Tag Archives: Cauliflower

Easy Ways To Cook Vegetables. How to Get Your 5-a-Day.

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Getting our 5-a-day is hard. Or at least, I have often found it so. It is easy to grab a piece of fruit but eating vegetables requires more effort. At least that is what it feels like sometimes. Since lockdown it has been harder to get some foods. We have had a weekly delivery of fruit and veg. There are a number of companies that do this.

It has set a challenge to use everything up as I refuse to have food waste. This has always been the case but even more so now. I will be sharing tips on the coming weeks but here is what I am doing at the moment.

Every few days I make a a huge salad or a traybake of roasted vegetables. This does as a lunch for a few days and also a side for supper. It is very easy to do. Sure there is a lot of chopping, and my children are usually trying to get my attention, but because you only have to do it every three days it is not that bad.

Salad potatoes can be boiled for 15 minutes. I add rosemary or parsley to them.
potatoes with herbs, cooking vegetables, how to cook potatoes,

Cauliflower can be boiled in 15 minutes. Carrots take 5 minutes. I add as many herbs and spices to the various vegetables as possible. A lot of  fruit and veg boxes come with a bag of fresh herbs. You might also have some in your cupboard. Five spice anyone?

Aubergine can be roasted for 20 minutes in the oven. I tend to add olive oil and salt and pepper. It tastes delicious. You can also pan fry it. Beetroot is great baked in the oven for 45 minutes. You can even bake it whole. Add olive oil and wrap in foil. I tend to cook things at 180. The roast vegetables can be added to the salad and vice versa. I love adding fruit to veg. Oranges go great with aubergine. It is a lot of work cooking and, lets be honest, tedious, but when you make a lot you only have to do it every three days. That is for a family of four.

Eating raw food is great and retains nutrients. I find raw cabbage tastes amazing and has a satisfying texture. I have a large Mason Cash baking bowl which I make a huge salad in. There was one week where we did not get a fruit and veg box and my husband and I really noticed the difference to our health. A plant based diet is the easiest way to great health.

In the evenings and weekends I write in the kitchen while my husband looks after the kids. I am right near the fridge which is not good, but instead of snacking on unhealthy foods I just dip into my huge bowl of salad. Try it, put all of your favourite fruit and veg in a big bowl and pick at it when you are hungry. It will change your life and your health.

Please share any cooking tips or recipes with me. Lots of love and stay safe, Catherine xx.

 

 

Delicious Cinco de Mayo Fiesta Inspiration

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Cinco De Mayo continues to serve it’s purpose to celebrate the victory of The Mexicans and what better way to celebrate than with the best of Mexican culture, good food and good booze. Mexican food is known for being hearty, flavoursome and rich so why not try a recipe which will impress everyone;

We have a delicious Vegan recipe for you to try tonight alongside a mouth-watering Vegan cocktail to see in Cinco De Mayo! Olé

Coronation Cauliflower Tacos;

Screenshot 2017-04-10 at 12.28.39

For the cauliflower;

1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon onion powder
100g vegan mayonnaise
40g dried apricots – chopped
1 tablespoon of chopped coriander
1 teaspoon of chopped mint
Zest of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon lemon juice – or to taste
Good pinch of Malden salt
Fresh cracked black pepper
1 medium sized cauliflower (must be ultra fresh)

For the garnish:
2 tablespoons of toasted almonds or sunflower seeds
Edamame Beans

For the Slaw
Ingredients:
¼ white cabbage
¼ red cabbage
1 carrot
100g vegan Greek yoghurt
2 tbsp lemon juice
Good pinch of Malden salt
Fresh cracked black pepper

Add Tacos

Now for the Cocktail:

Vegan Martini
MAKES 1 LITRE

Screenshot 2017-04-10 at 12.23.56

300ml Tanqueray Gin
40ml Ginger juice
12ml Salt Water
120ml Agave
80ml Lime
80ml Lemon
400ml Green juice

Shake it up and serve.

