Butternut Squash Kutta

1 large red onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbsp lazy ginger
1 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp olive oil
500g butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and diced
1 tin tomatoes
handful sultanas
2 celery stalks, chopped
handful celery leaves
1 tbsp lemon juice
handful coriander leaves
55g whole almonds
1 tbsp sugar

Saute the onion, garlic, ginger and turmeric in the oil for 3 - 4 minutes.

Add the butternut squash, tomatoes, sultanas, celery, celery leaves and 400ml water. Bring to the boil then simmer for 20 - 25 minutes.

Add the lemon juice, corander, almonds and sugar, cook for 5 more minutes, serve.

Serves 4.

Butternut Squash Soup

1 butternut squash, diced

2 onions, quartered

5 cloves garlic

250g cherry tomatoes

olive oil

honey

rosemary

1 litre vegetable stock

Toss the squash, onions, garlic and tomatoes in the olive oil and honey and roast for 25 minutes in a hot oven with the rosemary.

Blend, adding the stock until it reaches the desired consistency. Season, heat through and serve.

Serves 4.

Pumpkin and Lentil Tagine

275g brown lentils
3 tomatoes, chopped
500 - 600g pumpkin/butternut squash, cubed
4 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp paprika
3 tbsp tomato puree
1/2 tsp sugar

Cook the lentils in water for 20 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Cook the onion in the oil until soft. Add the garlic for a few seconds, then the cumin, turmeric, pepper and paprika, cook for about 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes, tomato puree and sugar. Stir.

Add the lentils and squash, together with a little water. Stir well, cover and cook for 20 minutes.

Serve.

Serves 4.

It turned out less spicy than I was expecting, and maybe needs to be jazzed up a bit if I try it again.

Pea, Tomato and Paneer Curry

I've never eaten paneer before so decided to experiment with it. I didn't know what to expect from it, but it was actually really easy and tasty. I lowered the fat a bit by frying the cheese in some of that low calorie spray stuff, and it seemed to work OK.

Recipe here

Slow cook black beans

500g dried black beans
2 large onions, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp cumin seeds
6 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbsp lemon juice

Soak the beans overnight. Drain, put in a pan and add enough water to cover. Boil and bubble hard for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat and cook for about 1 and a quarter hours (they might need more water).

Fry the onions in the oil for 10 minutes, add the cumin and garlic and cook for another 2 minutes. Set aside.

Stir the onions into the beans once they're cooked, add the lemon juice and seasoning.

Serve with yoghurt/sour cream/chopped chillies/coriander/whatever else takes your fancy.

*Warning - contains lots of beans and may have after effects*

Serves 4

Leek, carrot and ginger soup

4 small leeks, whites only, sliced
4 carrots, chopped
3 tsp lazy garlic
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tbsp olive oil
900ml vegetable stock

Fry the leeks, carrot, garlic and ginger in the oil for about 3 minutes. Add the stock and boil for about 10 minutes. Blend, season and serve.

Serves about 3.

Herby pea risotto

Serves 1

80g arborio rice
250ml stock
1 onion
100g frozen peas (or a mix of peas, broad beans, green beans etc - whatever's in the freezer)
teaspoon lazy garlic
fresh chopped chives and basil
parmesan
knob of butter
splash of white wine

Melt the butter and gently fry the onion and garlic for a couple of minutes. Add the arborio and coat in the melted butter, then add the wine and stir until it evaporates. Add the stock slowly, stiring until each spoonful of stock is absorbed before adding more. A couple of spoonfuls of stock from the end add the frozen peas and stir in. When all the stock is absorbed and the rice is cooked add the cheese and herbs, stir, season, stir a bit more and serve.

Spicy tofu and peas

1 onion, chopped
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric
250g tofu, cubed
1 tin chopped tomatoes
150g frozen peas
1 tbsp lemon juice

Cook the onion in the oil for 5 minutes until starting to soften. Add the garlic, ginger, cumin and turmeric and cook for another minute. Add the tofu and cook for 5 minutes, stirring. Then add the tomatoes and peas, cook for another 3 - 4 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice and serve.

Serves 3 - 4

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

Carrot and Ginger Soup

2tbsp olive oil
2 onions, chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed
2 - 3 cm freshly grated root ginger
450g carrots, sliced
1 litre vegetable stock
2 tbsp lemon juice
pepper

Heat the oil over a low heat, add the onion, garlic and ginger and cook for 5 - 6 minutes. Add the carrot and stock, bring to the boil then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Blend with the lemon juice, season and serve.

serves 4

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.

