Pumpkin Soup morphs into Hearty Vegetable Dinner

Dinner? Dinner? Dinner? What to cook for dinner that is nourishing and delicious.  Some left over pumpkin soup and an eggplant – great! 

Not enough to serve as soup but an excellent flavour for a vegetable dinner. That bit of pumpkin soup becomes the base of this colourful, veggie-packed bowl of hearty goodness. Omit the bacon and this is a satisfying vegetarian dish.  And – great as left overs the next day.  

Might not look pretty ... but  .... Mmmmmm

Preparation and cooking : about 20 -30 minutes in total

Serves 3- 4   depending on the volume of veggies added. This is just a rough guide

Ingredients

This is a bit of “toss together” style so just add or vary as you like

1 - 1 1/2 cups left over pumpkin soup (mine was very thick and flavoured with cumin and lemon)

1 cup cooked rice (I keep some in the freezer for a quick defrost)

1 large eggplant – diced

2 onions – diced

1 clove garlic – crushed

A splash of Australian Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 -2 slices bacon, rind removed  - diced. Or pancetta (optional – leave out if preferred)

½ teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

½ teaspoon celery seeds 

1 red chilli – finely shredded  (leave out or add more to your taste)

Handful baby green beans – chopped to bite size

1 tin chickpeas – rinsed and drained

Some sliced red capsicum

Some cauliflower – chopped into very small florets

Cabbage – finely shredded – about 1/8 of a regular cabbage

Few baby spinach leaves

Salt and Pepper to taste

Splash of lemon juice

few roasted pumpkin seed to scatter on top (optional)

Method

Heat the olive oil in the pan and fry off the onions and bacon.

Add the garlic and diced eggplant.

Stir through the cumin, coriander, turmeric, celery seeds and chilli.

Add the capsicum and cauliflower and stir until soft but still a little crisp.

Add beans and cabbage

Pour over the pumpkin soup and add the chickpeas and rice.

Stir together until warmed through.

Toss through the spinach leaves

Taste and add salt and pepper if needed.

Squeeze the juice of about ¼ of a lemon over just before serving.

TIPS AND HINTS This is an easy way to use soup when there's not enough left for a full serving.

Also keeping some cooked rice in the freezer provides a quick way of adding rice to a meal without needed to cook from scratch.

                                  Enjoy!  Colleen

Banana and Pecan Spiced Cake Slice

This is a great tasting “cake slice” that delivers lots of flavour with not too much effort.  It is particularly good for using up any ‘sad’ bananas from your fruit bowl or, in my case, ones I have stored in the freezer.  See below for my TIPS AND HINTS for frozen bananas.

When I was baking this cake the other day Wilbur confidently stated he did NOT want any cake ...  no prizes for guessing how strong his resolve was ...

Ingredients

3 medium bananas – very ripe, roughly mashed 

TIPS AND HINTS  Store any over-ripe Bananas in your freezer. Just leave the skin on, place banana in a plastic bag and freeze. Use within a month.  Perfect for these types of recipes!

To de-frost: remove banana from freezer, skin will be brown but fruit will be fine.  Leave skin on until able to handle. Remove the skin and roughly mash the fruit. NO waste!

185 gram Butter, softened

185 gram Brown Sugar

3 eggs, lightly beaten

200 gram Self-Raising Flour

¼ teaspoon ground Nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ground Cloves

¼ cup sultanas – roughly chopped

150 gram Pecans, roughly chopped   PLUS    extra for decorating the cooked cake

Honey Icing

250 gram Philly Cream Cheese – softened to room temperature

¼ cup butter – softened

½ teaspoon Vanilla extract

¼ cup Honey  (I like to use Australian Kangaroo Island Ligurian Raw Honey) or any well flavoured honey

50 gram Icing Sugar – sifted

100 gram Milk Powder (low fat if you prefer) 

Decoration:  Some sliced pecans, Seed Mix with pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, pinenuts

TIPS AND HINTS  The Milk Powder replaces much of the sugar in the Icing Recipe.  This reduces the sugar content and gives a lovely creaminess to the Icing mixture.

Method

Preheat oven to 180° C

Check butter and bananas are at room temperature.

Line a 20cm x 30cm x 4cm deep tray with baking paper.

Use an electric mixer (or by hand) and in a large bowl beat the butter, sugar and eggs for a minute or two until well combined.

Lightly fold in the flour and spices.  Do not overwork.

Fold in the mashed banana, sultanas and pecans to evenly combine.

Pour into prepared tray and bake 25 – 35 minutes. 

Check at 25 minutes.  The middle of the slice should be cooked when pierced with a skewer.

Allow to cool in the tray on a cake rack.

ICING

Beat the Cream cheese and butter until pale and creamy.

Beat in the vanilla, honey , icing sugar and milk powder until dissolved and well combined.

Should be thick but still spreadable.

Spread over the cooled slice.  (If cake too warm, the icing will melt off into a gooey mess)

Decorate with sliced pecans and seed mix.

TIPS AND HINTS  any remaining icing can be stored in a freezerproof container ready to defrost for next time! 

                                             Enjoy!  Colleen

Cauliflower Couscous

This cauliflower couscous appeals to those watching their "carbs" as a substitute for wheat based couscous.  But it's great for anyone who wants to eat more veg and make it interesting at the same time.  This goes well with the Moorish cumin beef skewers I recently posted.



Ingredients

300g cauliflower grated
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup (40g) dried cranberries
2 tablespoons pistachios
1/4 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped


Method

Lightly steam cauliflower with a little water and salt until just cooked.

Drain then toss with  oil, cranberries, pistachios and parsley.

Serve on a decorative platter.

Mamma Marmalade

Moorish Cumin Beef

This skewered beef is packed full of flavour and can be accompanied by couscous or even fluffy rice.
I will be posting a cauliflower couscous alternative soon that goes really well -  without the "carbs".


Ingredients

2 tablespoons cumin
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon tumeric
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 cup finely chopped parsley
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
1/2 cup sweet sherry
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
11/2 kilograms of beef rump cut into even strips or cubes
1 lemon sliced thinly

Method

In a large glass or ceramic dish combine spices, parsley, garlic, sherry and olive oil.
Add beef and toss until combined, cover and marinate in fridge for 4 hours.

If using bamboo skewers soak in cold water for 30 minutes.

Thread beef onto skewers.
Cook on a char grill or BBQ (or pop under the grill) for 3-4 minutes each side.  Basting with the marinade mix.  Until cooked to your liking.

Grill the lemon or lime cheeks to accompany the beef skewers.

Delicious!

Mamma Marmalade