More bread and a bit of salad too...

This is becoming a bread themed blog! This time I used this recipe from Doves Farm, though made the flour 50/50 white and wholemeal, and added seeds during kneading. This recipe takes a little longer, as you leave the dough to rise twice, but I think this helps make the bread much lighter.
To go with this fresh bread I made three salads.
Firstly a tricolore salad - containing plenty of tomatoes, basil and mozzarella, topped with olive oil and pepper.
I served this in an amazingly kitsch bowl, which I found dumped in a box outside our building - don't worry it has been well washed!
Secondly a garden salad, including some lightly blanched broccoli.
And finally a salad of butter beans, red pepper, red onion and spinach, with a tangy dressing made of olive oil, juice of one lemon and a teaspoon of chopped red chili.
Very tasty indeed!

Aubergine, Tomato & Goat's Cheese Bake

nom nom nom... A summery dish of aubergine, tomato and goat's cheese bake. For this you will need:

• One aubergine
• Two peppers
• One red onion
• Tomatoes ( I used 6 large plum toms)
• Handful of spinach leaves
• 100g of hard goat's cheese chopped into chunks
  
• One garlic clove
• Handful of sunflower seeds
  
• Black pepper & fresh herbs (I used basil, oregano & rosemary)

Aubergine is a fickle beast, when it's good - it's very, very good & when it's bad - its awful. Who hasn't had some tasteless, watery aubergine spoiling their meal - yuk! This recipe requires some prep work with the purple fella - but it is well worth it, I promise!

Firstly chop an aubergine into slices, put in a colander over a bowl, cover with salt & leave for half an hour (don't worry the aubergine will not take on the salty flavour). Then rinse the aubergine well in water and put on kitchen towel to dry off. Once they are dry (about 10 mins or so) fry the slices in a little oil to brown them and leave aside.

Chop a red onion into slices, crush garlic clove and gently cook them till the onion is soft in a little oil. Then in an ovenproof dish layer the aubergine, onion, tomato and pepper slices, spinach leaves and goat's cheese. Season with black pepper and add fresh herbs as you go along.

The last layer should be lots of tomato slices, goat's cheese, sunflower seeds (for extra bite). Cover and put in the oven on 180 degrees for about 40 minutes.
Once cooked serve with some green salad and crusty bread. You could change the cheese to your favourite and add some courgette or squash chunks if you fancy it.

Parsnip, Carrot & Spinach Curry

Dear blog,

I have neglected you for too long. Please accept my apologies by sharing my delicious dinner with me :)

This is a tasty meal that will use up those root veggies that are harboring at the back of the fridge (and vegan friendly).

Firstly chop 2 red onions into quite large chunks, add to a pan with hot oil, on a low-to-medium heat. Add a tablespoon of cumin seeds, teaspoon of curry powder and half a teaspoon each of turmeric and chilli powder. Add one clove of crushed garlic, one finely chopped green chilli and about 1cm of grated fresh ginger. Allow the onions to soften.

Once the onions have started to soften add one chopped parsnip & two chopped carrots. Stir and leave for a few minutes. Then add half a can of chickpeas and a couple of handfuls of spinach (roughly chopped). Give it all a big stir then add about 2 cups of water (till everything is almost covered) and a squeeze of tomato puree.

Stir once more, cover and leave on a low heat for about half an hour. During this time have a nice potter about, read a magazine, check your emails, generally just dilly-dally (though at some point remember to put some rice on!). When you return to the pan the water should have mostly disappeared & your veggies soft.Serve with boiled rice, some yogurt (just in case your chillis are fiery) and a chapati or two.