Warm Vitamin Bowl with Bite

It's Monday, the weekend was fun......perhaps too much fun.  Lots of bad food that was delicious but probably short of any nutritional benefit.  Drained, tried and begging for the week to go quickly? Well this dish could be just the ticket to replenish the body and fill you up with lots and lots of goodness to see you through the week.

This recipe is not only tasty, but it is full of healing powers due to a carefully selected ingredient list that will boost the immune system and get you re-energised!

Let's go!

Ingredients:                                                      Whats it good for?

• Portobello mushrooms                             B vitamins - for healthy metabolism
• Broccoli                                                    Vitamin C, A, K, calcium, fibre, beta-carotene
• Lemon                                                      Vitamin C - for glowing skin and fighting colds
• Red pepper                                              Vitamin E - for youthful hair and skin
• Sweet potato                                            Too many to name! #superfood
• Cherry tomatoes                                       Lycopene for healthy bones
• Kale                                                          1 of the most nutrient dense foods available!
• Chilli sauce                                               Capsaicin - antibacterial properties
• Spices of your choice

Method:

• Cut sweet potato in half and rub all over with olive oil.  Put on a baking tray and sprinkle with the spices and seasoning of your choice.  I used cinnamon and nutmeg.....but paprika or chilli powder would work too!
• Place in a hot oven (190 ish) and set your timer for 10 minutes! 
• When the timer goes off add to the baking tray your peppers and drizzle them with a little oil.
• Set timer for another 5 minutes.

• When your timer goes off.  Place your broccoli florets onto the tray.  If you have a george foreman grill or similar, put your mushrooms on the grill at this point.  If you dont...... they can go in the oven too. 
• Set time for another 5 minutes.
• In the mean time take your kale and get rid of any really big hard stalks.  Use a lot of kale.....it wilts down a LOT!  Put the kale in a sandwich bag.  Add some olive oil and the juice of 1/2 lime.  Hold the end of the bag shut and 'massage'  the kale, oil and lemon juice! Strange I know but this will help soften the kale!

• When the timer goes off pop the kale in and set the timer for a final 5 minutes.
• Then quickly add the cherry tomatoes, cut in half into a pan.  Add salt, pepper and a good glug of chilli sauce.  Heat quickly so it bubbles away, stirring continuously.  The tomatoes will break down and this will create a spicy, fruity, juice sauce/compote! Taste to check your level of spice and seasoning!

Then time to assemble!

• Start by putting the greens in: kale and broccoli

• Add the peppers and the chopped sweet potato.

• Squeeze on the juice of the remaining half lime!
• Place the mushroom proudly on top of the bowl of goodness!

• Pour the spicy tomatoey goodness all over your beautiful bowl!

And there you have it!!! So many flavours!  So many nutrients and vitamins!  Eat this and feel your body heal itself back to goodness.......setting you up to another weekend of naughtiness!

Meditaranian Sweet Potato

With the weather getting warmer we were looking for a nice fresh summers evening meal.  Initially a baked potato sprung to mind but then I thought.......is there some way to spice up this simple meal idea.  Off to google I went and one of my trusty favourite recipe websites came up trumps..... the good old Minimalist Bakery.

So we decided to make their Mediterranean Sweet Potatoes.  

This recipe is quick and easy to follow.  It uses only a select few ingredients and spices you will already have in your store cupboard.  It is cheap but tastes anything but!

Warm, gently spiced and the perfect balance of being filling yet light.  Exactly what you need on a hot summers day.  It is full of fresh flavours layered upon one another, each mouthful gives you something different!

Why not give this a go?  A great meat free meal that you will want to make again and again!

Let us know what you think!  Remember to post a picture of your meat free meals on our Facebook page!  If you have any good recipes please share them with us! :)

Mexican Feast Flexitarian Style

Picture this......your having a dinner party.......you want to go meat free but you know that would not go down well with some of your guests.  So what do you do?  Cook them a nice meal and you a salad?

