Courgette, Chickpea & Pasta Salad

Keeping on top of the courgette glut at the allotment with this Courgette, Chickpea, & Pasta Salad.

Serves 4

200g macaroni
1 can chickpeas, drained 
2 large courgettes, grated (I used green & yellow courgettes)
200g Feta, crumbled 

Zest & juice of one lemon 
30g broad leaf parsley, finely chopped

2 tbsp pumpkin or mixed seeds

Cook the macaroni according to the instructions on the packet.  Drain, toss in a little olive oil, and leave to cool.

Fry the courgette in 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil over a medium high heat, stirring regularly, until soft and lightly golden in colour. This takes about 20 minutes.

When the pasta has cooled to room temperature, mix all the ingredients together. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

I didn't have feta or parsley when I made this, so used a couple of heaped tablespoons of pesto instead.

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Air Fryer Brussel Sprouts, Chestnuts, & Squash

I bought a pack of reduced 'Red Darling' brussel sprouts in Aldi a few weeks ago to decorate our Christmas wreath, but had quite a lot left over.

I'd bought Aldi Whole Chestnuts around the same time, and had half a small pumpkin that needing using too. So I thought I'd toss them all in the air fryer.

If you like kale crisps, this is definitely one for you, as the outer leaves go lovely and crispy.

Serves 2

200g ready to eat chestnuts

200g trimmed brussel sprouts, halved

200g cubed squash (butternut squash, pumpkin)

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling

A large pinch of salt.

Place all the ingredients into a air fryer liner, and toss well to coat in the oil.

Air fry at 180C for 8 minutes, stir everything around, then air fry for another 8 minutes.

I was going to make hummus to serve this on but ran out of time, so instead made a hot salad with some lettuce and thinly sliced onion.  I made a tahini dressing with 2 tbsp tahini, 4 tbsp kefir (or plain yoghurt), and crushed garlic.

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Pumpkin Muffins

We regularly have a coeliac trick or treater visiting us the last few years, so I always make a gluten free treat.  This year I have made Pumpkin Muffins, using gluten free self raising flour rather than self raising flour, and the scrapings from inside a couple of pumpkins we've carved.

Any leftover muffins will be used for grab & go breakfasts, in lunchboxes, or snacks next week.

Makes 12

125ml vegetable or light olive oil

2 large free range eggs

250g pumpkin puree 

100-150g sugar

100g mixed dried fruit

2 tsp pumpkin spice (or 1 tsp cinnamon + 1 tsp ginger)

250g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

Make pumpkin purée by simmering 250g of pumpkin in water for 15 minutes.  Drain and liquidise.  

In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs into the oil, followed by the cooled pumpkin purée, sugar, dried fruit, spices and baking powder.  Mix well then stir in the self raising flour.  This is a quite a wet mixture, so unlike other muffin recipes don't be afraid to mix the flour in thoroughly, as the muffins still rise well having done this.

Divide into 12 muffin cases. Bake at 200C for 15 minutes, until a metal sewer comes out of the central muffins clean.

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Air Fryer Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Oh my, why didn’t I try roasting pumpkin seeds in the air fryer sooner?

I didn’t have room in the oven last night for a tray of pumpkin seeds, so thought I’d try roasting them in the air fryer.  It works so well! 

Rinsed pumpkin seeds

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

Paprika 

Salt

Rinse the pumpkin seeds to remove as much of the pumpkin flesh stuck to them as possible. I do this by covering them with water and swirling them around with my fingers. Most of the flesh will sink to the bottom of the bowl, leaving clean(ish) seeds floating on top. 

Drain the pumpkin seeds and roast them in the air fryer for 5 minutes at 180 C to dry them a little.

After drying, tip in a small bowl and stir in the olive oil, and paprika and salt to taste.

Return the seasoned seeds to the air fryer and cook for a further 10 minutes at 180C.

