Weekend Carnivore

Have I mentioned before how much I love mushrooms? Well, I really love mushrooms! Whenever somebody tries to go a ‘getting to know you’ thing where they ask what your last meal would be, I always answer “I don’t know but there would be mushrooms”.

Truthfully, I haven’t met a variety of mushroom that I haven’t enjoyed. However, I may have to hide my face in foodie circles when I say that I think the good old fashion variety of mushrooms such as button mushrooms, flat mushrooms and chestnut mushrooms are the favourite. Sure, I will happily enjoy wild mushrooms or portobello mushrooms but I really think the ‘boring’ variety of mushrooms are the best for my tastebuds. Once more, they are far easier on the budget.

I think from this point forward, I am going to make a point of showing the vast array of wonderfully tasty thing that can be done with the traditional mushroom varieties. To begin this championing of classic mushrooms, I thought I would start with showing there is more that can be done with large mushrooms other than doing them in the pan as part of a fry up.

Stuffed mushroom recipes always sound daunting as a concept. I worry that they are going to be too fiddly to be worth the effort. However, that really doesn’t have to be the case at all. These chive and ricotta stuffed mushrooms are pretty darn simple to throw together and they cook fast enough to fill a sudden mushroom craving.

Really, any herbs you have around could go into this mixture. Even a slight change up of the herbs can actually make it a whole new dish. So, experimenting to find your favorite combination is very much encouraged. You will also notice, that I used dried herbs in the recipe. Fresh herbs are fantastic but I feel that the foodie world can get a bit too snobbish about using dried herbs. Most home cooks rely on dried herbs and I think anything that gets people cooking should be encouraged. Plus, the taste good when used properly. So, why not use them?

This chive and ricotta stuffed mushroom recipe works great as a light lunch. They would be at home at an evening meal too either as a starter or alongside a hearty salad for a vegetarian main course. I have made the recipe for two mushrooms. Even though I have said that is two servings, my mushroom related greed would most likely result in me eating both. Don’t worry if you need to make for larger numbers because the stuffed mushroom recipe is very easily scaled up.

Chive and ricotta stuffed mushrooms

chive and ricotta stuffed mushroom recipe

Ingredients:

2 large flat mushrooms
1 teaspoon olive oil
65 grams ricotta cheese
1 clove garlic, finely minced
1 tablespoon dried chives
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried onion flakes
1 teaspoon parmesan cheese, divided

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees (gas mark 6, 200c).
2. Take the stems out of the mushrooms. Reserve these because they can be chopped up and used in things like omelettes.
3. Brush the outsides of the mushroom with the olive oil and then placed on a lined baking tray.
4. In a bowl, mix together the ricotta, garlic, chives, parsley, onion and half a teaspoon of the parmesan.
5. Season the mixture with salt and pepper to taste.
6. Divide the mixture between the two mushroom caps, filing each with as mush as you can.
7. Sprinkle the tops with the remaining parmesan.
8. Put into the oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until the cheese has started to go golden.
9. Serve.

Makes: 2 mushrooms

The days on the run up to my wedding in July 2008 were fairly chaotic. There wasn’t all that much to worry about in regards to actual wedding but there was just so much rushing around on top of having to work right up until the last moment. I was starting to feel a bit dizzy with it all. So, when a friend from Recipezaar was visiting London and invited me to lunch I decided I deserved the momentary break from the whirlwind.

We ended up at an upscale Indian restaurant called Zaika. Though, calling something upscale in the Kensington area might be a tad redundant. I am not usually much of a posh restaurant goer – I am more of a homecooking type of gal – but it was for their lunch menu and it wasn’t too snobby so I felt just fine. I am pretty sure it is the only Michelin star restaurant I have eaten at so it was great to not feel intimidated.  We both had a taster menu which turned out the be really yummy. I especially liked that everything was very well spiced without being all that hot. Just right for my taste buds.

By far the stand out dish for me, was a spiced mushroom soup we had as a starter. It really was amazingly good. I am generally nuts about mushrooms anyway but this was just extra great. We played the ‘guess what is in it’ game and I made notes because I knew I had to try to reproduce it when I got home.