Moroccan Tagine

This is another BBC Good Food recipe. I modified it a bit, and used cauliflower instead of parsnips, because that's what I had in the box. By the looks of the recipe it's the chermoula paste rather than the actual veg you use that makes the recipe, so fingers crossed it will work out OK.

Carrot and Leek Bake

1 carrot, cut into matchsticks
1 leek, sliced
150ml orange juice
1/2 tbsp honey
1 tsp lazy garlic
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tbsp poppy seeds

Cook the carrot and leek in boiling water for 5 - 7 minutes. Drain and put into an oven dish.

Mix the orange juice, honey, garlic and cumin, pour over the vegetables and cover.

Cook in the oven at 180 for 30 minutes, sprinkle over the poppy seeds and serve.

Serves 2.

Tumbet

This is another Rose Elliott recipe, and is red pepper, aubergine, courgette, potato onion, potato, parsley and garlic with a tin of tomatoes tipped over it and cooked in the oven for 2 - 3 hours. A nice easy one.

Beetroot and Tomato Soup

This recipe is roughly based on this Abel & Cole recipe, but tweaked.

3 raw beetroot, grated
1 can tomatoes with garlic
1 onion, chopped
2 tsp lazy garlic
300ml vegetable stock
1 tbsp olive oil
Grated goats cheese
pepper

Soften the onion in the oil for a couple of minutes. Add the grated beetroot and stock, simmer for 7 minutes. Add the tomatoes and garlic and heat through. Blend roughly (all the bits are pretty small and soft anyway, so may as well keep the soup a bit chunky). I thought it needed a bit more water, so added some. Season and serve with the grated cheese.

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.

Garlic and Broccoli Soup

1 head garlic, chopped
2 onions, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 can cannellini beans, drained
2 heads broccoli, chopped into florets
1.2l vegetable stock

Fry the garlic and onion in the oil until soft. Add the beans, broccoli and stock and simmer for 20 minutes. Blend, season and serve.

Serves 3.

Curries

I have to plug this, because it looks fab.

Rose Elliot's Low-GI Vegetarian Cookbook (Amazon link).

Today I decided on a big curry cooking session. I ended up making spinach curry (p60), cabbage thoran (p61) and lentil dal (p109), having a bit of each and freezing the rest. That means nothing if you don't have the book, but as I do, this works as a reference to me without infringing too much copyright...

Spicy Potato and Cauliflour Stew

375g lentils
1.8 vegetable stock
3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 large onions, cut into wedges
1kg potatoes, cut into chunks
1 cauliflower, cut into florets
3 - 4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tsp turmeric
2 tbsp mustard seeds
1 - 2 tbsp fennel seeds
2 green chillies, deseeded and chopped
1 tsp saffron threads, soaked in 2 tbsp warm water
125g coconut cream
1 tbsp chopped coriander

Soak the lentils for 15 minutes, then rinse, drain and cook with half the stock for 30 minutes until the water has been absorbed.

Meanwhile... fry the onion in the oil for about 8 minutes, add the potatoes, cauliflower and garlic and cook for a further minute. Stir in the turmeric, mustard seeds, fennel seeds and chillies.

Add the rest of the stock and the saffron and bring to the boil. Simmer for 10 - 15 minutes until the vegetables are almost cooked.

Coarsely mash the cooked lentils, stir in the coconut cream and coriander and mix well. Add to the vegetables and cook gently until the vegetables are tender and the flavours combined.

Serves 6

This was very nice, and quite filling. Not actually too spicy, and quite runny, but one to try again.

Lemon and Leek Risotto

This may not be the most diet friendly recipe around, but boy is it good...

50g butter
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 leeks, trimmed, washed and sliced
200g green beans, trimmed and chopped
250g risotto rice
6 bay leaves
150ml white wine
1 litre hot vegetable stock
juice and rind of 1 large lemon
50g marscapone
50g parmesan, grated
pepper

Melt the butter in a large pan and cook the onion, garlic, leek and beans until soft but not brown. Stir in the rice and bay leaves until the grains are glossy, add the wine and reduce by half.

Add the stock a spoonful at a time until absorbed, cook for about 20 minutes or until creamy but still with a bit of bite.

Add the lemon juice, rind and pepper and cook, stirring for about 5 minutes. Then add the cheese, stir, take off the heat, cover and rest until all nicely melted together.

Serve and drool.

Serves 2.