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Berry & Seed Yoghurt

There are so many suggested high fibre, gut friendly, longevity foods that I somehow feel there are not enough days of the week to fit them in.  My current fave Fruit & Seed Yoghurt breakfast has a plant count of 11, plus probiotic yoghurt

80g frozen summer fruits (blackcurrants, redcurrants, raspberries, blackberries) 

100g greek yoghurt

1 tbsp chia seeds

1 tbsp ground flax seeds

1 tbsp mixed seeds (pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, golden linseeds, hemp seeds)

1 tbsp organic porridge oats

1 tsp maple syrup (optional)

Ideally, mix everything together the night before.  Failing that, microwave the berries for 1 minute, then stir in the rest of the ingredients.  The summer fruits are very tart so I like to add a little maple syrup.

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Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Roasting pumpkin seeds is such an easy and healthy thing to do.

Simply save your seeds from pumpkin, rinse off as much of the stringy flesh as you can then toss in about 1 tsp vegetable oil, 1/2 tsp smoked paprika, and a good pinch of salt.

Place in a small shallow dish and roast at 180-200C for about 40 minutes.  

As it is a little extravagant to turn the oven on just for this, I squeeze these into the oven whilst baking something else like bread or a roast.

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Vegan Moroccan Sweet Potato & Lentil Stew (Harira)

My children do not look forward to #veganmonday, but this stew went down well.

Serves a hearty 6

2 large sweet potatoes (or a small butternut squash or pumpkin)
100g red lentils
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 stick celery
1 small carrot
1 onion
1 large clove of garlic
1tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1/8th tsp hot chilli flakes
1 tsp red wine vinegar
2 vegetable stock cube
1 litre just boiled water

Grate the sweet potato, and finely dice all the vegetables.

Fry the onion, celery, carrot, and pumpkin gently until the onion begins to soften slightly.  Add the tomato paste, garlic, and cumin seeds and fry for a minute more before adding the rest of the ingredients.

Bring to the boil then cover and simmer gently for 30 minutes, stirring from time to time making sure nothing is catching on the bottom of the pan.  The stew is ready when the vegetables and lentils are soft.

Serve with bulgur wheat, couscous, or brown rice.

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Moroccan Squash & Lentil Soup or Stew

I’m in a bit of a Moroccan mood this week.

Following my tagine on Monday, I looked up more Moroccan recipes and made myself this Pumpkin & Lentil soup.  It could easily be made with butternut squash, or sweet potato. And, using less liquid it could also be a stew served over couscous or Bulgar wheat.

Serves 4

1 small pumpkin, half a butternut squash or 1 large sweet potato
100g red lentils
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 stick celery
1 small carrot
1 onion
1 large clove of garlic
1tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/8th tsp hot chilli flakes
1 tsp red wine vinegar
2 vegetable stock cube
1 litre just boiled water

Finely dice all the vegetables.

Fry the onion, celery, carrot, and pumpkin gently until the onion begins to soften slightly.  Add the tomato paste, garlic, and cumin seeds and fry for a minute more before adding the rest of the ingredients.

Bring to the boil then cover and simmer gently for 30 minutes, stirring from time to time making sure nothing is catching on the bottom of the pan.  The soup is ready when the vegetables and lentils are soft.

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Vegetarian & Vegan Squash & Lentil Dhansak Curry

Made this dhansak for #meatlessmonday, which I have turned into veganmonday in our house. The kids like curry, providing I can make the vegetables unrecognisable.

Serves 4-6

500g cubed or grated butternut squash, pumpkin, or other squash 
100g red lentils
1 400g tin tomatoes
1 large onion
1 tbsp coriander seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp turmeric
6 black peppercorns
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
4 green cardamons, seeds only
4 cloves of garlic
2.5cm root ginger
2 tbsp sunflower oil
1 tsp hot chilli flakes
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp dried mint

Peel and finely slice the onion.  Fry in the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat until it begins to caramelise.  Add the finely chopped garlic, ginger, and ground spices and stir round for a minute or so.

Pour in the chopped tomatoes, 2 cans of just boiled water, lentils, and the rest of the ingredients.

