A Silky Courgette Pasta Sauce

It’s the time to be sneaky again. Vegetables will be disguised in many forms so that our little ones will eat and hopefully enjoy them through the flavour rather than texture. I feel it is the texture that many children fear when it comes to eating fruit and vegetables. I couldn’t do aubergine when I was younger as it felt rather slimy on my tongue! Now I can’t live without them! Thanks to my Mum’s perseverance in feeding them to me.

Pasta is always a winner and chunks of courgettes are not appealing to our children so blitz it, make it smooth and silky! They’ll be none the wiser!

INGREDIENTS

1 large courgette
1 tin plum tomatoes
3 garlic cloves
1 level tsp dried oregano
Dried chilli flakes to taste
Salt to taste
1 tbsp olive oil
100ml water

METHOD

Blend the courgette, tomatoes and garlic to a smooth paste with the water

Heat up the oil on a low heat in a medium saucepan with the oregano and chilli flakes.  Once the oil starts to sizzle slowly pour in the tomato blend.  Stir in the salt

Keeping on a low heat, allow to simmer gently for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Whilst the sauce is cooking through put on your penne pasta to boil

Serve the sauce on a bed of pasta with a sprinkling of grated mature cheddar cheese

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Rupa’s Salsa Verde…

Salsa verde is a green salsa, it can be quite chunky but the one that was prepared by my youngest sister in law last Saturday, was something extremely special.  Rupa had called us round for dinner and  Oh my did we enjoy ourselves!  She had prepared grilled vegetable and golden halloumi skewers with a jewelled vegetarian couscous along with the salsa that tantalised our taste buds and made all the the different ingredients on the plate sing!

The consistency was very smooth and the colour so very vibrant.  I just deeply regret not taking a picture to show you all, I was too busy eating away! Sorry!
I have however, found a picture that shows the type of consistency of the salsa we had.  The colour here, is more a lime green but the colour you will achieve with this particular recipe will be slightly darker due to the mint. I hope you all enjoy it as much as we did.

Thanks to R & V for a wonderful evening and for this lovely recipe!

INGREDIENTS

1 bunch parsley, chopped leaves only
1 bunch basil, chopped leaves
1 bunch mint, chopped leaves
2 tbsp capers drained
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 tsp dijon mustard
Olive oil as required
Sea Salt & Ground fresh pepper to taste

METHOD

Simply blitz all the above ingredients together in a food processor, grinder or Nutribullet if you have one

Pour into a bowl and leave in the fridge until your ready to serve

Picture courtesy of https://fortheloveofyum.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/img_5766.jpg

A Rich Roasted Aubergine Pasta Sauce

You all know how I love to sneak in vegetables in my cooking wherever and in whichever form I can!  So here is another one to add to that collection

I tend to work alot on the basis of the produce my fridge is storing at any given time.  So for this recipe, I happened to find a colourful and plump aubergine and some fresh spaghetti my husband has bought, caught my eye…

I was able to make a thick, rich and quite luxurious textured aubergine sauce.  With notes of roastedness!! Is there such a word?!!! (well there is now lol! 😉 )

It looked like a shop bought jar sauce but had all the goodness of home cooking! It went down a treat.  Also if you don’t loke aubergine, please do give this a go.  You may surprise yourself!  Have a tremendous Tuesday, much love D x

INGREDIENTS

1 medium aubergine
3 garlic cloves minced
½ tbsp olive oil
¼ tsp dried red chilli flakes
400g crushed tomato passata
½ tsp salt
1 red onion finely
⅓ tsp dried oregano
⅓ tsp chilli powder

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 200°c, grease the aubergine with a little oil and roast for 15-25 minutes until the aubergine skin is wrinkled and the flesh is all soft and squishy

• Blend the aubergine with the skin, garlic and passata together to form a thick rich saucy paste

• In a medium saucepan, heat up the oil on a medium heat. Sauté the onion, garlic, chilli flakes and oregano together until the onion becomes a little translucent

• Stir in the aubergine tomato passata blend and season with salt and chilli powder, combine well, cover and simmer on a low heat for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally

• Serve the yummy sauce with spaghetti or penne..whichever you prefer…Enjoy!

Homemade Tzatziki

I tried tzatziki only a few years back and my love of yoghurt allowed me to like it very much! Such a wonderful refreshing taste it makes a wonderful dip or a sauce as an accompaniment.

Initially I used to buy shop bought tzatziki and then ventured in making it at home. Since then I’ve not looked back. It is quicker to make at home than to go to the shops, take it off the shelf, pay for it and bring home!

I served mine as an accompaniment to my Vegetarian quorn kleftiko dish. I also love it as a dip to crudités!

INGREDIENTS

1 cucumber grated
2 small cloves of garlic crushed
6 tbsp natural yoghurt
Squeeze of lemon juice
Salt to taste
Drizzle of olive oil

METHOD

• Place the grated cucumber, garlic in a medium sized bowl and stir in the yoghurt. Combine well

• Squeeze in a little lemon, season with salt and mix. Drizzle with a little olive oil to finish