All That I'm Eating

Recipe ideas for budget meals, everyday cooking and a little indulgence. Travel inspiration and restaurant reviews too.

Golden Beetroot Remoulade

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golden beetroot remoulade

Beetroot has to be one of my favourite root vegetables. I love all the different colours you can get and a recent addition to my veg box was a bunch of golden beetroot. At first I thought about boiling it and mixing it with white wine vinegar and some spices. Then I got to thinking about proper comfort food and a golden beetroot remoulade would be the perfect finishing touch to a rather traditional dinner. A fantastically earthy alternative to using celeriac.

ingredients

You will need (for a good bowlful of remoulade, enough for dinner and leftovers for the next day): read more

Beetroot and Feta Dip

By 15 Comments

Beetroot is one of my favourite vegetables; it’s sweet, earthy flavour is like nothing else. I like to roast it with other root veg, boil it and add a little rich balsamic vinegar for a simple side or salad and I have tried smoking it on the barbecue in the past too. This latest batch of beetroot however I decided should be turned into a beetroot and feta dip. Firstly because the colour would be glorious and secondly because I wanted something punchy and full of flavour to serve with some delicious sourdough. read more

Chargrilled Broccoli, Potato and Pesto Salad

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chargrilled broccoli, potato and pesto salad

It was one of those evenings. You know the ones, where you look in the fridge expecting a sudden moment of inspiration and the fridge just stares blankly back. I’d put something down on the meal plan but for one reason or another didn’t manage to cook it; sometimes I forget to buy an ingredient or I use it all in another meal forgetting to save any for later in the week. My potato, chargrilled broccoli and pesto salad came out of seemingly nowhere. This meal’s saviour turned out to be a little pot of pesto; it transformed a sorry looking collection of vegetables into a rather tasty meal.

ingredients

You will need (for two):

  • 2 large handfuls new potatoes
  • 1 small head broccoli
  • Small handful green beans, sliced diagonally
  • 3-4 tbsp pesto (fresh from a deli or homemade if you like). You could use a vegan pesto to make the meal vegan
  • Small handful pine nuts
  • 2 handfuls washed rocket

method

Start by scrubbing the potatoes and then chopping them into halves or quarters depending on their size and how you like them. Leaving them a little larger just means they will take a little longer to cook. Put the potatoes into a pan of cold salted water and bring the pan to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Simmer until cooked through.

Chop the broccoli into small florets and pop them in a steamer over the potatoes for 1-2 minutes until bright green but still crunchy.

Get a griddle pan onto a medium/high heat and tip the broccoli in. Keep the broccoli moving occasionally but allow it to get chargrilled at the same time.

Re-use the same steamer and pop the green beans above the potatoes for the last few minutes of the potato cooking time.

Drain the potatoes and green beans and put to one side.

Put a small frying pan onto a medium heat and add the pine nuts, moving them round the pan often until they are toasted.

Mix the broccoli and pesto into the potatoes and beans and then serve up with the rocket and top with the pine nuts.

The chargrilled broccoli adds such a great flavour to this salad, if I was having a barbecue I’d definitely try the broccoli on there before mixing into the salad. This is a really hearty and filling dish and would be a great side but I enjoyed it just on its own. A few halved cherry tomatoes, some leftover chicken or salmon would be delicious additions and would probably leave you enough for lunch leftovers the next day.

My Favourite Autumn Recipes

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stirring the vegetable minestrone

There are several things which tell me autumn has arrived. I suddenly find that I am wearing my wellies more than previously, apples and pears have appeared in the fruit bowl again, I’m having porridge for breakfast and the wood burner comes alive. Then I notice that the leaves have turned orange and are falling from the trees, there’s a bit more rain than before and I really fancy a roast dinner. I wanted to share some of my favourite autumn recipes with you. I love cooking during autumn; there are so many colours around to enjoy, woody herbs get popped into pots and pans and there’s always the inevitable squash or pumpkin.

During the autumn season in my kitchen you’ll find fruit crumbles hot from the oven and smothered in thick cream, hearty pasta bakes which bubble over the edge of the dish, a batch of sloe gin on the go in the back of the cupboard and all manner of combinations of vegetables roasting in the oven.

You can’t go wrong with an Autumn Vegetable Minestrone. Whichever vegetables you happen to have in your fridge can be added to this hearty soup which is so full of flavour. Adding both pasta and beans means this minestrone is really filling too.

If you’ve not tried making Sloe Gin before then maybe this year is the year! You can wait until the first frost, or you can pick early and freeze the sloes at home before you start infusing those beautiful purple berries with gin and sugar. A glass of sloe gin by a roaring fire when your warming your feet up after a soggy walk; there’s nothing better.

