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Lemon and white bean soup with pasta and spinach

Its cold, its rainy and my mum has gone. She came to visit for the last few days as she is on half term and it was so good to see her. May was so thrilled to wake up (at the crack of dawn) on Saturday and discover that her ‘bestie’ was in the spare room. She spent all day playing with my mum, showing off all her tricks and toys. There was a lot of cuddling and chatting and coffee drinking. We hung out at home, had a little Christmas shopping trip into town and ate cheesecake at Mio.

We took mum to the playpark and let her fret as May threw herself headfirst down the slide (its her new trick). I loved having her here. We drank sneaky glasses of champagne in the evening and watched ‘The extra Slice’ that she had downloaded for me. We did jigsaws and I asked her a million baby questions. Most of all it felt good to hear her say ‘don’t worry, your doing a great job’ whenever I panicked about something. We miss her already!

If today needed something it was a little bowl of hygge. Hygge is such a buzz word right now but to me it is just a Nordic feeling that can’t really be translated and is something that you live. I grew up with ‘hygge’. Hygge is a way of making things cosy, its also a greeting, a feeling and a polite way of saying it was nice to see someone. It is so many things. Its the candles that you light, or the cake that you bake. It is a thick jumper on a cold day, or that feeling when you sit cupping a mug of hot chocolate. It is being with friends and not being able to stop smiling. It is the familiarity of a certain chair or a perfect spot to sit and read. For me, today, it was this soup.

I needed something warm in my stomach, something that was simple and quick to make but that felt cosy and homely. This soup did the trick. It is so easy to make and the ginger gives just enough heat to keep you extra warm in this crazy cold autumn weather. I used spinach but you could also use kale or Swiss Chard, butterbean or chickpeas could sub in for the white beans too.

Ingredients
1/2 white onion finely chopped
Juice 1 lemon
Zest half a lemon
1 tin white beans drained
3 handfuls spinach
2ltr vegetable stock
80g dry pasta
Small piece (half thumb) of fresh ginger peeled and minced

Method
Place the onion into a large pan with the ginger and lemon zest and soften in oil until translucent
Add in the vegetable stock
Simmer for 10minutes
Add in the pasta and cook until al dente
Remove from the heat and add in the beans, spinach and lemon juice
Season with pepper and serve
Top with parmesan if you fancy

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Pumpkin festival and butternut bruschetta

We headed to a pumpkin festival this weekend. I have to admit that on the way there I had a ‘wow, this is what my Saturdays are now about’ moment. But it turned out to be a really really lovely afternoon. It was on the Billesberger farm and as much as I was fearing a single stall with a couple of pumpkin there was tons on offer.

 They had set up one of the barns as a farmers market and were selling homegrown seasonal vegetables as well as fresh eggs and bread. There was locally made tofu, elderflower syrups, local beer and pumpkin chutney. The farm also grows spelt and produce their own spelt pasta which was being cooked and tossed with pumpkin in an asian ginger sauce by a chef.

There was pumpkin cake (good!) and apple layer cake (so very good) as well as Emilio coffee (yes please!). They had pumpkins for sale to take home or for you to sit and carve with the family. Most of it was lost on the baby but she loved the goats and the inquisitive farm dog and hanging out on the grass watching the world go by, stealing pieces of pumpkin.

We brought home lots of goodies and today I made a really good butternut bruschetta. Its nothing fancy, just the cumulation of really good produce. Local garlic, local butternut, roasted and then mashed onto dark bread and topped with some crumbly goats cheese. YUM!

