Meat-free Monday

It's Meat-free Monday, which means another vegetarian meal in the eat quaff laugh household.
This time (shock horror!) I'm not cooking with haloumi, even though I really did want to!

Tonight I thought we'd go for vegie burgers with a bit of an Asian twist. I originally came across this recipe in a supermarket magazine and have made a few changes to it. The burgers are nice and dense, but not dry, due to the moist zucchini added to them. The chickpeas and cashews give a lovely texture and a bit of crunch. For extra crunch, roast the cashews first. I didn't have time today, but if you do, it's well worth the effort.

I used Jimmy's Sate sauce for the flavouring, but any sort of Asian curry paste would work well - Korma, red curry, Penang. Use whatever you happen to have a half used jar of in the fridge. The Jimmy's is quite strong, so I only needed one tablespoon. Depending on the strength of your paste, you might need a bit more. Add a little bit and then taste. It's easier to add extra than to try and take it away!

The zucchini adds some vegetable matter, but you could always use carrot, eggplant or sweet potato, if that's what you have. Harder vegetables will need to be grated first, otherwise they will be too chunky. The spring onions add a more Asiany flavour, but you could always use regular onion if you didn't want to go out and buy a whole bunch.

These burgers are really easy to make and because you need to set them aside in the fridge to firm up before you cook them, they are great made the day before. That leaves an easy fry up in the pan when you are ready to eat. For a slightly healthier version, spray with oil spray and bake in the oven until golden.

Serve the burgers in pita bread or your favourite wraps with the minted yoghurt, mango chutney and extra mint and salad leaves. They are also great on their own the next day, either cold or warmed slightly in the microwave.

Asian Vegie Burgers

2x400g tins of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 cup cashews, raw or roasted
1 medium zucchini, coarsely chopped
1 egg
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
2 spring onions, trimmed and coarsely chopped white and green part
1 Tbs Jimmy's Sate or curry paste, or to your taste
A few large handfuls of mint
1/2 cup natural yoghurt
Salt and pepper to taste
Mango chutney, pita bread or wraps, mixed lettuce and extra mint to serve

In a food processor, combine chickpeas, cashews, zucchini, spring onion, sate sauce and mint. Whiz until coarsely chopped and combined. You still want a bit of texture, so don't over process.
Add 1/2 cup breadcrumbs and egg and blitz briefly to combine. Season to taste.
Shape handfuls into burgers and then press into remaining breadcrumbs to give a half coating.
Place on a linter tray and set aside in the fridge for at least 30 mins to firm up.
Heat a good drizzle of oil in a frypan over medium heat and cook for about 3 minutes on each side, or until golden brown.
To make mint yoghurt, combine yoghurt and chopped mint in a small bowl. Season to taste.

To serve, place pita bread on a plate, spread with mango chutney and top with a couple of burgers, a dollop of yoghurt, extra mint and mixed lettuce. Wrap up and enjoy.

Just Stuff It!!

We've had a few big and fancy dinners over the last couple of weeks and have probably drunk too much over the Spring Racing Carnival, so it's time to settle down and have something simple and slightly healthier.

Just because something is simple and healthy, doesn't mean that it has to taste bland and boring! We try to do a vego meal at least once a week, so I thought that tonight would be perfect for that. After a great lamb Rogan Josh and roast pork with crispy crackling on the weekend, something lighter was definitely in order! Thanks to my beautiful husband for his weekend cooking adventures when I was at a course for the two days.

I have made stuffed capsicums in the past and shared one of my recipes with you a while ago. On that occasion, I stuffed them with a mixture of goat mince, onion, garlic and herbs. This time, to make a vegetarian version, I've stuffed them with chickpeas, feta, onion, garlic, spinach and fresh oregano.  The filling has enough substance to make them hearty, without being too dense. When roasted, the capsicums give off their beautiful sweetness and the juices mix in with the filling.

Top it all with a blob of Greek yoghurt, a sprinkling of sumac and a light salad, and you have the perfect dinner. I decided to go with rocket, roasted tomato and toasted pinenut. Other roasted vegies that you cook at the same time would be perfect too. You could also make this as a weekend lunch when you don't want anything too difficult or heavy. 

