Healthy Food

This is a great side dish full of wonderful spices and  flavours and works best as an addition to Asian or Middle Eastern main dishes.I found this recipe on Kay’s site Kayotic which I am a big fan of. You can see the original recipe here. I’ve changed it a tiny bit but it still tasted amazing. We had this meal with some lentil rice instead of fried Sultanas and it worked very well.

Enjoy:-)

Ingredients:

• 1 large Onion, peeled and sliced into thick rings
• 1 tsp Cumin
• 1 tsp mild Curry powder
• 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp fresh Ginger (Ground ginger works too)
• 1 tbsp Caster Sugar
• 2 tbsp Olive Oil
• 2 tbsp Water
• Salt and Pepper

I found this recipe while browsing food blogs just before my exams. I believe it is called procrastination:-) The idea of a vegetarian pie is very appealing, even though I love meat, meat pies are often too heavy for my liking and I’ll end up feeling guilty and full after a couple of bites (Ok so maybe after a couple of pies:-). So I’ve decided to give this a go and use up all the vegetables in the fridge. You can find the original recipe in Yumblog which also has many more yummy recipes:-)

Enjoy:-)

Ingredients:

Pie Crust:

• 450 g/16 Oz White Flour
• 1 1/4 fast acting Yeast
• 1 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 Egg, beaten
• 2 tbsp runny Honey
• 50 ml light Olive Oil
• 260 ml warm Water

As you probably know by now, I love love love butternut squash:-) Its tasty, versatile, readily available all year around and cheap too. My Mum makes the best butternut squash cookies ever and I will put up the recipe and photos for them some time soon. Meanwhile these tasty cupcakes adapted from VanillaGarlic recipe will do fine:-)

Enjoy:-)

Ingredients:

• 230 g Butternut squash
• 2 Eggs
• 100 g unsalted Butter, melted
• 100 g caster Sugar
• 100 g brown Sugar
• 100 self-raising Flour
• 30 g Walnuts, chopped roughly
• 1/4 tsp Nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/4 tsp Ginger

Although not a big fan of oven baked fish, this mackerel recipe from Anjum Anand, definitely changed my mind about it. I grow up eating fried fish almost all year around and therefore have my reservations about fish being cooked any other way. However, frying fish is a messy business these days. Without a garden and proper out door cooker -like the one my Dad used- we would almost risk eviction from our apartment if make a habit of frying fish:-)

The picture in Anjum’s book of this stuffed mackerel with gorgeous Indian spices looked so inviting that I had to try it and I was not disappointed. I used fish fillets rather than whole fish and placed the stuffing over the fillet. Anjum uses garlic and ginger paste in most of her recipes but I used fresh garlic and ginger instead as I was out of the paste. Served with freshly cooked Saffron rice, it made a delicious week night supper and one that I would definitely try again:-)

Ingredients:

• 2 Mackerel fillets
• 1 medium Onion, sliced
• 2 cloves Garlic, minced
• 1 tsp grated Ginger
• 1 large Tomato, chopped
• 2 tsp Lemon juice
• 2 tbsp Vegetable Oil
• Salt and Pepper

I love onion bhaji but have never tried to cook it before until I cam across a recipe on Jeenas kitchen for baked bhaji and gave it a shot. These are very easy to make and taste good too without all the oil of deep fried bhajis.

Ingredients:

• 3 large Onions, sliced
• 3 tbsp Flour
• 1 tbsp Tomato pure dissolved in 100 ml boiling water
• 1 tsp Cumin
• 1 tsp Turmeric
• 1/4 tsp ground Coriander
• 1/4 tsp Chilli powder
• 1/4 tsp Ginger
• 2 tbsp Vegetable Oil
• Salt

I have resisted the temptation of adding sour cream or double cream to this soup in following my dairy-less 28 days diet. The soup, however, is tasty in addition to being healthy and if you love butternut squash as much as I do, you will love it:-)

Ingredients:

• 1 medium Butternut Squash, peeled and cut into small cubes
• 1 medium Onion, chopped finely
• 2 cloves Garlic, chopped finely
• 2 medium Carrots, cut into cubes
• 1.2 litres/5 cups Chicken or Vegetable Stock
• 1/2 tsp Cumin
• Salt and Pepper
• 2 tbsp Olive Oil

I have never cooked with butter bean before as I am not a big fan of beans in general but this can of butter bean was sitting for ages in my cupboard and I knew I just had to do something with it. I used it in this dish with spinach and coconut cream and it worked well as it gives a lot of texture to the curry and is a good substitute for chickpeas.

Enjoy:-)

 Ingredients:

• 400 g/14 oz. can of chopped Tomatoes
• 250 g/8 oz. Spinach
• 1 large Onion, sliced
• 2 cloves Garlic, chopped finely
• 200 g/7 oz. can of Butter Bean, drained and peeled
• 150 ml/5 oz. Coconut milk
• 1/2 tsp Cumin
• 1/4 tsp Ginger
• 1/4 tsp Turmeric
• 1/2 tsp Curry powder
• 1 small Green Chili, deseeded and chopped finely
• a pinch of Cardamom
• Salt
• 2 tbsp Vegetable Oil