pesto – Food That We Make

Courgette, pea & pesto soup

hannahnicklin — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 19:47:16 +0000

MOAR SOUP. You can probably tell how much I love soup. It’s usually cheap (unless it’s mushroom) and such an easy lunch, make one lot at the beginning of the week and you’re sorted. This makes 4 very generous, very filling portions, and has a nice kick to it from the pesto, and the veg feels nice and spring-ish. Remember to make sure you find veggie-friendly pesto. Also, bonus super-short making time on this’un, 20 minutes tops. Original recipe from the BBC Good Food site.

Prep Time: 10 mins | Cook Time: 15 mins | Makes: Serves 4
Nutritional Info: 200 kcals, protein 12g, carbohydrate 21g, fat 8 g, saturated fat 2g, fibre 8g, sugar 7g, salt 1,05 g

Ingredients:

Heat the tbsp of olive oil in a large pan, then add and fry the garlic for a minute.

Add the quartered and sliced courgettes, cook for about 5 mins until just softening

Add the stock, peas and drained cannellini beans, and simmer for 5 mins until the peas are cooked

Add the pesto (to taste, make sure you don’t make it too salty) and then season if needed

Serve with some lovely crusty bread, and be aware that these are LARGE portions, this is my bowl about a third of the way through:

Mixed mushroom, cranberry and hazlenut quinoa

hannahnicklin — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 20:43:23 +0000

So this was, strictly speaking, a little more work of a lunch than I had time for today, but it was very worth it. Best only making it if you have a full hour, though it’s mostly letting it simmer while you do a sudoku or something. Pretty faithful to the original Alice Hart recipe (seriously, buy her book, it’s the perfect useful/nice to look at mix), except I got basil pesto instead of parsley because I am busy and tired and not paying attention at the moment. Also I used half/half bulghar and quinoa, and it tasted good, and looked really nice, so might be worth a try if you fancy the speckled look? Commence recipe:

Prep Time: 25 | Cook Time: 25 | Servings: 2
Nutritional Info: 401kcal 34g carbs 26g fat 8g protein

Ingredients:

place the dried mushrooms in a jug and cover in 350ml boiling water, set aside

melt half the butter with the oil and fry the fresh mushrooms over a high heat until golden brown, tip into a bowl and set aside

return the pan to a gentler heat, add the remaining butter and soften the shallot/s,

add the garlic and quinoa and cook, stirring for about 5 mins until golden and pale

Strain the soaked mushroom, saving the soaking liquid, chop up the porcini and add to the quinoa

Pour over the mushroom water and add a good pinch of salt. Lower the heat and simmer gently for 18-20 mins until the liquid is nearly all gone.

Stir in the cranberries and pesto just a minute or two before the liquid is totally absorbed

serve with a squeeze of lemon, sprinkle with hazelnuts and parsley.

et voila:

Looks nice, tasted good, too.

Spring Vegetables with Pesto Polenta

hannahnicklin — Mon, 28 May 2012 19:47:58 +0000

So it turns out Quark isn’t just a category of sub-atomic particle, it’s a kind of curd cheese of German origin. WHO KNEW. The people from the GoodFood 101 veggie dishes book, that’s who. This is the closest there is to instant homemade food, takes 15 minutes, TOPS, it’s stupidly healthy, and you get to use something called ‘quark’, everybody’s a winner. I imagine you could veganise this with some vegan pesto, and using vegan-friendly soft cheese replacement or natural soya yogurt in place of the quark. It doesn’t have the richness of flavour of a dish you might cook for longer, but as a quick-hit fresh spring supper, (I’m saying supper like I’m a Tory or something), it’s just what you need.

Prep Time: 5 mins | Cook Time: 10 mins | Servings: 2
Nutrition: 394 kcal, 15g protein, 40g carbs, 21g fat, 3g sat, 4g fibre, 1.27g salt

Here goes:

First up prep the veg, and chop the garlic and parsley. combine the garlic parsley and lemon zest now, you’ll struggle for time later!

next set two pans on to boil, one with stock (below is my homemade stock mix getting to work) and one of boiling water for either boiling or steaming the veg (I don’t have a steaming thing, so I boiled, think steaming is probably better, though)

Once the stock is boiling, pour in the polenta, turn down the heat, and whisk until stiff, then add the quark, whisking continuously

At the same time start the veg

After 5 minutes, whisk the pesto into the polenta and season well

Spoon it onto a plate, drain the veg, sprinkle them with the parsely/garlic/lemon mix and toss to combine, pop the veg/parsley mix on top of the polenta, grind a bit of black pepper over the top and drizzle a bit of olive oil. Serve!

Pesto, pine nut, tomato and mushroom couscous

hannahnicklin — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:21:51 +0000

Another really tasty hot couscous lunch, this time of a vegetarian (not vegan variety). Make sure your pesto is veggie friendly, too. This is equally as good the day after, cold, so stick it in the fridge for a lunch when you’re out of the house, or take it to a barbecue. I always take this and homemade coleslaw, falafel, and salsa/guacamole to barbeques and all the meat eaters ask for the recipes, so TAKE THAT, MEAT. Or something. Anyway, here it is, based pretty faithfully on a 101 Good Food Seasonal Salads recipe, I think.

Prep Time: 15 mins | Servings: 2

Nutritional Info: 291 kcal, 7g protein, 29g carbs, 17g fat (4g sat), 1g fibre, 0.49g salt

Ingredients:

Make sure you’ve toasted your pine nuts before starting. Then start your couscous going by putting it in a bowl, pouring in the boiling stock, and covering.

Should take about 5 minutes, which is enough time to prep all your veg, halve the tomatoes, and thinly slice the spring onions and chestnut mushrooms. Buy good tomatoes and mushrooms/onions, because this is one of those simple ingredients recipes where good ingredients make all the difference.

When the couscous is done, fluff up, then add the olive oil and pesto to taste.

Stir through until well covered. Chuck in every thing else,

mix. Season to taste, and serve immediately, hot, or cool the same/next day as an awesome salad.