Ingredients (serves 4)
Half a butternut squash peeled and cubed
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
2 sprigs sage
Pinch dried chilli
1 clove garlic
4 slices good bread
40g crumbly goats or sheep cheese

Method
Preheat your oven to 180C
Place the squash into a roasting dish and coat with the olive oil
Sprinkle over the chilli and add in the sage and the garlic
Roast for 25mins or until soft
Once roasted, rub the bread slices with the garlic
Mash the butternut squash in a large bowl
Spread generously onto the bread and top with a sprinkle of cheese
Season well and enjoy

 

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Butternut mac and ‘cheese’ with a buttery sage and oat crust

I did a little poll on Facebook the other day into what peoples comfort foods were.Mac and cheese kept getting mentioned and so I decided to see what all the fuss was about. Ill fess up now, that I have never eaten mac and cheese and that is for one simple reason. I really really don’t like melted cheese. I dont even like the smell of melted cheese and this is a real problem come lunch time in Central London. Most lunch places are rammed with folks ordering sandwiches and many of these sandwiches contain cheese (it is England after all) and lots of said sandwiches need toasting. This means that the entire place smells of slightly charred cheese. Even my beloved Fernandez and Wells isnt immune to it and whilst I am sure that they are carefully toasting a homemade sourdough with locally churned white cheddar and a cheeky pickle…I still cannot enter the smokey premises during the noon hours. It is only once the afternoon settles in and the tea pots are put to use, and the world starts thinking of cake that I can go and get my lunch.

That said I wanted to make mac and cheese but I wanted to try the ever popular butternut squash version.The logic is that you can either half the cheese in your normal recipe by adding butternut squash or you can swap it out totally. In normal mac and cheese there is a whole heap of cheese as well as butter, flour and milk or cream forming the basis of the white sauce. When you use butternut puree you do away with the need for a white sauce as it is naturally thick and clings lusciously to the pasta. I used nutritional yeast as we had some in the cupboard and I had always been a little apprehensive about trying it.

Even though it looks (and smells) a little like goldfish food, it is in fact a total powerhouse of nutrients. For anyone on a plant based diet it contains the magic Vitamin B12. It also, when used in cooking tastes remarkably like parmesan. If you want to add cheese, go ahead, try ricotta, feta or a tangy cheddar.

The topping here is toasted buttery oats flavoured with sage. They add texture, bite and a salty richness to the dish. This version is perfect comfort food. Creamy, rich and comforting but with a little hit of autumn vegetables. It is a great family friendly recipe too – the baby loves it!

Ingredients
1 butternut squash, peeled and cubed
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp rapeseed oil

4 tablespoons nutritional yeast (or 6 tbsp grated cheese)
0.5 tsp paprika
0.5 tsp ground nutmeg
200ml oat or other milk
300g dried macaroni

50g oats
2 tbsp chopped sage leaves
1 tbsp butter or butter alternative

Method
Preheat your oven to 180C
Rub the butternut squash with oil, salt and pepper
Place into a baking dish with the garlic and roast until tender
Whilst the squash is roasting, cook the pasta according to the packet until it has a firm bite
Once cooked, drain and set aside
Place the roasted butternut squash, milk, nutmeg, nutritional yeast, and paprika into a blender and process until totally smooth
Combine with the pasta
Pour the mixture into a baking dish
In a frying pan place the oats,  butter and sage and allow to ‘fry’ until golden and crispy
Top the pasta with the oats and bake for a further 15mins

 

One pot roasted pumpkin pasta

Even though I left Norway when I was 17 my taste buds are still pretty Scandi. I like my sandwiches open, I like the combination of cheese and jam. My coffee is always strong and my tea is always black. Marzipan is delicious to me, as is liquorice…even the salty kind. I will always be fond of cinnamon and raisin buns are my favourite thing ever. Bread should always be dark and thick, cloudberries are natures golden child. Salmon is eaten with boiled potatoes, sprinkled with dill. Chocolate milk is restorative after a hard training session.

And pumpkin, to me pumpkin is savoury. It is roasted with sage and tossed into a salad with tangy goats cheese. It is paired with charred beetroot and topped with walnuts. It is pureed and stirred through peppery mashed potatoes. To me its on the same level as sweet potatoes and parsnips and all the other delicious autumn root veg. I can’t get my head around pumpkin pie, or pumpkin lattes just yet. So when a hokkaido found its way into the shopping it was chopped, drizzled with oil and sage and roasted. Then I turned it into puree, partly because I thought it would be useful for the baby, and partly because I had the one pot pasta on my agenda.

