Veggie pesto pine nut squares

This veggie pesto bake is a wonderful summer recipe, especially using fresh basil from the garden!

I wanted to make this recipe for my family at the weekend. I found the photos in my archives from when I first shot the recipe last year for realfoodsource using their new ingredient range, but I couldn't find the actual recipe anywhere!

I have made variations on it - these sweet potato rostis in particular, so I knew the rough idea. I figured I'd have to wing it and hope for the best.... it turned out really well!

Instead of making it as squares as per the original photos, I cooked it in a square oven dish and served it up hot with a huge salad. The squares are still amazing though.

This is best made with spiralized veggies for a pretty ‘curly whirly’ effect but you could use a julienne peeler or a coarse grater. I used a mix of carrot, courgette and a little onion but you could use fewer or different ingredients such a sweet potato or parsnip if you prefer. You could also bake this mix into pre-portioned muffin cups.

To save time I used bought free-from pesto in a jar, but you could make your own, or use hummus with herbs added to it.

Recipe: Veggie pesto pine nut squares

Makes approx 12 squares (a brownie sized pan)

Ingredients:

• 3 cups spiralized vegetables (I courgette, 2 medium carrots and 1 red onion)

• ¼ cup almond or cashew paste (optional)

• 1/2 cup vegan pesto (or regular pesto or hummus and fresh basil)

• approx. ½ tsp salt (this may depend on the pesto etc used)

• approx. 3 tbs water

• A handful of extra fresh basil, roughly chopped

• 1 cup chickpea (gram) flour

• ¼ cup pine nuts (up to ½ cup more if preferred)

Method:

Spiralize or julienne the veggies, chop a little to avoid very long ribbons.  Set aside.

Mix together the wet ingredients and add to the coat the veggies (taste test and add salt and pepper as desired). Add the gram flour last and mix to coat well. Add an extra splash of water if the mix doesn’t appear quite wet enough to coat evenly. Mix through the pine nuts now or set aside to press into the top if preferred.

Press the mix firmly into a lightly greased brownie sized tin- the mix should be approx 2cm thick. Smooth the top and press in the pine nuts.  Bake at 180C for approx 25-30 mins until golden. Serve hot or allow to cool and cut into squares- great for lunchboxes or picnics when served cold. Will keep in the fridge for a couple of days.

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Double tomato courgetti spaghetti

Do you have more courgettes?

Well, if so here is another one for you as we hang onto the last of the summer with warm September days but with a little coziness thrown in the for the cooler evenings as the night draws in that little bit quicker.

I actually made this recipe in the height of summer but hadn't written it up on my computer. I happened to be going though some old notes and I found it, definitely one worth sharing with you today. The sundried tomatoes (or dehydrator in my case) really boost the flavour so if you don't want to make your own you can buy some to add.

I made this recipe when my spiralizer was still a novelty (actually it is still novelty!), but use a julienne peeler if you don't have a spiralizer to get nice thin strips of courgette. There would be no reason why a wheat, rice or bean based spaghetti would not be a great alternative. I actually have an awesome bean pasta recipe I want to share with you.... soon!

Tell me, what are your favourite summer to Autumn transition meals?

Recipe: Double tomato courgetti spaghetti

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1 tin chopped tomatoes (or 4 large parboiled cooked chopped tomatoes)

• 2 cloves garlic

• 1 small onion- sliced

• 2 medium courgettes

• 1 can red kidney beans

• few leaves fresh chopped basil

• handful of sundried tomatoes*

Method

Pan fry the onion and garlic in a splash of oil for a few minutes until softened. Add the red kidney beans and the tomatoes and simmer for 5-7 minutes to warm through or make sure the tomatoes are broken down and pulpy if using fresh. Add a small handful of chopped dehydrated tomatoes for extra flavour, reserving a couple for the top.

Meanwhile spiralise the courgettes (or use a julienne peeler) and boil/steam for a few minutes until just tender, or serve raw if desired.