Staying in on a rainy day and getting something on the hob to blip away in the background is what my Proper Ragu is all about. The longer you cook it, the more intense the flavours become and it’s fantastic served with pasta, used for lasagne or other pasta bakes. It takes some time but it’s so worth it.

Similar to the sloe gin above you can also try making some Quince Gin. It is a really beautiful colour once it’s done and doesn’t take as long to infused as sloe gin. A really delicate and fanitly tropical flavour there’s nothing quite like it and it means you can mix up my Lime, Thyme & Quince Gin Cocktail too!

 

Autumn is such a great time for baking and I find myself craving some rather chocolatey things. My Chocolate Fudge Cheesecake Brownies are a real indulgence and perfect with a big cup of tea on a drizzly weekend. If you’re a fan of a Millionaire’s slice (I have to say, my biscuit/bake of choice whenever I’m out) then this Millionaire’s Tart is worth a try, complete with salted chocolate ganache.

Venison comes into season in the autumn months and knobbly celeriac starts appearing at the markets. They are delicious as seasonal ingredients served together in Celeriac Remoulade, Venison and Sourdough Open Sandwiches.

This year the blackberries have been out for a little while and there are still plenty more to pick. I absolutely love using wild blackberries, they have such a delicious sweet flavour which is far nicer than those you can buy in the supermarket. Whether you fancy trying a Blackberry and Pear Pavlova, my Baked Blackberry Cheesecake or some Blackberry and Perry Jelly get your hands on the berries fresh from the hedges.

I don’t mind a butternut squash, but I’m not the biggest fan of them. Mixed with delicious spices and turned into a soup it results in something bright and vibrant which I do actually quite enjoy eating! You can try my Curried Squash Soup with Toasted Spice Pumpkin Seeds and see for yourself!

 

There are so many varieties of apples and pears I love finding new ones to try. I love baked apples, they are so simple to make and my recipe for Baked Apples with Salted Toffee Sauce is really straightforward and tastes so good! Poached Pears are also a favourite of mine and even better if you can find some elderberry wine to poach them in!

 

This is the time of year to get out and forage for some wild ingredients, including blackberries! If you can find some cobnuts, also called wild hazelnuts, then you could have a go at making my Wild Hazelnut Brittle. Keep an eye out for elderberries too as they make fantastic 

Elderberry and Apple Turnovers read more

Sausage, Broccoli and Spinach Pasta

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sausage and broccoli pasta with spinach

Using sausages when making a pasta sauce is a great way to add depth and flavour to the sauce and cut down on cooking time too. My most recent recipe creation came about because I had one too many broccoli heads in the fridge; so my sausage, broccoli and spinach pasta was born. I used some delicious Italian sausages for this which were flavoured with plenty of herbs and a little fennel. The spinach was added as an afterthought but actually I really liked the earthiness it brought to the dish.

Ingredients

You will need (for 6 portions, it freezes well):

  • 1 onion, finely sliced
  • 6 Italian sausages
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • Pinch dried chilli flakes
  • 1 head broccoli, cut into small florets
  • 150ml chicken or vegetable stock
  • Handful fresh spinach, roughly chopped
  • Salt and pepper
  • Olive oil for cooking

Method

Start by adding a little oil to a large frying pan on a medium heat. Add the onion and fry for 10 minutes or so until softened.

Squeeze the sausage meat from the skins into the frying pan. Fry the sausage and onion together until the sausage is cooked through and starting to turn golden brown. Break the sausage meat down with a wooden spoon while it cooks.

Add the garlic and chilli to the pan and fry for another minute or two.

Tip in the broccoli and stir everything together well then add the stock and pop a lid on the pan.

Bring the pan to a boil then remove the lid and let it reduce to a thick sauce. Add the spinach for the last minute or so of cooking.

Cook the pasta according to pack instructions while you’re waiting for the pasta sauce.

Drain the pasta and season the pasta sauce then mix everything together and serve up.

I like how some of the broccoli breaks down and some stays in larger pieces and it gets really mixed through the sauce. The spinach ends up all silky and the chilli adds the tiniest bit of warmth to the sauce but it’s by no means spicy. Depending on which sausages you use the sauce will taste different so it’s a great excuse to play around with all sorts of flavours. If you mixed this with a little tomato or béchamel sauce I reckon it would make a spectacular pasta bake.

Autumn Vegetable Minestrone

By 14 Comments

stirring the vegetable minestrone

The weather has certainly changed, although I do consider November to technically be in autumn things have started to get much wintrier. With ice in the mornings, digging scarves and hats out of the drawers and the fire blazing it’s definitely the time of year for soup. The more filling and comforting the soup the better and my autumn vegetable minestrone is exactly that; a restorative bowl of loveliness. Filled with six different vegetables including beans to bulk it all out it’s simple, speedy, cheap and delicious.

