Butternut squash soup

Κυπριακά δαμαί

We had a bit of a dodgy lunch yesterday, so for the evening meal we wanted something simple and soothing. We had a butternut squash in the fridge so I looked up some soup recipes. This is what I ended up with:

Ingredients
1 medium size butternut squash, diced
1 large potato, diced
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, very finely chopped
Dill (either fresh or dried-I used dried)
Vegetable stock or good old water
Olive oil
Salt
In a large saucepan firstly sauté the garlic and onions in olive oil. Toss in the squash, potato and dill and turn for about 1 minute until they are coated with oil. Add your vegetable stock (or water) and salt and allow to boil for about 20 minutes, or until squash and potato are soft. Use a hand blender to blitz the ingredients, getting a nicely thick soup. Serve. If you have fresh coriander, chop some and sprinkle it over your plate. We had this with rye sour dough bread, worked a treat.

Pasta with courgettes and fetta cheese

From Pasta with courgettes and fetta

Στα κυπριακά δαμαί

Ingredients (for 4 hungry ones)
500 gr of pasta of your choice
3-4 small courgettes
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
200gr of fetta cheese
lots and lots of dried mint
salt

Execution
Chop the garlic very finely and dice the onion. Cut the courgettes and have your mint and cheese on stand by. Lightly fry the garlic and onion in some olive oil on a low fire for a few minutes. Add the courgettes and stir them lightly until they are nicely coated with the oil. You don't need much olive oil at all, just enough to be able to saute the onions in. I sometimes peel the courgettes, as their skin might be bitter if they're not very fresh. Crush the mint in the courgettes. Add some water to the frying pan, just enough to half-cover the courgettes, and then cover the pan with a lid, allowing it to lightly simmer for about 20 minutes. This way your courgettes become steamed rather than fried, which makes the dish nice and light. Stir it a couple of times and when the courgettes are nice and soft, add the fetta, all crumbled, and stir for 1-2 minutes. Turn off and set aside. You'll notice I didn't add salt to the sauce-the fetta more than compensates for it.

For the pasta, just bring some salted water to the boil, add your pasta and cook for the designated time. Drain it and then add the sauce, giving it a good stir. You'll notice I didn't add salt to the sauce-the fetta more than compensates for it.




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Rigatoni with roasted peppers and fetta

I found these lovely peppers at the vegetable stall the other day and thought of a nice recipe (after talking about it with Billy).

Ingredients (serves 4)

500 gr rigatoni pasta (or whichever type you like)

3-4 long, red peppers

1 pack of fetta cheese

1/2 onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

chopped fresh parsley

some mushrooms, chopped

Chilli flakes

Olive oil

Grill the peppers in your grill for about 25 minutes, turning them once halfway through, so that both sides are almost charred (but not). In a frying pan lightly fry the garlic in olive oil and add the chopped onion and chilli flakes. When the onion is nice and translucent, add the mushrooms and stir them gently until they're cooked. Turn it off and set it aside.

Boil the pasta in salted water for as long as your pack suggests (or until you're happy with it). While that is boiling, take out the peppers from the grill, take them gently and put them on a flat surface (a plate is good). Gently pull out the stem and grab the skin and peel them slowly. You'll find that the skin comes off very easily. Cut up the peeled peppers and keep them in the plate with their juices.

Drain the pasta and return it to the saucepan or a large bowl. Add the mushroom/onion mix with all its juices. Add the peppers with their juices, the chopped parsley and, finally, crumble the fetta in as well and give it a good stir so that the fetta pretty much melts in the pasta. As the fetta may be salty, taste it before adding any more salt. Lovely.

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Chickpea & butternut squash soup

Chickpea & butternut squash soup

Ingredients

1 butternut squash, diced

250 gr dried chickpeas (soaked in water overnight)

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 can of chopped tomatoes (or some nice fresh, ripe ones if you have them)

Coriander seeds, finely crushed

Cumin seeds, finely crushed

Olive oil

Chilli flakes

Salt & pepper

Fresh parsley, chopped

In a pressure cooker, add the chickpeas and cook for about 30 minutes. After 30 minutes check them, if they're not cooked to your satisfaction, cook for about 10 minutes longer. In the meantime...

Boil the diced squash and let it rest to one side. In a frying pan shallow fry the garlic, onion and the crushed coriander and cumin seeds. Add the chilli flakes.

Open the pressure cooker, bring to the boil again without the lid and add the (drained) squash, along with the tomatoes and the onion/seeds mix. Let it cook together for about 15 minutes. Serve with a handful of fresh parsley.

P.S. In the original recipe it said to put everything in the blender. I like my soups with some texture so I ignored that.

Lentils with aubergines

I pretty much made this up as I had some aubergines I had to use.

Ingredients (serves 4-5)

Lentils (I always measure by soup bowl, in this case 1)

2 aubergines cut in chunks (see pics)

2 celery stalks, finely chopped

1 onion, cut in strips

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

4-5 bay leaves

2 cans of chopped tomato, or a kilo of very ripe tomatoes, chopped (keep the juices)

Olive oil

Salt & pepper

In a large saucepan, boil the lentils for about 30-40 minutes, until you're happy with them. In the meantime, shallow fry the garlic, onions and bay leaves, add the aubergines and celery and stir so they're nicely coated with oil. Keep cooking like that for about 10 minutes. Add the tomato plus some water, salt & pepper and let it simmer gently for 30 minutes or so.