Of course, I was never going to come close to their level of cooking but what I came up with in my own kitchen wasn’t all that far away and I have been making it ever since. What made me especially pleased was that I managed to put my own stamp on the recipe and made it really low fat and even though it tastes really creamy, there is no dairy in it at all. In fact, this is a vegan soup recipe but you wouldn’t ever taste it and think it stood out as being vegan. Over the past few years, I have learned that I can make a nice creamy soup simply by using potatoes with their skins on in the cooking. When the whole thing gets blitzed up it all goes very smooth without needing the extra fat to do it. That can’t be a bad thing.

Now, this low fat mushroom soup recipe comes out whenever I am short on spare calories but need something with volume to fill my hungry belly.

Creamy spiced mushroom soup

low fat mushroom soup recipe

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
7 1/2 ounces onions, chopped
4 teaspoons garam masala
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
13 1/2 ounces potatoes, chopped with skins still on
4 ounces carrots, chopped
7 ounces mushrooms, roughly chopped
2 pints vegetable stock
3/4 cup fresh coriander, chopped

Directions:

1. Heat the olive oil in big pan and then add the onion and cook softly for about 5 minutes to allow the onions to soften.
2. Add the garam masala and ground coriander and stir into the onions.
3. Add the potato and carrots and just allow to heat through for 1 minute.
4. Add the mushrooms and the vegetable stock and bring to the boil.
5. Reduce the heat, cover and cook for 30 minutes.
6. Add the fresh coriander and either transfer to a blender and blitz under smooth or use a hand held stick blender to whizz it up right there in the pan.
7. Return to the heat and add any salt if you think it is needed and just heat through again to serve.

Serves: 4

By now, Weekend Carnivore readers, are probably figuring out that I have a thing for Middle Eastern type foods. Which is fairly amazing since I am sure when I was a little girl growing up in the Pennsylvania Dutch region of the United States I wouldn’t have been able to name any Middle Eastern dishes much less crave them.

Such a taste bud transformation has to be at least partially attributed to having moved to London. The wonderful mix of cultures that live, largely in peace, in London means that there is always food from a different culture to try. If you have ever heard that food in the UK is bad, then I am here to tell you that it is a flat out untruth. The UK in general, and London in particular, is packed solid with food from all over the world. So, even if I thought there was anything bad about traditional British food (which I don’t..who doesn’t like a good sticky toffee pudding ?!?) there would be enough world cuisine to more than make up for it.

When I first started to commute into London, the office where I worked was right next to a falafel joint. One day, I tried falafel for lunch and I then went through a period of trying fafafel joints around the city. Most that I tried were really good but my favourite was a place near Goodge Street station that put a stunning creamy garlic sauce on top.

As good as all that falafel tasted, it simply wasn’t good for the waistline and when I started to eat a healthier diet I stopped eating it. That was, until I discovered that I could make my own baked version of falafel at home. By using a baked falafel recipe rather than frying it, I was still able to get the yummy taste of a falafel sandwich without the fat.

I have tweaked various falafel recipes over time but have finally settled on this baked falafel recipe. In my attempt to get close to the yummy creamy garlic sauce from the past, I have put together a tahini and yoghurt dressing to go on top. It uses a mixture of fat free Greek yoghurt and light creme fraiche to keep the sauce diet friendly. If you can’t get creme fraiche you could just as easily use a reduced fat sour cream.

So, now when I get flashbacks to my falafel period, I reach for my baked falafel recipe and I can even go heavy on the dressing without worry too much about the calorie count. Plus, this baked falafel recipe is packed with some many vegetables that it isn’t just tasty and low fat but down right healthy too.

Baked falafel pitas with tahini yoghurt dressing

Baked falafel recipe

Ingredients:

For Falafel:

2 (400g/14 ounce) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 teaspoon ground corriander (cilantro)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 cup fresh parsley
oil, for brushing
6 pita breads
1 head lettuce
1/2 cucumber, sliced

For Tahni Yoghurt Dressing:

2 tablespoons fat free Greek yoghurt
2 tablespoons reduced fat creme fraiche or sour cream
1 1/2 tablespoons tahni
1 clove garlic, minced (I grate mine with a microplane)
1 teaspoon lime juice
1 tablespoon fresh corriander, chopped

Directions

1. Turn the grill/broiler to medium.
2. Tip the chickpeas into a food processor or blender with the onion, carrots, garlic, cilantro, cumin, parsley and salt and pepper to taste.
3. Whizz briefly so that you retain some of the chunky texture to the chickpeas.
4. Using your hands, shape the mixture into six burgers.
5. Brush both sides of each burger with a little oil.
6. Carefully place the burgers on to a grill/broiler pan lined with foil and grill/broil for 5 minutes on each side.
7. Meanwhile, toast the pita breads and tear the lettuce into strips.
8. Mix the dressing ingredients together in a bowl.
9. Stuff the hot burgers into the pita breads.
10. Add a small handful of torn lettuce and a few slices of cucumber.
11. Spoon over the dressing and enjoy.

