Category: Vegetables

If you’re drowning in a sea of courgettes or swept away by the zucchini tsunami – this soup is the perfect remedy. Five ingredients and ready in 20 minutes. Low in calories unless you go crazy with the cheese at the end. Our favourite soup this summer.

The only special equipment is a stick blender but if you don’t have one you can mash by hand or whack it in the food processor or the blender. I have two stick blenders – a domestic one for small jobs and a commercial one as powerful as an outboard motor. The Davinator got tired of me burning out domestic ones with jobs too big for them and sourced a commercial one from Nisbetts – it’s about as much fun as you can have with a kitchen appliance. Your domestic stick blender will be fine for this soup.

The soup has a lovely consistency – this comes from cooking the potatoes with just enough water to cover them. This means the starch from the potatoes stays in the soup and isn’t rinsed away when you drain them. I scrub the potatoes and do not peel them but you might want to peel them if the skins feel thick or tough.

I’ve added this blog to my ‘courgette roundup’ blog, lots of other great ways to use your courgette surplus. Use a vegetarian cheddar to make it suitable for vegetarians. Also easy to make a vegan version of this soup – it’s lovely without the cheese or use a vegan substitute. Remember to check your stock cubes if you’re cooking for a vegan or vegetarian some use animal products.

Hope you are staying safe and keeping well in these challenging times. Thank you for reading and sharing the blog. Send in requests and tag me in photos if you post on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.

Beans are amazing and versatile. I always have 3 or 4 different kinds of dried beans. I was building a little stockpile pre-Brexit and so rolled into Corona quarantine with about 5 kilos of dried beans and lentils. The challenge – make them into great food for the Davinator (not a problem for the ultimate omnivore), my son and his university roommate (our lockdown crew).

Homemade refried beans is a great response to this challenge.

Refried beans are healthier and easier than you think. The recipe is very flexible – you can use almost any kind of canned or dried beans you have available. Black beans, white beans, pinto beans, black eyed peas. I was eying up a can of chick peas the other day – but those are better used in hummus.

The amount of spice is up to you – some like it hot, some like it garlicky, some like it with the flavour of beans shining through. The vegan version is, if anything, better than the standard version. Or you can go full on old school decadent carnivore and start with lard or beef dripping.

Refrieds are NOT fried twice. It’s a corruption of frijoles refritos or ‘well fried’. Not deep fried, not soaked in lard, just fried well.

Refried beans are great in Tex-Mex food; fajitas, burritos, quesadillas, tacos, dip, nachos – the list goes on and on. Kids like beans if they are well cooked and will pretty much eat anything you wrap up in a flour tortilla. Also, refrieds are an essential component of the highest form of Tex-Mex food – huevos rancheros. Food of the gods.

My son and his roommate brought a can of refried beans when they came home for lockdown. I said ‘I’m going to show you what that should taste like’. Made them this recipe, took a dish into their study room with a few corn chips. They took one tentative taste (to be polite) and then dived in and gobbled the rest up. They are converts.

The convenience of a can of refried beans is not to be sneered at but make these at least once so you know what they should taste like. I made extra and froze portions for future use.

And just in time for Cinco de Maya – here’s the recipe.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 30 grams (2 tablespoons) of butter or neutral oil, divided (vegan substitutions)
• 1 small white onion, peeled and diced small
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 x 425 gram cans of beans (2 x 15 ounce cans) or 200 grams (1 cup) of dried beans, cooked as described below
• 120 mls (1/2 cup) vegetable stock
• 1 teaspoon chili powder (decide how spicy you want your beans to be and consider hot or chipotle chili powder)
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon freshly-squeezed lime juice
• fine sea salt and freshly-cracked black pepper
• optional garnishes: finely-chopped fresh cilantro, crumbled or shredded cheese, diced tomato, and/or sliced jalapeño

