Next week

While I'm getting over a cold by eating a spicy Indian lentil soup, made from ingredients in my cupboard, I'm online ordering groceries for next week. I love doing that, it allows me to plan my meals ahead and budget things a lot better than in my days as a student, when I went out to get groceries nearly every day. For the coming week, I've managed to find a few ingredients that I'll use for several meals. I've also decided to try out a new cuisine: I've bought the ingredients for Chinese egg fried rice and crispy pork belly. I love Chinese food, but I've never cooked it before, so that will be exciting!  Of course as I'm cooking for two, a 800g pork belly is far too much for one night; I've decided to split the pork in half and use the other half for a roast pork belly with apple confit, kale and potatoes. Another new recipe that has the same autumnal feeling is a parsnip and ginger soup. Then, I'm going Italian with a spinach lasagna, a tagliatelle with creamy mushrooms, and some veggie pizzas. Last this week I'm going back to lentil soups, making one with red and green lentils and some cannelini beans. Yum! I'll put some of the recipes online when I've tried them, dear readers :)

Indian-style vegetarian burgers, plus a carrot side salad

Yesterday I made Indian-style vegetarian burgers again, this time with a curry paste spice mix and 1:1  chickpeas to (what my supermaket calls) 'mixed beans and pulses' (this includes black eyed beans, soy beans, kidney beans etc). They turned out quite well, the beans made them a little softer than my other veggie burgers.

Indian spice veggie burgers
Ingredients (for 8 small burgers or 4 persons)
an inch-long piece of root ginger
3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp garam masala (an Indian spice mix)
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground, dried coriander
2 tsp whole yellow mustard seeds
1/2 - 1 red chili
the stalks of a 40g bunch of fresh coriander (you use the leaves for the side salad - see below)
a 400g tin of chickpeas, drained
a 400g tin of 'mixed beans and pulses' (or just some beans you particularly like - I'd suggest mellow-flavoured ones though, like kidney beans -- black beans are probably a little too strong in flavour and colour)
1 egg
flour for dusting

sunflower oil


Chop up the coriander stalks, ginger and garlic very finely. Add these to the spices and pour in about 2 tsp of the sunflower oil. Make a curry paste out of the mixture, either by whizzing it in a food processor or by using a pestle and mortar. (If you're extra keen you can first heat the dry spices in a dry frying pan to release the flavour...)

Put the curry mixture in a large bowl and put aside. Now, ground up the chickpeas and beans in either a food processor or using the pestle and mortar. Do it in batches if you're not sure it will fit. Now, add the ground up chickpea-bean mixture to the bowl with the curry. Add an egg. Form 8 small patties out of the mixture, dust these with flour and put in the fridge for 30 minutes. Heat up about 4 tbsp of the sunflower oil in a frying pan and fry 4 of the patties for about 6 minutes (3 on each side) or until golden brown and hot. Repeat for the other 4 patties. Serve with chunky chips and a fresh side salad like the one below.

As a side dish I made the following.

Indian-style carrot side salad
Ingredients
4 large carrots
peel and juice of half a lemon
olive oil
the leaves of a 40g bunch of fresh coriander
40 grams of shaved almonds

Heat a dry frying pan and add the almonds, shaking continuously so that the almonds don't burn but just turn a nice golden brown. Grate the carrots very finely. Add the coriander leaves and lemon peel. Make a dressing 1:1 of lemon juice and olive oil and dress the salad with that. Scatter over the almonds. Enjoy with the veggie burgers (alternatively, this is a nice fresh side dish to go with a curry).

Mushroom and bacon wraps

Autumn! Seems like there's more yellowing leaves every day. We have a tree in front of our window now that we've moved, which is brilliant because it's a constant reminder of the season. It makes me want to cook rich, flavourful dishes: pies, soups, stews. And this wrap, a very simple recipe that has a lot of autumnal flavour.

Mushrooms!

Ingredients (2 persons)
300 grams of mixed mushrooms; I used a 1:1 ratio of chestnut and oyster mushrooms
100 grams of smoked streaky bacon (in rashers)
1 red onion
4 (wholemeal) wraps
1 tbsp paprika
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp olive oil

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan. Chop up the onion very finely and fry. Add the rashers of bacon. Fry until the onion is caramelized somewhat. Meanwhile, slice the chestnut mushrooms and roughly chop the oyster mushrooms into bite-sized chunks. Add to the bacon and onion. Now add the paprika and season to taste. You don't need much salt because you're using bacon! Fry until all the excess liquid of the mushrooms has bubbled away and the mushrooms have browned a bit. Heat the wraps in a microwave (should take about 20 seconds). Put the mixture on your wraps and serve, perhaps with some refried black beans.