Roast Veggies with Squash Sauce

Yummy yummy veggies in my tummy. I really enjoy roast veggies, well I think by now it's evident that there is very few kinds of veggies I don't like. But I'm attempting to try new things with them. So I've decided to try an old favourite (roast veggies) with a new twist (squash sauce).

Roast Veggies

Ingredients

1/2 eggplant, cubed

1/2 zucchini, cubed

1 head broccoli, cut into little trees

1 large onion, cubed

4 cloves garlic

5 potatoes, cubed

1/4 C olive oil

1 tsp basil

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp chives

1 tsp sage

1 tsp oregano

Method:

Mix the oil and herbs in a bowl. Place all the veggies into a large bowl and toss in oil mix. Let it sit in the fridge over night. 

Heat oven and cook the veggies to your liking. 

Note: as something different I piled the veggies into two pyrax dishes and poured a bottle (330 mL) of beer over them. Then I placed al-foil over the top and cook in the oven like this until the potatoes were soft. Then I took the al-foil off and let them crisp a little. Turned out really well, they weren't as crunchy as roast veggies often are but so full of flavour. Well worth a try. 

Squash Sauce

Ingredients

1/2 kg yellow squash

2 small onions (or one large ones)

2 cloves garlic

1 tbs olive oil

1 tbs lemon juice

1 tsp vegemite

3/4 C oat milk

1/4 C white wine

salt and pepper to taste

sprinkle paprika and turmeric

Method

Boil the squash until cooked, drain and set aside to cool. Combine all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Add additional liquid if required. Drizzle sauce over roast veggies.

Happy Eating!

Potato Bake

Another of my favs and definitely one of my go to recipes. Potato bake is an excellent meal for when you really can't be bothered. And that really can't be bother moment happened for me the other night, luckily I had a heap of freshly made cauliflower sauce in the fridge (see other post). So using my trusty food processor with slicing attachment this became a very easy meal. This meal made a LOT of food, great for us as we can't always be bothered to cook and enjoy left overs for lunch. If you'd like less just scale everything down by how much potato you use, i.e. half the potato half everything else.

Ingredients

1 kg of potato, we used the yellow flesh pink skin ones but any will work

1 zucchini

1 onion

3 cloves of garlic

Cauliflower sauce

sprinkling of cheese

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C. Slice the potato, zucchini and onion. I cheated and used the slicing attachment on my super doper food processor (mainly because I like the sound it makes when slicing "zooomp" as the veggies go down the spout.)

Crush / dice the garlic into little bits and combine all the veggies into a bowl. Place a light coat of cauliflower sauce in a pyrax and layer the veggie mix on top. Repeat the process until the pyrax is full / you run out of ingredients. If desired place a very fine layer of cheese on the top. This is not strictly needed but it does make a nice crust on the meal. Place in hot oven until cooked through. You'll know when everything is cooked because the potatoes will be soft, if not a bit crunchy  This will take a while (30 - 40 mins) so I suggest getting this meal on earlier rather than later. 

This made one big pyrax (dinner and lunch) and one smaller pyrax (dinner), all for the low low cost of a bag of potatoes (the cheapest ones they had), and some cauliflower. Meat could also be incorporated into this meal if required, I'd suggest boiled chicken (free-range, because well let's face it, it always tastes better) mixed through. Or just have something on the side. 

Happy Eating!

Broccoli balls with cauliflower sauce

I made broccoli balls ages ago and have been meaning to try them again ever since. So in this veggie order I got some broccoli and set about making balls.

For the sauce I used cauliflower,  just about every blog I follow seems to have a cauliflower sauce recipe these days, and when you make a good one you'll know why. The sauce was creamy and full of flavour without any cream or butter, so great for the waist line too. Plus cauliflower is an inexpensive veggie making this meal nice on the pocket too.

The cauliflower sauce made a LOT, so if you have nothing else to use it on I suggest half / quarter the recipe. However, I used the rest to make a very tasty potato bake (see post), which is a great way to use up some left overs.

Broccoli Balls

Ingredients

1 head broccoli

1/2 large onion (or one small one)

3 cloves garlic

1/4 C chia seeds

1/4 C boiling water

1/4 C fresh coriander

Method

Preheat the oven to about 180 C. Mix the chia seeds and boiling water to make egg sub. Add all ingredients into a food processor until combined. Using a dessert spoon scoop the mixture into hands and roll into a ball. Place the balls in a hot pan with some olive oil. Once nicely browned remove and place into a hot oven for about 10 mins until cooked through but not dried out. 

Enjoy. 

Cauliflower Sauce

Ingredients

1 head of cauliflower

4 cloves of garlic

3 tbs olive oil

1 tsp basil

1 tsp onion powder

1 tbs balsamic vinegar

1 tsp brown sugar

1 tbs corn flower

salt and pepper to taste

oat milk, as required to get the desired texture.

Method

Cut the cauliflower up and lightly steam it until cooked. (If you are not set up to steam, you can boil it). Place all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Add the oat milk about a 1/4 C at a time until the desired texture is reached. I had mine so it was the texture of syrup. 

Once the sauce is made place over the broccoli balls and enjoy. 

Cauliflower sauce is also very tasty over rice / pasta / mash potatoes / well really anything. 

Happy Eating!

Burgers

Burgers are one of the foods I've avoided since the soy discovery. Mainly because I've always enjoyed a meat burger and was worried I'd try a vegetarian one and it just wouldn't be the same. But after almost a year without a burger I finally caved. So, with the help of Chuck, I set about making a lentil patty better than most meat ones.
I chose lentils because on their own they don't have a strong flavour, giving me more freedom with the herbs and spices. This recipe has been adapted from one of Jamie Oliver's.

Note: we also made soy free meat ones for chuck which were so good he's requested I add them here.
 

Lentil Burgers

Ingredients

1 can lentils drained (or fresh if you have them)

1 small onion grated

1/2 C Carrot grated

1/4 C chia seeds

1/4 C boiling water

1/4 C oats

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp mustard seeds

pinch of garlic granuals

1/4 C beer

2 tbs tomato sauce

1/2 tsp vegemite

1/2 tsp pepper

Method:

Pre-heat oven to about 180C. Mix the lentils, carrot and onion in a bowl. Place in some muslin cloth and squeeze out all the moisture. This is important otherwise the patties wont stick together. Mix the Chia seeds and boiling water to make egg sub.

In a large bowl mix all the other ingredients, with the drained lentil mix and egg sub. Once well combined form into patties and fry in a hot pan. Once nicely browned on the outside place in hot oven for about 10 mins until cooked through but not dried out.

Enjoy on a bun with your favourite burger ingredients. 

Note: There were really good the next day for lunch burger.

Meat Burgers

Ingredients

400 g mince

swig of beer

1/2 C carrot grated

1 small onion grated

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp ground pepper

1 tbs tomato sauce

1 tsp dijon mustard

sprinkle of mustard seeds

1/2 tsp of the following: cayenne pepper, thyme, oregano, vegemite

Method

Squeeze the juice out of the carrot and onion as per above. Mix all ingredients into a big bowl and using your hands (yes it is the only way this works well), mix all the ingredients together until well combined. Cook in a hot pan until done. Serve with burger fillings and enjoy.

I hope you enjoy this meal, it's a great one for households with different eating (veggies and non-veggeis) because everyone is eating the same thing (mostly). And there is little extra effort to make two patty types. Esp. if you have two people doing it :).

Happy Eating!