I chose medium sized red capsicums, but depending on how hungry you are, you could choose larger ones. If you wanted, you could even use the little baby ones in red, yellow or green to make pretty appetisers for a party. With Christmas coming up, the colour scheme would be perfect for a festive get together!

Depending on the size of your capsicums, you'll probably have some of the filling left over. Heat it up in a pan or the microwave and serve it with a dollop of yoghurt and some fresh crusty bread for lunch.

Vegetarian Stuffed Roasted Capsicums

2 medium red capsicums
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
A handful of fresh oregano, chopped
A handful of fresh spinach, chopped
400g tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 tsp sumac, plus extra for sprinkling
100g feta, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil spray
Greek yoghurt and salad to serve

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees.
To prepare the capsicum, cut the tops off them so you have a base with a lid. Remove the membrane and seeds from the inside.

Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a frying pan and gently cook the onion until starting to soften.
Add the garlic for another minute until it becomes fragrant.
Remove the pan from the heat and stir through the chickpeas, oregano, spinach, feta, sumac and salt and pepper to taste. Remember that the feta is salty, so you might not need much salt.
Fill the capsicums with the chickpea mixture until it reaches the top. Pack it in so it's quite firmly filled as it will shrink down during cooking.
Place the capsicums and lids on a baking tray and spray with the oil spray.
Bake for about 30 mins, or until the capsicums are softened and slightly charred. You might need to take the lids out of the oven before the bases to stop them burning.

To serve, place a capsicum on a plate, dollop Greek yoghurt on the top, sprinkle with sumac and replace the lid.
Serve with a simple salad.

Beetroot and Broad Beans

After an amazing dinner at Albert Street Food and Wine last night, tonight it's back to something more plain and simple.

As much as I love to eat meaty dishes, it's nice to have a lighter vegetarian option every so often. After the excess of last night, in both the food and wine department, this was the perfect meal.

Falafel are usually made only with chickpeas, but this version packs a flavour and colour punch with a mixture of beetroot, chickpeas and broad beans. Being oven baked, rather than fried, they are a healthier version too. Wrap them up with a tasty parsley salad and some yoghurt sauce and you have a great tasting meal.  Perfect as a light summer dinner or an easy lunch.

You can make the falafel in advance and keep them in the fridge, so this recipe is great when you want to prepare ahead. Just make sure you cover the baking tray, otherwise the fridge will take on a very garlicky aroma!

Beetroot, Chickpea and Broad Bean Falafel

 

1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup coriander leaves and stalks
400g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
200g frozen broad beans, cooked as per packet instructions, drained and cooled
2 medium beetroot, peeled and chopped
2 Tbs tahini
2 tsp ground cumin
Mountain bread or other wraps to serve

Place all ingredients, other than bread, in a food processor and whiz until it reaches a pasty consistency.
Scrape down the sides as you go to make sure everything is mixed together well.
Season to taste.
Roll tablespoon sized amounts into balls and place on a tray lined with baking paper.
Refrigerate until ready to use.
Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees.
Spray falafel with oil spray and bake for 25 to 30 mins or until crispy on the outside and soft in the middle.

Yoghurt Sauce

1 cup natural yoghurt
1 Tbs mint, chopped
1 tsp sumac

Combine yoghurt and mint in a small bowl. Sprinkle sumac over the top.

 

Parsley Salad

1 cup parsley leaves
A handful of mixed salad leaves, rocket or baby spinach
10 cherry tomatoes, quartered
A drizzle each of extra virgin olive oil and verjuice to dress

Mix parsley, salad leaves and cherry tomatoes in a bowl.
Drizzle over oil and verjuice and toss to combine

Salads and sun!

I love that time in spring when the weather starts to warm up and you can move away from eating all those heavy winter dishes. Don't get me wrong, I love a slow cooked casserole and rich pudding, but it is nice to have lighter flavours, which don't leave you just wanting to have a snooze on the couch.

Melbourne has recently turned on the weather, and my thoughts have turned to stuffing vegetables with tasty combinations of mince and fresh herbs. Lots of herbs and lemon juice sing spring and summer to me.

