Butternut squash fry

Ingredients

Butternut Squash- 1 whole or 500gm frozen packet
Onions-2
Garlic -3  cloves
Cumin seeds- 2 tea spoons
Coriander powder- 1 tea spoon
Sugar- 1 tea spoon
Green chillies- 3

Tempering- mustard seeds, jeera, curry leaves

Method

Take  a pan and add a table spoon oil. Temper with mustard seeds and jeera. Add chopped chillies, sliced onions and soften them with a pinch of salt. Meanwhile take a pestle and mortar and grind cumin seeds and garlic. A coarse paste is adequate to bring out the flavour. Add it to the softened onions. after about 30 seconds add the fresh or frozen chopped butternut squash. I added a teaspoon of chilli powder for extra spice but just chopped chillies should be enough for a milder version. cover for 8-10 minutes on low flame and it is enough for frozen pieces. Fresh pieces may take few more minutes.
Finally sprinkle some coriander powder and sugar and switch off the flame.
It goes well with white rice.

Siri's Rosette Cake

Quorn and vegetables curry

Again I used Quorn here but it is versatile and can be adopted with any combination of vegetables/paneer.

Ingredients

Onions -2
Tomatoes- 2
Mangetout beans- 100gram
Quorn- 150grams
ginger garlic paste  1 tea spoon
chilli powder 1 tea spoon
salt- to taste

For tempering- a tea spoon of mustard and cumin seeds

For gravy- make a paste of 2 table spoon poppy seeds, 2 table spoons sesame seeds, 5 cashews, 50 grams grated coconut/ coconut pieces

1 tea spoon garam masala.

Method

Take a deep pan and heat up a table spoon of oil. Throw in the cumin and mustard seeds. When they start to splatter,add chopped onions.When they soften with some salt,add ginger garlic paste. After 5 minutes add chopped tomatoes. cover the pan and let the tomatoes soften.

Open and add chilli powder,mangetout chopped, and quorn.
Finally add the paste of all ingredients we made for the gravy. Let it cook for 10 minutes . Finally add garam masala and chopped coriander.
Serve with Rice/ Roti.

Quorn/Tofu fry

I suppose we can make this recipe with any combination of vegetables/meat/leftovers at home.This really was a leftover recipe .

Ingredients

Carrots 2- grated
Peppers-2 - mixed colours
Spinach- bunch
150gram Quorn/Tofu/Paneer
Red onion- 1
garlic cloves-1

Method

1. take a pan and heat a tablespoon of oil. add some chopped garlic and chopped onion. once it is softened with a pinch of salt, add thinly sliced peppers. Once it softens, add Quorn and grated carrot.

2. just a couple of minutes before you finish add chopped spinach.

3. To spice it up ,you can add a tea spoon of chilli powder/ here I added some ready made spice powder ( it can be anything from chicken fry powder/ Jamaican jerk seasoning/curry powder).

4. That's it. can have it with Rice/Chapati/cous cous.

Black Bean Soup

This healthy spicy soup is from my favourite chef jamie oliver. I just made changes here and there. Added left overs at home and it was delicious.

Ingredients

2 red onions

2 cloves of garlic

2 sticks of celery

1 green pepper

1 red pepper

1-3 fresh red chillies

½ a bunch of fresh coriander

olive oil

½ a bunch of fresh thyme

2 x 400 g tins of black beans

extra virgin olive oil

Cooked brown rice- small cup

Method

Peel and finely chop the onions and garlic, then trim and finely slice the celery. Deseed and finely chop the peppers and chillies. Pick the coriander leaves, then finely chop the stalks.

Drizzle a lug of olive oil in a large saucepan and place over a medium-low heat. Add  the chopped onion, garlic, celery, coriander  and peppers to the pan, then pick in the thyme leaves. 

The number of chillies is optional. jamie added only half a deseeded chilli to the original soup but for my family's Indian palate I added 3 red chillies with seeds in. It is certainly spicy but nice.Add the chilli and gently sauté the veggies for 15 minutes, or until softened but not coloured. 

Tip in both tins of black beans with their liquid, followed by 400ml of boiling water. Turn up the heat and bring to the boil. 

Season, reduce the heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes, or until thickened and creamy. If it reduces too much, add a splash more water. 

take 1/4th of the soup out in a tall glass and blend it into a paste with hand blender. It helps to thicken the soup.

Add it back to the pan and add some left over cooked brown rice. Today I had some left over grilled chicken so I shredded and added it to the bowl while eating.

It is Yum on its own or with some bread/ tortillas.

Aubergine pasta

Easy vegetarian pasta sauce .can use it with any pasta shape or layer it for lasagne .

Ingredients

• Aubergine 1
• Dry soya mince - handful or according to taste
  
• Tinned tomatoes 400gm
• Salt
• Bay leaf and herbs
• Garlic 2 cloves
• Parmesan cheese/cheddar

Method

• Heat up a tablespoon of olive oil and gently warm chopped garlic making sure it doesn't get burnt.
• Add bay leaf and herbs of choice like Rosemary ,basil leaves
• Add chopped aubergine- small prices and cook until soft with some salt
• Boil a kettle with water and pour it over a bowl of soya mince to rehydrate it.
• Add the chopped tomatoes to the aubergine mixture and cook for 10 minutes
• After 5 minutes drain water and it to the pan with cook with aubergine ,tomato mixture.
• Add salt and pepper to taste. I added chilli powder to mine .
• Serve with pasta and cheese grated on top.

Fig and Date Flapjacks

This recipe is an amalgamation of few flapjack recipes to suit my taste and what was in  season at the time I made it.
because the main ingredient is oats it sounds deceptively healthy but there is nothing healthy about it if you look at all the butter and sugar that goes in it.
Having said that you can reduce the level of guilt consciousness by replacing golden syrup with maple syrup.

Ingredients

150 grams Butter
100 grams caster sugar
175ml golden syrup
450 gram mixture of nuts and fruits and oats

I used nearly 200grams of oats ,150grams chopped dates and dried figs 50-100 grams toasted and chopped hazel nuts and pumpkin seeds and few raisins.
4 Fresh figs copped in round slices.

Method
Pre heat oven to 180c.

In a large pan melt butter and sugar and golden syrup.As soon as it melts add all the dry ingrients including oats.

When well combined transfer to a tray lined with parchment paper and press down.

Scatter fresh figs on top and sprinkle some more syrup/sugar over it.
Bake in the oven at 180c for 25-30 minutes.

while it is still warm make some indentations to the size you want to cut later.