vegetarian Archives - Goosey Kitchen

Roasted Aubergine with Veggie Ragu

I have my fellow blogger Deepa Mistry to thank for the wonderful aubergine part of this recipe! I hadn’t ever tried roasting an aubergine in half before but her recent Instagram Story persuaded me otherwise and I was so glad I tried it! The best part of her tips was to take the aubergine out of the fridge and cook from room temperature to avoid it being rubbery. It worked!

roasted-aubergine-veggie-ragu

To roast your aubergine, slice it in half and score all over. Rub a little oil all over each half and then place in a hot (150c or so) oven for 40-50 mins, flipping it half way through so it cooks nice and evenly.

While the aubergine was roasting, I made a yummy ragu to stir through its pasta bed. Recipe after the jump!

Mushroom and Lentil Stew

Lentils are such a staple in my cupboard! They’re so good for bulking out a meal. I love mixing the green and red ones so that you have some that retain their shape and some that sort of drift into thick sauciness. Plus you can flavour them with whatever you like! Mushrooms are a great shout as their earthy savouriness really comes to the foreground of this one.

Put an egg on this and it’s brunch. Have a slab of bread and a bit of cheese on top and it’s dinner! It’s the ultimate versatile, make in advance and throw in the fridge meal.

I used a mix of dried porcini mushrooms and normal chestnut mushrooms but you can just use whatever you have lying around. I also used chicken stock because I’m a meat eater, but if you wanted to keep this plant-based just swap out for stock of your choice (and obviously leave off the egg).

Veggie Packed Lunch Noodles

I make this recipe so often I couldn’t believe I haven’t blogged it before! These noodles are amazing for weekday lunches, they keep really well and actually taste better for a few days marinating in the fridge! I like to make a big batch and portion out into tupperware for the week.

This is completely veggie but you could add in some leftover meat if you wanted to. There’s plenty protein in here anyway if you’re counting your macros, the egg noodles, shredded egg and edamame are all high protein foods.

One thing I love about stir fries are the colours, especially using lots of fresh veg! How pretty does this pan look? Recipe after the jump!

Quorn Keema – Curried Mince with Peas

I love to order keema in Indian restaurants and it’s one of my favourite curries. I usually have lamb, but I spied some Quorn mince in our freezer and decided to replicate a veggie version! How hard can it be? Turns out not very!

So just a side point that I don’t pretend to be a curry aficionado, by any stretch! Maybe this isn’t technically a keema and maybe my order of ingredients is wrong but what it is, is delicious. I only started liking and cooking curry a couple of years ago so I’m still finding my way around the techniques and ingredients. The great thing about this version is that the two key things are probably already in your freezer!

A word of warning – it’s a good idea to add your peas at the end! Silly old me prepped this in advance and you can see the colour difference from when I first added them to the pan to now! If you want nice bright peas, wait til the end to add them in. No need to defrost either, just pour those bad boys straight in.

I ate this with garlic naan and yoghurt but you could enjoy it with rice, even turn it into a bit of a biriyani style dish by adding the rice straight into the curry with a bit more water.

See how less green these peas are? Add them at the end!!

Recipe after the jump!

Lentil, Mushroom and Quorn Shepherd’s Pie

Guys. WHAT a couple of weeks. I’ve had quite a bit going on (including a NEW JOB YAY) so the blog has taken a bit of a back seat, but I’m back now with this yummy veggie shepherd’s pie recipe I made not too long ago. On reflection feels a bit out of place now we’re getting into summer weather! Ah well. I’d eat shepherd’s pie all year round, wouldn’t you?

I love a good mash-topped pie. More than pastry, actually. I love sprinkling a bit of parmesan onto it and making sure it gets nice and crisp under the grill (use veggie parmesan or cheddar to keep it veggie). Those little crispy bits of mash are so oooommpphhh. Delicious.

Generally I find pies really hard to take pictures of once they’re served, but here’s an attempt. We ate it with wilted garlic spinach (soften garlic, oil and butter in a pan for 4-5 mins until the oil/butter goes all garlicy and nice and then toss the spinach through it) but any nice green veg you have will do.

TBH I’m not fully sure if I should even be calling this shepherd’s pie seeing as it contains no meat whatsoever, but I guess it’s an interpretation of it! I used quorn, lentils and mushrooms topped with lots of mash and extra gravy to serve. Meat-free, cheap as heck and pretty easy to rustle together if you’ve got an hour or so. You can speed up the cooking time by making the filling ahead of time, or use a pressure cooker to cook those lentils super quick.

Recipe after the jump!

Butternut Squash and Quinoa Chilli

I’m having a big quinoa kick after finding this amazing tri-colour quinoa in Aldi. It looks SO pretty I had to put it in my basket, and then I ate out at the weekend with a friend and who ordered a quinoa chilli and I was fully inspired to make this at home.

I coupled it up with a butternut squash I already had in the cupboard, plus a couple of peppers and tin of spiced beans and this became a really easy, cheap dinner that’s nutritious and perfect for this hellish snowy weather. I love eating something spicy when it’s cold outside, don’t you? I used the slow cooker for 3 hours to cook it through, but if you were in a rush you could simmer on the hob for half an hour or so.

I got really extra with the plating up here. I went a bit crazy on the heat, so to cool it down I served this with avocado, Greek yoghurt (healthier than sour cream!), cheese, spring onion and… Tangy Cheese Doritos. Just try it, trust me. It was an absolute TREAT.

Here it is, have you ever seen a chilli so extra?

Quinoa-Butternut-Squash-Chilli

Recipe after the jump!

