rice – Food That We Make

Cauliflower and Leek Risotto

hannahnicklin — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 23:05:31 +0000

ECONOMY DRIVE TIME. So a month into freelancing and it turns out unpredictable money is SCARY. Especially just before Christmas. The stuff it allows me to do is totally worth it, but I’m also starting to try and really reduce food spend. Just until I have some goddam reserves built up. So, enter a phase on Food That We Make of cheap things. But still tasty. Always tasty. First up, a super simple leek and cauliflower risotto. The rice, cauliflower and leeks all cheap cheap cheap. A little bit of cheese goes a long way, and cheap cooking wine will last a long while for it. I still didn’t scrimp on fresh parsley, though. It lifts the flavour too much to take out. So yeah, big amount, good flavour, very filling. My version makes the cauli quite smooshy, and I like the melty cauli style, but if you like your brassicas firm, then remove all stalkage and add with 15-20 minutes to go.

Serves: 4 | Prep Time: 10 mins | Cook time about 30-40 mins
Nutritional Info: 593 kcal, 74g carbs, 25g fat, 15g protein

Ingredients pic!

weigh everything out, slice the leeks thinly, crush and chop the garlic, break the cauliflower into florets, taking off the thickest bit of the stalks. Set the stock on to boil. Heat the oil in a well big pan.

Add the garlic, leeks and cauli and soften over the heat for 5-10 mins

Add the risotto rice, stir through and cook for about 2 mins until the rice is slightly glossy

Add the wine, stir until absorbed

If you’re not in a mega rush like I was, add the stock a bit by bit until absorbed and the rice is al dente. If in a massive rush add it all and hope it’s the right amount. Reduce for about 2o-25 mins

When it’s reduced, add the butter and parmesan, stir through for a couple minute more

Then add the parsley, season to taste (loads of black pepper) and serve. Voila:

15 minute cauliflower curry

hannahnicklin — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 18:50:11 +0000

Sometimes ‘cheap’ and ‘quick’ is tied joint first with ‘tasty’ and ‘healthy’ on your list of priorities. Especially if you have things like a family, or a ‘career’ in the arts. For those occasions, this recipe. 20 minutes including prep. Mainly if it takes you FIVE ACTUAL MINUTES to chop onion, garlic and break up a cauliflower. This is also one of those recipes that actual benefits from those weird (much cheaper) pellets of frozen spinach as opposed to the fresh stuff. Based on a Good Food recipe, I think. And vegan, like. You should also totes make your own curry paste. I hadn’t thought about that but I should probably blog my recipe, huh? It’s just puree’d garlic, ginger, onion, tomato mixed with spices and oil. Do that.

Prep time: 5 mins | Cook time: 15 mins | Serves: 2 (1 pictured)
Nutritional Info: 271 kcals, protein 12g, carbs 18.1g, fat 17.2 g, sat fat 1.4g, fibre 7.5g, salt 0.85 g

Ingredients pic:

soften the onion and garlic for 3 minutes or so

Add the curry paste, stir for 2-3mins until fragrant

Add the cauliflower, stir to coat, then add the chopped tomatoes and water, stir to mix

Then cover, and cook for 10 minutes. Put the rice (50g per person, well rinsed, 120ml water per person, cover and DO NOT UNCOVER, heat until all the water has boiled away and then set aside, still covered, to steam until the rest is ready)

Then, when the cauliflower is cooked, or about 10 mins in, stir in the spinach, and just before serving, the chopped coriander:

Serve with rice, or a naan or pitta instead. Tasty, quick, cheap. Awesomeness.

Seasonal Vegan Green Risotto

hannahnicklin — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 20:22:18 +0000

So I’m always making lovely creamy risottos on here with liberal amounts of creme fraiche or brie or butter or parmesan and although you can probably find replacements for those things, I thought I should make (and try!) a proper meant-to-be-vegan one. So here it is, and doubly well meaning with stupidly seasonal broad beans and herbs cut from my over-grown (and mostly dandelion and potato plant ridden) balcony garden. Although not in the ingredients or nutritional count I should also admit to having chucked a bit of soya cream in at the end, if you’re tracking nutrition 40ml or so should up it by 49kcal 2g carbs 4g fat 1g protein. Still pretty healthy, like. Based on a Rose Elliot recipe. So, here we go:

Prep Time: 5 minutes | Cook Time: 35 minutes | Makes: 2
Nutritional Info: 462 kcal, 83g carbs, 5g fat, 10g protein

Ingredients: GREEN THINGS

soften the celery and onion in the olive oil

meanwhile, make up you stock, bring it to simmer, and boil the broad bean/s for 4-5 mins until just tender, remove and set aside

When the onion and celery is softened add the risotto rice and garlic, stir around for a minute, then add the wine and reduce until absorbed

Add the stock a bit at a time, stirring throughout until you’ve used all the stock or until the rice is tender, this should take 25-30 mins

Add the spinach, petit pois, chopped herbs, and broad beans, stir through until spinach is wilted, season and tip in a little soya cream if you fancy it.