¡ARRIBA!

Cauliflower and Leek Soup Recipe

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This Cauliflower and Leek Soup Recipe is a great vegetarian soup. Lower in calories than the classic potato and leek soup. It is a good alternative and tastes delicious.

cauliflowerandleeksouprecipe

You will need:

3 leeks

40g of butter

1  cauliflower

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2L stock of your choice. I use vegetable sometimes but not always.

salt and  pepper to taste

cauliflowerandleeksouprecipesaute

How to make it:

Heat the olive oil and butter in a large pan. Use a medium heat. Saute the leeks, the cauliflower and the garlic for roughly 10 minutes. Stir in the stock and then bring to the boil. Reduce the heat, cover and allow the mixture to simmer for 45 minutes.

cauliflowerandleeksoup

After 45 minutes remove the soup from the heat. You can then blend with a mixer if you want it to be smooth. I don’t, I like my soup chunky. Add a good dollop of butter or double cream if you want. It is optional but I add more butter. It really adds to the taste. Add salt and pepper to taste too. Done! Simple and delicious.

 

 

Michael Caines Vegetable Curry With Lentils, Cauliflower, Baby Corn & Spinach

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vegcurry

Prep time; 1 hour

 

Serves 4

 

Ingredients 

 

Spice mix

4 cloves

1 tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp madras curry

4 gloves of garlic, peeled and crushed

1tsp Root ginger grated finely

2 tblsp white wine vinegar

½ tsp salt

1 tsp palm sugar

150g Red lentils

40ml Vegetable oil

1 large cauliflower cut into even size florets

1 large fennel cut in half and the into 4

1 onion finely chopped

2 red chillies deseeded and finely chopped

200g of tinned chopped plum tomatoes

400ml coconut milk

400ml water

200g Baby corn cut into quarters lengthways

100g baby spinach

4 tblsp coriander chopped

1 lemon or lime

Large sprig of coriander

Sea salt

 

For the tarka or chaunk

30ml Vegetable oil

1tblsp mustard seeds

1tsp cumin seed

1tspfennel seed

3 curry leaves

3 Bay leaves

 

Method

First you need to make the spice paste. For this toast the coriander and cumin seeds in small pan for a minute. Now place into a spice grinder and grind to a finely, alternatively use a pestle and mortar or a blender/food processor.

Place into a small bowl and add the turmeric, madras powder, crushed garlic, grated ginger, white wine vinegar, salt and palm sugar and mix together well. Set aside.

 

Place the lentils in a pan and cover with 500ml of water, bring to the boil and simmer for 15/20 minutes until the lentils are a thick puree. Cover and set aside until later.

 

Heat half the oil in a large pan and over a medium heat; caramelise the cauliflower florets evenly until golden brown. Remove and place on a plate. Now caramelise the 8 fennel pieces and remove. Add the remaining oil and heat, add the chopped onion and fry until golden brown, now add the spice mixture and cook out for 2 minutes. Add the chopped tinned tomatoes and chopped chillies and cook for 5 minutes before adding the coconut milk, cauliflower florets, fennel and baby corn. Bring to the boil and reduce to a simmer and leave to cook for 15 minutes stirring from time to time.

To finish, add the spinach before stirring in the lentil to required texture and consistency and now add the chopped coriander.

 

For the tarka or chaunk

Heat the oil in a small frying pan and add the spice and bay and curry leaves until the seeds start to pop. Now drizzle over the curry.

 

 

Uniform Foodies App
Chef Michael Caines and Uniformdating.com, the UK’s top dating site for uniformed singles, have partnered up to develop an app dedicated to uniformed professionals favourite foods!

 

Following a national survey to find out the UK’s uniformed professions favourite dishes, Michael Caines has develop these dishes into a range of delicious, easy-to-make recipes. All these, and many more recipes are available on the Uniform Foodies recipe app.

 

Uniform Foodies is available on iTunes, iOS, 69p
Please click here