No......why not try this Flexitarian Mexican Feast!  This is the best of both worlds.  It involves making two vegetarian Mexican meals that are tasty as they are, and then cooking the meat seperately.  This means your guest have the choice of going meat free, or getting their meat fill.  They can choose which meat they want with which base - its a lovely mix and match situation!

So here is what I cooked:

Veggie Mains

• Sweet Potato and Mixed Bean Chilli (recipe below)
•  Fajita Vegetables (recipe below)

Meat Additions (which can each be served with either veggie main - mix'n'match):

• Honey Chilli Shredded Chicken
• Fajita Spiced Beef

Sides:

• Sweet Potato Wedges
• Black Beans with Tomatoes, Lime and Corriander
• Homemade Salsa
• Homemade Guacamole
• Jalepenos
• Tortillas
• Tacos
• Shredded Lettuce

Recipes

Sweet Potato and Bean Chilli

• 2 x Sweet Potatoes
• 1 x Onion
• 1 x Passata
• 1 x tin Butter Beans
• 1 x tin Kidney Beans
• 1 x tin Chickpeas
• 1 x tin Mixed Beans in Chilli Sauce
• 1 x tbs Cumin
• 1 x tbs Chilli Powder
• 1 x tbs Tumeric
• salt and pepper

Fry the chopped onion until it begins to soften.  Add the sweet potato which has been chopped into bitesized pieces.  Fry for 5-7 minutes.  Add all the tinned goods and the passata.  Add spices and seasoning and mix through.  Reduce heat and allow to cook through until potatoes soft.  Taste - add any additional spices or seasoning according to preference.

Fajita Vegetables

• 3 x Peppers
• 2 x Red Onions
• 8 x Mushrooms
• Pack of fajita spicing / make your own

Slice all ingredients thinly.  Fry gentle in some olive oil for a couple of minutes.  Add spicing and mixed through coating all veg.  Add a splash of water to moisten and to start to create a sauce.  Turn heat down, cook until vegetables are cooked through but still have a good crunch.  You will need to stir frequently to stop any sticking.  Add another splash of water if required.

Black Beans with Tomato, Lime and Corriander

• 1 x tin of Black Beans
• Cherry Tomatoes (cut in half)
• 1 x Lime
• Large Bunch of Corriander

Drain the black beans and add to a saucepan on a medium heat.  Heat through and stir as required.  Add the tomatoes, continuing to stir for another couple of minutes.  Add in the juice of the lime and the chopped corriander.  Season with salt and pepper.

So with all that done.......it's time to FIESTA FIESTA!!!!

Enjoy, remember to let us know what you think and send us any pictures of the dishes you do!

Chickpea and Chilli Burger

Time for another Minimalist Baker recipe.  This time its a Chickpea and Chilli burger.  So as you can tell we have been in the mood for burgers here at the Flexitarian Pledge.  We also recently blogged about a Kidney Bean and Cumin burger.  

Why not give them both a go and let us know which is your favourite.

So this burger recipe can be found here.

Using a masher to squash the chickpeas was taking too long so we went back to basics........and got stuck in with our hands.  This worked pretty well so we would say go straight in with this tactic to save time!

The burgers ready to be fried.  They cooked fairly quickly.  Getting nice and crisp on the outside.

The recipe said that after frying you can put in the oven for a varied duration of time depending on what texture you want.  We decided to put it in the oven for minimal time.  So we went for the frying time and an additional 10 minutes.  For us this left the center soft, this was a lovely texture.  The recipe says if you would prefer a dryer texture then to cook for longer in the oven.

To accompany our burgers we made sweet potato wedges as blogged about here.  We also made some salsa using the method outlined here, however we didnt have any cherry tomatoes, so instead we used a tin tomatoes which we put through a sieve to drain most of the liquid out.  This worked really well and produced a lovely fresh salsa!

And the finished product! Delicious!

Why not give it a try?  Remember to post any pictures to our Facebook page!