Instructions

1. Heat half the butter (or oil) in a large deep frying pan until melted.  Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened.  Add the garlic and repeat for 1-2 more minutes, until cooked and fragrant.
2. Add in the canned or cooked beans, veggie stock, chili powder, cumin and oregano, and stir to combine.  Continue cooking until the mixture reaches a simmer.
3. Take the pan off the heat.  Use a potato masher or a wooden spoon to mash the beans to your desired consistency.  If you like them super-smooth, you can purée them with a stick blender or in your food processor. I don’t recommend the food processor – pureed beans are a b*****d to clean up.
4. Stir in the remaining butter until well-combined.  Taste and season the beans with lime juice, salt and pepper, to taste.
5. Serve warm, topped with any garnishes you might like.

Thank you for reading the blog, commenting, cooking, subscribing and sharing. Keep healthy and safe.

Instructions for cooking dried beans: this is my go to website for working with dried beans. It takes a little more time but is even cheaper than using canned beans. Enjoy.

Ratatouille is a classic vegetable stew from the south of France. Don’t show this blog to any French people you know because we’re going to colour outside the lines with ingredients and preparation methods. Recipe is great for the vegetarians and vegans. We are trying for zero food waste and fewer trips to the market for ingredients so this recipe is all about flexibility.

Side note: Ratatouille, the movie, is one of those Pixar cartoons that’s secretly aimed at adults but also amuses children. We’ve got access to Disney+ while our son is home from university and we are shamelessly exploiting it. In the movie, they make an incredibly posh nouvelle cuisine version of ratatouille. We’re not cooking that today. There are posh versions – carefully colour coordinated and layered. That’s cooking as performance art and nobody has the time for that.

The beating heart of ratatouille is aubergine (eggplant you Americans) and tomatoes. Those are the only two mandatory ingredients for me (ducking now while purists hurl things at me). Most ratatouille also includes bell peppers, courgettes (zucchini again for you Americans), onions and garlic.

I consulted the hive mind of Twitter for other things you can and cannot put in ratatouille. No support for root vegetables (I suggested parsnips and carrots) and that includes potatoes, sweet potatoes and radishes. In fact several Tweeters more or less accused me of cooking heresy. Also beans (as in pulses) are verboten. I would tend to avoid cabbage as it has a strong taste and it needs bacon to make it edible. Cucumbers have so much liquid I would also avoid them.

Things you can put in ratatouille – pretty much any other vegetable in just about any form. Frozen mixed veg, corn from cans, summer squash, pumpkin, leeks, shallots. Kale, spinach and other sturdy greens are also acceptable. Go for it.

I consulted my vegetable drawer and my store cupboards and my latest ratatouille had one aubergine, two tins of tomatoes, one red bell pepper, 2/3 of an orange bell pepper, one truly ancient courgette, some leeks and assorted onions (one Spanish, two white ones). I found some dried basil in the store cupboard that expired in 2007. 2007. Used that too.

I’ve included the ingredients in the recipe in the order that I put them in the pot. I use a large deep enamelled cast iron soup pot, don’t use aluminium – it doesn’t like the acid from tomatoes. You can find hundreds of ratatouille recipes on line – this one works for me.

Recipe

Ingredients

• olive oil to coat the bottom of the pot
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped fine (I don’t cook with garlic but its widely used)
• 2 medium onions, peeled, halved and sliced thinly (I use a hand held mandolin and slice them directly into the pot)
• 2 bell peppers, cored seeded and chopped into cubes of about 1.5 cm (half an inch or so) pieces
• 1 medium aubergine (eggplant) chopped into cubes, same size
• 1 medium courgette (zucchin) chopped into cubes, same size
• 2 tins of chopped tomatoes with juice or 6 fresh tomatoes, cored and seeded
• bunch of fresh basil or 2 tablespoons of dried basil
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Coat the bottom of the stock pot with a generous layer of olive oil and heat until it smells sweet (medium heat). Add the garlic, give it a couple of minutes.
2. Add the sliced onions, stir to coat with oil and cook until they begin to soften, about five minutes
3. Repeat with the bell peppers, then the aubergine, then the courgette.
4. Add the tomatoes and stir to coat. Bring to a slow simmer and cook for about 20 minutes once simmering.
5. Watch to see that it doesn’t get too dry and start to stick to the bottom of the pan. Cautiously add water if it looks dry.
6. About 5 minutes before it’s finished add the basil (chopped if fresh) and salt and pepper to taste.