Ingredients

You will need (for four hearty bowls):

  • 1 large leek, ends removed, sliced £0.25
  • 3 carrots, peeled and sliced or diced £0.25
  • 2 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced £0.05
  • 2 tbsp olive oil £0.10
  • 1 large handful kale, shredded £0.30
  • 1 mug frozen peas £0.15
  • 2 nuggets frozen chopped spinach £0.15
  • 1 litre hot vegetable stock £0.20
  • 100g orzo (or other small) pasta £0.20
  • 1 tin cannellini beans, drained and rinsed £0.55
  • Salt and pepper £0.02

Total £2.22

Method

Start by getting a large lidded saucepan on a low heat. Add the leek, carrots and garlic along with the oil to the pan and cook on a low-medium heat. Cook with the lid on, stirring from time to time, for 10 minutes.

Increase the heat of the pan slightly and add the kale, frozen peas and spinach. Leave for a minute or two to bring the pan back up to temperature before pouring in the hot stock.

Bring the pan to the boil then add the orzo. Reduce the heat to simmer and cook for six minutes.

Add the beans to the pan along with some salt and pepper and cook for four minutes more.

Check the seasoning before serving.

I love that this minestrone is so full of veg and is really substantial and hearty too. The pasta and cannellini beans really fill you up and because it’s not blended each of the vegetables retains its own texture and flavour. This recipe is a great way of using up all those autumn vegetables in the fridge; you could add diced tomato or pepper for a beautiful hit of red too. It freezes really well so it’s ideal for a bit of batch cooking and when it comes to summer, there’s a delicious summer version to try too!

P.S. If you haven’t discovered frozen chopped spinach yet it’s a great freezer staple. I chuck a couple of the nuggets in all sorts of food for extra veg; so convenient!

Harissa Roasted Squash and Red Rice

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Harissa Roasted Squash with red rice and salad

Sometimes things look tastier than they are and I often find that the reverse is also true. This harissa roasted squash and red rice looks ok, if slightly on the orange side, but trust me when I say it is delicious. Full of colour and flavour, the slight spiciness from the harissa works wonders with the sweet butternut squash. Red rice does take longer to cook than white rice but its nutty wholesomeness is well worth the wait. Bung this oven, sit back and get ready for a taste of autumn; it’s ready faster than you’d think.

Ingredients

You will need (for two):

  • 1 small butternut (or other) squash, seeds removed, peeled and roughly diced
  • 1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 1 tbsp Harissa paste
  • 1 tbsp rapeseed oil
  • Salt and pepper

 

  • 4 tbsp yoghurt (use non dairy yoghurt to make it vegan)
  • 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
  • Salt and pepper
  • Red rice
  • Salad

Method

Start by getting an oven preheating to 180C.

Mix together the squash, onion, harissa paste, oil and seasoning in a bowl. Make sure everything is well coated in the harissa. If you like it hotter you can always add more harissa. Tip the mixture onto a baking tray trying to get everything on a single layer.

Bake the squash and onions in the oven for 30-40 minutes or until the squash is soft and starting to turn golden.

While the squash is baking cook the rice according to packet instructions; it normally takes 25-30 minutes.

Stir together the yoghurt, paprika and a little salt and pepper.

Serve the squash up with the rice and salad and dollop the smoky paprika yoghurt over the top.

I was really surprised how much oomph the paprika yoghurt brought to the whole dish; it was a great cooling contrast to the hot harissa and it married the veg, rice and salad together so well. The harissa roasted squash was really punchy and the salad fresh and crisp. There are lots of different harissa pastes out there, some are much better than others, so keep trying them until you find one that you like. Wonderfully orange this meal almost glows from the plate, tremendously healthy and filling and ready in under 45 minutes. That’s the kind of weeknight cooking I’m after.

Lemon Almond Biscuits

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Lemon Almond Biscuits with tea

When the nights get darker and colder I reach for two things: one is the big cast iron saucepan and the other is my collection of spices. But for all the big flavours, homely soups, stews and curries that seem so apt at this time of year sometimes I crave a little delicacy. Something subtle, light and simple is what I’m after and these Lemon Almond Biscuits are exactly that. Just the ticket at the end of a busy day with a cup of tea, preferably Earl Grey. These little biscuits take less than half an hour from start to finish; perfect.

Ingredients

You will need (for around 15 biscuits):

  • 150g butter, cubed
  • 75g caster sugar
  • 150g plain flour
  • 25g ground almonds
  • Zest 1 lemon

 

Method

Put all of the ingredients into a mixer or a bowl and combine to form a dough.

