Broccoli and Feta Dip with a Basic ‘House Salad’

Served with Pitta Bread too!

I’ve been eating a lot of Hummous recently with my salads and I really fancied a change (even though I absolutely love hummous!). I decided to use my favourite vegetable, broccoli, to make a sort of dip, sort of thick salad dressing which will add some interest to my salads without too many extra calories. I’m really watching my weight at the moment just because the sun has started to come out and a few pub gardens were frequented…a few ciders and bowls of chips were enjoyed….a few lazy days turned into picnics etc. It all adds up and my shorts which I have finally pulled out of the wardrobe from last summer felt just that tiny bit too tight for my liking!!

The thing is, I love food! I’m not the sort of person that can just cut down on what I eat, I feel it is better to change what I eat instead. Now hummous is not bad for you by any means but I was more getting bored of it and wanted to swap it with something equally as healthy.

If you have just joined me after the virtual vegan potluck and you do follow a vegan diet then don’t worry as most of my recipes are vegan and I always try and offer an alternative vegan option to my recipes For example, I couldn’t resist using feta in this dip because it went so wonderfully with the flavours but you could use cooked white beans, vegan cream cheese, or even tofu! I rarely buy cheese so next time I make this I will definitely be using white beans such as cannelini beans.

You can serve it on the side or pour it onto your salad

I’ve used the term “House ” Salad here because it has a bit of everything in it! At restaurants they always have a house salad on the menu and it’s always different. I think it’s kind of a “used up everything in the house” salad! For my salad today I used lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, radishes, red onion, spring onion (only use one type of onion or no onion if you plan on breathing near people after eating!), black olives and celery. This is my standard list of salad vegetables that I put on my food shop list every week.

Serves 4

Vegetarian, Gluten and Wheat Free, Vegan option!

8 – 10 Broccoli Florets (approx 150g)
60g Feta/ Vegan Cheese – or a handful of Cooked beans
Large Bunch Basil Leaves
Salt and Pepper
Splash of Water

Steam the broccoli for 5 minutes until cooked but not mushy otherwise the dip will be quite watery. Place the broccoli along with everything else except the water and blend in a high power blender until smooth… or as I did in a really old blender for ages! If it needs it then add a splash of water until you have a nice creamy consistency.

Pelagonia Pumpkin Jam – Product review and recipes

I was sent a free jar of Pumpkin Jam from Pelagonia (after a few twitter conversations about how amazing it looked!) and although they didn’t ask me to do a product review I’m a food blogger so I can’t help myself! Here is a link to their website where you can see how to buy the jam and other products in their range – here!

The first thing I thought when I received the jam was how amazing the colour was, it’s so vibrant and bright! I wondered if there was anything unnatural in the jam to enhance the colour but the only ingredients are pumpkin, sugar, orange and raisins so this was an added bonus to me.

The next thing to do obviously was try the jam! I spread it on a slice of toast….this is what your meant to do with jam right? I’ll be honest I haven’t eaten a slice of toast with jam in years! It looks so lovely and bright and when I tasted it it was light and very sweet. It’s hard to describe but the jam had a savoury note of pumpkin with a rich sweetness coming through which balanced it out. I really liked it but the only criticism I have is that I think more than one slice of toast would be a bit sickly sweet, however that is my own opinion as I don’t have much of a sweet tooth.

I also tried this jam in a few other ways and I think using it with other flavours works extremely well. I loved how it could be used a sweet or savoury (something they point out on the jar).

The first thing I tried was to make a crostini/ canape with a slice of baguette, some spinach leaves, pumpkin jam and some feta cheese. I piled it all on to the baguette and put it under the grill for a few minutes to toast the edges of the bread and to melt the cheese slightly. I love feta because it’s quite salty and when grilled it goes gooey inside but still keeps its shape. Not only did these look pretty I think the flavour combinations were very good! The pumpkin jam was not lost under the feta, infact the sweetness and saltiness were a nice combination.

Second I tried a sweet recipe – porridge made with raisins and dried cranberries (I make my porridge with water not milk), then I stirred a tablespoon or two of jam into the hot porridge and sprinkled grated dark chocolate on the top. This was amazing! The raisins and cranberries gave a nice texture and bursts of sweetness, the pumpkin jam gave a different kind of sweetness and became almost gooey with the heat of the porridge and the chocolate melted and was slightly bitter balancing out the jam! I have to say this is one of the nicest breakfasts which didn’t include eggs on toast that I have had in a long time!

They have other chutneys, roasted peppers and jams which all look equally a nice! So thank you Pelagonia for the jam, I had a lot of fun trying it and will definitely enjoy whats left of the jar

Rice, Feta and Sundried Tomato Parcels: Meat Free Monday

I recently made a lovely recipe from the Weight Watchers vegetarian cookbook which was mushrooms and Stilton (I swapped it for cheddar) in filo pastry…recipe here. It was so simple and it got me thinking that really you could fill this parcel with pretty much anything to make an interesting meal! I had some sun-dried tomatoes which have been in the fridge forever so I decided to use those up along with some feta cheese, herbs and brown rice. These flavours really are a happy match so I think it worked really nicely!

