One of our favourites, it’s an easy meal and very tasteful. The biggest bonus? The Tweedles love it. My children actually eat spinach in disguise! The original recipe is from Donna Hay (the Fast, Fresh, Simple book), but I adjusted it a little. As usual, I don’t measure and I don’t stick to recipes.

A fair warning, I went for the lazy option today. So, there is some frozen stuff involved. And no baking tins (less washing up to do…).

Ingredients;

1 bag (750 grams) frozen, chopped up, spinach (so here’s the cheating… When I use fresh spinach, I have to blanch it well in advance, let it cool and THEN squeeze it…)
500 grams of ricotta cheese
A good handful of freshly chopped mint
2 large eggs
100 grams of feta cheese
8 sheets of puff pastry (the original recipe uses filo pastry, but The Man prefers puff pastry) and okay, I cheated here too… I used to different brands, because I didn’t have enough of either.
1 large clove of garlic, finely chopped
Salt
Peper

Instructions;

1)    Defrost the spinach and squeeze out the excess liquid (this prevents the filling from becoming soggy) and place in a bowl.

2)    Add the ricotta, chopped mint, eggs, garlic, salt and pepper to the spinach and mix.

3)    Place the puff pastry on a baking tray lined with baking paper, create a rectangle.

4)    Put the mixture on the middle of the pastry and spread out evenly.

5)    Fold the edges of the pastry over the filling and put in the oven for approx 20 minutes on 220 degrees Celsius.

Cut in pieces and serve with a light, fresh salad (which I totally forgot to do today).

The Tweedles love it, I love it, The Man loves it… It’s a winner!

Few tips;

• If the mixture feels to dry add an extra egg.
• If I feel up to it, I fry some diced bacon and add it to the mixture for some extra salty flavour.
• I sometimes use dill instead of mint (which I should have done today as my dill plants are taking on bush-like appearances in my herb garden). Or coriander… Same story by the way.
• I sometimes replace half the ricotta with cream and add an extra egg (or two) to the mixture. If you do this, you will need to use a baking tin, as the mixture is runnier and might run out of the pastry.
• I, honest to God, prefer filo pastry. Try it, do it! But yeah, well… The Man loves puff pastry (especially the buttery kind) and I do like to spoil him once in a while.

Enjoy!

*SoWritten

 

 

Just remember before you read this that I am, really, a very humble person. Except when it comes to cooking. I am a kick ass cook

Remember the little pic that accompanied my previous blog on Low Carb food? This one. Well, I had half of my Twitter timeline drooling over it, apparently. And yes, it doesn’t only look good. It tastes good too.

So I decided to share with you, my secret to a tray of perfectly roasted veggies. Lucky you!

Before I start I always preheat the oven to the highest temperature and warm the grill. If your oven doesn’t have a grill or a combination function, don’t worry. You’ll get great roasted vegetables by only using the oven function. Just ALWAYS line your baking tray with waxed paper.

Usually when I make roasted veggies I just open the vegetable compartment in my fridge and see what I still have lying around – I hate grocery shopping, so I try to limit my runs to the grocery store – and use what ever I find. Today’s score;
* 1 tomato
* 9 cherry tomatoes
* Half a zucchini
* 1 aubergine (eggplant)
* 4 sweet peppers

Then I rummage through my herbs and spices and grab whatever I can find that will suit the meal. Salt, pepper and good quality extra vergine olive oil are standard. Usually I prefer fresh herbs, but I am a bit low stocked on those at the moment. Today I kept it simple and used dried coriander (cilantro), ground cumin seed and a small pinch of ground ginger.

The trick is to make sure that you slice everything in even pieces so they are done at the same time. I put the whole lot in the oven at once. The zucchini and the aubergine slices have to be about 8 mm thick, the tomato chopped in half and the sweet peppers cut in half and the seeds removed.

Lay out the vegetables on the baking tray and drizzle them with olive oil, don’t be shy let it flow. After that sprinkle the herbs and spices over the veggies and they are ready to go in the oven. I usually leave them in the oven/grill with the temp around 200/225 for about 25 minutes. Yah, I still don’t do measurements and times… Just keep your eye on things, once they get a glint of black it’s time to pull them out.

After they are done roasting, plate ‘m up!

Now this is more of a side dish which you can eat with anything, just adjust the spices you use. Today we had a Moroccan style meal. I combined the veggies with couscous and home made kebabs;

Enjoy!

*SoWritten

Note; You didn’t think I leave you dangling like this right?

Other veggies very suitable for roasting; Fennel, carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, butternut, bell peppers (any colour), onions, garlic bulbs, potatoes and many more. Don’t be afraid to try new stuff. The worst thing that can happen is that it tastes terrible and you end up eating grilled cheese sandwiches. Been there, done that.

Other herbs/spices very suitable for this; Rosemary, thyme, fennel seed (ground), nutmeg, paprika powder, chilli powder, Marsala, curcuma (tumeric), dried basil, cardamom, garlic, marjoram, oregano (now this is the only herb I prefer dried) and many more. Same goes for this as with the veggies. Just give it a try!