Chop some fresh basil leaves.

Serve the tomato mix over the courgetti and sprinkle the remaining dehydrated tomatoes and basil over the top.

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Recipe: dehydrated tomatoes

Approx. approx 3 cups worth

Ingredients

• Approx, 10 large tomatoes

• 2 tsp salt

• 2 tsp mixed Italian herbs

Method

Cut the tomatoes into quarters and scrape the seeds and pulpy bit out. (reserve for the sauce above if you wish)

Lay on lined dehydrator trays (or lined oven trays) and sprinkled with herbs and salt.

Dehydrate for 2 hours at 60C and then for a further 10-12 hours at 40C until preferred texture achieved.

If over baking, set oven to lowest temperature and bake for approx 2 hours- checking after an hour.

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Courgette chutney

I'm thinking this will be the last courgette recipe of the year… Not because I'm tiring of courgette quite yet, but because the tide seems to be shifting towards autumn and in particular pumpkin.

Over here in the UK pumpkin isn't quite such the craze as it is in the US, blog world and my Instagram newsfeed is already becoming inundated. Squashes will undoubtedly make an appearance before too long but the whole pumpkin pie phenomenon doesn't really seem to exist over here, we don't even have 'pumpkin pie spice mix' which seems as commonplace as salt-and-pepper for you lot over the pond! 

I kind of feel as though I'm missing out ;-(

Anyway like I say this may (or may not) be the final courgette recipe, after all summer courgette supplies are fast dwindling now...

I got this idea for this chutney from a recipe link for a courgette marmalade in the Able & Cole newsletter, but I didn't like the idea of all the sugar so commonplace in regular chutneys and marmalades, So with the basic concept in mind I hunted around for ideas and came up with my own version using dates and a little unrefined sugar as well as all the spices you'd expect. The result is pretty tasty and once again makes a Novel way of using a ton of courgette!

I found the sauce particularly tasty with pasta, noodles, or to jazz up a veggie stir fry. Or just slather on top of crackers with a little hummus and salad leaves on the side.

Recipe: Courgette Chutney

Makes 4 jars (approx. 300ml each)

Ingredients: 

• I kg worth of courgette

• 1 tbs salt

• 2 onion- roughly chopped

• 300ml apple cider vinegar

• 2tbs olive oil

• ¼ cup un-refined sugar (i.e coconut sugar or rapadura)

• ½ cup date paste

• Spices: (note- tweak to suit your own tastes)

• 1 heaped tsp chilli

• 1 tsp wholegrain mustard

• 1 heaped tsp fresh ginger

• 5 garlic cloves

• 1 heaped tsp cumin

Method: 

Chop the courgette into smallish (thumb sized) pieces in a processor. Add to a colander, add the salt and shake well to coat. Allow to drain for a couple of hours to draw out excess moisture.

When the courgette is ready, rinse well to remove most of the salt and pat dry.

Blend all remaining ingredients to form a soft paste (leave onion out of the blend if you want this to remain chunky).

Heat ‘paste’ in a large sauce pan on a low heat for 10 minutes or so, add the cougette pieces (and onion), mix and simmer whilst partially covered on a low heat for around 45 minutes or until well softened and thickened.

Pour into steralised jars whilst hot and screw lids onto seal tightly.

Crazy chocolate courgette cake

I will say right now, I think this is the best chocolate cake I have made to date! ...and probably the healthiest too. Well I always aim for healthy but this one is really going for the grand title!

I made this cake for two reasons:

1- because I still had so much courgette to use up and soups and salads, stir frys and 'coodles' were starting to lose their appeal.

And...

2: because a colleague was leaving work to go back to study at uni and I wanted to make a little leaving gift...

So courgette chocolate cake was the only option… obviously!! Ok, we'll maybe normal people would have given her a nice card or something. ;-)

This cake worked out so much better than I thought since I thee in so much courgette, comparatively little sweetener and used ground oats as the 'flour'...so there was lots that could have potentially backfired!! BUT it was so good, I even made it again yesterday as I still had more courgette left and I didn't get much of the first cake after all! 