Serve!

Red lentil, aubergine and cherry tomato curry

hannahnicklin — Tue, 08 May 2012 20:16:05 +0000

Back on the old vegan recipes, this one is an adapted version of a recipe from Easy Vegetarian One-Pot – it is both of those things, but I’ve made it EVEN EASIER, because I couldn’t find anywhere in Loughborough to buy Curry Leaves (I didn’t try VERY hard, but I did try) so did some modifications to allow that (spice tweaks, using ready made curry paste, etc.). I’ll probably just get them off the internet, but I can’t believe they’ll make this any tastier, the adapted version is pretty damn tasty; I proper love aubergine, and the lentils make it very filling. ALL THE GOOD. Here comes the how-to:

Prep Time: 10 | Cook Time: 30 | Servings: 2
Nutritional Info: (changes were spices and curry paste so I think this will be the same) 169 kcal, 14g carbs, 11g fat, 5g protein. When served with 50g of rice (dry weight) and some mango chutney (20g) and soya yoghurt (75g), you’re looking at 431 kcal, 67g carbs, 14g fat and 12g protein.

Ingredients:

pop 1 tbsp of the oil in a pan and get it very hot, add the aubergine and fry until golden brown, about 5 mins

Remove the aubergine from the pan, and pop the rest of the oil in and soften the onion, garlic, and ginger (another 5 mins)

Add the cherry tomatoes and cook for 1-2 minutes, then remove those and put with the aubergine

Stir in the curry paste and tomato puree to the onion/garlic/ginger, and fry for 2 minutes until fragrant. FRAGRANT, I TELL THEE.

Add the water and lentils. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, adding more water if necessary, and stirring now and then to make sure the lentils aren’t sticking to the bottom. Start the rice after 10-12 minutes of simmering.

Another afterthought, after tasting the lentilly mix, not quite spicy enough, so added a pinch of chilli powder, so do this to taste

When the rice is off the heat and steaming through (directions for best rice over here, y’know), add the aubergine and tomatoes, stir until heated through, then add and stir in the coriander, and serve!

Totally vegan, reasonably seasonal (June-September, seasonal, really), very filling, quick, one-pot, and BLOODY TASTY. Everyone’s happy.

Mushroom Stroganoff with mustard. Mm.

hannahnicklin — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 19:47:35 +0000

This recipe is so quick it’s almost stressful. But then you have awesome tasty food, so that makes up for it. My first attempt at a mushroom stroganoff. I have yet to be able to spell the word ‘stroganoff’ correctly on first type. Autocorrect 1, Hannah 0. Anyway, I don’t know about meaty stroganoff, never had any when I was a meat eater (what did I do with those 25 years, huh?), so I don’t know how this rivals for people who like that dish, but as a primae-strongonoffer, I can confidently say it was WELL tasty. And quick. Which I already said. Simple, and makes a brill dinner with rice and french beans. I like the mustardy taste, and might even add a little more next time. Using the stock I made the other day, by the way. Used that twice and both times lovely results. Check it out.

I haven’t tried this recipe with soya cream instead of creme fraiche, but I might try that tomorrow to see if it’s easily veganised. Will edit if I remember.

Prep Time: 5 | Cook Time: 10 | Servings: 2

Nutritional Info: (stroganoff only) 120 kcal, 11g carbs, 7g fat, 5g protein, or (with 50g dry weight rice and 100g french beans) 317kcal, 53g carbs, 8g fat, 11g protein

Ingredients!

HOW TO MAKE:

If serving with rice and beans, set off the rice now, and put the bean water on to heat up.
Cook the onion in a covered pan with 3 tbsp of the stock for 4 mins until softened.

Stir in the mushrooms, garlic and seasoning, then add the remaining stock, mustard and tomato puree.

Cook for 2 mins covered, then uncover and reduce for 2 mins more. Chuck the beans in to your boiling water. Stir in the creme fraiche and parsley and serve as soon as possible on a bed of rice with those green beans.

mmmm. hipster vision.

