Carrot and Coriander Soup

I haven't had carrot and coriander soup for years! I went through a phase of eating it every day for lunch when I was in high school and understandably went off it completely! But I quite fancied it and thought it would be a nice meal to try on the boy. This is really easy and super tasty (excuse the pun!)

For this I used:

2 large carrots

1 white onion

1 clove of garlic

1 1/2 pints vegetable stock 

Pinch of salt and pepper

Pinch of nutmeg

1 tsp ground coriander 

Handful of fresh coriander chopped 

Olive oil

Method

Peel and dice carrots and onion. Place in a pan with a splash of olive oil and the ground coriander and nutmeg. Let the veg sweat for around five minutes. Add the garlic and sweat for one minute.

Then add the stock and bring to the boil. Then reduce the heat and let simmer with the pan lid on for around 20-30 mins until all veg is cooked through. As I prefer a thicker soup, I left this to simmer for longer until most of the liquid has evaporated. Then add the chopped fresh coriander (leave a bit to sprinkle over the top when serving).

Then using a handheld blender, I blended this until smooth. 

This made quite a few bowls, I was expecting to get a bit more out of it, but maybe if I didn't reduce the liquid I might have got more! Still it was enough for our lunch and a few for the freezer stash! 

Sweet Potato Wedges

Sweet potatoes are a great healthy alternative to normal potatoes - and really tasty. We love to eat them in various ways, our favourites being as either chips, or just roasted!

For these chips I used one small potato as I was only making a small portion, however to make a big batch I'd go for two large potatoes.

Ingredients

1 sweet potato

Olive oil 

Method

Preheat oven to 200C.

Wash the potatoes and scrub the skin to get rid of any dirt.

Cut potatoes into wedges (I leave the skins on - that's all the nutrients!) 

Drizzle with olive oil - around half tbsp 

(**you can always add salt, pepper, paprika, mixed herbs etc at this stage of you wish!)

Place on oven tray and cook for 35-40 mins or until they have cooked through. 

If they look a little black - don't worry! I find those the tastiest as it's quite sweet/caramelised! 

Jerk Seasoning (+ jerk chicken!)

I can't believe I didn't post the recipe for jerk seasoning from when I made jerk pork before! I always come back to my blog to find recipes I've previously made as I have a rubbish memory and was stumped when I couldn't find that recipe on here! I had one chicken breast to use up and thought it would be the perfect chance to make jerk pork for the boy. Luckily Google (bbcgoodfood) made my life a bit easier - here are the ingredients for a great jerk seasoning:

• 2 tbsp ground cinnamon 
• 2 tbsp black ground peppercorn
• 1 tbsp dried thyme
  
  

  
  

  
  
• 2 tsp ground allspice 
• ½ tsp cayenne pepper (optional to add more!)

• ½ tsp ground nutmeg

This apparently makes up a 'small jar' of seasoning, however for one chicken breast I halved the amount and there was still loads left over. 

Method

Place all the above into a bowl and run over meat until evenly coated in the spice. 

For jerk chicken:

Preheat oven to 150C

Place coated chicken in tin foil and fold up corners so it's almost a boat shape (as above).

Then bake for 25-30 mins. The chicken should be soft, yet white all through.

 

Fish Poppers and Fish Cakes

I bought a piece of cod off the fish counter at the supermarket (at a bargain of £1.86!) I just asked for a portion for one person as I usually over make too much of the same thing and the freezer stash gets a bit repetitive. With this I ended up making 'fish finger' poppers and fish cakes and it was really easy!

For the fish fingers/poppers (makes 8) you will need:

A piece of raw fish - I used half a fillet of cod

Breadcrumbs (enough to coat the fish)

Plain flour (again enough to coat the fish)

1 egg

Vegetable oil

For the fish cakes (makes 5)

Half of a fillet of cod

1 small potato

1/2 white onion

1 tsp capers

Splash lemon juice

1 tsp Dijon mustard

A handful of fresh parsley (dried will work fine)

A handful of fresh chive 

Breadcrumbs (enough to coat)

Flour (enough to coat)

1 egg whisked 

First I started the fish poppers...

Cut the fish into strips or poppers, whichever shape you'd prefer. Leave to one side.

Place breadcrumbs into one bowl, flour into another and a whisked egg into another separate bowl.

Dip the fish in the flour, evenly coating. 

Then dip into the egg 

and then the breadcrumbs. 

Continue this until all fish is coated. 

In a frying pan, pour a little vegetable oil (around 1cm deep) and heat up on a medium heat. To check the oil it hot enough, drop a piece of breadcrumb mix into the oil, if it starts bubbling away - it's ready! 

Fry the fish for a few minutes each side until lightly brown and place onto kitchen paper to absorb excess oil.

For fish cakes...

Peel and dice the potato and boil until cooked. Meanwhile peel and dice 1/2 white onion and sauté until soft and golden. Drain the potato and leave both potato and onion to cool. 

Dice cod and place into a food processor. Add the herbs, mustard, capers and the potato and onion once cooled. Blitz until combined. Depending on how wet the consistency is, you can always add extra breadcrumbs to the mix. 