Preheat an oven to 150C.

Divide the dough up into small balls, slightly smaller than a golf ball, then put onto greased trays. Leave a little room between each of them so they can spread out. Press the top of each one lightly with a fork.

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until lightly golden. Leave to cool slightly before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

These aren’t the snappiest of biscuits, they’re not supposed to be. They are ever so slightly soft in the middle and all the better for it. If you would prefer them to be crisper then just press them a little more with the fork to make them thinner. The lemon and almond flavours are subdued and these easy biscuits are the perfect antidote to a busy autumn evening. Uncomplicated to bake, unfussy to eat and with all the comfort of a good shortbread I’ll be keeping some of these in the biscuit tin for the next few months.

Mini Toffee Pear Pies

By 15 Comments

pears for making pies

I think pears are annoying. Lovely, but annoying. They sit around in the fruit bowl looking all delicious and they’re never ripe. Then, when one is ready to eat the rest immediately go ripe too and then you have to eat them all at once. Well I’m not standing for it any longer, I decided that I would use the pears while they are under ripe so I can enjoy them while waiting for the others to ripen. The word ripe has lost all meaning. These mini toffee pear pies are made from surprisingly few ingredients (if you buy readymade pastry) and are just perfect for celebrating the pear in all its I’m-never-quite-ready-ok-now-I’m-too-ready glory.

Ingredients

You will need (for 12 mini pies):

  • 6-7 medium pears, just under ripe is ideal (alternatively you could use some sharp apples)
  • 75g salted butter
  • 2 tbsp dark muscovado sugar
  • Zest 1 lemon
  • 1 sheet readymade and rolled shortcrust pastry
  • Milk for brushing
  • Caster sugar

Method

Start by making the pie filling. Chop the pears up into small chunks and get a frying pan on a low/medium heat.

Add the butter and the sugar to the frying pan and leave to soften and mix together. Once you have a lovely, dark brown, smooth sauce tip the pears in and continue to cook for a few minutes so that the pears get well covered and the sauce thickens. Add the lemon zest. Put to one side to cool.

Roll the pastry out on a floured surface to make it around half as big again. You will need two fluted pastry cutters: one 8.5cm and one 6cm.

Lightly grease a 12 hole cupcake tin.

Cut out 12 circles of pastry with the larger cutter and put these into the holes in the cupcake tin. Re-roll the pastry and cut out 12 circles with the 6cm cutter.

Preheat an oven to 180C.

Spoon the cooled pear mixture into each pastry case, top up each mini pie with any leftover caramel sauce.

Brush the edge of the pastry cases lightly with milk and then put the smaller pastry circles on top. Seal with your fingers or a fork. Brush the tops of the pies with a little more milk, add a small steam hole in the top of each pie with a sharp knife, then sprinkle with a little caster sugar.

Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.

I served a few of them warm, straight from the oven with a drizzle of double cream. What a little piece of loveliness that was. The fruit inside is soft and slightly sharp, the toffee sauce has bubbled up onto the pastry and made a sticky, sweet edge and the pastry is warm and crisp. Adding the lemon prevents the pie from being overly sweet. These would be perfect to take on a picnic or to nibble on for bonfire night. Alternatively, and this is quite a niche suggestion, if you have a log burner, pop a couple of pies on a piece of foil on top of the burner and wait for them to get warmed through before serving with ice cream.

Miso Roasted Aubergine with Rainbow Chard and Soy Dressing

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miso roasted aubergine with chard and brown rice

There’s a bit of a miso theme on the blog at the moment. For two reasons: firstly, miso is delicious and secondly, it’s expensive and you have to buy quite a lot. So I needed to use up my stash and I really wanted to have a go at my own miso roasted aubergine. Most of the ingredients used are pretty standard store cupboard staples; I was pretty amazed how much more than the sum of its parts this recipe is. It’s fantastic, if I do say so myself, and my miso glaze and my soy dressing will be making many future appearances in my kitchen.

Ingredients

You will need (for two):

  • 2 aubergines (normal purple ones are fine but if you can get stripy or white ones they do look lovely and are slightly smaller)
  • 150g brown rice
  • 5 stalks of chard roughly chopped

For the miso glaze:

  • 2 tbsp white miso paste
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp runny honey (use maple syrup or agave to make it vegan)
  • 1 tsp water
  • 1 tbsp rapeseed oil

For the dressing:

  • 2 tbsp finely chopped red onion
  • 1 tsp pickled ginger
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp rapeseed oil
  • Juice 1 lime
  • black pepper
  • 1 tsp sugar

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