Walsall CHILLI wraps

alexanderkelly — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 21:48:08 +0000

So, I grew up thinking there was only one way of making chilli – chilli the way my family made it: mince, kidney beans and carrot, mainly. I have tried making it with TVP, veggie mince and all that, but in the end, just veg and spice is my favourite.

It kind of feels thrown together rather than a recipe, but talking about it to my friends Zoe & Lou at Christmas made me think this was worth posting. Think of it as a guide rather than a recipe. It’s vegan until the grated cheese and sour cream are added later.

So, you will need: A lot of veg. It’s different every time I do it, but this is a (pepper-heavy) example.

Chop everything. Rinse the kidney beans in a sieve. Put three or four tbsp of olive oil in a large non-stick pan, over a low heat.

Throw in the carrot, then the onion, then the garlic. (If using fresh chilli, chop and add now.) Sometimes I put in mustard seeds here, too.

Stir round and fry for a few minutes until the onion is softening. Then add peppers, then courgette. (If not using peppers, I’ll put in more kidney beans, plus borlotti beans).

Turn up the heat, fry and stir for five minutes or so. Add the kidney beans.

Stir/fry for another 5 minutes. Add the oregano (I use a lot, as I like oregano – probably two heaped tsps), a handful of the basil leaves, torn, two bay leaves and the tinned tomatoes.

Add 4 or 5 big dashes of Henderson’s Relish (or a tsp of Marmite, or a stock cube), and the dried chilli or chilli powder. How much chilli/powder – depends on how spicy you want it and how strong your chilli/powder is. On this occasion, I used this much dried, crushed chillis:

But it was a bit old, so this wasn’t enough, and I added more later.

Cover, turn the heat right down, and simmer for at least 20 minutes.

After 20 – 30 minutes, uncover and cook for another 20 – 30 minutes (stirring occasionally) to let the chilli reduce. Basically, the longer you can cook it for, the better. I prefer to simmer for an hour covered, then uncovered for at least 30 minutes. Allowed to cool then reheated the next day – it’s even better.

To go with it…

This is Madhur Jaffrey’s rice rinsing technique, and Nigel Slater’s cooking method. Weigh out the rice, then transfer to a measuring jug – check what it is in ml. Then put the rice in a bowl (or pan). Run it under cold/luke warm water, and rub between your fingers until the water is cloudy. Drain the water and repeat the washing until the water is pretty clear. This should be 4 or 5 rinses.

Put the rice in a pan, along with double its volume in cold water. Bring the water to the boil, then turn the heat right down, cover the pan, and simmer for 12 minutes.

After 12 minutes, fluff the rice with a fork. If there is still water in the pan, cook for a minute or two longer, uncovered.

Warm the fajita wraps in a dry pan, or in the microwave, according to the instructions. Grate the cheddar, dish up the sour cream and guacamole.

Cunningly combine like so:

Or serve with chunks of bread, or fried potatoes, or salad. Or put in wraps, cover in cheese and bake in the oven to make it into an enchilada. Or have with chips the next day. (Yes, do that. Really.) It freezes well – I usually make far too much, then divide the leftovers into individual portions, put some in the fridge for a couple of days later, freeze the rest for the following week.

Serve with cold lager and/or a medium/full bodied red wine, preferably a Portuguese Alentejo.

Super quick chickpea and fresh spinach curry (vegan)

hannahnicklin — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 20:20:00 +0000

So I posted this (very tasty) but a lot more fiddly chickpea and tomato and spinach curry recipe a few weeks ago, you should def hit that if you have the time, it’s better to make your own curry pastes, and likewise it’s creamier and LENTIL FILLED, so is quite different really. But for those of you who want a super healthy vegan awesome tasty curry in a rush (and quite frankly, who doesn’t) here’s a ‘weeknight’ version, for those of you who work proper jobs and stuff. Say thanks to Easy Vegetarian One Pot, if you like. Any changes I’ve made is just to make the thing less fussy. I think it looks a bit nicer, too

Prep Time: 5 | Cook Time: 20 | Servings: 2 | Nutritional Info: 212 Kcal, 26g carb, 8g fat, 12g protein

Ingredients picture:

PROCESS: Heat the oil in a pan over a medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and ginger, and cook for 4–5 minutes, until softening.

Add the curry paste and stir-fry for 2 minutes, until ‘aromatic’, as they say.

Stir in the tomatoes, water, and chickpeas. Bring to boil, then reduce the heat to a medium simmer and cook, uncovered, for 10 minutes.