Serve up with your favourite carbohydrate base. I’ve seen the Davinator eat ratatouille on bread, pasta and mashed potatoes (not all at the same time). It’s been eaten as a breakfast dish with a couple of fried eggs as well.

It will last several days in the refrigerator.

Thank you for reading, commenting, cooking the recipes and for sharing on social media.

This is an updated version of a previous post. Working through my store cupboard of less well used ingredients.

Everyone (well every American cook) is likely to have a can of pumpkin rattling around in the cupboard and god only knows how old it might be. If you don’t have canned or tinned then you can make this recipe with just about any squash except courgette (zucchini to los Americanos).

Oven bake the squash – split, remove seeds, brush surfaces with vegetable oil and roast until soft. Then scrape the inside out and weigh. One butternut squash should make about the right amount. Or peel, seed, cut into chunks and boil until soft. Drain and mash. You don’t need exactly the ‘right’ amount. If you’re within 20% plus or minus you should still be okay.

Don’t have the ‘right’ ingredients in your cupboard? Here are some flex suggestions and there’s a vegan version also.

Flour: any old plain wheat flour will do. Not self rising but white or whole wheat and any mixture of those. I also mixed in 10% by weight of potato flour.

Sugar: any brown sugar will do, even those dried up lumps you’ve found in the cupboard. You can reduce the sugar by 25% and still get a great result.

Spices: use what you have, spices add to the complexity of the flavour but not the basic taste or structure.

Nuts, raisins, chocolate: any or all can be omitted. Any dried fruit can be used, cut into raisin sized chunks. I didn’t use any chocolate in the version pictured here.

Vegan version:
– use 1/2 mashed ripe banana per egg,
– use vegetable shortening (trex or crisco) in same quantity
– reduce sugar by 20%

This is a straightforward ‘quick’ bread designed to use one can of pumpkin adapted from a King Arthur recipe. Depending on what pans you have:

• 3 x one pound loaves (small loaf pan, 400gms).
• 1 x two pound loaf (large loaf pan) and 1 x one pound loaf
• 2 x one pound loaves and 6 to 9 muffins.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 340 grams whole wheat flour (I used 60 grams of potato flour and 280 gram of mixed quality whole wheat flour)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 170 grams unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
• 320 grams brown sugar (light or dark)
• 70 grams caster sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 can of pumpkin puree (Not pumpkin pie filling) or (400 grams of cooked pureed squash of your choice)
• 115 grams of chopped nuts (walnut or pecan)
• 170 grams of ‘mix in’ I used raisins but any dried fruit chopped to the right size will do. Substitute a portion for chocolate chips for a decadent effect.

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 170C (350f) if making smaller loaves or muffins. 180C if making larger loaves. Prep your loaf pans or muffin tins – I use paper liners for my loaf pans as well as muffin tins.
2. Chop the nuts and fruit. Combine with the chocolate chips if using. Put to one side.
3. Combine the butter and the sugars. This can be done by hand but easier in the mixer. Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping the bowl to ensure everything is combined. Then beat in the vanilla and the pumpkin or squash.
4. Whisk the dry ingredients together: flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg.
5. Stir your fruit, nuts and chocolate chips into the dry ingredients. Coating them with flour seems to distribute them more evenly throughout the batter.
6. Add the dry ingredients in three batches to the butter/sugar mix. Don’t over beat, but make sure all the dry ingredients are moistened.
7. Put the batter in your prepared pans. I like to use a trigger ice cream scoop, this batter does not pour well.
8. A large loaf will need an hour in the oven. Small loaves about 45 minutes and a muffin tin 35 minutes. Check the temperature – should be above 90C. The bread or muffins should look ‘dry’ across the top.
9. Take the bread out of the oven and place the pan or pans on the rack to cool for 15 minutes. Then remove from the pans and allow to cool completely.