Ah, the humble spud. As much as we love the potato, it can get a bit samey if you have them often. Luckily, one of the best thing about potatoes is that they are so adaptable and you aren’t likely to run out of new potato recipes any time soon if you allow yourself to get a bit creative. There is always a potato recipe that is something totally new to try and that is exactly what I thought when I saw Anjum Anand’s recipe for Baked ricotta-stuffed tandoori potatoes in a recent copy of Good Food Magazine.

baked ricotta-stuffed tandoori potato recipe

I won’t lie, the recipe is a bit fiddly because you have to hollow out the potatoes just enough to stuff them with the ricotta mixture. However, I found that once I figured out that an apple corer was the right tool for the job it went much more smoothly. Once you are past that bit it is just a matter of making up the ricotta mixture and the tandoori yoghurt glaze for the outside of the potatoes. Both are pretty darn simple. After that it is just letting them cook in the oven.

Since I am a bit of a spice wimp, I used less chilli in the ricotta mixture. I also left out the cashews to save calories and because my husband isn’t a lover of nuts. I don’t think the dish really missed the nuts, if I am honest. I suppose they add texture but I didn’t eat the potatoes and think ‘hmm, this needs nutty crunch’.

Sliced thickly, these look pretty impressive on the plate and served along with some steamed veg made a great light meal. I think the tandoori glaze would be excellent on chicken or fish too for the meat eaters in the family. As it uses Greek yoghurt as the base, it isn’t even really too calorie loaded either.

Beans, beans, the more you eat the more you….erm, feel full? When I decided to start eating less meat, I knew that I still had to get my protein from somewhere if I was going to be eating a healthy diet. This is where my love affair with beans and other legumes began.

I quickly discovered that if I made beans and pulses the main feature of my evening meals that I would feel satisfied and full all the way through the evening and feel no need at all to snack or nibble for the rest of the evening. The reason for this is because they are slow burning and low gi which means that it takes your body longer to break them down for digestion. All of this regulates insulin levels and helps you to feel fuller and sustain energy for longer. All of which is fantastic for me since I am insulin resistant.

Bean and veggie baked patties

Something else I discovered was that beans and other legumes are very flexible and you can get really creative with them in your cooking. Everything from a bean casserole to a bean burger can be whipped up and be both tasty and healthy. What’s more, is you don’t have to be an actual vegetarian to enjoy these dishes, either.

When I saw the My Legume Love Affair food blog event, it sounded like a perfect event for me and the Weekend Carnivore blog. The event is run by The Well Seasoned Cook and is this month hosted by Monsoon Spice.

I thumbed through my cooking magazines looking for a legume based recipe to make and the veggie bean bakes found in a recent copy of BBC Good Food Magazine caught my eye. In the past, my husband has been really receptive to bean burgers and so I was fairly sure he would eat these without much complaint.

I followed the recipe pretty much to the letter apart from using panko breadcrumbs instead of fresh ones. That did indeed work well but I think next time I would try the fresh breadcrumbs to see if it makes any difference. I also chopped up some fresh parsley and added it to the mix. For the mixed beans, I used a can of mixed beans that included adzuki beans,cannellini beans and a few other types.

Once the potatoes are boiled, the rest of the bean and veggie patties recipe comes together very quickly. At the stage in which I was forming the patty, I thought that this would actually make a really tasty mashed potato. In the patty form, it wasn’t dissimilar to a bubble and squeak cake. Nothing that I am going to complain about!

The original recipe, calls for them to be served with salsa. We didn’t have any in the house, so I simply served them with a green salad and they went down hubby’s hatch without complaint. Next time, I will try putting some spices into the bean and potato mixture to try to pep them up even more.

One of the things I love the most about cooking vegetarian food is that there is always some new ingredients to explore. Until I started to follow a largely vegetarian diet, I had never had or cooked with polenta. I am not even really sure that I knew that it was actually cornmeal. Yet, now I love the stuff. I dig how you can have it all mushy like porridge or if you let it sit for a bit it gets nice and solid but tastes just as yummy.