Kidney Bean, Carrot and Cumin Burgers

So as you may have seen in a recent blog, we recently tried a Jack Munroe recipe for Kidney Bean Carrot and Cumin Burgers.  Now here is the recipe review.  You can find how to make these burgers in the video below.

Instead of grating a carrot, I used a tin of carrots I boiled them with the beans to soften them up.

The mashing process was fairly easy, although only armed with a fork it took a while.  Perhaps more lumps were left than should have been, but a little texture adds something right?  I do this a potato masher would sort this problem right out though and make it a simple and speedy process.

Frying the burgers didn't take long, the went crispy and golden in no time.  The scent of the cumin was delicious.  I would guess they would work amazingly on a BBQ too to get the char-grill effect and flavouring.

Unfortunately my cupboards were bare so to accompany this tasty burger it was the humble baked beans, but use your imagination to what you could dress this burger up with....... a soft bun, crispy lettuce, some avocado, some spicy salsa, fries, pickles........ the list is endless.

Give this delicious recipe ago, hopefully we will get some more sun and then we can have them al fresco!

Remember to send us your pictures :)

Jack Monroe

I was perusing the internet for new burger recipes.  After we had that one week of sun I started to get BBQ vibes and meat-free burgers were what I craving.  So after a bit of searching a stumbled upon a Kidney Bean and Cumin burger recipe (blog to follow) and more to the point I stumbled across A Girl Called Jack.

A Girl Called Jack aka Jack Munroe is a blog writer.  Jack began her blog back in 2012, originally "in response to a local Councillor who claimed that 'druggies, drunks and single mums are ruining the High Street."  

Over time, this blog started to focus on a time where Jack found herself trying to feed herself and her young son on a budget of £10 a week due to delays in benefits after finding herself out of employment.

Jack has become the queen of thrifty cooking.  Working through a difficult time in her life she became an inventive, creative cook who used supermarket own brand products to create tasty meals.

Jack has gone on to release a couple of cook books:

• A Girl Called Jack: 100 Budget Recipes
• Jack Munroe: A Year in 120 Recipes

Jack's website is full of great recipes and it would be definitely checking it out!  We will be working our way through some more and of course will let you know how we get on.

Another little think that is food for thought....... Jack talks about promoting this challenge........one day instead of buying your usual fancy coffee (approx £3) why not take that £3 into the nearest supermarket, see how many own brand tinned items you can buy and donate them to the nearest food bank!  WHAT A GREAT IDEA!!!  We will definitely be doing this, always good to give back to the community and help out others who are going through a difficult time.

Recipe Review - Jamie Oliver Ricotta Fritters

One of our lovely followers Emma has been kind enough to review a lovely veggie recipe for us.  Emma has tried Jamie Olivers Ricotta Fritters recipe which comes with a lovely fresh courgette salad.

Mr Oliver claims that this recipe is quick to cook and "not too tricky!"  So this is what we are putting to the test.  The pictures look amazing, a bright colourful dish......but is it possible to recreate this in the humble home kitchen?

Let the review begin..........

So the recipe starts with a small selection of ingredients, they are all easily sourced, common ingredients.  No needs to hunt for a specialist health food shop or any far fetched ingredients!

First step...... making the ricotta fritters:

Next step.....making the sauce:

Time then for the courgette salad:

  

As an addition Emma added a yoghurt dip.  This was made by adding natural yogurt, lemon juice, salt, pepper and chopped fresh mint.  Was a great addition!

And here is the finished masterpiece......

So the review:

Its clear from the picture that yes..... you can recreate this recipe at home.  It looks great! Look at those colours!  

This recipe provides something a bit different.  It is vegetarian but doesnt feel like a "plate of rabbit food".  It is rich, creamy and filling.  The accompaniments are fresh and tangy.  The fritters and sauce were very well matched, complimenting each other.  The yoghurt dip went great with the courgette salad.

All in all, including prep this dish only too 25 minutes to cook!

So in summary: quick, easy, fresh and filling!

Thanks so much Emma for reviewing this recipe for us, great job!  Will need to get you to cook this for us sometime soon ;)





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