And then enjoy. We like to eat this for breakfast with cream cheese. Please let me know if you’re baking the recipes. Thanks for reading, following, sharing. Happy baking.

It’s that time of year – the clocks have gone back, it’s cold, damp and dark. We need comfort food. I hope the baking followers are not too disappointed with a blog or two on great autumn and winter food. I’m also on a mission to eat more vegetables – not that easy for someone who doesn’t really like salad.

This roasted cauliflower soup ticks all the boxes. And it is suitable for those on a keto or low carb diet. Easy to make a vegan version – omit the bacon and swap in some grated vegan cheese at the end. If you’re trying for a vegan version be careful about stock cubes – even vegetable stock cubes may not be vegan.

The cauliflower is oven roasted before being included in the soup. This gives another layer of flavour to the soup, making it even more satisfying. If you’ve never had roasted cauliflower before you may find yourself just eating the roasted cauliflower and abandoning the soup. At least the first time.

My soup comes out with a dark tint because of the rich vegetable stock I use, my tendency towards lots of black pepper and very caramelised cauliflower. You could use a lighter chicken stock and less pepper if you wanted a whiter soup.

The Davinator has suggested an explanatory note. I made the soup, garnished it and then we ate it. Forgetting to take a photo. So the next day when we ate the leftovers I said ‘where is the leftover bacon?’. Apparently ‘someone’ had eaten the rest of the bacon. So we tore some lovely prosciutto into shreds and had that on our soup.

Makes four generous servings of soup.

Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 large cauliflower head
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Sea salt
• Black pepper
• 200 grams unsmoked bacon lardons
• 3 additional tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 large leek, chopped small
• 2 celery stalks, chopped small
• 1 large carrot, chopped small
• 2 garlic cloves, diced
• 30 mls cooking brandy
• 2 vegetable stock cubes
• Approximately one litre of boiling water
• 50 grams of cheddar cheese
• Fresh chopped chives or parsley to garnish

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 220C (450f).
2. Put 2 tablespoons of olive oil, with sea salt and pepper in a roasting tin and then in the oven.
3. Chop the cauliflower into florets. Don’t need to be elegant, you’re going to blend the soup at the end. However, you want smaller florets for more even caramelisation and quicker cooking.
4. Carefully remove the hot roasting tin, tip the cauliflower in and stir to coat the florets in the hot oil and spices. Put the tin back in the oven and roast for 15 minutes. Meanwhile work on the other vegetables and soup base.
5. Use a deep heavy bottomed stock pot – coat the bottom with additional olive oil then add the bacon lardons. Cook until crisp. Remove from the stock pot with a slotted spoon and drain on some paper towel.
6. Add the vegetables and the garlic to the pot. Cook over medium heat until well wilted. Add the cooking brandy, turn the heat to high and burn off the alcohol.
7. Turn back to medium heat. Drop the stock cubes in, add the hot water and bring to a boil, dissolving the stock cubes.
8. Add the cauliflower and bring to a simmer. Cook for 5 minutes.
9. Puree your soup using a stick blender or your actual blender.
10. Grate the cheese and chop the herbs.
11. Serve in bowls topped with cheese, bacon and herbs.

Thank you for reading, following, commenting and cooking along. Please send requests, comments and questions.

How to deal with the courgette tsunami? The best defence is a good offence – get your punches in early. Pick the courgettes when first flowering (no fruit) or when the courgettes are still little babies. Then deep fry them. In beer batter. That will teach them who’s the boss. Seriously, the most divine way to eat courgettes and to reduce your chances of drowning in the courgette tsunami.