Hearty Green Lentil and Chickpea Soup

After the Christmas indulgences, I’ve been trying to stick to a vegetarian diet for as long as I can in January. I’m finding it really easy so far, there’s just a bit more thinking to be done about where I’m getting my protein from. Lentils and chickpeas are both great sources though so I though why not bang them both together in a soup!

Soup is a broad term here as this came out REALLY thick. I think I over-lentilled. So unless you’re feeding a small army, don’t put half a packet of green lentils in like I did. Maybe just 100g or so. But if you do make too much, the good news is this will freeze really well!

See? Not that soupy. But still really delicious! It’s super cheap to make too, you probably already have all the ingredients in your cupboard. I used carrots, peppers and onion as my veg but you can use whatever you like! It’s also completely vegan (just make sure you check your stock cubes).

High Protein Tofu Noodle Stir Fry

I feel SO busy at the moment. Somehow I’m packing in a 40 hour working week, 4 trips to the gym, trying to buy a car, and about umpteen friends’ birthdays and social plans. That’s just summer though really isn’t it? I feel like having the opportunity to cook something nice is really rare for me at the moment – there’s been lots of scrambled egg on toast for dinner (eeeek!). Anyway, I’m on holiday countdown as it’s won’t be long before we’re off to Menorca for a week of eating, beaching and reading. I cannot wait!

A brief gym update since my last post because I’m SO proud of the progress I’m making. This week I’ve managed sumo squat deadlifts all by myself (no PT spotting) at 30kg which is the biggest weight I’ve ever lifted so far. There’s people that can lift more (obviously) but to me this is a huge achievement, especially considering I could barely lift a 20kg bar this time last year. October will be my gym-iversary and if I’m feeling brave enough I might do some of those cringey before and after pictures. It’s never really been about the result for me though, more the feeling. Lifting that weight makes me feel like I can take on anything.

Now I’ll stop rambling on, on to the recipe. This yummy stir fry is so packed full of protein and vegetables and makes for great weekday lunches, especially as the longer you leave it, the more flavour the tofu takes on from the surrounding sauce. I love that about tofu! The wet sauce for this which is unusual for me with noodles, I usually like a drier noodle or just dressed sesame oil but the tofu really needs the moisture for this to work. If you’re a busy monster like me you can meal prep this bad boy by chopping up all the veg beforehand and keeping it in the fridge, and just lob it into the pan when you come home. You could even pre-chop the tofu and marinate it in a little soy sauce if you were feeling really extra.

High Protein Tofu Noodle Stir fry

Makes about 4 servings

Ingredients

280g block plain tofu (I like the ‘Tofoo’ stuff)
1 medium pepper
5-6 spring onions
1 medium white onion
1 large egg
100g mushrooms
1-2 nests of fine egg noodles
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp cornflour
1 tsp fish sauce
1 clove garlic
1 tsp Chinese five spice
Sesame, chilli and vegetable oils

Finely slice the mushrooms, peppers, onions and spring onions and mince the garlic. Chop the tofu into small cubes and begin to fry in a frying pan with 2 tsp vegetable oil, and a couple of shakes of the chilli oil. In a separate pan or wok, make a quick, thin omelette with the egg and set to one side. Stir fry the veg with the garlic (I like to blanch the spring onions with the noodles so leave those out til later) just for a coupe of minutes until it starts to soften. Shred up that omelette you made earlier and add to the pan, and when the tofu is ready, add that in too. Boil the noodles in a saucepan according to packet instructions and drain into a sieve – place the spring onions in the sieve and pour the hot water over them. This makes them nice and soft without compromising the flavour.

Next, in a cup, mix together the cornflour, soy sauce, five spice and fish sauce with maybe 25ml water or so – you want it to fill about half way up a standard mug. Pour this into the pan with the veg and the tofu and add the noodles too. Stir until it’s thickened – add a bit more water if it goes too thick and then serve with a drizzle more chilli oil if you like a bit of spice!

Griddled Mediterranean Tofu with Vegetables

Now THIS is a recipe that will give you a hankering for summer. Long days, al fresco dining, BBQs wafting through the air… yes please! It feels like so long since we’ve had good weather but now we can see the sunshine again a bit more and it’s so exciting.

We’d usually be thinking of our summer holiday this time of year but with trying to buy a house this year it’s something we’re delaying so we can save, or at least go for a cheap last minute deal. So instead I’m living my summer vicariously through FOOD.

Nothing says summer like griddled vegetables, spicy harissa marinades, no siree. The leftovers also double up as a great lunch.

Don’t be put off by the slabs of tofu. The marinade makes it taste gorgeous and combination of pressing before griddling gives it a nice crisp texture, a bit like halloumi. Speaking of, you could trade the tofu for halloumi, but it wouldn’t be anywhere near as healthy. 😉

Sweet Potato and Cauliflower Fritters

I don’t know why I decided to make these on a Monday night, after a full day at work and a gym session, it just happened. I definitely didn’t think they’d take long to make, and truth be told they don’t, but it’s really hard to make a small amount of mix, and then you need to factor in cooking it all. This recipe made around 18 fritters.

These babies were the solution to a food problem: a lone, large cauliflower taking up too much space, and two sweet potatoes in the cupboard that just needed some love. I knew there must be a delicious way to combine cauliflower with sweet potato, and it turns out, it’s this. Keeping the mixture quite wet means that you get lovely crispy bits of potato that extend past the fritter itself making it almost like a baji. Alternatively if you wanted something more like a pancake you could keep adding more flour until you get a sticky consistency.

Make sure you have a good hour set aside, a decent food processor or grater and lots of cloths to wipe up with. Let’s get frittering!

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