Get your three bowls of flour, egg and breadcrumbs ready. Shape a portion of the fish mixture into a patty and dip into the flour and coat, then the egg and finish with the breadcrumbs. 

Again heat vegetable oil on a medium heat and shallow fry each fish cake until golden (again for a couple of minutes) each side. The longer the oil has been heated, the quicker the fishcakes will brown! So you will need to keep an eye on them! Again leave on piece of kitchen to absorb any excess oil. 

Smoothie pancakes

I saw this recipe in Jamie Olicer's Everyday Superfood book but didn't have the guts to try and make them as my last few pancake attempts have been a disaster and ended up straight in the bin! However I was pleasantly surprised with how these turned out - it was so easy! If I can make them anyone can!

INGREDIENTS
1½ cups blueberries
1 large, ripe banana
¾ cup milk
1 large egg
1¾ cup whole-wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
Extra-virgin olive oil, to coat the pan

METHOD
Blitz half the blueberries, peeled banana, milk, egg, and flour in a blender to make a smoothie pancake batter.

Tip into a bowl and fold in the remaining berries. Place a large nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat. Pour in a little bit of olive oil, then use a paper towel to wipe it around the pan and absorb the excess. Once hot, put your batter into the pan to make large pancakes or little ones, whichever you fancy. 

Cook for a couple of minutes on each side, or until crisp and golden. 

Serve as and when they're ready, while you get on with more.

I found wiping the pan with oil to coat really helped as whenever I attempted before even in a non stick pan my pancakes kept sticking and breaking up. 

It was recommended to serve with natural yogurt, honey, cinnamon and crushed nuts, however I did not have these to hand so served with a drizzle of honey, mixed seeds, chia seeds and linseeds. They were so delish and easy I will definitely make again. It's also a good way to sneak lots of fruit or veg into your babies food if they are fussy, like mine! 

Vegetable curry

I used the same spices for this curry as I used in the Chicken and Apricot Curry. It's quite a sweet and mild curry, and very tasty.

For this you will need:

1 small white onion

1 clove garlic

1 tsp cumin

4 cardamom pods crushed

1 tsp ground coriander 

1/2 tsp fenugreek 

1 tsp mustard seeds crushed

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp crushed chilli flakes (optional)

1 tsp turmeric

Green lentils

Half pint reduced salt vegetable stock

Splash of lemon juice

1 small carrot

1 sweet potato

A handful of green beans diced

1 small tin of chickpeas washed and drained 

2 tbsp tomato purée

1 tsp mango chutney

Coconut oil

Method

Peel and dice potato, green beans and carrot. Dice into small pieces to allow them to cook quickly. Place to one side.

Cook lentils to packet instructions until they have half cooked. Meanwhile, dice onion and garlic clove and add to a pan with coconut oil and all spices. Fry on a medium heat for around 3-5 mins and add half of the stock. Then add the potatoes, carrot and beans and add more stock. Bring to the boil. Then add lentils, chiickpeas, tomato purée, lemon juice and mango chutney. Reduce heat and leave until sauce has thickened and veg is cooked through. If sauce gets too thick, add more water rather than stock. If the sauce does not seem to thicken, use a potato masher and mash about a third of the veg which will break down and thicken the sauce. Meanwhile cook your rice/quinoa (I served mine with a mix of both) and that is it! This meal is great for the freezer stash! 

Easy Gingerbread

I've never made gingerbread before, but was feeling in the festive mood and had a free day dedicated to Christmas chores so thought I'd give it a shot! My origibal intention was to make some gingerbread men as party of a secret Santa present in work, but ended up making quite a lot!

I followed a BBC Goodfood recipe, however half way getting through the recipe and feeling as though I had made a mistake as it was resembling breadcrumbs, I realised that a lot of the reviews of the recipe were the same - not good! However I managed to save it by adding a bit more golden syrup and a splash of milk.. Here is what I did:

Ingredients

100g soft brown sugar

100g golden syrup

225g plain flour

1/4 tsp salt

2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 heaped tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp cinnamon

50g unsalted butter

Splash of milk

Additional tbsp of golden syrup 

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 160C and 2 baking trays with baking paper.
2. Sift together all of the dry ingredients (excluding sugar). Heat butter, sugar and syrup on a low heat until dissovled then leaver to cool. Then mix into dry ingredients when cooled to make a dough. ** At this point is where it started to resemble breadcrumbs for me, if that does occur I added a splash of milk and the additional tbsp of golden syrup. (some people suggested adding another 50g of melted butter instead.)
3. Wrap the dough in cling film and chill at room temperature for around 30 minutes.
4. Cover a surface with flour and be sure to cover rolling pin as well and roll out dough to about 1/4 inch thick and cut into gingernread men. Place on trays allowing space to spread.

1. Cook for 7-10 minutes until your desired bake. I waited until around 7 so they were just golden and still chewy! I was really pleased with these and they taste so good too!

I then decorated with icing! 👍🏻

Original recipe here