I like to always have something green on my plate so I added spinach to the mix and served the parcels with some garlic, lemony broccoli which was a healthy side dish to the parcel.

Serves 4

4 Shallots – finely diced
1 Garlic clove
5 sun-dried Tomatoes (from a jar)
80-100g Feta Cheese
bunch Mint
bunch Parsley
large handful Spinach – wilted
150g Cooked Brown rice
4 sheets Filo Pastry
Salt and Black Pepper

To Serve:
broccoli – cut into florets
1 garlic clove finely sliced
juice 1/2 lemon

Pre heat the oven to 180c.

Fry the shallots in a little spray oil for a few minutes then crush the garlic into the pan and fry for a further 2 minutes.

Chop the sun-dried tomatoes and herbs finely then add them to the pan with the crumbled feta, wilted spinach and the cooked brown rice, stir to mix it all together well, season, and then take the pan off the heat and put to one side.

Take one sheet of filo pastry and slice it in half (each half should measure around 6″x 6″). Spray one side with some oil then layer the other half on top. Spoon 1/4 of the rice mixture into the centre of the pastry and then wrap the sides over the mixture to make a parcel.

Repeat untill you have 4 parcels.

Place each parcel on a baking sheet (folded side down so the top is a nice smooth surface), spray with a little extra oil to get a nice sheen and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes.

To serve – Steam or blanch the broccoli untill just cooked but still quite firm. Heat some oil in a pan and add the broccoli and garlic and stir fry untill the garlic is cooked and the broccoli is starting to wilt more, squeeze in the lemon juice and serve.

Chickpea, Lentil and Feta Taco Salad: Meat Free Monday

The thing I love about tacos is that you can fill them with pretty much anything! They can be warm and filled with hot tomatoes, melted cheese and kidney beans or they can be a deliciously light salad with fresh herbs and avocados. This time, I’ve gone for the latter!

I’ve been eating these quite a bit recently as I’ve wanted to have a dinner which is light yet will fill me up for the evening (perfect for fighting off those unnecessary evening snacks!) Staying true to the Mexican feel of a taco I have used ingredients such as fresh chilli, coriander and avacados to bring it together.

You can use Taco shells or (as I have here) you can use the taco trays which are also sold in most supermarkets! I find the trays easier to eat and also they make for a nicer portion size!

Serves 4

160g Cooked Chickpeas
100g Green Lentils (Cooked as per instructions on the packet and then drained under cold water)
100g Feta Cheese
1 Red Onion
1 Green Pepper
1 Red Chilli (adjust to your own personal taste)
Bunch Coriander
Juice of 1 Lemon
Drizzle of good Olive Oil
2-3 taco trays/ shells per person

To serve with:
1 Avacado
2 Tomatoes

Finely chop the red onion and green pepper. De-seed and finely slice the chilli. Roughly chop the coriander.

In a large bowl mix together the chickpeas, lentils, onion, pepper, chilli and coriander then crumble in the feta cheese. Gently mix it all together and then drizzle over a good glug of the best quality olive oil you have and squeeze the lemon juice in. Give it one final stir then put on the table ready for everyone to dig in!

Heat the taco trays/ shells in the oven for 2-3 minute (or as per instructions on the packet) and then serve with a platter of sliced tomatoes, sliced avacado and an extra pile of coriander leaves.

Everyone can build their own tacos and then try and eat them without spilling it all!

Beetroot & Feta Burger: Meat Free Monday

Did I ever mention that I LOVE veggie burgers? Oh wait only a hundred times. This little beauty of a burger came about because I wanted to do something different to show how versatile a burger can be. I went through ideas of spinach burger, carrot burger, black bean chilli burger and decided on beetroot burger! I like beetroot but I don’t love beetroot so I wanted to try and balance out the earthy flavours with something a bit sweeter (so I added feta); I also wanted to give it a twist so I used chickpeas instead of my usual beans and I added some curry paste. The first time I made these I added toasted spices but the flavour was so harsh against the beetroot so I found that using a paste gave it a more mellow taste.

It may sound like a mish mash but I can promise you that this is a tasty little burger!

Makes 4 burgers:

150g Chickpeas
145g Beetroot (120g when peeled)
80g Breadcrumbs
1 Egg
1/2 Red Onion finely chopped
1 tablespoon Curry Paste (I used Rogan Josh paste)
65g Feta Cheese

Mash the chickpeas in a bowl untill broken down but don’t mash them untill smooth! Grate the beetroot into the bowl (this is a messy part as fingers and worktops begin to turn pink!) and add the finely sliced red onion, the breadcrumbs, the egg and the curry paste. Stir all these ingredients together to combine.

Crumble the feta into the bowl in quite large chunks and gently fold the cheese into the mixture.

Mould the mixture into 4 patties and then put them on a plate in the fridge for at least 20-30 minutes. This will firm them up before cooking.

In a pan heat some oil (use spray oil if being healthy) and then fry the burgers for about 3-4 minutes on each side. Serve with a burger bun and salad…and even some chips yum!