuls at least when cooked.  I used carrots, brussell sprouts, broccoli, garlic, onion and potatoes.
• 2 slices of puff pastry
• 5 eggs (I always use free range)
• pinch salt
• pinch pepper
• 1 tsp paprika
• handful grated tasty cheese
• 125 ml light milk

Instructions:

1. Get out your cooled roast vegies and cut them into bite size pieces.
2. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius or 356 degrees Fahrenheit.
3. Spray some oil in a square pyrex baking dish or something of similar size.
4. Place a sheet of pastry down and make sure each side is covered.  Place in the oven for the moment.
5. Beat the eggs well.
6. Add the seasoning, paprika and milk to the eggs.  Stir well.
7. Mix in your cheese.
8. Grab the pastry and place your vegetables in the bottom.
9. Pour in your egg mixture on top and make sure it fills in between the vegetables.
10. Use the remaining pastry for a lid and seal.
11. Using a fork, stab the lid a couple of times and baste with a little milk if you like.
12. Place in the oven and about halfway through or when brown on top, place a piece of foil to stop the browning process.
13. Check after an hour, testing the middle to see if it’s cooked through. In my fan-forced oven, it took 1 hour and 20 minutes.
14. Cut it up and serve with some salad!

The great thing about using the spices, there is no need to use tomatoes or much of any spice. The flavour is amazing without much more. Although, who can resist adding a little garlic in?

The tagine works magic into the vegetables infusing the spice into everything and it’s just melt in your mouth delicious. If you don’t have a tagine, I recommend heading out and purchasing one!

This recipe is vegan, so can be made by all.  If you can’t find the beef chunks or not particularly keen on meat alternatives, use the tempeh!  It would work a treat here and is definitely going to be in my next tagine!

Makes:

• 6 people (at least)

Ingredients:

• 4 mushrooms sliced thickly
• 1 carrot chopped in chunks
• 1 onion chopped into rings
• 2 potatoes sliced thickly also
• 2 tbs garlic mince
• 50 grams vegetarian beef chunks or tempeh
• 1 can chickpeas
• 4 fresh chillis or peppers, sliced
• 1 tbs Ras El Hanout spice (found at your local European/African store)
• pinch salt
• 1 tab of vegetable beef style stock
• 1 litre of water
• 1 tsp olive oil

Instructions:

1. Layer your potatoes and onions down with a drizzle of the olive oil.
2. Add your vegetables and mix in the spice.
3. Mix in the stock, salt, water and garlic.
4. Place the lid on and put on a low heat for an hour and a half.  Check as little as possible but stir when you do – the aim is to leave the heat in!
5. Serve with plain cous cous! It really is enough!

This recipe is a tribute to vege2go’s version of garlic broccoli salad. I absolutely love the cold broccoli, which I didn’t think I would. Who would really eat broccoli cold? Can you think of anything worse? I tell you, don’t knock it, until you’ve tried it! It’s absolutely delicious and coming up to Summer here in Oz, it’s definitely going to be on my list of Salads for barbecues.

My version adds a little spice with some sea salt. The original from memory is garlic only. I do think some nice fresh bread crumbs would also go down a treat in this! Vegans, this is totally vegan – eat it to your hearts content!

Oh and PS.  This is extremely healthy! Olive oil is only added at the end, the broccoli is not cooked in it.

Other salad recipes you may be interested in:

• Tomato and Onion Salad
• German Potato Salad
• Wrapped Falafels
• Warm Chickpea’d Tempeh Salad

Makes:

• 3-4 serves

Ingredients:

• 2 sprouts broccoli
• water to boil the broccoli in
• sea salt
• 1 tsp garlic mince
• 1 tsp chilli paste (or whatever chilli takes your fancy)
• 3 tbs olive oil
• ice

Instructions:

1. Chop the broccoli stalk into fine slices and cut the florets separately.
2. Boil the water with some sea salt.
3. Place in the broccoli and leave in for a couple of minutes, so the go green but still crispy.
4. Take them out and place into some water with ice to allow them to cool down straight away.
5. In the pan, now add your olive oil, chilli and garlic, warming all the way through.
6. Drain the broccoli and mix through your oil, sprinkling some sea salt on top.

The next few photos will be taken with my Iphone as I’ve just moved into a new house and I have no idea where my camera is.  So, firstly apologies for the not-so-great photos.

This quite extravagant dish is very rich and is one that you could serve at a dinner party to impress your guests.   The pasta has a creaminess about it with the use of walnuts for crunch.

Vegans, apologies, I don’t think there would be a veganised version of this dish, however, if you find one, please feel free to add a post to it here!

Other recipes you may be interested in:

• Sherried Potato Pasta
• Vegetarian Bolognese Gnocchi
• Lentil “Bolognese” Pasta
• Spezzatino Vegetarian Style

Makes:

• 4-5

Ingredients:

• 250 grams swiss brown mushrooms, chopped roughly
• 1 tsp garlic mince
• pinch salt
• pinch pepper
• 1 tbs butter
• 200 grams blue cheese
• pasta for four to five people cooked and set aside
• handful walnuts

Instructions:

1. Place the butter, garlic and seasoning the pot.
2. Once butter has melted, add your mushrooms and allow to soften.
3. Mix through the walnuts and pasta.
4. Pour in your coconut cream and stir well. Your mixture should be quite light but thick enough to spoon the mixture on a table spoon.
5. Heat your oil in your frying pan.
6. Using a tablespoon, fill the spoon generously and dollop into the pan. You should be able to fit four in your pan easily.
7. Place the lid on to allow the pikelet to cook consistently through.
8. Once it has dried, flip it over and allow to go golden brown.
9. Serve with some margarine or butter.
10. Turn off the heat and crumble up the blue cheese.
11. Mix through throughly before serving.

