Veggie Lasagne

1/2 large butternut squash (about 600g), peeled and diced
1/2 red pepper, cut into strips
1/2 yellow pepper, cut into strips
2 small courgettes, trimmed and thickly sliced
1 red onion, roughly sliced
1/2 aubergine, cut into 2cm cubes
125g cherry tomatoes
rosemary
1 garlic clove, crushed
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 x tins chopped tomatoes
250g pack fresh lasagne sheets (6 sheets)
2 tbsp olive oil spread
2 tbsp cornflour
600ml skimmed milk
60g grated mature cheddar

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200C.
2. Place all the veg, rosemary and garlic in a large roasting tin, toss with the olive oil and roast for 30 minutes.
3. Make the cheese sauce by whisking the spread, cornflour and milk together over a medium heat until thickened, then adding the cheese.
4. Stir the tomatoes into the vegetables once they are cooked.
5. Make up the lasagne - layer of lasagne, 1/3 veg, 1/3 cheese sauce, lasagne, 1/3 veg, 1/3 sauce, lasagne, 1/3 veg, 1/3 cheese sauce (I prefer to save a bit more of the sauce for the top, using less on the lower layers)
6. Bake for 40 - 45 minutes.

I was tempted to put some more grated cheese on the top but resisted. The sauce isn't the cheesiest I've tasted, but the veg mix is lovely.

Serves 4 (farily generous portions, but apparently still only 339 calories each).

Balsamic green bean pasta

I've been a bit slack at updating my recipes recently. I've tried various things, some of which have been more successful than others. Some of the hits:

100g wholewheat pasta
100g frozen green beans
5 sundried tomatoes (the dry ones, not the ones in oil)
balsamic vinegar
tomato puree
lazy garlic
pepper
parmesan

Cut the sundried tomatoes and soak in water. Cook the pasta for 5 minutes. Add the green beans and cook for a further 5 minutes.

Drain the tomatoes, pasta and beans.

Put a teaspoon or so of garlic, a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and a little tomato puree in the pan and mix, adjusting quantities to get the desired consistency. Add the beans, pasta and tomatoes and stir to coat. Season with the pepper, and serve topped with grated parmesan.

Serves 1

Summer vegetable pasta

All the BBC Good Food recipes seem to make loads, and this pasta dish was no exception.

I had fresh broad beans for the first time, so wanted something nice to eat them in. As I actually like broad beans I decided not to hide them in a soup recipe. It felt very summery eating it outside in the garden. I made half the recipe and am going to eat the other half as a salad.

Walnut and broccoli pasta

75g wholewheat pasta
1 head broccoli, cut into florets
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 tsp lazy garlic
12g wholemeal breadcrumbs
12g walnuts, chopped
1/2 tsp lazy chilli

Cook the pasta for 5 minutes, add the broccoli and cook for 5 more minutes.

Soften the onion and garlic in the oil, then add the breadcrumbs, walnuts and chilli, and cook until toasted.

Drain the pasta and broccoli, add to the walnut mixture, stir, season and serve.

Serves 1.

Chilli Broccoli Pasta

Yes, the broccoli's still coming. Amazingly I've actually started to almost like it. It's wearing me down, finally. I had a smaller portion of pasta than usual because I had the root veg salad as a starter.

60g wholewheat pasta
100g broccoli, cut into florets
2 tsp lazy garlic
1/2 tsp lazy chilli
1 tbsp olive oil
parmesan

Boil the broccoli for 4 - 5 minutes, drain and set aside.

Cook the pasta according to instructions.

Meanwhile, cook the garlic in the oil for a minute, add the chilli for 30 seconds, then add the broccoli and cook until nicely combined. Drain and add the pasta, season and serve sprinkled with parmesan.

Serves 1.

Pepper Pasta Bake

100g wholegrain pasta
2 - 3 roast red peppers (from jar), chopped
easy chilli and garlic to taste
small tin chopped tomatoes
cottage cheese
parmesan
olive oil/olive oil spray
red wine vinegar

Cook the pasta according to instructions. Fry the chilli and garlic in the oil/spray for a minute or so and add the tomatoes and a splash of vinegar, together with the red peppers. Stir together over the heat, and stir in the pasta. Put the pasta in an ovenproof dish and top with some cottage cheese, and a sprinkling of parmesan. Cook in the oven for 15 - 20 minutes.

Serves 1

Not bad for something I made up out of what was in the cupboard!

Broccoli and Pasta Bake

Guess where I found this recipe?... I made it pretty much to the recipe (for once!), using mozzarella and cottage cheese. But I'm really running out of things to do with broccoli...

Broccoli and pine nut pesto

100g wholemeal pasta
90g broccoli
1 tbsp pine nuts
4 sundried tomatoes, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp lazy garlic
1 tsp lazy chillies
lemon juice
black pepper
parmesan cheese

Boil the broccoli for 10 minutes. Boil the pasta for 10 minutes in a different pan.

Toast the pine nuts until golden, set aside.

Heat the oil and fry the garlic and chillies for about a minute.

Drain the broccoli and blend with the garlic and chilli oil and half the pine nuts.

Stir in the pasta, sun dried tomatoes and the rest of the pine nuts.

Serve, topped with parmesan and black pepper.

Serves 1.

Winter Vegetable Ratatouille

This was another BBC inspired special. No real modifications to tell of.

Courgette and goats cheese pasta

Here's a little quickie I made up earlier to use up some stuff that had been festering in the fridge.

1 courgette
2 tomatoes
30g goats cheese
some olive oil
some red wine vinegar
100g pasta

I sliced the courgette and tomatoes while the water was boiling for the pasta.

I put the pasta in to cook (10 minutes) and then fried the courgette and tomatoes in the olive oil for just a bit until the tomato juice started to run out and get a bit juicy. I added some red wine vinegar to keep it nice and juicy, then took it off the heat and stirred in the goats cheese and some dried herbs until it melted and went nice and creamy.

Then when the pasta was cooked I drained it and stirred that in too, ground some black pepper over the top and bob's your uncle. Not the most exotic recipe ever, but a decently cheesy and vegg-y quick post work meal.

Pasta, Bean and Vegetable Soup

75g green/brown lentils
15g sundried tomatoes, chopped
15ml olive oil (I used spray)
1 carrot, diced
1 celery stick, diced
1 onion or 3-4 shallots, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
parsley
dried crushed chillis
1.5l vegetable stock
1 small can red kidney beans
1 small can cannellini beans
1 small can chickpeas
115g wholemeal pasta

1. Cook the lentils in 475ml water. Simmer for 15 - 20 minutes until tender. Meanwhile, soak the sundried tomatoes in 175ml warm water.

2. Drain and rinse the lentils.

3. Heat the oil in a large non-stick pan and add the carrot, celery, onion, garlic, parsley and chillies. Cook over a low heat for 5 - 7 minutes and stir. Add the stock, the tomatoes and the water they were in.

4. Bring to the boil and add the drained beans, chickpeas and lentils. Season, cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

5. Add the pasta, bring back to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Makes 6.