Another year down - Christmas dinner review

2014 went so quickly for us!
I usually post quite a few pre-Christmas ideas but unfortunately this year I didn't get a chance to - my apologies.
I will however, do my usual wrap-up of our Christmas meal & include a few recipes that you might like to store up for next year (don't you just love pinterest for that reason)!


Pre-dinner nibbles of veggie sticks and baked corn tortillas with refried bean dip (recipe coming soon).

 Dinner included the following:

Beetroot & Green bean Salad (recipe below)

Agave Mustard Baked Veggies

Mini potato bites

Wholemeal Quinoa Loaf

Spinach, sweet potato, corn & mixed bean salad

Red Lentil & Spinach Loaf (recipe below)

And for dessert we enjoyed:

Christmas Chocolate fruit cake

Trifle (directions below)

Red Lentil & Spinach Loaf

375g packet red lentils
2 bay leaves
120grams baby spinach leaves
1 large onion
2 garlic cloves
400g can tomatoes
1 1/2 cups oats   **
1 teaspoon each: oregano, cumin, sage
BBQ sauce

Place the lentils and bay leaves in a saucepan & fill with just enough water to cover them.
Bring to the boil and then simmer til lentils are softened but not yet falling apart (approx 15-20 mins).
Pour the cooked lentils into a large mixing bowl, removing the bay leaves.
Stir through the spinach leaves and allow the warmth of the lentils to wilt the leaves.
In a small frying pan, place the chopped onion and crushed garlic - dry fry until golden brown.
Stir the onion/garlic mix into the lentil/spinach mix.
Stir through the tomatoes, oats and herbs.
Place mixture into a lined loaf pan and spread the top with BBQ sauce.
Bake in a preheated 180C oven for 45 minutes.
This will slice best if you allow it to cool briefly before removing it from the loaf pan.

** For a firmer loaf you can use 2 cups of oats, however this will make a more dense loaf too (pictured below). My husband prefers the loaf with 2 cups of oats, I prefer it with 1 1/2 cups of oats. So take your pick!!!

Beetroot and Green Bean Salad

60grams baby spinach leaves
60grams beetroot leaves
6 baby beets
1 cup green beans
6 walnuts

Dressing:
150g soft tofu
2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 Tablespoon lemon juice

Combine the leaves in a salad bowl. Chop the baby beets and spread them evenly over the leaves. Remove the ends of the green beans and lightly steam them. Spread over leaves along with the crushed walnuts.
To make the dressing - blend all ingredients until smooth.
Pour dressing over salad to serve.

Trifle

You will need:
basic vanilla cake
custard- I doubled the quantity of the custard in this recipe, but halved the sugar
600grams frozen raspberries
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves.

Tear or chop the cake into little pieces.
In a glass serving bowl, layer 1/3 of the pieces of the torn cake, 1/3 of the raspberries and then a final layer using 1/3 of the custard, followed by a sprinkling of torn mint leaves.
Repeat layering process 3 times or until all ingredients are used up.
Refrigerate until time to serve.

I have to admit that I wasn't too disappointed to have some leftovers to enjoy!
I hope you all had a splendid Christmas time.

Happy New Year to all my readers :-)

Look forward to sharing with you in 2015. 

In My Kitchen November: Polenta Crusted Adzuki bean & Vegetable Loaf

This month In My Kitchen I'm sharing a few newish gadgets that bring me much delight, and a recipe I've created using them. 

Let me introduce to you my new Tupperware gadget - 

Extra Chef

I debated long & hard about if I should get one of these as they are a little pricey. In the end, I have decided it has been so so worth the money! It is incredibly versatile, works just as well as my electric food processor and yet runs just on my arm strength!!!! ;-) Gotta love anything that is environmentally friendly and helps with jiggly arm syndrome!
It has a great capacity, but at the same time doesn't take up much cupboard space (considerable less space than a traditional food processor). It is incredibly easy to clean and all the attachments store inside the compartment itself.
I use it for so many things, but it especially comes in handy for when I want to add vegetables to dishes where I don't want them to be chunky.

Let me also introduce to you my new electrical gadget - 

Digital Pressure cooker

I never had much luck with the stove top pressure cooker that I had - so I offloaded it and waited for a good special on an electric one. I was over the moon when Target had a massive homewares clearance and this was less than half price. I quickly informed my husband that it was to be part of my birthday present! Thankfully, he took the hint!!!!

I am REALLY REALLY happy with it's pressure cooking ability. Not only for making legumes from dried instead of relying on canned ones, but also for making soups, stews, as well as cooking rice and other grains.
I LOVE the saute function, as it means I can toss in my onions and garlic and saute them in the same pot before adding other ingredients, saying on washing up. 
The non-stick coating is fantastic meaning I can saute without using oil, and also the insert goes into the dishwasher - a MUST for all our cooking gadgets as I hate washing up!!!!
It is *meant* to be multi-function meaning it can slow cook also, however after several trys with the slow cook feature on maximum length I have been disappointed to find the meal virtually uncooked. So, alas I haven't as yet been able to offload my other slow cooker as I was hoping to with a multi-purpose machine. Though, I find that with this machine I have no real use for a slow cooker as I can pop this on anytime and the keep warm function works amazing. Also everything that I previously would of done in the slow cooker has worked fantastically well being pressure cooked.