When I saw this recipe over at Recipezaar, I knew I had to give it a try because I had never had polenta combined with parmesan cheese. For some reason, I have mostly kept it sweet. The recipe was posted by Sharon123,  a Recipezaar regular who has tons and tons of very good vegetarian recipes amongst her collection. Really, she is the one that should be doing a vegetarian cooking blog!

Creamy Parmesan polenta with garlic kale

I wasn’t sure about some aspects of the recipe when I first read it. In particular, I wasn’t sure how the raisins would play with the other savoury ingredients. They really did work though to balance out all the rich tasting ingredients that went into the dish. A bit like how it is always nice to add a little something sweet to a curry to balance the spice.

The original recipe – Polenta With Garlicky Greens – called for Swiss chard. I have never been able to find chard in any of the British supermarkets I visit unless it is as part of a pre-packaged salad bag and then only in very small amounts. I did, however, have some curly kale and so I used that instead and I have to say it was a good choice because the dark leafy green really carried the garlic very well.

Truly, this is a great vegetarian comfort food dish and isn’t too dissimilar to eating a big batch of cheesey mashed potatoes topped with rich garlic greens. Mmm!

The times when it gets difficult to stick to a vegetarian diet comes when I just have no energy to get into cooking a meal that takes a long time to prepare. It is also exactly these times when I am starving and need something that is really going to fill me up. It was just one of these moments when I came up with these Mexican bean stuffed baked potatoes.

I have always loved how a good twice baked potato recipe is an easy recipe but looks really impressive. The problem is though that so many twice baked potato recipes are usually rather high in fat and calories from all the butter and cheese that usually goes into making them. Anything that high in fat is a no no for me these days.

I am always looking for something else to put refried beans into. I know they don’t look pretty but I just love them and with vegetarian and low fat versions of refried beans now readily available in British supermarkets I pretty much always have a can in the cupboard. I usually have a bit of salsa in the house and we are never without some potatoes. So, this really is the sort of recipe that comes more out of a cupboard than a cookbook.

You can control the spice levels by picking the intensity of salsa that your family enjoys. I am a total spicy heat wimp. So, I used a mild salsa and then the two of us topped our Mexican twice baked potatoes with chillies. I went for the really mild banana peppers. These are fantastic and now sold as part of the Discovery brand’s range of Mexican foods. They aren’t in every supermarket but I usually can find them in Morrisons. My husband has much more of head for spices. So, he topped his with Jalapeños.

Mexican Bean Stuffed Baked Potatoes

Mexican bean stuffed baked potatoes

Ingredients:

4 baked potatoes, freshly baked
1 (435 gram/15 ounce) can fat free refried beans
1 cup salsa

Optional Toppings:

fat free sour cream
banana peppers
jalapeños
chives

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees or gas mark 6.
2. Cut off most of the top of the baked potatoes and scoop out the majority of the insides leaving just enough not to break the skins.
3. Put the potato shells into an oven proof dish and the insides into a large bowl.
4. Gently mash the potato insides but don’t mash so much that they are fully smooth.
5. Empty the can of beans and the cup of salsa into the bowl and gently mix so that everything is combined but not over mixed or it will get really loose.
6. Spoon the mixture back into the potato shells and bake for 20 minutes.
7. Top with any or all of the optional toppings and serve with a green salad for a low fat and healthy vegetarian meal.

Serves 4

We don’t eat that many takeaways these days but we aren’t immune to urge to dial for our dinner either. When the takeaway mood strikes, more often than not, we reach for the Chinese takeaway menu. That isn’t horrible if it is a now and then treat but we haven’t been great with the calorie counting as of late. So, rather than call for our takeaway treat, I have been trying to cook my own vegetarian recipes that also satisfy our urge for a Chinese takeaway.

This week, we were really craving something Chinese and noodle based. Luckily, I had actually picked up a number of Chinese style ingredients in my shopping trip this week. The only thing that I was missing was a recipe and especially a vegetarian recipe that also worked to fit my low fat requirements. That has never stopped me before and I decided to try my hand at creating a play it by ear style vegetarian recipe for a Chinese themed soup.

I had a bag of precooked Chinese rice noodles in the fridge and so it made sense to use them and make a rice noodle soup. They take next to no time to cook. So, I worked on cooking up a broth first by heating up some stock and throwing in whatever veggies I could find. In this case, it was bamboo shoots, spring onions, frozen corn, mushrooms and carrots.