I made the second batch into brownies squares and I can tell you, true to brownie style, they taste even richer and fudgier the next day, therefore I would imagine they freeze well like brownies would also, so make a double or triple batch with all your leftover courgettes! In this whole batch of approximately 20 squares there was a heaped cup worth of courgette puree equivalent to 1 large standard courgette. The cake is super moist and moreish... The 20 squares really won't last you long at all.

I also added extra dark chocolate chips (made from this unrefined coconut sugar chocolate)  and so I can't vouch for how they would taste without, i'm wondering if the depth of the chocolately taste would be a little lacking. If you decide to leave them out and then later regret it, could also always add a chocolate drizzle on top to compensate.

Recipe: Crazy chocolate courgette cake 

Makes 1 8” round or square cake

ingredients:

• 2/3 cup packed dates
• approx ½ tsp pure stevia
• 1 heaped cup courgette puree (I approximated this by using 1 ½ cups smallsh chunks)
• ½ cup water
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup oil of choice (I use coconut oil)
• ¼ cup flax seed
• ¾ cup cocoa powder
• 1 cup oat flour (I ground up some regular oats)
• 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips (I used these)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 heaped tsp baking powder
• 1 heaped tsp baking soda

Method:

Blend the courgette with all the wet ingredients and the flax seed to form a smooth fairly runny paste. Allow to stand for a couple of minutes.

Mix the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl and then add the wet. Mix lightly but well to form a thick soft batter. Add a little extra water if necessary.

Spoon the batter into a lined/greased muffin pan or round cake tin (you could also make cupcakes?) and smooth the top as best you can.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for approx 30 minutes, after 10-15 minutes it is advisable to lightly cover the top of the pan with foil to prevent the top browning before the centre is cooked through.

Allow to cook before slicing. Store in the fridge for up to 1 week…these taste even better the next day!

Soup Glorious Soup - Courgette, Pea & Mint

I love soup, especially when teamed up with a warm home baked roll. This post is likely to be the first of many soup related recipes… now that the weather is beginning to turn autumnal and also since purchasing my Thermomix soup-making is so ridiculously easy (easy without one too I might add!)

But, as typical British weather has it, on the first day I sit down to lunch with a bowl of hot comforting soup- the sun is hot and shining outside! Oh well, that didn’t stop me.

Soups are good for the soul in so many ways and so endlessly versatile. I can’t imagine many better ways to enjoy a such a healthy boost that tastes so comforting, refreshing and moreish in one bowl. Bumped up with pasta, bread or rice and there you have a quick simple meal for all times of day (and all weathers!) As with many of my recipes, this soup is also a great freezer companion- so whip up a big batch!

This soup was a full on ‘veg patch lunch’ as I used one of the last of the courgettes from my vegetable patch (summer is more definitely coming to an end) and also some fresh veg patch peas (mixed with some frozen ones as I didn’t have enough fresh ones) and last but not least some fresh mint leaves that are trying their best to take over the whole area!

Recipe: Courgette, pea and mint soup

serves 4

Ingredients:

• 20g coconut oil
• 10g olive oil
• 1 medium onion- diced finely
• 300g courgette chopped finely
• 150g peas (fresh or frozen)
• 400g hot vegetable stock
• Handful of fresh mint leaves
• 150g soy yoghurt (soy milk or other milk alternatives could also work but be slightly runnier)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Heat coconut and olive oil in a large sauce pan and sauté onion until softened. Add the courgette and sauté for another 5 minutes before adding the stock, mint and peas. Simmer for 15 minutes. Add the soy yoghurt/milk and stir through before pouring the soup into a blender or food processor and blitzing until smooth. (you could also use a hand blender but I haven’t tried this as I make the entire thing in my Thermomix)

Serve will a warm roll or two… and pretend its cold and windy outside whilst you’re all warm inside!

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