Pastitsio, Greek Pasta Bake

After 14 years of driving to the South of France every summer, due to my eldest daughter's access and equipment needs, last week we treated our younger two now adult children to a last minute package holiday.  My son likes history and Greek mythology, my middle daughter likes sun and sea, and we all like food, so we settled on Rhodes.  They tried their best to eat most of the popular Greek dishes, but the one of the dishes they didn't try was Pastitsio, a layered lasagne like pasta bake, so I introduced them to it.

Serves 4-6

500g long pasta tubes, pastitsio no.2 aka bucatini, or penne
2 tbsp olive or sunflower oil
1 large onion, finely diced
2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 courgette grated, or a bag of baby spinach leaves (optional)
500g beef or pork mince, or a mixture of both
150ml red wine
500g passata
1 tsp dried mint

1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp cinnamon

1 bay leaf
2 eggs

500g greek style yoghurt

1/4 tsp nutmeg
100g grated halloumi, cheddar, or parmesan

Gently fry the onion in 1 tbsp olive oil in a saucepan. 

When the onion starts to look translucent add the courgette if using.  Fry for 5-10 minutes until soft.  Add the garlic and mince, breaking the mince up as you cook it.  When broken up and with very few raw pink bits, add the passata, rinse the carton out with the wine and add this, and the herbs & spices, apart from the nutmeg.  Cover and bring to the boil then turn down to a simmer, stirring from time to time, whilst you cook the pasta.

Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packet.  

Just before the pasta cooking time is up, check the pasta sauce. It should be slightly thick, like single cream. If still too watery, take the lid off and continue to simmer whilst you drain the pasta.

Drain the pasta, tip into a large high sided baking dish, and stir through 1 tbsp olive oil. 

Turn the oven on to 180C.  

Beat the eggs into the yoghurt together with a pinch of salt and nutmeg.

Pour the meat sauce evenly over the pasta (if being traditional the pasta should be lined up all the same direction in the baking dish, but I have yet to bother to do this), then evenly cover this with the yoghurt and egg mixture.  Top with the grated cheese.

Bake for 45-60 minutes at 180C in the middle of the oven or until golden brown and bubbling. You may wish to turn the grill of for a couple of minutes to brown the top, but keep a close eye on it - the cheese burns quickly! 

Serve with a big green salad.

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Mexican Roast Potatoes & Beans

We seem to be alternating between pasta and rice for carbs recently, so I googled 'potato main meals' and turned up this Mexican Bean & Potato Bake.  It is a pretty versatile bake - the original recipe says to use kidney beans, but I was going to use pinto beans until I discovered I had leftover Chilli con Veggie.  You could also use Chilli con Carne if not vegetarian.  

Serves 4

1kg potatoes, cut into bite sized pieces

2 tbsp olive oil

1 pepper, cut into bite sized pieces (optional)

400g drained kidney, pinto, black beans, or leftover chilli

400 g tin chopped tomatoes

2 tsp smoked paprika (if not using using leftover chilli)

1 tsp ground cumin (if not using using leftover chilli)

1 tsp hot chilli powder (if not using using leftover chilli)

Salt & pepper

100g cheese, grated

Preheat the oven to 200C/190C Fan.

Toss the potatoes in the oil in a lasagne dish and roast for 45 minutes, stirring around half way through the roasting time, until lightly browned and nearly cooked through.

After 45 minutes, stir through the beans/chilli, tinned tomatoes, spices, salt and pepper. Sprinkle cover the cheese, and return to the oven for a further 30 minutes until bubbling hot, the potatoes are cooked through.  

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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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Zoe Science & Nutrition Baked Root Vegetable Medley

With beetroot and half a butternut squash to use up on New Year's Eve, and a vegetarian to cater for, I tried this recipe I saw on @Zoe instagram account.  In spite forgetting to set an oven timer due to the jollity of board games and sparkling wine, it turned out well.  I had the last serving today on homemade wholegrain sourdough toast drizzled with extra virgin olive oil.