Simmer for 30 minutes with a lid on, stirring from time to time.  If, at the end of the cooking time, the curry is too runny for your tastes simmer it for 10 minutes with the lid off to reduce it a little.

At home we serve this with basmati rice which has been cooked with a large pinch of cumin seeds and a handful of frozen peas.

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Dairy Free Courgette & Lime Cake

What to do with a courgette/marrow glut...continued.

I believe this is a Nigella Lawson recipe. which I found on someone else's blog.  I made it as an all in one recipe in the food processor as is my wont, rather than the more traditional cream and stir in method.  It is also supposed to be a sandwich cake, but I make 2 loaves and iced them in their lining paper to take to market.

250-300g courgette/marrow
125ml sunflower oil
150g sugar
225g self raising flour
2 eggs
1 heaped tsp baking powder
1 tbsp lime juice
50g raisins (optional)

Icing
2 tbsp lime juice
Icing sugar (about 20 heaped teaspoons)

Makes 2 small loaves/cakes (2lb loaf or 21cm round tins)

If using raisins, leave these to plump up in a little boiling water as you start making the cake.

Wash and roughly chop the courgette (I had to peel mine as it had grown tough like a pumpkin's as it was the size of a marrow).  Chop the courgette in the food processor to a fairly fine rubble.  Tip into your tin.

Cream the sugar, oil, and eggs in the food processor.  Don't worry if any bits of courgette are still in the bowl. Add the flour, lime juice (I used bottled lime juice from Aldi), and baking powder and mix again until smooth.

Add the courgette, and raisins if using, and quickly mix to incorporate.

Spoon and divide equally into 2 lined cake tins.  Bake at 180C for 30 minutes.

Mix the lime juice for the icing with enough icing sugar to make a cream like consistency, halfway between double and extra thick cream.  You want to be able to pour it on but not have it run off the cake like milk.

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Spiced Pumpkin Muffins

Making Pumpkin & Ginger Jam yesterday morning gave me a great idea for the 24 little cakes I need to make for the infant school.

There is a River Cottage recipe for marbled muffins (sadly not available online right now I’ve just seen), and I thought I’d stir in some pumpkin jam.  But as my jam just fitted into five jars with none leftover I’ve had to revise my plan, and use my go-to fresh fruit/vegetable muffin recipe.

I only began making muffins a few years ago.  Before that my sister in law would put me to shame, effortlessly wiping up a batch as soon as she saw black banana or the like.  My muffins, by comparison, were more solid than rock cakes and even more inedible.

Then I stumbled across this recipe on the web.  I’m not sure where it came from, but it works.  My muffins are soft, slightly moist and most importantly, edible. I use these quantities for fresh fruit/veg + dried ingredient for consistently reliable results ie beetroot & white chocolate, apple & raisin, banana & choc chip, courgette & raisin, carrot & raisin (carrot cake) etc etc.

250g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

110g sugar

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 handful (50g) mixed dried fruit

80ml sunflower oil

150ml milk

1 egg

170g grated pumpkin

Place 12 muffin cases into a muffin tray.  If, however, you want big American sized muffins, I would suggest 8-10 muffin cases only.  You’ll have to experiment!

Weigh out the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix with a fork to break up any lumps of flour.

Measure out the milk and oil and whisk in the egg.

Pour the wet mixture into the dry and fold in until only just mixed.  The trick to not making solid muffins, I have learnt, is not not overmix.  And a few patches of dry flour is okay.

Spoon immediately into the muffin cases. Sprinkle the tops with brown sugar if you wish.

Bake for 20-25 minutes at 190C/170C Fan, turning the tray halfway through cooking.  Bake until the muffins are lightly browned and spring back when touched.  Leave to cool on a cooling rack until bearable.