This recipe came about after wanting a spicy chickpea soup. I have to admit that I love Green Rice and my version usually includes some fake beef chunks, chickpeas and rice. It really is delicious, so I thought that this would be a great way of using the same flavours! I was right!

It’s very simple. Basically, add all your ingredients in the pan and walk away! Once you come back, you can blitz the ingredients to make a thick, luscious and spicy soup for the week!

Makes:

• 8 cups

Ingredients:

• 1 tbs green curry paste
• 2 tsp garlic mince
• 1/4 tsp ginger mince
• 800 grams canned chickpeas (use the water for the soup)
• 1/2 onion diced
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 tab vegetarian beef-style stock
• 1/2 tsp tamarind
• salt
• white pepper
• oil for onions

Instructions:

1. Soften the onions in a little oil
2. Place the paste in and allow the onions to become fragrant
3. Mix all the other ingredients in the pot.  Stir well.
4. Allow to simmer for 1/2 hour.
5. Blitz down the ingredients and serve.

This delightful soup has all the makings of a indulgent meal without the calories! The peppers are roasted with some garlic in the oven and then blitzed down making a very thick and creamy vegan soup.

Try this with a little toasted buttered garlic bread and you have one mean meal that will be loved by all!

Makes:

• 6 – 8 serves

Ingredients:

• 2 red capsicums
• 2 red bell horn peppers
• 1 onion
• 1 bulb of garlic
• 2 tbs dried basil (fresh can be used)
• 1 tsp chilli paste (to taste)
• white pepper
• salt
• olive oil
• water 2 cups (at least)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 210 degrees celsius or 410 fahrenheit
2. Cut the peppers and onion and place in a tray.
3. Split the bulbs and also place in the tray.
4. Drizzle with olive oil, basil and season well.
5. Cook until all ingredients are soft.
6. Remove the skin from the pepper and garlic.
7. Place in a big pot and add the water.
8. Place the chilli in the pot and mix.
9. Allow to boil and cook for 20 minutes.
10. Grab a blender and blitz the ingredients together.
11. Add more water if you’d like the soup a bit thinner (I like mine very thick!).
12. Heat for another ten minutes on a low heat before serving.

This chilli paneer recipe has a crispy batter just like the version at Aangan in Footscray – my favourite Indian restaurant at the moment!  The simple stir fry style vegetables in this just add a little crunch to the soft paneer.   Unfortunately paneer is a cheese, so vegans, the alternative is tofu and I’m sure it will be just as good!

Serves:

• 4

Ingredients:

• 1.5 tbsp cornflour
• 1/5 tbsp plain flour
• pinch salt
• pinch white pepper
• 1 packet of paneer, cubed
• 1/5 tbs soy sauce
• chilli to taste
• 2 tbs tomato ketchup
• 2 tsp garlic mince
• 1 tsp dried coriander
• pinch sugar
• 1/2 capsicum (can split between red and green colours if you like) roughly cut
• (optional) onions roughly cut
• water for dough
• oil for frying

Instructions:

1. Mix the cornflour, flour, salt and pepper together in a bowl.
2. Mix in a little water to make a thick batter.
3. Heat the oil up (enough to fry the paneer).
4. Dump the paneer in and fry the paneer until golden brown.  Set aside to drain.
5. Fry the chilli and garlic in a little oil with your onion and capsicums.
6. Mix the some more salt, pepper and the sugar in.
7. Add the soy and tomato sauce.  Mix well.
8. Pour the paneer in and allow to coat the paneer with the sauce.
9. Mix in your coriander and serve with rice.

Okay, so this is a weird combination, I know. All I have to say is that you have to try it! The flavours are sooo delicious, that I absolutely promise you that you will enjoy it! Not only do I promise you that, but I had so many ideas come from eating this afterwards it’s not funny.

The sauce is extremely creamy and rich with a hint of a tang after. It’s definitely a satisfying comfort food for winter, almost taking on a cheesy macaroni dish to a scalloped potato combination.

Some of the ideas I have moving forward would be to create an simple creamy pasta dish without the potatoes, a macaroni dish and a scalloped potato dish for starters.

Vegans, this uses cream and parmesan cheese. But, you have alternatives which can easily make this into a great Vegan-satisfying dish!

Other recipes you may be interested in:

• Gnocchi Bolognese
• Lemon Mustard Chickpea Pasta
• Bready Tomato Pasta
• Sweet Potato Gnocchi
• Greek-style Lentil & Vegetarian Mince Penne
• Salsa Pasta with Guacamole & Nacho Cheese
• Mushroom & Chives Cream Cheese Pasta

Serves:

• 2 -3

Ingredients:

• 6 mushrooms, sliced thin
• 1/2 tab vegetarian “chicken style” vegetable stock
• pinch salt
• 1/2 tsp white pepper
• 3 small peeled and diced potatoes
• 0.5 red onion diced
• 1/2 handful of fresh thyme
• 3 pieces vegetarian bacon, sliced thin
• 1/4 cup dry sherry
• 1/4 cup cream
• 1 tbs parmesan, grated
• 2 handfuls freshly cooked pasta

Instructions:

1. Bake the potatoes in the microwave on the preset.
2. In a pan, fry your onion in a little oil.
3. Once softened, add the salt, pepper and chicken stock, before adding your potato cubes. Mix well.
4. Add the garlic and mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms are soft.
5. Pour in the dry sherry and cook on high until it’s thickened. Reduce the heat.
6. In a seperate pan, fry the bacon until it’s hard.
7. Mix in your bacon, thyme and pasta.
8. Pour the cream in and turn off the heat altogether.
9. Mix through some parmesan before serving.