And now let me show you a recipe I made using both of these new gadgets:

POLENTA CRUSTED ADZUKI BEAN 
AND VEGETABLE LOAF 

Loaf:
1 onion
3 garlic cloves
1 carrot
1/2 head broccoli
2 celery stalks
1/2 capsicum
2 cups cooked adzuki beans
1 teaspoon each: dried oregano, cumin, turmeric, paprika
1/2 cup tomato paste
Topping:
2 Tablespoons nutritional yeast
1/3 cup polenta
1/3 cup panko breadcrumbs (regular breadcrumbs work fine however I particularly like the added crispiness that panko crumbs provide)


Place all the vegetables roughly chopped into a chopper, or food processor.

Process until all ingredients are finely chopped. (You can do this by hand if you would rather, for the best outcome you need all ingredients very finely chopped.)

In a large bowl, lightly mash the adzuki beans (I used the back of a spoon, depending on how soft your beans are you may need a proper masher) and stir in all the herbs and the tomato paste. 

Add the vegetables to the bowl and stir until well combined.
Press the mixture into a large baking dish (I used a 30cm x 20cm). Press down well.

In a smaller bowl combine the ingredients for the topping/crust. Press the crust over the bean mixture and gently press down. (For a gluten free version replace the breadcrumbs with more polenta.)

Bake in a preheated oven for 35-40minutes until golden brown on top.

Slice and serve.

Delicious with roasted potatoes (as I had but somehow managed to delete the picture)!
My hubby and daughter love this in a burger!

(Note: I have made this several times and I usually include frozen spinach that has been defrosted prior to adding it to the vegetable mix - however on the occasion I was taking pictures I defrosted the spinach and then forgot to stir it in!)


Share what's in your kitchen at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial.

Question of the day:
Have you ever debated about purchasing a kitchen gadget and had it work out more valuable than you initially thought?

Bean & Eggplant Loaf

This makes a great substitute for meatloaf.
Easy to prepare as just a bit of chopping and mixing and then the oven will do the rest of the work for you! Makes a big loaf that can be frozen and used as leftovers.


You'll need:
2 cups cooked adzuki beans
1 small eggplant
1 Tablespoon Italian herbs
2 garlic cloves
1/4 cup besan flour
1/2 cup tomato cooking sauce

Mash the beans, not til they are completely mushy, leave a few whole pieces.

Chop the eggplant into small pieces.

It always amazes me that an eggplant can look so small and yet when you chop it up there is soooo much volumne to it!
In a bowl combine the eggplant with the beans & the herbs & the crushed garlic. Stir until combined. Add the besan flour and the tomato sauce. The mixture will hold together.

Press the mixture into a lined baking loaf tin & press down with the back of a spoon.

Bake at 180C for 45 minutes.

Remove from baking tin, peel away baking paper and slice.

So many ways to serve this!
On mash, with salad, in a sandwich..... You pick your favourite!

Shown here over polenta:

Since this is healthy... and it's Friday - I'm going to submit this recipe across at "Healthy Vegan Friday" hosted by the veggie nook blog!

Check out the blog to submit your own recipe :-)

Lentil Loaf

This is a really delicious meat-loaf substitute.
It's nice & easy cause you don't have to precook anything, one bowl for mixing and its done.

Serves 2 big chunky pieces, or can slice it into about 8 slices.

You'll need:
1 tin lentils, drained really well
1/2 onion
6 button mushrooms
2 celery stalks
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 cup pasta sauce (I love a mushroom flavour one for this recipe) SEE NOTE BELOW
3/4 cup chick pea flour (I don't recommend substituting other 'flours' here - this one just seems to work best with the flavours!)

Chop the onion, mushrooms and celery into really small pieces.
In a bowl combine the drained lentils with the chopped vegetables. Stir together. Add the oregano. Add the pasta sauce and stir. Make sure all the mixture is lightly coated with the sauce but not so much that it is runny. Stir in the chick pea flour & mix until well combined & not visible chunks of flour remain.
Place mixture into a lightly oiled loaf dish. Spread evenly & pat down so that the top is smooth.
Place in a 200C oven for 40 minutes.

Serve with a salad or potatoes & veg.

You can choose to lightly spread a bit more pasta sauce over the top of the loaf at prior to baking if you wish. I have never found that this mixture dries out though. And I quite like the slightly crusty top of the lentils that is made.

This could also work as a base for a veg shepherd's pie.
This is very child friendly! And even meat eater friendly!
I love that its easy to assemble & requires no hard work & then I have 40 minutes free. Works a treat for those busy nights when we don't have too much to do to slave over the stove!

I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.
:-)

Cooked pie waiting to be cut and served

You can vary the flavour of this pie by using BBQ sauce in place of the pasta sauce.