Cooking pasta is hardly that strenuous and even with a homemade sauce you are probably only left with two pans and a colander to wash. But one pot pasta is exactly that, its a kind of self saucing pasta that doesn’t require draining. The water that the pasta cooks in helps form the sauce, so all you do is cook and serve. You could try this out with any pasta shape and with any ‘sauce’ you fancy. Throw in penne with some tomatoes, onion, chilli and basil, or try a creamy sauce with wilted greens. Honestly whatever you fancy. I wanted to do pumpkin because I could imagine that the richness of the puree would help make a thick silky sauce, and it did.

All I did was place the pasta into a large shallow pan, then added a chopped shallot, some chilli, some fresh sage and a few spoons of pumpkin puree. Add water, stir over a medium heat for 10 mins or so….watch the magic happen then devour.

Ingredients (serves 4)
300g Spaghetti
3 tbsp pumpkin puree
1 finely chopped shallot
1 tbsp chopped sage
1tsp chilli flakes
400ml boiling water
Salt and pepper

Method
Place the spaghetti into a wide enough pan for it to lie flat
Add all the ingredients to the pan
Bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer stirring to stop the pasta clumping, If the sauce gets too thick before the pasta is fully cooked then add more water as needed
Once the pasta is cooked remove from the heat and allow the sauce to thicken for a minute or two
Stir in some goats cheese or parmesan if desired and then serve

Verbena Harissa and roasted vegetable swiss roll

As much as I love a little bite of something sweet, at this time of year all I want is spice and warmth. I really really feel the cold. I never used to. As I kid I could happily play for hours outside at minus 15C. Now I need multiple layers. Im not sure what changed, maybe it was being so ill for so long, but I relish cosiness more than ever. As autumn arrives we start to change things at home, just as we did growing up.

The summer clothes are packed away, the winter coats brought up from the basement. The bowls on the dining table are replaced with tea light holders and the cushions on the sofa get bigger and fluffier. Sheep skins appear suddenly on the footstools in which to nestle your toes and we put out a basket of slippers for guests to wear. The ends of the beds become weighed down with thick blankets too and you can find me curled up somewhere, wrapped in an oversize man repeller cardigan drinking oversized mugs of ginger tea.

In the kitchen things change too and I find myself adding more warming flavours to dishes. Ginger, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon spice up cakes and bread and vegetables are dressed with chilli. This swiss roll is inspired by last nights Great British Bake Off. Their ‘roulades’ were sweet and you could certainly use the sponge here and roll it with pumpkin spiced cream and apple, or you could do as I did and spread it with a thick layer of verbena harissa and roasted vegetables.

The verbena harissa is delicious and is simply made by blending a handful of spinach with some harissa, and a few shoots of lemon verbena and coriander. It packs a little heat that pairs well with any seasonal vegetable. If you don’t feel like making it you can buy this super tasty version. You could also mix harissa with some hummus or use tapenade instead. I rolled it with roasted carrots, courgettes, peppers and some shallots but you could do pumpkin, butternut squash, leeks and any other veggies that you fancy, you could also add in spinach or watercress too. This is an autumn lunch, warm, roasted and spicy. Enjoy

Ingredients
5 eggs or 6 tbsp of aquafaba if vegan
5 tbsp plain flour
3 carrots peeled and finely sliced
1 courgette finely sliced
1 shallot quartered
1 yellow pepper finely sliced
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
3 tbsp verbena harissa

Method
Preheat the oven to 18OC
Place the vegetables into a large baking dish and rub with the oil
Place into the oven for 35mins or until soft
Place the eggs or the aqua faba into a large clean bowl and whisk until white and fluffy (will take approx 15 mins)
Slowly fold in the sieved flour a little at a time
Tip the mixture onto a baking paper lined baking tray and gentle spread out
Place into the oven and bake for 15mins or until golden brown
Remove and set aside to cool
Once cool spread with the harissa and layer with the vegetables
Using the baking paper for grip, rolls the dough up into a spiral
Keep it wrapped tightly in the paper and leave for 15mins to ‘set’
Slice and enjoy