This week I was inspired by one of my favourite foodie blogs, Delicieux. Jen always makes the most amazing looking food and her photos are fantastic. Her recent post for Moroccan Chickpea Salad started me thinking about all the possibilities with this great legume.

I had some haloumi left over from the blood orange and chicken salad, so thought I'd use that too, along with some middle eastern flavours. An abundance of mint and parsley in the garden, a lemon tree heavy with fruit and some spices in the cupboard, and I was set.

Now that the salad was organised, I needed something light, but tasty to go with it. I love the flavour of roasted capsicum and thought that the sweetness of the capsicum would work perfectly with a meaty stuffing, again with middle eastern flavours. 

We are lucky enough to live in an area with loads of middle eastern grocers and butchers, so finding the right ingredients is never hard. We eat a lot of goat, and this was the perfect choice to go with the capsicum.

I pre-browned the goat mince with the spices, onion and garlic, so it was sure to be cooked when the capsicums were roasted. I also pre-roasted the capsicums for 10 minutes to start softening them and releasing their juices.  You could have everything prepared the day before, or in the morning, so the final roasting is quick and easy.

Depending on the size of your capsicums, it's likely that you'll have some of the filling left over. Not at all a bad thing. For a simple and easy lunch, heat the left over meat and eat san choy bau style, wrapped up in crisp lettuce leaves. Another option is to make quesadillas by putting some of the filling and grated cheese between two tortillas and frying it up in a dry pan to crisp the outside and melt the cheese. I went with this option for the kids dinner and they devoured it in no time!

Chickpea, Sumac and Haloumi salad

1 400g tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/4 small red onion, finely diced
1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped
1/2 cup mint, finely chopped
2 tsp sumac (or to your liking)
1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil (I used the lemon infused from Cobram Estate)
1 Tbs verjuice
Salt and pepper
100g haloumi, sliced into 1/2cm slices
Olive oil for frying

Combine all the ingredients, except haloumi, in a bowl.
Adjust the seasoning or sumac to your taste. Allow to sit for an hour, if you can, for the flavours to infuse.
When ready to eat, heat a fry pan on moderate heat with a thin layer of olive oil. Fry the haloumi slices until browned, then flip and brown the other side.
Gently toss the hot haloumi into the salad and serve.

Goat Stuffed Roasted Capsicums

2 red capsicums
1/2 a red onion, finely diced
2 cloves of garlic, finely diced
500g goat mince (or lamb if you prefer)
1/2 cup fresh coriander, chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp chilli flakes (optional)
juice of half a lemon
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
Cut capsicums in half and scoop out the seeds and membrane. Place them on an oven tray sprayed with oil spray and roast for 10 to 15 minutes, until they are just starting to soften, but not fall apart.
While the capsicums are roasting, prepare the filling.
Heat a drizzle of oil in a fry pan and cook mince until just starting to brown, breaking up the big pieces with a wooden spoon. Drain the fat off and set aside.
In the same pan, cook onion and garlic until starting to soften. Add the browned mince, ground cumin and coriander, chilli flakes, salt and pepper to taste.
When combined and you are happy with the flavours, take the pan off the heat and add the fresh coriander and lemon juice.
Take the capsicums out of the oven and fill with the mince mixture. Put left overs in the fridge for tomorrows lunch!
Return tray to the oven for another 20 mins or until the filling is cooked and the capsicum is nicely roasted and softened.

Serve with the chickpea salad.

Chickpea salad with goat roasted capsicum

The Perfect Drop

Even though this was a nice light dish, it still had pretty strong flavours with all those middle eastern spices and the sweetness of the goat and roasted capsicum. We love a nice big red in this house, so a Barossa Shiraz from one of our favourite wineries, Kellermeister, was perfect. This big red, the Dry Grown Barossa Shiraz, was actually under the Trevor Jones label but they went their separate ways a few years ago.It was full of berry and plummy flavours with a good amount of tannin. 

We recently went to the Kellermeister annual tasting in Melbourne and stocked up on some of their amazing premium red wines. They do also make wonderful white wines and a very quaffable rose, which are perfect for summer. It's well worth checking out the wines that these guys make. They are a talented bunch!

Trevor Jones Dry Grown Barossa Shiraz