Serves 2 as a main or 4 as a side 

1 sweet potato

1 small squash

1 beetroot

5 Jerusalem artichokes (didn't use - used several small beetroot and large sweet potato instead)

1 handful cashews, soaked in boiling water for at least 10 minutes

400g tin of white beans (recipe said drained, but I didn't) 

1 tsp miso paste

a few sprigs of thyme

2 cloves of garlic

100ml milk of choice (used the bean liquid instead)

2 tbsp olive oil

Salt & pepper to taste.

Preheat the oven to 190C.

Thinly slice your vegetables using a knife or mandolin and layer into an ovenproof dish with fresh thyme.

In a blender, combine the beans, soaked cashews, garlic, milk and miso paste into a pourable sauce. Taste and adjust the seasoning as needed.

Cover the vegetables with the sauce and push down to ensure they are submerged. Drizzle the olive oil over the top and place in the oven for around an hour until the vegetables are soft and the top is golden and crispy.

My tips; brush some additional olive oil over the bottom and sides of your baking dish.  Also, my vegetables were not submerged by the sauce so I covered the dish with some aluminium foil.

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Air Fryer or Oven Roasted Vegetable Salad

Now it is Sunday Roast season, I am putting a tray of mixed vegetables in the oven whilst the roast is cooking if there is space, or after.  These vegetables are then a potted up with some pulses, seeds/nuts, and a dressing as a grab and go midweek packed lunch.

Last Sunday I roasted half a cauliflower and half a squash, and mixed in a can of drained chickpeas after roasting the dish.  As the spice mix (leftover from my son making southern fried chicken) I tossed the veg in before cooking was really quite spicy, I made a cooling tahini dressing with a few spinach leaves whizzed in just for colour. It filled three takeaway containers.  A few weeks before I roasted 500g beetroot and 750g sweet potato

Firm vegetables roast well; squash, sweet potato, cauliflower, beetroot, carrot, parsnips, celeriac, fennel. But softer vegetables (aubergine, courgette, onion, peppers, cabbage) work well too, just with less cooking.

Toss the vegetables in a few tablespoons of olive oil and roast for around 45 minutes at 200C in a fan oven, or 20 minutes in an air fryer at 180C. You can add a little salt, paprika, cumin, or harissa as you wish. Toss/stir around halfway through the cooking time. 

Add a tin of drained green lentils, beans, or chickpeas, sprinkle over some mixed seeds, add some cheese (feta, goats cheese, cottage cheese) if you like, and a dressing like tahini dressing, vinaigrette, chermoula, chimichurri, zhoug, or salsa verde.

If feeling the need for some more carbs, adding some cooked quinoa, pearl barley, pasta, couscous etc

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Caponata, Sicilian Vegetables

Caponata is Ratatouille's Sicilian cousin.  Apart from the aubergine, ingredients seem to vary. Tomatoes, onion, celery, olives, and capers seem common from recipe to recipe. Courgette, pepper, pine nuts, and raisins (should only be in a cake in my opinion) slightly less so.

2 aubergines

1 courgette

1 red pepper

1 onion, peeled

1 stick of celery

2 large cloves of garlic

4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 can cherry or chopped tomatoes

20 unpitted green or black olives, destoned

2 tbsp capers

30g pine nuts

Can of cannellini beans, black beans, or green lentils (optional)

Chop the aubergine, courgette, onion, and celery into chunky bite sized pieces.

Toss in the olive oil, together with the unpeeled garlic cloves and salt, and bake in a high sided baking dish for 40 minutes at 200C, stirring halfway through the cooking time.

At the end of the cooking time, stir in the rest of the ingredients into the hot baking dish to warm up.  There should be enough residual heat in the baking dish to heat the tomatoes enough. If not, pop back in the oven for 10 minutes.

To make this dish a little more filling (and add more carbohydrate, fibre, and protein) add a can of cannellini beans, green lentils, or black beans.

Eat hot or cold. The flavours of this dish will develop if left to cool overnight.

Caponata can be cooked on the stove, frying the vegetables in the olive oil until browned and they adding the remaining ingredients.

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Roasted Beetroot, Sweet Potato, & Chickpeas

With children back in college, and OH working back in the office more days a week I have been trying (and usually failing) to meal prep a couple grab & go lunches so they can be alternated throughout the week.

