Pea & Bean Risotto!

You can make this risotto with one or a mix of vegetables ( peas, french beans, asparagus spears, broad beans, spinach leaves ) to use up bits and pieces left in the fridge - I've chosen mine because we grow them in our garden!

It'll take about 30 minutes to make and will serve 2 at a cost of £1.75 each

Ingredients

50g butter

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion - finely chopped

1 clove of garlic

400g fresh peas, broad beans and courgettes

1 litre of hot vegetable stock

225g risotto rice

150ml white wine

25g parmesan cheese - grated

How to make

Heat the oil and half the butter in a frying pan and add the onion and cook gently for about 5 minutes until it's soft.

Stir in the garlic and then add the rice and turn up the heat a bit.

Season and cook for a minute, stirring so all the rice is coated with the fat.

Add the white wine and cook, stirring until it has evaporated.

Start adding the stock a bit at a time, keep the mixture at a simmer and add more stock when its all absorbed .

Add the courgettes, broad beans and peas five minutes after starting to add the stock.

After the rice has been cooking for about 20 minutes, check it: when it's done, it should be tender but still slightly chewy.

The whole dish should look creamy - take it off the heat and stir in the rest of the butter and the parmesan cheese.

Season to taste and then cover and let it sit for 5 minutes.

Sprinkle with extra parmesan and serve straight away.

Quorn Cottage Pie!

I've never cooked with Quorn before so thought that I would give it a go - it was really easy to use and to be honest I don't think I could tell the difference in the finished dish.

It takes less oil to cook and is a really healthy option so good if you want to cut down on meat and calories.

This took me about 40 minutes to prepare and cook in total, is enough for four servings and only costs £1.50 each.

Ingredients

350g Quorn mince

1 tbsp olive oil

i medium onion - finely chopped

1 medium carrot - finely chopped

100g frozen peas

400ml vegetable stock

1tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tbsp tomato puree

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp cornflour, mixed to a paste with 1 tbsp cold water

1kg potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped

2 tbsp semi-skimmed milk

How to make

Pre heat the oven to 180C, Gas Mark 4.

Boil the potatoes until tender, drain and set aside.

Meanwhile heat the oil in a pan, add the onion and carrot and fry until soft.

Add the Quorn mince, peas, vegetable stock, Worcestershire sauce, tomato puree, soy sauce and seasoning.

Simmer for 5 minutes and then add the cornflour paste and continue to simmer gently, stirring all the time until thickened.

Put into an ovenproof dish.

Mash the potatoes with the milk until smooth and season with salt and pepper.

Spoon the potato over the filling and fluff up with a fork.

Bake for 20 minutes until the topping is crispy.

Olly & Em's Pizza Baguette's!

This is a recipe that my brother Olly and his girlfriend Em cook and so I thought that I'd give it a go. It makes a different sort of pizza to one with a normal base but it does taste really good. It took me about 20 minutes in total and made loads, enough to feed 3 people. Cost per slice works out at about £1 and you're full after two.

If you don't manage to eat them all - they taste nice cold as well.

Ingredients

1 x french stick

1 x jar of tomato & basil pasta sauce

Toppings

2 tbsp vegetable oil

150g cheddar cheese - grated

1 x pack mushroom stir - fry vegetables

2 x chicken breasts - sliced in to strips

How to make

Preheat the grill to high.

Add 1tbsp of the oil to a frying pan and cook the stir-fry veg until almost cooked and remove from the pan and put to one side.

Add the rest of the oil to the same pan and stir-fry the chicken strips until opaque and a little browned.

Cut up the french stick in to 3 and half the pieces so you have a total of 6 slices.

Toast the slices on a baking tray under the grill on both sides until crunchy.

Spread the tomato sauce on each piece and arrange the toppings on each slice and then top with the cheese.

Grill each piece for a couple of minutes until they are bubbling and going brown

Olly said to add some 'sweet chilli sauce' on the top and he's right it was good!

Vegetable Balti!

