Eating, cooking and everything in between
Another mushroom post! If you’re veggie you can omit the pancetta, and this dish still works well.
I make this with wholewheat pasta because it’s nicer to my stomach, but you can use white. A dash of half fat creme fraiche means this recipe is creamy but not too heavy.
Beans! Beans are great. They’re protein-y (so I’m told) and really cheap. And they keep in your cupboard for ages if you buy them tinned and forget about them like I did.
Until today. Hello, mixed bean salad tin. You are going to be something wonderful.
Don’t be misled here – this is an easy Greek bean salad in the sense that it is a Greek salad with beans in. Recipe after the jump!
I’m having a really big chestnut mushroom phase at the moment. These little guys are going in everything I cook, they’re so savoury and tasty.
They also make a great meat substitution, more so than the classic white mushroom because they have a much stronger taste.
This is another easy dish if you only have basic cupboard ingredients and little time. I’m using brown rice and I mixed it all together because I prefer the texture but you can use whatever rice you have hanging around, and serve on the side or even over noodles.
This nicely used up the leftover pulled pork from New Years which I’d had in the freezer. There’s nothing better than coming home to a really easy meal and this is one of the easiest.
This recipe uses brown rice, in this last year I’ve become completely addicted to the stuff. I love the nutty taste, the ‘bite’ that it has to it and the fact you don’t need half as much as white rice to fill you up!
I used to have a wok that went missing, so if you have one do use it, I had to improvise (read: use frying pan).
Orzo. Like rice but pasta! This is a really quick cheap meal you can turn around any weeknight and you probably already have most of the ingredients in your fridge.
You don’t have to use orzo, any pasta will work.
Orzo with artichoke, chestnut mushrooms and Panchetta
Ingredients
About 50g Orzo pasta
Small pack pancetta
10-12 chestnut mushrooms
Grilled artichokes – I use the kind from a jar
2 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons grated parmesan
Sunflower oil for frying
Salt and pepper to taste
Cook the orzo according to packet instructions. In a frying pan, saute pancetta in a little oil until crispy and then add in garlic and mushrooms. Stir all ingredients together in a bowl and sprinkle over grated parmesan and add in chopped artichokes from the jar. Season to taste and serve!
Smoked haddock. Leeks. Creamy potato. There’s so much to love about this soup, I can’t believe I’d never attempted it before!
This story starts (as all good soup stories should) in a pub in Edinburgh where I saw Cullen Skink on the menu and noted down the name to look up when I got home, as we weren’t eating (read: we were very much drinking).
And I’m glad I did! After some research I made this using smoked haddock, leeks, onion and potatoes and this is hands down the most delicious soup I’ve ever tried. Just look at it, it’s full of your hopes and dreams. And fish, lots of fish.
I recently discovered slow cooker shredded chicken and it’s kind of changed my life. It’s a great way to use up leftover chicken and there are countless recipes you can add it to.
To make my slow cooker chicken I just put four chicken breasts in the slow cooker for 6-8 hours with a bay leaf, half a stock cube, some cumin and paprika and then shredded them.
This recipe uses the shredded chicken but if you don’t have a slow cooker, you can use fresh chicken breast or precook one in the oven.
Ingredients
4-5 tablespoons shredded chicken
Handful mangetout
1 small courgette
1 medium white onion
1 teaspoon Tumeric
Olive oil for frying
Salt and pepper to taste
Brown rice for two (however much you usually cook, measurements are always different for different people!)
1. Sauté the courgette, onion and mange tout in a pan until softened. If you’re using raw chicken you would fry it off before the vegetables at this stage. Meanwhile, cook the brown rice in salted water.
2. Once brown rice is almost cooked, reduce heat and cover so it steams gently. This ‘fluffens’ the rice and really improves the consistency.
3. Combine the chicken and rice into the vegetable pan and ensure chicken is cooked to piping temperature. Stir in the Tumeric and season to taste.
I’ve done this once before but I didn’t take nearly enough pictures, and the previous attempt was also in the oven with a fairly hefty 4.5kg bone-in shoulder, whereas this one was a meagre 2kg bone-out jobby from Tesco.
You get a lot of pork for 2kg, I tell you. We made this on New Year’s Eve as part of a gourmet 3 course meal in, as I was still recovering from the devil’s illness – tonsillitis. I managed to have it three times over December and January and I’m still not 100% yet, fortunately Christmas Day itself was illness free!
Anyway. A 2kg pork shoulder is plenty for two hungry people – it would feed four easily with leftovers. We have LOTS of pork in the freezer, but that’s only a good thing really isn’t it?
I’ll leave my coleslaw recipe for another day but it really does pay to make this stuff yourself. It is SO easy, and tastes way nicer than what you get in shops. I typically slice cabbage, red onion and grated carrot and toss in a bit of lemon juice, mayonnaise, creme fraiche or yoghurt and a dash of mustard. Serve on white baps with sweet potato fries or salad as a side.
If I’m completely honest my favourite way to eat avocado is just on toast. Why try and make it into something it isn’t?
I have my friend Caoimhe to thank for this idea, and it really does make a truly tasty pasta sauce. You’ll need some things to bring out the flavour – lots of basil, garlic and lemon, but it’s worth it.
Cook the pasta first and reserve some of the pasta water to make the perfect sauce.
Take a splash of the pasta water in a jug (you can always add more later) and an avocado lightly mashed with a fork. Stir in minced garlic, salt and pepper, a handful of fresh basil and a squeeze of lemon. Blitz with a hand held blender until you have a rough textured sauce – some lumps are fine.
Serve stirred into the pasta with extra fresh basil and some grated Parmesan. If you’re that way inclined, dried chilli flakes can add some extra zing.
What is it with supermarkets selling insane portions of mince? Who eats 250g or 500g in one serving? Who?
This crafty recipe uses a hamburger split into bits for the mince, saving money and food waste. Obviously the mince quality depends on the burger you use, but as a disclaimer it’s not usually the nicest meat. Combining it with some good veggies and not overcooking it means you get a tasty result though. Plus adding lots of cheese at the end, because everything is better with cheese.