It’s easy and you don’t need a deep fryer. You have to be prepared to fry in 2 or 3 inches of hot oil though and have a deep heavy fry pan. The secret to these is to cook them and then eat them as soon as they are cool enough to handle.

Recipe

Ingredients

Stuffing & courgettes

• 12 blossoms (with or without mini-courgettes)
• 250 grams fresh ricotta
• 80 grams freshly grated Parmesan
• salt
• pepper
• nutmeg

Batter

• 125 grams of plain flour
• Pinch of sea salt
• 1 egg yolk
• 175 mls ice cold beer (a good use for lager)

Method

1. Carefully clean the blossoms, check for insects and remove the pistil (hard bit) from the inside of the flowers.
2. Spoon stuffing into each flower. Don’t overfill. They will only be cooking for 2 minutes. You want to be able to pinch the top together and twirl it to seal the filling inside. Lay gently on some kitchen towl.
3. Heat the oil while you’re preparing the batter. Combine the flour and sea salt with a fork in a bowl big enough roll your courgette blossoms in. Then beat in the egg yolk and beer.
4. Check you oil – either use a thermometer (180C) or drop a cube of white bread in. If it goes brown in under a minute, you’re all set.
5. Using a slotted spoon, gently lower the flowers into the oil. 2 to 4 at a time depending on the size of your pan. Cook for two minutes, turning them over half way through.
6. Drain on kitchen towel, sprinkle with some flaky sea salt and serve with lemon wedges.
7. If you have any leftover filling – lovely on toast.

I don’t like beetroot (beets for los Americanos).  It tastes like dirt to me – just saying. But there are some in my household who do love beetroot and I cook it for them.

Here’s my go to borscht,  based on a Martha Stewart recipe. Like all soup recipes, it’s flexible so you can add and subtract vegetables and seasonings based on what you have on hand and what you like. Other than the beetroot obviously.

My top tip for working with beetroot – wear thin rubber globes and put a layer of cling film or plastic wrap on anything you don’t want stained a red and purple.  People will be thinking there’s been a murder in your kitchen if you’re not careful.

The beetroot and other vegetables must be roasted before being included in the soup, so leave time for roasting.

Make this recipe vegetarian or vegan friendly by eliminating the bacon and serving with some fried chunks of tofu on top.  Also be careful with your stock cube.  Many commercial stock cubes – even the vegetable stock – can have animal products in them.

Ingredients

1 kilo of beetroot – scrubbed, peeled and cut into chunks about 2.5 cms square

500 grams of potatoes – scrubbed, peeled and cut into chunks about 2.5 cms square

500 grams of carrots – scrubbed and cut into chunks

8 rashers of streaky bacon

2 large shallots

Generous slug of cooking brandy

2 tablespoons high quality olive oil plus another tablespoon and a pat of butter

5 sprigs fresh thyme

Coarse salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1 litre of high quality vegetable stock

Sour cream, creme fraiche or greek yogurt for serving, plus fresh chives or parsley

Instructions

1.  Preheat oven to 180c fan or 200 non-fan.  Combine beets, potatoes and carrots with  2 tablespoons of olive oil and thyme in a roasting pan or pans – in a single layer.  Cook for 45 minutes until the potatoes are cooked through.
2.  About 10 minutes before vegetables are finished roasting, chop shallots and cut the bacon into small chunks.  Saute in remaining olive oil and butter over medium heat in a soup pot until lovely and soft.  Add the cooking brandy, and cook over high to cook off all the alcohol.    Get the vegetable stock ready.
3. Combine roasted beets, potatoes and carrots with the bacon and shallots and vegetable stock  in the soup pot.   Bring to a simmer over medium high heat.  Cook until all vegetables are tender.
4. Puree with a soup blender for a super smooth texture or use your potato masher for a coarser texture.
5. Stir in the vinegar.  Put in the bowls, add the Greek yogurt and chives, pair with some of Mama Dolson’s famous rye bread and enjoy!