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Pumpkin & Ginger Jam

Wow! Pumpkin jam, where have you been all my life? I cannot thank @BootstrapCook enough for her post about pumpkin jam. On reading her post about making pumpkin jam, I went to my mother’s old 1963 Marguerite Patten Jams Pickles and Chutneys cookbook (otherwise known as my jam and chutney making Bible) and found several recipes for pumpkin jam. The first, simply called Pumpkin Jam, contained ginger and lemon juice. The next, Pumpkin & Lemon had more lemon, and the third was Pumpkin & Orange. But it was the first, and the almost hidden detail of ginger that caught my eye, and taste buds.


I have just finished making my first ever five pots of what I shall be calling Pumpkin & Ginger Jam when I sell some at Alresford Country Market. In the between typing I will be scraping out my saucepan for the very last smear of deliciousness.

First, its colour is fantastic. It is translucent, almost glowing in the jar. Second, it’s taste. I tried to mathematically proportion down from the original recipe the amount of ginger for the amount of pumpkin I had. I applied my best GCSE maths and, I believe, have come out with the correct proportion.  But, for a jam that just calls itself simply ‘pumpkin jam’,  it has one hell of a warming gingery kick to it.  As I have said, however, I am still enjoying it still warm out of the saucepan, and maybe the gingeriness will calm a little when cool.  However, for this reason though, I do not feel I could sell it at the Country Market without making some mention of ginger in its name for fear of startling the pensioners who are our customer base.

Sadly 1kg of pumpkin only gives 5 small jars of jam. Luckily I do have another 4kg of dismembered pumpkin in my freezer.  Next year I may magic the kids pumpkins away even sooner and just blame it on the witches.

1kg skinned, cubed, boiled, & drained pumpkin

1kg sugar

Zest & juice of 1 lemon

40g root ginger

Skin the ginger and finely chop.  Add to the pan with the rest of the ingredients.  When the sugar has dissolved, use a stick blender to puree everything in the pan.  Bring it to the boil and stir regularly for 20 minutes.  Test for a set on a very cold saucer and continue boiling and stirring for another 5 minutes and repeat the process.  It took about half an hour for mine to reach the consistency I wanted.

Seal in sterilised jam jars.

And this newfound joy that is the marriage of pumpkin and ginger has given me a great idea for the 24 little cakes I have to make for school cafe tomorrow…Spiced Pumpkin Muffins

Original Marguerite Patten recipe
Cooking Time 40 minutes

3lb pumpkin

3lb sugar

Zest & juice of 2 lemons

2oz root ginger

1. Boil the pumpkin until tender

2. Drain well and mash thoroughly

3. Add the lemon rind and juice

4.  Add ginger cut into neat pieces.

5.  Bring to the boil

6. Add sugar and stir until dissolved

7.  Boil for 20 minutes or until thick

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Classic Roasted Pumpkin Soup

A random tweet about Autumn things, and the fact that slugs had detected a weakness in my kids' pumpkin's soft underbelly, found me googling 'classic pumpkin soup' the other day.

There are a wealth of recipes out there, some less classic than others, but in the end I settled on an American recipe - and then tweeked it.  I really wasn't sure about the spices, and cinnamon in particular, thinking I was going to end up with a pumpkin pie affair on my hands.  But it works.  I ended up with a lovely warming savoury soup.  Just what I was after.

Serves 6-8 (It made 4x 500ml pots)
Cooking time 1.5 hours 

1 medium pumpkin (scrapings from the inside of your halloween pumpkin can be used instead)
1 medium onion
1 carrot
1 stick of celery
1 clove of garlic
1tbsp olive oil
1 litre chicken or vegetable stock (2 stock cubes + 1l recently boiled water)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp sweet paprika
100g full fat soft cheese

Cut the pumpkin into quarters and scrape out the seeds (these can be rinsed, tossed in oil, salt, and paprika, spread out on a shallow roasting tin and roasted at the same time as the pumpkin).  Rub a little olive oil into the quarters, sprinkle over a little salt and roast on a baking tray for about 1 hour at 200C until the pumpkin cuts like butter with a knife.  Remove from the oven and leave to cool whilst you prepare the other vegetables.

Peel and roughly chop the onion, garlic and carrot.  Fry the onion and garlic gently in a saucepan, adding the carrot when it is ready, and then the roughly chopped celery. Stir the vegetables for about 5-10 minutes to allow them to soft but not brown.