When the lentils are cooked, drain them and throw them in with the aubergines (if the aubergines are ready). Turn off and allow to rest for a while (the longer the better), so that the lentils can absorb the juices of the aubergines... I didn't have fresh parsley but if you do add some nicely fresh, chopped parsley just before serving.

Serve with a generous portion of set yoghurt, yummy!

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Stuffed Aubergines with Spinach, Fetta and Mushrooms

Ingredients
2 Aubergines
250gr Spinach
1 pack fetta cheese
1 onion, finely chopped
1-2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Some mushrooms, chopped
Olive oil
Salt & pepper

For this recipe I am using the same method as the Stuffed Aubergines with Fetta and Pepper.

Step 1: Cut the aubergines at length, score them with a knife and put them in an oven tray. Sprinkle them with some olive oil. Roast them at 200 degrees for about 20-30 minutes.

Step 2: While the aubergines are roasting, in a large frying pan lightly fry some garlic and onions, add your spinach and mushrooms and sautee until cooked. Add the fetta cheese and stir for 1-2 minutes.

Step 3: Take the aubergines out (they should look like the ones above). Lightly mash the middle, creating a cavity.

Step 4: Add your stuffing, carefully, and return to the oven for about 15 minutes to give it that nice, crispy look. Enjoy!

Mixed bean salad

Mixed bean salad
For this recipe I use ASDA's mixed beans. About 500gr feeds easily 2-3 people. Soak the beans overnight in water. I usually cook them in a pressure cooker for about 25 minutes. If you are boiling them in a pan allow about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Drain the beans and mix with fresh tomatoes, spring onions and herbs of your choice. I like fresh coriander and/or dill in this. Season with olive oil and lemon juice.

Risotto with Butternut Squash

A lovely recipe plagiarised from my friend Federica (who is from Romanziol, near San Doná di Piave).

Ingredients (serves 2-3 hungry people)
1 medium-sized butternut squash (peeled, cleaned from seeds and diced)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1-2 cloves of garlic, very finely chopped
Fresh parsley, finely chopped
2 cups (or glasses) of arborio rice or pudding rice*
Vegetable stock (roughly double the quantity of the rice)
Olive oil
A splash of white wine
Parmesan cheese, grated (optional)
Seasoning

*It may be anathema to my Italian friends, but I have been using pudding rice instead. This is for two reasons: firstly, it's a nice, thick grain rice and does a similar job. Secondly, it's infinitely cheaper and you can get it anywhere in the UK. Arborio is a bit of a middle class thing, therefore expensive, right up Nigella's alley.

Execution
Put the diced squash in a saucepan with boiling water and boil for about 30 minutes or until nicely cooked. Drain and put aside. In the meantime...

Lightly fry the garlic and onions in the olive oil until beautifully translucent (or cooked as I like to call it). Add a bit of white wine and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the rice and give it a stir for a few seconds until it's nicely coated with the juices. Add the stock until the rice is covered, bring to the boil and then allow to simmer. Add your seasoning and keep an eye on it. When it's beginning to absorb most of the stock, check if it's sufficiently cooked. If not, add more stock until you're happy with the rice. When you think it's cooked, take it off the fire and cover it for 5 minutes, allowing the rice to absorb all the juice. Add the squash and parsley and serve it topped with parmesan cheese. If you want, you can serve it with natural set yoghurt instead, turning it from a risotto to a Turkish pilaf. Enjoy!

Pasta with cherry tomatoes and garlic

This is a simple and quick recipe.

Ingredients (for 2-3) people
For the sauce
1/2 kilo (1 pound) of cherry tomatoes, halved (keep the juices)
Olive oil
1-2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Salt & pepper
Dried basil (optional)
Chilli flakes (optional)
Grated parmesan cheese

Use whatever pasta type you like. I prefer small pasta, like penne or maccaroni for this one, but any would do. I find that about 500gr feeds two very hungry adults, if not more.

Execution
Pasta:
Bring to the boil some water (with some salt) and add the pasta. Add the pasta and cook for the time the packet recommends. Drain it and put to the side, in the same pot you cooked it in, or in a bowl. In the meantime...

Add the olive oil in a medium-sized frying pan (just enough to cover the surface), heat it and add the garlic. Turn the fire way down and let the garlic fry slowly for 2-3 minutes, but don't let it turn brown. Throw in the tomatoes and cook for another 5 minutes, or until the tomatoes are nice and soft but not completely melted. Add salt, pepper and some basil if you have. You may add dried basil and/or chilli flakes (not much) if you want. When the tomatoes are half-cooked, throw everything into the pasta and mix it well. Serve quickly and top it with grated parmesan. Enjoy with a light Pinot Grigio or any medium white wine. Or red if you prefer, up to you really...