Tag Archives: vegetarian

parsley-almond-feta pesto

Posted on by

I totally forgot about this recipe until I was looking through my files for a different set of photos this morning and found these (from last May). And I thought darn, I could have made this today but I used up all the parsley yesterday making this sauce. Then it occurred to me that if I just added chopped almonds and crumbled feta to that sauce I would end up with this. Which is what I did. The first time I made this pesto I served it with air fryer roasties and a simple onion & tomato salad (above). Today I’m going with roasties again but with air fryer drumsticks and… not sure yet. Will add that photo below later on.

UPDATE: nope, in the end I didn’t use the parsley sauce to make this pesto because it already had salt added (forgot about that, oops) and with the feta and toasted almonds (also salted) it would have been too much. But I’ll keep it in mind next time I make the parsley sauce, to add salt just before using in case I want to use it for something else. Made the batch yesterday to use up the parsley while it was still fresh.

Ingredients and instructions below…
Continue reading →

espinacas con garbanzos 2

Posted on by

This is an update of a previous update of this very nice recipe for espinacas con garbanzos, a very traditional version, which is delicious. But it turns out that I almost never make this dish the same way twice and so I’ve been tweaking it, looking up a few more recipes, got confounded by some that add tomato (wut) and then kind of settled on this version, which is what I’ve been doing for a while, except now with added chopped toasted almonds (game changer!).

So here it is. I like using baby spinach that I wilt in the microwave because then you don’t have to boil anything and the spinach comes out much brighter, more tender, and (I think) has more flavour.

Ingredients and instructions below…
Continue reading →

air fryer roasties

Posted on by

Okay, this recipe has been a long time coming… so long in fact that I’d forgotten I hadn’t posted it until someone asked me on Instagram the other day. Let’s just say I’ve been attempting to perfect air fryer roasties ever since I first got the beast almost three years ago. The main way these differ from their oven-roasted counterparts is that it’s not really convenient to heat up the oil (or goose fat) until almost spitting before adding the potatoes because I’ve found these turn out better in the air fryer by putting them directly in the hot basket (no pan). So what I do is douse the potatoes in lovely evoo (or sometimes a combo of evoo and melted butter), quickly toss them and throw them into the pre-heated basket, giving them a shake every ten minutes and squirting them with a bit more evoo if they look like they need it.

As I say, I’ve tried several variations and they were all good, but not quite “there” yet, if you know what I mean. And then I came across Nigella’s recipe for Perfect Roast Potatoes which included a dredging in semolina after par-boiling and just before hitting the hot goose fat. So two things… I couldn’t find semolina anywhere here and wasn’t using spitting hot oil. And so instead I threw a handful of panko crumbs over the hot and freshly evoo-doused par-boiled potatoes, gave that a toss, and then right into the hot basket. And hey… success.

Ingredients and instructions below…
Continue reading →

cauliflower and broccoli soup

Posted on by

I have kind of a sweet deal with my flatmate Peter. I do all the cooking, he does all the washing up. But this also means that, as we mostly eat our main meal together at home I have to eschew a few ingredients that Peter can’t abide: brussel sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli and cucumber. And I LOVE all of those things. Anyhow, yesterday I cooked up a whack of fabada for him to, well eat, and also freeze for future solo lunches. So that was his cosy winter lunch sussed for today and I decided to give in to two of my favourite veg: cauliflower and broccoli.

I first made this soup during lockdown and found it sooo comforting but forgot to write it down. It’s simple and with very few ingredients, but today I also forgot (because it’s been so long!) that I used to add a small diced cooked potato to the mix to give it a bit of texture, so I steamed that separately after everything else was ready to go and added it. I also used these cute mini broccoli and cauliflower as it’s just for me. I reckon it’s no more expensive than having most of a massive and cheaper cauliflower rot in the fridge. ANYHOW. To make it totally vegetarian swap chicken broth for veggie broth, for vegans just omit the yoghurt topping. The sourdough croutons add great crunchy texture.

Ingredients and instructions below…

Continue reading →

tortilla de patatas revisited

Posted on by

I had a surplus of free-range eggs today and decided to do something about it. The first thing that came to mind was to make a tortilla de patatas, which is something I don’t make often enough. So I went ahead with making one and suddenly realised… hey, this is way different to how I used to make them. A quick check on the first tortilla recipe I posted here in 2010 proved the point. I mean, both recipes are valid, but my love (and knowledge) of extra virgin olive oil has steadily increased over the years and this latest tortilla recipe shows that. My experience of other tortillas from different parts of Spain has also increased and so, without noticing, I had been adapting my tortillas at home based on different ones I’ve tried and enjoyed and I have discovered that, frankly, there are a gazillion ways of making this “simple” potato omelette.

Today’s tortilla was a bit more elaborate, mostly in the time involved. Caramalised onions, potatoes slowly “poached” in evoo… but you could also just sautée some onions and cook the potatoes more quickly in less oil by covering them with a lid. Up to you. Unlike some tortilla purists out there, I really don’t think there is a “wrong” way of making a tortilla de patatas other than it MUST be flipped. If you finish it in the oven or under a grill it’s a frittata. Sorry, them’s the rules. Anyhow this is how I did it today and omg it was so good.

Update: I’ve added an extra “trick” of using extra yolks. Apparently it’s what all the bars and restaurants in Santiago do.

