I do love it when friends visit. I love it even more when they come bearing gifts! A friend just dropped a pumpkin in to me and in this chilly weather, all I could think of was soup!
[ SERVES: 6 | TIME: 40 MINUTES | COST: $3 ]
[ JOES' RATING: 4 / 5 | MY RATING: 4 / 5 ]
Ingredients
1 litre vegetable stock
3 cups diced pumpkin
2 cups diced potato
1 onion
½ - 1 teaspoon paprika
½ - 1 teaspoon ground cummin
½ - 1 teaspoon ground coriander
salt and cayenne pepper to taste
Method
- Cut the pumpkin and potato into bite size chunks. Dice the onion finely.
- In a large pot, saute the onion with the garlic until translucent and fragrant.
- Add the potato, pumpkin and spices to the pot and stir well to coat. Cover with stock and cook until tender.
- Using a blender, stick mixer or a masher, pure the soup. If it is too thick, add a little more stock as required.
- Season and serve hot with freshly grated parsley as garnish.
Observations
- I have to admit that I am not a fan of boring pumpkin soup but this addition of spices really jazzed it up for my taste buds.
- I have left a large variation for the spice usage depending on your tastes. Use your own discretion.
- Diabetic Note: I used potatoes in this dish to introduce some carbohydrate content. If you would rather, cut back on the potatoes and have it with some hot crusty bread.
- Ethical Note: This pumpkin was growing wild from my friends compost pile. Using backyard compost is better for your soils compositions and is a wonderful nutrient source for your own gardens. Ornamental gardens are nice, but consider a ground cover vegetable like pumpkin as a wonderful feature for your yard!
- Note to self: I must remember to wipe down the bowl before I take photos. Excuse my messy photos! =s
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Tags: Bread, diabetic friendly, Environmental, Fruit and Vegetable, Home, no meat monday, Onion, potato, Pumpkin, soup, Spice, Stock (food), sustainability, vegetables, vegetarian
What to do for dinner at the end of the week? Surely there isn’t anything still worth eating this close to shop day? Wrong!
This meal consisted of some wilted Asian greens (refreshed with some steaming), ageing broccoli (that brightened considerably after a quick dip in some hot salty water), zucchini fried in spring onions and garlic served on day old brown rice. And – it was delicious!
Make a commitment to reduce your waste and use all of your fresh produce rather than sending it to land fill. The earth will thank you for it.
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Tags: Broccoli, diabetic friendly, Environmental, Ethical, Fruit and Vegetable, no meat monday, sustainability, vegetables, vegetarian, zucchini
Tonight’s meal is a weird comedy of errors that turned out half decent. The story started 35 years ago in Malta. When I was little, my grandmother would make stuffed marrows. (For the uninitiated, marrows are similar to a zucchini in texture, but are round and mostly hollow.) She would hollow them out and stuff them with pork mince, vegetables, cheese and bread. Sometimes she would even make a soup out of it.
I have been trying for more than 10 years to buy marrows. When I was a child, they were in plentiful supply as my grandfather would grow them in the yard. They are not so easy to source here, and as a result, my desire to emulate my grandmothers master piece has been left on the back burner. Until recently. By chance, I noticed some over sized squash which I think MAY do the trick (kind of). Lets just say that this was error number one.
Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Cheese, Cook, diabetic friendly, Environmental, Ethical, Free Range, Fruit and Vegetable, Malta, Olive oil, Onion, sustainability, Vegetable, vegetables, zucchini
There are times when I surprise myself. This dinner worked but honestly, it was all ass, and no class. Do you have days when you just fluke an awesome meal?
[ SERVES: 6 | TIME: 15 MIN | COST: <$5 ]
[ JOES' RATING: 3.5/5 | MY RATING: 3.5/5 ]
Ingredients
Equal portions vegetables. We used:
- Carrot
- Zucchini
- Potato
- Pumpkin
- Sweet Potato
- Baby Broccoli
Fettuccine
300 ml Vegetable Stock
shaved Romano cheese
1 tablespoon corn flour
salt and pepper to taste
Method
- Cook fettuccine as directed.
- Boil the vegetables gently in the stock until they are cooked. Do not over cook.
- Mix a little corn flour and water in a glass and slowly add into vegetable mixture until desired thickness has been attained. Stir continually to avoid uneven glugginess.
- Drain pasta and stir through vegetables and sauce. Season and garnish with shaved cheese.
Observations
- Quick, easy and delicious. A great way of using up left over vegetables at the end of the shopping week.
- Diabetic Note: The pasta is a little scary, so watch your serving size.
- Ethical Note: Using up all your vegetables with meals like this is a great way to reduce your waste. Better for your hip pocket too!
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Tags: Cook, diabetic friendly, Environmental, Free Range, Fruit and Vegetable, Garlic, no meat monday, Olive oil, pasta, sweet potato, Vegetable, vegetables, vegetarian, zucchini
When I was a young girl, Nana and Nanu (Maltese for Grandfather) would often have eggy cabbage for lunch. Sometimes they would have it with toast, other times as is. Every now and then, I still make it when I have cabbage in need of use. I cant tell you if it is a traditional Maltese dish or not. Perhaps some of my Maltese readers will know. If you do, please leave me a comment!
[ SERVES: 1 | TIME: 20 MIN | COST: <$4 | My RATING: 3/5 ]
Ingredients
1 handful of shredded cabbage.
2 free ranged eggs per serve
2 tablespoons vinegar
few shavings of peccorino cheese
salt and pepper to taste
Method
- Shred the cabbage as thinly as possible. Bring a saucepan of water to the boil before adding the vinegar, a pinch of salt and the cabbage. Allow to boil until tender. Drain well.
- In a bowl, beat eggs with generous amounts of (salt to taste) and pepper.
- Heat a frying pan with a little oil. Pour your egg mixture into the pan before adding your drained cabbage. Gently mix through once to ensure its incorporated before spreading out and allowing it to set with the aid of a lid. Top with a few shavings of a hard cheese such as Romano or peccorino.
- Serve and eat immediately!
Observations
- The thinner and more consistent your cabbage, the better the end result.
- Don’t over boil your cabbage. It should not lose colour, should remain crisp but be tender and tasty.
- Diabetic Note: There isn’t much in the way of carbohydrates in this dish, so be aware of this short coming, diabetics! You will definitely need to have some fruit or bread with this dish to lift the exchange points for insulin dependant diabetics.
- Ethical Note: I only ever use free ranged eggs. The taste is better, and the chickens that produce them live far better lives. An extra dollar or two is a small price to pay for such an ethical decision. (I actually intend on writing an article about egg ethics soon, so stay tuned!)
- Cabbage Rolls (mizrhi.wordpress.com)
- How To Cook Cabbage (mademan.com)
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Tags: Boil, Cabbage, Cooking, diabetic friendly, Eggs, Ethical, Free Range, Fruit and Vegetable, Green, Home, vegetarian, Vinegar
