Category: Food

Ingredients

• 500g butternut pumpkin
• 1 medium onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 cup Arborio rice
• 1L Massel chicken-style stock (it’s vegan, and I prefer the cubes, but the powder is good too)
• 2 tbsp Parmesan cheese
• 2 tsp Moroccan seasoning
• Olive oil

Method

Preheat the oven to 190°C

Peel and cut the pumpkin into 1-2cm cubes and place in a baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil and brush to coat. Sprinkle with 1tsp of the Moroccan seasoning. Place in oven and bake for around an hour.

While pumpkin is cooking, prepare your other ingredients. Wash the rice. Make up the stock in a large saucepan and leave to simmer on very low heat. Fill the kettle and boil in case more liquid is required. Finely chop the onion and garlic.

When the pumpkin has been baking for around half an hour, start making the risotto. In a large saucepan, add the onion and around 1 tbsp olive oil. Cook on low heat until transparent. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add the dry Arborio rice, a little more oil (1/2 tbsp) and cook for 2 minutes, regularly stirring.

Add a ladle of stock to the rice and stir through. Stir the rice regularly to ensure it doesn’t stick to the saucepan. Once all the liquid is absorbed (no visible liquid bubbling), add another ladle of stock. Repeat until half the stock is used, always stirring regularly. Add the remaining Moroccan seasoning and half the Parmesan and stir through.

Continue adding stock and regularly stirring until the rice is fully cooked – use a fresh teaspoon to take out a couple of grains and let them cool a little before testing. The rice should not have a hard centre when fully cooked. If the stock is all consumed before the rice is fully cooked, refill the stock saucepan with hot water from the kettle. Don’t make up more stock, water is fine. Continue adding a ladle of liquid at a time and stirring, and test every few minutes to check if it’s fully cooked.

The pumpkin should finish baking around the same time the risotto is cooked. Mash around 1/3 of the pumpkin and stir through the risotto. If the pumpkin is done before the risotto is done, it’s good to add the mashed pumpkin before the risotto is finished. Fold through the remaining baked pumpkin and the rest of the Parmesan cheese.

Serves 4. Enjoy!

A great recipe that is wonderful for dinner parties or other occasions where you’re going to be spending a bit more time on preparation to get that WOW! result.

Thanks to Fiona for the recipe!

50g butter
1tbsp olive oil
2 medium leeks, chopped into in 1-2mm slices
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
8 medium carrots, grated (about 1kg)
1/2 cup shredded fresh basil
2 eggs, slightly beaten
300ml cream
1tsp seasoned pepper
6 sheets instant lasagne
400g feta cheese, crumbled

Grease ~ 17x25cm ovenproof dish (2L capacity). Heat butter and olive oil in pan, add leeks and garlic and cook, stirring regularly until leeks are soft. Add carrots and cook, covered, stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes or until carrots are soft. Cool slightly (about 5 min) and stir in basil.

Combine eggs, cream and pepper in bowl, mix well.

Cover base of prepared dish with 3 lasagne sheets, top with half of the leek and carrot mixture, then half of the cheese, then half of the egg mixture. Repeat layering with the remaining half of the ingredients.

Bake, uncovered, in a moderate oven (180C/350F, lower for fan-forced, or turn off the fan if possible) for 45-50 min or until firm and browned.

Bon appétit!

This is a very old recipe and I really don’t know the attibution, but I got it from Deb and have also heard it from others. I’ve tried to put a little bit of nutrition back into it (by substituting wholemeal flour for milled, raw sugar for refined and soy milk for regular), but it is definitely a special occasion dish – make sure you share it with lots of friends so the pieces are small! 🙂

I must try and experiment with something like flaxseed oil to replace the butter and make it fully vegan-friendly.

1 cup wholemeal flour
1/2 cup raw sugar
2 tsp cocoa
1 tbsp butter (melted)
1/2 cup soy milk
1 tsp vanilla

Mix together, place in a big lump in the middle of a high-sided casserole baking dish.

Sauce:
1/2 cup raw sugar
1 and 1/2 cups boiling water
2 tsp cocoa

Mix and pour over the pudding.

Bake for approx 30mins @ 180deg C. Serve with light ice cream or light cream.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

I can’t let the whole month go by without a post, so here’s a real favourite of mine. This is an incredibly zesty salad, a great one to take to barbecues or just whip up a batch and have some throughout the week. As an interesting aside, when this recipe was originally given to me, it called for 3/4 cup of sunflower oil – more of a soup than a salad! After a few experiments, I think I’ve found that 1/4 cup is a good balance between too oily and too dry, or too out of proportion with the soy sauce and lemon juice.

Share and enjoy!

1 cup of brown rice (measured uncooked)
1/3 cup currants
60g roasted cashews
3 tab spns chopped parsley
6 spring onions (shallots/eshallots)
1 red capsicum (bell pepper)
2 tab roasted sunflower seeds

Cook rice and allow it to cool. I often cook the rice the evening before making the salad. Finely chop the capsicum, spring onions and parsley. Roughly crush the cashews with the flat of your cook’s knife. Mix everything together. Add the dressing immediately before serving and mix well.

Soy sauce dressing
1/4 cup sunflower oil
3 tab spns light soy sauce
2 tab spns lemon juice
1 clove garlic (v. finely chopped)
small pinch salt and pepper

Variations
– Substitute a Spanish or red onion for spring onion, or just add one.
– Substitute a mix of sunflower seeds, pine nuts and pepitas for the sunflower seeds.
– Add grated carrot or zucchini
– Double the quantity for parties, etc.