Ingredients and instructions below…
Continue reading →

Nigella’s cilantro & jalapeño salsa

Posted on by

The other day I was excited to see Nigella was back on Blue Sky, giving it another go. And then I saw this recipe! A simple salsa but omg it’s good. And once I saw “roughly chop the cilantro stalks and all” I was in (for me picking cilatro leaves is right up there with peeling garlic). Anyhow, the amount of fresh cilantro in the original recipe (100 grams) was more than I had and so, as usual, I improvised a bit. I also didn’t have any fresh jalapeños so used a few slices of pickled ones. Trust me, once you try this you’re always going to want some on hand. Check out the link here for the original recipe and also for tips on storage, usage, etc…

Nigella’s Cilantro & Jalapeño Salsa

Ingredients and instructions below…

Continue reading →

pico de gallo

Posted on by

Once again while scrolling through Instagram recipe reels – it’s becoming a thing! – I came across one for pan-grilled calamari topped with pico de gallo and I realised that I had never made pico de gallo before. Mostly because dicing veg is not a favourite pastime. Then I remembered how YEARS ago back in Toronto I had this a handy manual veg chopper (I think it was Braun) where you put an onion or pepper on a cutting board, placed the chopper over the veg and went BAM BAM BAM until everything was finely chopped. So I wondered if such a thing still existed and that very day found one (on sale!) at El Corte Inglés. Different brand, same simple mechanism. So I bought it!

For any of you wondering what pico de gallo is, it’s a type of fresh salsa typically used in Mexican cuisine. Main ingredients include tomato, peppers and onion, with many variations on that theme. For this one I used tomato, two types of peppers (red bell and italian green), sweet onion and a few jalepeños. For herbs I went with a mix of fresh parsley and cilantro, and dressed it with lime juice and olive oil (salt and pepper to taste). Some recipes I saw don’t use olive oil, others add this and that, or only use green peppers… but really it’s up to you! So this is kind of a non-recipe in the sense that it is up to you to choose which ingredients sound good to you. Re: quantity, again up to you but equal parts of each veg ingredient is a good rule of thumb.

This version was fabulous and I will make it again very soon, and probably quite often. It’s an easy and simple way of adding freshness and a bit of zing to pretty much anything. And now that I have my new chopper it’s also extra easy to make.

Ingredients and instructions below…
Continue reading →

quick pickled red onions

Posted on by

I’ve made these a few times and each time have to look up a recipe or ask a friend to remind me of their method so it’s probably time I wrote it down myself. Out of the different versions I’ve tried this one is the simplest. One required boiling the water and vinegar and pouring the hot liquid over the onions, others called for more sugar (or no sugar). And this time my friend Paul suggested using lime instead of vinegar (!!). In the end I used a 50/50 mix of vinegar and lime juice and WOW. Really fresh and zingy. Anyhow, you can obviously play around with the ingredients a bit. Have fun!

Ingredients and instructions below…
Continue reading →

roasted garlic & amontillado praline

Posted on by

So a while back my Twitter pal Pablo posted his version of the sublime roasted garlic praline from Michelin star Restaurante Bagá in Jaén (which has been on my wish list for years) from a recipe on their Instagram and I’ve been wanting to make it ever since. As last weekend was cloudy and cool(ish) I thought I’d better do it now or else have to wait until October. The recipe calls for slow roasting for four hours and I don’t like to run the oven/air fryer and AC at the same time (it doesn’t make sense when it’s HOT outside). And so I went to work.

The recipe is quite simple, it just takes a long time due to the low & slow cooking. I have to admit that what sold me on trying this was the addition of amontillado… I mean, butter, garlic and amontillado is a hard to beat combination. I took chef Pedro Sanchez’s “chupito” measurement for the amontillado and soy sauce to literally mean a shot glass full (it worked though I used a bit less soy sauce). BUT it looked like a lot of butter to me. I started off with 100 grams and was a bit alarmed that I was supposed to add another 100 grams… so I asked Pablo as he had also made this recipe. He thought if I roasted everything with 100 grams and then added more butter later if needed that would work. But I was thinking the butter should be cooking with all the other ingredients the whole time, not just added later, and so I decided to ask chef Pedro (aka Pedrito). Whom I have never met, and who doesn’t even know who I am. BUT he is somehow following me on Twitter so I sent him a cheek DM asking for advice.

Can I tell you? Pedrito was not only helpful, but also very sweet and charming, and he really seemed to care that I get this right. We’re talking a busy Michelin starred chef who was being pestered on Twitter on a Saturday afternoon by a total stranger… and he couldn’t have been more gracious. In the end (after me shamelessly sending him various photos) he agreed that 150 grams of butter was enough and… he was right. OMG was he ever right. This stuff is potent and at the same time super smooth… it’s not an exaggeration to say that a little goes a long way. So what to do with all of this deliciousness when there are just two of us at home? Have a look below to find out.

Ingredients and instructions below…

Continue reading →

leek, onion & potato soup

Posted on by

When I was at the market the other day I saw some nice looking leeks and suddenly thought I’d like to try making potato and leek soup. To be honest, I don’t even know if I’d ever had potato and leek soup before, but on a wintry weekend it sounded like just the thing. So after going through a few online recipes I did my usual mashup and it turned out great, with a lovely smooth texture, total comfort food (and even better the next day). Some of the recipes I saw added cream after blending but I wanted to keep it “lighter” and it was quite filling as it was.

Ingredients and instructions below…
Continue reading →