Scoop out the soft pumpkin flesh and add this to the softening vegetables.  Stir around and then add the stock and spices.  Bring to the boil and then simmer for 20 minutes.

Take off the heat and leave to cool a little with the lid off for 5 or so minutes before liquidising with a stick blender.  After a first quick blitz, add the soft cheese and blitz again until the soup is smooth and silky.  I had to add a couple of teaspoons of sugar as the pumpkin had a slightly bitter aftertaste for some strange reason, but hopefully yours will not.

And I have promised to buy the kids another pumpkin to carve next week.

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Courgette & Chorizo Risotto

After the success of my Cheesy Green Risotto, the discovery of some beautiful courgettes in the Riverford vegbox, and having just returned home from a week in France with supplies of chorizo, I thought I'd try another.  I came clean to the kids that it was a risotto, and they could choose either bacon or chorizo.  I didn't mention the courgette.

As my previous risotto my plan was to use my mini food processor to make the vegetables almost unrecognisable, but on discovering I'd left it behind in Northern France (I had intended to take soup in a flask to the beach on cold days but our adult friends decided that mulled wine was a better use of the flask) I resorted to chopping the onion and chorizo as finely as I could by hand, and grating the courgette.

NB This risotto works well with butternut squash or pumpkin too.

Serves 4 kids or 3 adults

1 large courgette, grated 
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped or grated
1/4 chorizo (about 75g)
180g risotto rice
50g mature cheddar
100ml white wine (optional)
600ml hot stock or boiling water + stock cube
1 large knob butter
1 tbsp olive oil

Gently fry onion and garlic over a medium heat with the olive oil and butter in a large saucepan. After a few minutes add the chorizo.

When the oil starts to come out of the chorizo, add the courgette and continue to fry and stir until the courgette starts to look quite wilted.  Add the rice and stir through thoroughly.

Pour in the wine and stir regularly whilst it bubbles away. When the wine has nearly all cooked away and the rice is in danger of sticking, add about 100ml of stock and stir from time to time until the rice is in danger of sticking again.  Keep adding the stock in large ladlefuls, stirring from time to time, and adding more when nearly dried out.  This process takes about 20 minutes.

Test the rice after all the stock has been used to see if it is cooked through and not crunchy and uncooked in the middle.  You are also aiming for the risotto to be a slightly loose porridge texture - sticky enough to help it stay on a spoon wielded by a toddler but not so sticky it could be used to make a sand castle!

If the rice is not cooked through keep on adding hot water from the kettle and stirring and bubbling away as before, checking the rice from time to time until it is done.  When the rice is cooked, stir in the cheese.

Serve on cold plates for kids to help it cool to eating temperature.

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Thai Spiced Pumpkin & Potato Soup

When carving pumpkins, I always scrape out as much of the flesh (and seeds) as I can.  A few seeds are dried for growing next year (I grew my first ever pumpkin this year from seeds from a salvaged from supermarket pumpkin last year) and the rest are roasted as nibbles.  The flesh in frozen and used in risottos or soups.

As carving pumpkins are grown for, well err carving, rather than flavour I think they need quite a lot of help.  Something which the Thai flavours certainly do.

Serves 4

250g pumpkin, or butternut squash flesh
250g white potato
1 clove of garlic
1 small onion
1/2 tbsp sunflower oil
500ml water
400ml coconut milk
2 vegetable or chicken stock cube
1 tsp red curry paste (or vegan Thai curry paste if preferred)
 zest of 1/2 lemon

Roughly chop the onion and fry in a saucepan with the sunflower oil.  Once softened add roughly chopped garlic, chopped potato (you don't need to peel it - it's going to be liquidised), and curry paste.  Fry for a couple of minutes then add the coconut milk, a can full of recently boiled water, and the kaffir lime leaves or zest.  Simmer for 20 minutes until the potato is soft.  Liquidise and add fish sauce to taste.

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