If you are a veggie or fancy giving meat a rest you'll love this one. This recipe will actually make enough for 4 and is quite tricky to make for less.  It's great served with warm naan breads and then you could have it again as a filling for jacket potatoes and costs about £1.50 per serving.

Ingredients

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 large onion - thinly sliced

1 large clove garlic - crushed

1 eating apple - peeled, cored and chopped into chunks

3tbsp balti curry paste

1 medium butternut squash - peeled and cut into chunks

2 large carrots - thickly sliced

200g turnip - cut into chunks

1 cauliflower - cut into florets

400g can chopped tomatoes

435ml / 3/4 pint vegetable stock

4 tbsp chopped coriander

150g carton low-fat natural yogurt

How to make

Heat the oil in a large pan and cook the onion, garlic and apple gently, stirring every now and again until the onion goes soft - about 5-8 minutes.

Stir in the balti paste.

Tip the fresh vegetables, tomatoes and stock in to the pan and stir in 3 tbsp of the coriander.

Bring to the boil, lower the heat, cover and cook for 30 minutes.

Remove the lid and cook for another 20 minutes until the vegetables are soft and the liquid has reduced a little - season with salt and pepper.

Mix the remaining coriander into the yogurt to make a raita.

Ladle the curry into bowls and drizzle over some raita and sprinkle with extra coriander.

Serve with the remaining raita and some warm naan breads.

Gnocchi with Pesto!

This is a really quick and easy dish to make - it'll take you less than 15 minutes so it's great if you are in a hurry!

My gnocchi was on offer and only cost a £1 a bag so it cost me about £1.50 each for two servings.

Ingredients

300g bag of gnocchi 

50g pine nuts

50g parmesan cheese - grated

Bunch of basil

2 cloves of garlic

To make

To make the pesto heat a small frying pan over a low heat and cook the pine nuts until they are golden - shake them occasionally to make sure that they don't burn.

The put them into a food processor with the basil, the garlic and the cheese and blitz until it's smooth - add some seasoning.

Meanwhile cook the gnocchi according to the instructions on the bag - for most you just heat a pan of boiling water with a little olive oil and salt in and when it's boiling you add the gnocchi, they only take a couple of minutes to cook and are done when they float to the top.

Drain the gnocchi and stir in the pesto, top with some extra parmesan if you like it and serve straight away.

Tasty with garlic bread!

Chicken Caesar Salad!

This salad is a favourite in our house - everyone loves it!

It takes about 30 minutes to prepare and cook and will cost about £2.25 each for two portions.

Ingredients

Small cos lettuce - washed and sliced

Cucumber - about a third, sliced and cut in half

2 chicken breast without any skin - cut into pieces

4 rashers of smoked bacon - cut into pieces with the fat removed

1 tbsp olive oil 

Bottle of Caesar salad dressing - you won't need a full bottle but it keeps for ages in the fridge( I don't think it's worth making your own)!

Handful of croutons - you can buy these in a bag but they are easy to make with a couple of slices of stale bread - chopped in to cubes, some butter and a bit of garlic salt.

Parmesan shaving - optional

To make

If you'd like to make your own croutons you need to heat the butter in a small frying pan and add the cubes of bread and sauté, turning them every now and agin so they don't burn.

Season with the garlic salt as they cook and stir well, when they are done remove from the heat and spread on to a plate with some kitchen roll on.

Heat the same pan again and fry the bacon until brown and crispy and remove from the pan

Add the oil to the same pan and fry the chicken until opaque and a little browned, remove this from the pan also.

Arrange the lettuce on the plates, I added some watercress to the lettuce as it grows in the stream in our garden, but you don't have to.

Add the cucumber and then arrange the chicken and the bacon on top.

Drizzle the dressing over the top  and then sprinkle the croutons on top of the dressing - if you add them first the dressing can make them go a bit soggy.

You can add some parmesan shavings as well if you like.

Prizes!

My prizes arrived this week for being runner-up in The Times 'Family' Cookery competition - looks like I'm not going to be running out of ideas any time soon!