Plenty: Grilled vegetable soup

I love butterbeans! I've never had them in soup before though, until I made the grilled vegetable soup from Plenty. It's a hearty one, and easy to make. It just took me a little longer in my tiny gas-run oven since I had to grill everything one at a time. It also means that the vegetables weren't grilled as such, but rather, roasted as I don't have a grill setting. So mine was more of a roasted vegetable soup. Still, it was lovely! Although, oddly enough, when I ate the leftovers the next day, it had a bit of a sausage flavour that I wasn't all too fond of...

 

Veggie Shepherd's Pie with sweet potato mash

My brother-in-law made this vegetarian Shepherd's Pie last summer and I have been missing it since. So what the heck, I thought, I might as well go ahead and make it myself, perfect as it is to warm oneself on cold days like this. The recipe is from the BBC GoodFood site, and it's super easy to follow and make. With the broccoli this easily makes a filling and satisfying meal for 4-6 persons. Vegans, leave out the butter from the mash and the cheese topping.

Moroccan vegetable couscous

I love this meal for many reasons, not just for its wonderful flavours, but because it reminds me of my childhood. I usually make this with carrots, onions, leek, zucchini or pumpkin, chickpeas, red pepper and raisins. It's a feast of vegetable goodness cooked in with diced tomatoes and spices like cumin, coriander and tumeric.

Spicy red lentil soup

Made a staple dinner tonight: red lentil soup with a whole host of gorgeous spices. It takes about 10 minutes to prepare and 15 minutes to cook, so very quick and easy, as well as healthy and delicious!

Plenty: Very full tart

I've been waiting for the right time to do this. Ottolenghi's Very full tart is easy, but takes a while to prepare since there are lots of vegetables to roasted (red and yellow paprika, aubergine, sweet potato, courgette, cherry tomato, plus onion, fried) on top of baking the tart. It took a little longer too because I made my own shortcrust pastry, since they don't sell ready-made savoury ones in Finland. It was easy enough to make oneself though. So, once the pie crust and vegetables were roasted, they were covered with ricotta and feta, and egg whipped with double cream. Mamma mia. Yes it is a very full and very rich tart. But again, Ottolenghi delivers! The key is precisely in the slow oven-roasting that gives the vegetables a wonderful sweetness. Divine.

Goat's cheese, spinach and lingonberry salad

Nothing special this time, just a mixed salad of random leftovers I could find my fridge: lettuce and spinach, chevre, two kinds of cherry tomatoes, avocado, and topped with lingonberries, olive oil, salt, pepper and a small splash of balsamic. Voilà, leftover dinner salad.

Plenty project: Tomato party

The ankle is still out of action but after yesterday's pumpkin success, I'm back in action on the foodie front. Today I made the simple, easy, fresh and delicious "Tomato party" recipe from Ottolenghi. Half of the tomatoes are roasted in the oven with olive oil, brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper, then thrown in with couscous, cherry tomatoes of all colours, tarragon, mint, oregano, garlic and more olive oil, salt and pepper. Too easy. I think I need to send Yotam some fanmail. How would he like Finnish salmiakki, I wonder?

Slow roasted tomatoes

I picked off this recipe from Gwyenth Paltrow's GOOP site. I make it whenever I find cherry tomatoes on the vine for a decent price. Though any vine-ripened tomatoes will do, cherry tomatoes are just a wee bit sweeter. In addition to halved tomatoes, all you need is olive oil, salt, pepper, and about 3 hours of doing something around the house while the tomatoes ripen in the oven (at 130-150C). The tomatoes are ready when the skin has curled well at the edges and the tomatoes have lost a good deal of their volume. I've enjoyed them as Gwyneth does, with mozzarella and fresh basil, but I've also had them with pasta and tossed them into salads. Most of this batch will be enriching my pitta bread lunches this week, accompanied by avocado, cucumber, lettuce and homemade hummus.