My son made Lentil Bolognese on Sunday night, and had four pasta dishes that he didn't need to worry about keeping cold until lunchtime.

On Thursday night I finally got round to roasting some vegetables I bought on Monday to bake.  And this dish would have had some kale in it, had I not used is as a Super Green Pasta Sauce last night

500g beetroot

750g sweet potato (I took 2 sweet potatoes out of the 1kg bag to make soup)

1 can of chickpeas, drained

3 tbsp olive oil

Wash but do not peel the vegetables and chop into bite sized pieces.

Toss in the olive oil with the drained chickpeas.

Bake for 40 minutes at 180C, stirring around halfway through the cooking time.

This quantity made three portions.  Today, for a fry filling lunch, I microwaved a portion and added halloumi, za'atar, and tahini dressing. Other ideas of ingredients to add are feta, goats cheese, cottage cheese, quinoa, pearl barley, Chermoula, Chimichurri, Zhoug, or a good old Italian Salsa Verde.

A single portion could be made in an air fryer with one beetroot, one sweet potato, and about a third of a tin of chickpeas.  Cook for 20 minutes at 180C, mixing halfway through the cooking time.

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Tandoori Salmon & Potato Traybake

Oven season begins, and with a surplus of potatoes I thought I'd combine Tandoori Salmon with potatoes and cook a hands off traybake.

Serves 4

500g salmon fillet

100g greek yoghurt

2 tbsp tandoori masala powder

1 clove of garlic, peeled & crushed

Juice of a small lemon

1kg white or salad potatoes

1 tbsp light olive oil

Mix the yoghurt, tandoori masala, garlic, and lemon juice together.  Spread over the flesh side of the salmon and leave to marinate for at least 30 minutes.

About an hour before you want to eat turn the oven on to preheat to 220C/200C Fan.

Cut the potatoes into wedges, or in half if smaller salad potatoes.  Place in a high sided baking dish big enough to spread them into a single layer, toss in a tablespoon of light olive oil and turn skin side down.

Bake the potatoes for 30 minutes then remove the dish from the oven.  Toss the potatoes so the ones on the outside are moved to the middle then make space in the middle of the dish for the salmon. Scrape all the marinade onto the salmon, and arrange the potatoes around it.

Return the baking dish to the oven for 15 minutes.

Serve with something green like wilted spinach, peas, green beans, or cucumber raita. 

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Sausage & Potato Traybake

We make this every time we go to France, currently twice a year, with good quality Toulouse sausage, merquez, or cooking chorizo from local butchers. 

Vegetables like chunks of red peppers and cherry tomatoes could be added when you add the sausages, but my teens would rather a green salad. 

Serves 4

1kg small potatoes, halved 
1kg sausages 
1 tbsp olive oil or butter 

Preheat the oven to 220C.

Toss the potatoes and oil together in a large high side baking dish, or dot with butter if you have no oil (as we did, on arriving for our first night at our Airbnb). 

Bake the potatoes uncovered for 20 minutes. Remove the tray from the oven and stir around the potatoes, then lay on the sausages. Return to the oven for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes take the dish out the oven again, remove the sausages to a plate and stir around the potatoes, pushing the browner ones to the middle, and the lighter ones to the sides of the dish. Return the sausages to the dish with their paler undersides facing up. Bake for another 15 minutes or until golden brown and the juices run clear (a bit hard to tell with merquez). 

Serve with a green salad or something green.

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Alevropita, Greek Feta Bake

I love Spanakopita, but cannot be bothered with brushing innumerable sheets of filo with olive oil.  So this simple 'toad' in the hole style traybake has all the flavour and none of the hassle.  The traditional Alevropita recipe has just feta, but I thought to add spinach (and a few more flavourings) to make it healthier.

Serves 4

250g wilted baby leaf or chopped spinach (optional)

2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

150g plain or self raising flour

200ml milk

2 free range eggs

1/4 tsp salt

150g crumbled feta

1 clove of garlic, peeled and crushed (optional)

1 tsp dried Greek oregano or thyme (optional)

Wilt spinach in a little water, pour into a sieve and leave to cool and drain.