Because I knew that the soup wouldn’t take long to cook, I decided to shred the carrots so that they would cook quickly. I did go for a chicken flavoured stock but it was a vegetarian chicken stock. I am sure that you could use vegetable stock too. I just liked the idea of a Chinese chicken noodle soup recipe. I threw in some ingredients that felt appropriate for a Chinese soup recipe and boiled it all up for a while. finally, I tossed the cooked rice noodles into the pot just for the last couple minutes.

The end result of my experiment to make a vegetarian recipe to stand in for our normal Chinese takeaway fix, resulted in my hot and sour vegetable rice noodle soup. We both ended up really enjoying the soup recipe and not only didn’t mind that it was a vegetarian recipe but expressly enjoyed all the veggies keeping the rice noodle soup light tasting while being rather filling too. The combination of ingredients made the soup have the right balance of being a bit spicy with the background sour taste.

We will be for sure making this vegetarian noodle soup recipe again when the takeaway urges strike.

Hot and Sour Vegetable Rice Noodle Soup

Hot and Sour Vegetable Rice Noodle Soup Recipe

Ingredients:
53 fluid ounces vegetarian chicken stock
2 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped up
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, chopped
1 cup green onion, including the green tops, roughly chopped
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup light soy sauce
1 cup mushroom, thickly sliced
1/2 cup frozen corn
1 cup bamboo shoot, from a jar
2 cups carrots, shredded
1 teaspoon dried chili pepper flakes
13 1/2 ounces rice noodles, already cooked
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions:
1. Put the stock, garlic and ginger into a large pot and bring to a boil.
2. Reduce heat and allow to simmer for about 5 minutes.
3. Add the onions, rice wine vinegar and sauce and bring back to a boil.
4. Add in the mushrooms, corn, bamboo shots,shredded carrots and dried chili flakes. Allow to boil for about 5 minutes.
5. Put the noodles and black pepper into the pot and cook for two or three minutes just until they are warmed up.
6. Divide into bowls and enjoy.

Serves 4

When I am in a rush to put something on the dinner table, it can be so tempting to just reach for some meat and throw it in the oven to cook. However, I really am trying to eat less meat and eat as many vegetarian meals as possible. On top of which, I want to make sure everything I cook is a healthy recipe. It doesn’t always work out that way but that is certainly the aim.

The other day, we were in between shopping and had very little in the house and I had even less desire to spend a load of time standing in the kitchen putting together a meal. So, I opened the cupboards and took at look in the vegetable drawer to see what had made it to the end of the shopping week. It was a real mixture of stuff but for some reason it screamed ‘Mexican’ to me.

I warned my husband that I was trying a new vegetarian recipe and it was either going to be really good or really horrible. Luckily, my new recipe for vegetarian tacos turned out to be very good! On top of being a super easy vegetarian recipe, it is packed full of vegetables that your kids or other veggie phobic family members won’t even notice are there when they are chowing down.

Vegetarian Bean and Lentil Tacos

Vegetarian Bean And Lentil Taco Recipe

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons canola oil
1 cup carrot, shredded
1 cup zucchini, shredded
1 cup onion, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 cup mushroom, finely sliced
1 (14 ounce) can cooked lentils, drained
2 1/2 teaspoons fajitas seasoning mix
1 (15 ounce) can fat-free refried beans
8 taco shells
1/2 cup reduced-fat cheddar cheese, shredded

Toppings:
reduced-fat sour cream (optional)
salsa (optional)
guacamole (optional)
jalapenos (optional)

Directions:
1.Heat oil in a large pan over a medium heat.
2. Add in the shredded carrots, zucchini, chopped onions and the garlic powder.
3. Stir for a minute two before reducing the heat and letting them sweat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Add the lentils, mushrooms and fajitas seasoning and cooking, stirring often, over medium heat for another five minutes.
5. Meanwhile, put the taco shells in the oven to cook through. The ones that I buy take about 5 minutes so this can be done while the lentils and mushrooms are cooking down.
6. Stir the refried beans into the vegetable and lentil mixture until everything is combined and the beans are just warmed through.
7. Spoon the lentil and bean mixture into the taco shells and top with shredded cheese.
8. Add any of the other toppings you may enjoy and eat as you would a ‘normal’ taco.

Makes 8 tacos