Stir in the spinach and cook until just wilted.

Stir in the coriander, and serve with rice, chutney wot your mum made and soya yogurt. Mm.

My First Chilli (vegan, lentil)

hannahnicklin — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 18:51:00 +0000

So I’ve never made a chilli before. I don’t know why. We never really did spicy food at home, and me and my mum can’t eat peppers, and frankly, if you’ve got a load of mince, why aren’t you making spaghetti bolognaise? Best food. So yeah, never had any kind of chilli, but I’m getting WELL into my lentils and chickpeas at the moment (file under: things you are not allowed to be excessively enthused about), and spotted this (which includes no bad peppers) in my new Bumper Veggie Cookbook and thought I’d give it a go. Turns out it’s like spicy, yummy bolognaise but with that awesome grainy texture you get from lentils. Yes I said awesome. Also massively cheap.

Here we go, ingredients (I left off the chopped tomatoes, but photoshopped in a flawless stand-in, as you’ll see).

As an aside, I’m just about old enough to have caught re-runs of the Young Ones, which is why I was surprised to find I liked lentils. I would be interested to see a mapping of public opinion on lentils vs that show’s popularity. I say I would be interested, but I’ve spent all day transcribing PhD interviews, so quite honestly I would be interested to see some moss right now.

INFORMATION:

Prep Time: 10 | Cook Time: 30 | Servings: 2 (this is a recipe for 6 scaled down, hence weird proportions)

Nutritional Info: 195kcal, 2g fat (trace sat), 32g carbs, 0.1g salt

ACTION:

Cook the onions until soft, add the coriander, cumin and paprika.

Combine the garlic, sun dried tomatoes, chilli, wine and stock and add to the pan. Cover & simmer for 5-7 mins. Uncover and simmer until the liquid has almost gone.

Stir in the lentils and tomatoes and season.

Simmer, uncovered, for 15 mins or until thick, add sugar to taste, remove from heat. Blend 1/4 of the mix, combine with the unblended mix.

Serve with yoghurt and rice. Sprinkle with a bit of parsley if you’re feeling fancy, like me.

FANCY.

Thai Veg Curry (veeeegan)

hannahnicklin — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 19:16:00 +0000

My adventures in the Bumper Veggie Cookbook continue with this Thai Veg Curry; vegan, but as my mum’s been worrying about my protein intake (it’s fine, mum) with my being vegetarian and lactose intolerant, I’d just like to reassure you all (and her) that there’s LOADS in things like coconut milk, and chickpeas. Which make up most of my favourite recipes. Also Soya milk is FORTIFIED with things. Like calcium, mostly. And I have that every morning. Fear less, please.

Anyway, message to my mother aside, here’s today’s adventure into a really nice quick Thai veg curry. I’d be liberal with the coconut milk, though that’ll knock your fat content up, it also makes it tastier, so there.

Prep Time: 10 | Cook Time: 15 | Servings: 2

Nutritional Info: 200 kcal, 10g fat (2g sat fat), 19g carbs, 0.7g salt (not including rice, add 178kcal for a 50g dry rice weight portion)

THINGS WOT GO IN IT

THINGS WOT YOU DO:

Put curry paste in a large pan, add the ginger and cashew nuts and stir fry on med heat for 2-3 mins

Add the coconut milk, bring to the boil

Stir in the carrots, then simmer for 5 mins.

Add the broccoli and simmer for 5 mins more.

Stir the coriander and lime zest in with the spinach.

Squeeze in the lime juice and serve with basmati rice.

mmm…

Hello World

hannahnicklin — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 00:17:00 +0000

First post is a test, reposting a recipe I posted recently.

This was bloody tasty, based on this recipe: http://j.mp/9GGDI8

The amount in the linked recipe will probably feed me for 3 main meals and one snack, all made for less than a fiver. Also entirely vegan, and nicer than cooking with soya cream. It’s very mild, but I’m sure you can work out how to spice it up if you want.

Modifications:

I put 4 cloves, a bay leaf, 1cm of a cinnamon stick, and a cardamon pod in with the onions.

I also made my own curry paste out of a glug of oil, and 1 tbsp each of tumeric, garam masala and ground coriander. Also a staple fell in from one of my spice bags. I don’t think it added to the flavour substantially.

Finally, I added mushrooms and reduced the potatoes to one. MOAR VEG.

Served with brown rice with pilau rice spice. If you can be arsed to make your own naan, DO, this will go brilliantly with it.

All together now: OM NOM.