10 minute - Chorizo and butter bean pan fry

My lovely husband managed to get away from work early today so I got to do something a bit different for our lunch.

This one has a real feel of tapas but obviously a bigger dish and takes only a few minutes to cook from start to finish.

Ingredients:
Thinly sliced chorizo
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 red onion
Pinch oregano
1tsp Moroccan style seasoning
2 tins butter beans
Small handful of coriander
1/2 iceberg lettuce
1/2 block of feta

Method:
1. Chop the chorizo into smallish strips. Heat a dry non-stick frying pan on a medium heat and add the chorizo. You want the oils to render out of the chorizo.
2. Chop the onion and peppers into strips and add them to the pan.  Fry everything until the chorizo starts to brown and the veg starts to soften.
3. Drain the butter beans and add them to the pan along with the oregano and Moroccan seasoning.
4. Turn the heat up and let the beans start to scorch a bit. You want the skins to dry out and the beans to start going a little fluffy. Stir occasionally so they don't burn.
5. Chop the coriander and add to the pan.
6. Shred the lettuce and plate up. Add the butter bean fry up to the plate and top everything with a crumble of salty feta.

Mushroom and lentil lasagne

I know there are a million veggie lasagne recipes out there but I can honestly say this one gives others I've tried a real run for their money. This one offers the texture and slightly caramelised flavour you'd get from browned minced beef.

I have made a massive lasagne! I mean truly huge! We're talking 9 very generous portions but there's a reason for this. Lasagne is fairly labour-intensive by nature so I always make lots so I can freeze the leftovers. That means I've got frozen lasagne handy that beats the pants off of the per packed ones you'd get from the supermarket.

The essential step in this recipe for texture is chopping the mushrooms. There's a lot of them and you want them a very fine dice. I should imagine you could do them in a food processor but you'd need to be careful not to over-process them or you'll end up with mush. My processor is only a mini one so I hand chopped my mushrooms. It took a while but once cooked the texture was perfect.

Also, for the veg base it's tradition to use an onion, celery and carrot but I didn't have any carrots in but I did have some parsnips. So I used one of them instead. And it worked great. Essentially you just need a slightly sweet root vegetable to counter the herbal, savoury notes of the celery and the parsnip seemed to do that perfectly well but I would leave it up to you.

Ingredients:

For the Bolognaise:
2 big family packs of supermarket mushrooms (mine cost under £3 for both), wiped clean of all muck and very finely minced
1 large onion peeled and finely chopped
3 sticks celery finely chopped
1 large parsnip finely diced
4 cloves chopped garlic
2 veggie oxo cubes
1tsp dried oregano
1tbsp Worcester sauce
Few drops of Tabasco sauce to taste
Pinch of salt to taste
1 cup dried red lentils
2 boxes of pasatta
2 cups water

For the white sauce:
50g butter
50g plain flour
500ml milk warmed (I use the microwave)
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

Dried Lasagne sheets (15-20)
Grated cheese to top

Method:
1. In a dry frying pan on a high heat cook the mushrooms in batches. You need to cook them till all the water comes out of them, boils away and then they start to brown. It will look like you've got far to much mushrooms at first but once you cook them and the liquid evaporates they at least halve in volume. Once they're all cooked set them aside.

2. In a very large saucepan/stockpot, gently cook off the onion, celery, parsnip and garlic until the veg is translucent and tender. Adding a pinch of salt encourages the veg to leach there water preventing them from frying and colouring.
3. Add the mushrooms, oxo, oregano, Tabasco and Worcester sauce and stir together.
4. Add the lentils, pasatta and water, stir and bring to the boil. Simmer for 20 minutes then turn off the heat and allow the Bolognaise to cool. The lentils will continue to cook in the heat of the pan and will finish swelling and cooking in the oven.
5. For the white sauce, melt the butter in a small saucepan and add the flour. Cook over a low heat whisking constantly to prevent the mixture from burning but making sure the flour cooks out. Add the hot milk gradually, whisking constantly until thickened and add the nutmeg.
6. Pre-heat the oven to 190•C
7. To start building the lasagne, Pour a little of the Bolognaise mixture into the bottom of a very large lasagne dish (my dish only just fits in my oven).
8. Add a layer of the dried pasta sheets and top with more Bolognaise. Break the pasta sheets in half etc to fill all the gaps. Repeat until the dish is almost full.
9. After the last layer of pasta pour over the white sauce and top with the grated cheese.
10. Cover the dish with foil ensuring the foil doesn't touch the sauce or cheese.
11. Bake for 45 mins before removing the foil and return to the oven for 15 mins until the cheese is golden and bubbling.
12. Cut into 9 servings and serve with salad.

Creamy spring veg pasta

Creamy spring veg pasta

Feel free to substitute any if the veg in this recipe with tender spring veg of your choice I can imagine, spinach, asparagus and pea shoots would have worked wonderfully in this but I went with what was in my fridge and freezer: peas, broad beans and curly kale.

Serves 4

Ingredients:
Pasta of your choice (portion per person)
1 onion chopped
3 cloves garlic crushed
Half a bag of shredded curly kale
2 cups frozen peas
1 cup frozen broad beans
Big bunch if basil chopped
Half a bunch of mint chopped
Pinch dried oregano
Pinch black pepper
1/2 tub low fat cream cheese
2/3 pint of skimmed milk
2 tsp cornflour slaked in a little milk


Method:
1. Add a little salt to a pan of boiling water and add the dried pasta.
2. Bring to the boil then simmer as per the packet instructions
3. In a large frying pan/wok, Gently dry fry the onion and add the kale and garlic.
4. Gently stir fry until the kale starts to soften and wilt.
5. Add the peas, broad beans and pepper
6. Once the rest of the veg is tender add the cream cheese and milk
Simmer gently until the cream cheese has melted into the milk.
7. Add the cornflour mix and stir in
8. Simmer gently until slightly thickened
9. Add the herbs and drain the pasta
10. Add the drained pasta to the sauce and bring back to the simmer, stirring until the pasta is coated in the sauce
11. Serve

Spicy skinnier sloppy joes

Well I decided to try and tackle this all American favourite. Not the easiest of challenges. I'm afraid I didn't manage to cut out quite as much stodgy stuff as I'd have liked but it is beef, bun, sauce and cheese. There's only so much you can do with that combo without it no longer resembling the original. Plus this one's certainly not for every day so just enjoy the slightly pared back treat.

Serves 4

Ingredients:
400g extra lean beef mince (less than 5% fat)
1 large onion chopped
1 green pepper chopped
1 beef oxo crumbled
1/2tsp dried oregano
1 heaped tsp Moroccan seasoning from asda
3tbs worschester sauce
4-5tbs tomato ketchup
4 large wholemeal buns
Reduced fat mature cheddar grated

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 200*C
2. Place split buns on a baking tray and bake for 10-15 mins until lightly toasted
3. In the meantime dry fry the mince, pepper and onion until gently browned.
4. Add the seasonings and sauces and simmer on a low heat until the meat is tender and the sauce has thickened.
5. Serve the mince on the buns topped with a little grated cheese.