Preheat the oven to 170C Fan/190C together with a baking dish with 1 tbsp of olive oil.

Whisk flour, milk, eggs, and salt together into a smooth batter.  Add garlic and oregano if using and mix thoroughly

When the oven has reached temperature, take out the baking dish and carefully swirl the hot oil around the sides.  Pour the batter into the hot oil, then scatter over the feta and spinach. Swirl this into the batter and drizzle over another tablespoon of olive oil.

Bake for 40-45 minutes until golden and crispy on top.  Serve with a Greek Salad (minus the feta).

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Harissa Salmon, Broccoli, & New Potato Traybake

As the weather cools in southern England, turning the oven on for a traybake doesn't seems a bad idea, particularly if you can cook something else for later in the week on another shelf (roasted homegrown Crown Prince squash).

A relatively quick midweek dinner.

Serves 4

500g side of salmon
1kg new potatoes 
Small head of broccoli 

1-3 tbsp harissa

2 tbsp olive oil

Juice of half a lemon

Mix the harissa, olive oil and lemon juice and marinade the salmon for as long as you can beforehand. The recipe I loosely followed stated 3 tbsp of harissa but ours was old, fiery, and the genuine article (Le Phare de Cap Bon from France) and just 1 tbsp was surprisingly hot.  I presume supermarket homebrand harissa is not as hot?  Our salmon marinaded whilst boiling the potatoes.

Bring a pan of water to the boil and cook the potatoes for 10 minutes, adding the broccoli florets for 2 minutes at the end of the cooking time. Drain.

Lightly oil a high sided baking dish and place in the salmon.  Toss the potatoes in any remaining marinade and around the salmon as suits. I would have cooked the piece of salmon whole, but was worried that once child would find the harissa too spicy, so cut the salmon into four portions and kept one of portion well away from the marinated portions. To further complicate things, another child does not like broccoli (but thankfully likes harissa), so I had to separate the potatoes and the broccoli as well as marinated and non-marinated fish, otherwise I would have mixed the vegetables all together.

Bake for 30 minutes at 180C, until the salmon is cooked through.

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Lemon & Rosemary Lamb Traybake

This Lemon & Rosemary Lamb Tray Bake from BBC Good Food is perfect for Easter, although I cooked the weekend before as a birthday meal.

As every I tweaked it a little bit to what I had available, and removing the ingredients my teens don't like (peppers & tomatoes).

1 ½ lemons, zested and juiced, ½ sliced

2 tbsp olive oil

1 large garlic clove, crushed

6 rosemary sprigs, leaves picked from 4 and chopped

8 lamb cutlets, trimmed of excess fat (I used Barnsley chops from local butcher)

500g new potato, thinly sliced (this seemed light on spuds - I used 1kg of all purpose potatoes)

2 red peppers, deseeded and thickly sliced (not used)

4 small vine tomatoes, halved (not used)

50g black olive

3 tbsp capers 

Marinade the lamb in the lemon zest, lemon juice, 1 tbsp olive oil, garlic, chopped rosemary, and a little salt and pepper for at least 30 minutes.  I used the large shallow baking dish I was going to cook them in, keeping the bag the lamb came in to put them back in whilst the potatoes are cooking.

Heat oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 7.

When ready to cook, take the lamb out of the baking dish, putting it back in the bag if you have it. Scrape any marinade on top of the lamb.  

Tip the potatoes into the into the baking dish, toss them in ½ tbsp olive oil and a little salt & pepper,  and put in the oven for 15 mins.

After 15 minutes, remove the dish and move the potatoes around so those in the middle of the dish are swapped with those at the edge. Top with the peppers, lemon slices, rosemary sprigs and tomatoes. Drizzle with the remaining oil and some seasoning. Return to the oven for 10 mins.

Place the lamb cutlets on top of the veg. Scatter over the olives and capers. Cook for a final 10-12 mins, turning the lamb halfway until it is just pink. As I used Barnsley chops, I thought they might need a bit more cooking (and I have a child who finds rare meat too chewy) so I baked the lamb for 30 minutes.  This gave me perfect blushing lamb. Adults' portion was served with cauliflower and fennel roasted along side the lamb.

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