Hugh's Squash and Lentil Pasties

By Chris

Main Ingredients:

• Brown lentils
• Butternut squash
• Shortcrust pastry
• Onions, carrots and celery
• Mustard, white wine and balsamic vinegar

Having had a not-completely-disastrous run-in with baking and pastry a fortnight ago, I decided to stretch my new-found skills even further this week. Hugh's recipe sounded pretty interesting and we still had a kilo of squash left over from last week's veggie feast, so this seemed like the ideal recipe.

First one onion, one carrot and one celery stick were fried in olive oil, then simmered in white wine. Then the (rather unappetising-looking) brown tinned lentils were added along with bay, thyme and half a pint of vegetable stock and simmered for 10 mins. I then hacked away at the squash until we had some nice cube-shaped chunks, which were chucked in and cooked for a further 20 minutes.

The resulting mixture was rather watery, so I set about it with a potato masher to help the vegetables soak up some of the juices. Finally, two teaspoons of English mustard and the same of Balsamic vinegar were added to give it a kick.

Hugh says to make your own puff pastry (pah!), but I went with store-bought shortcrust, thinking it would be sturdier and less likely to leak. The giant, slightly soggy contraptions were then baked at 190 degrees for 25 minutes and by some miracle, they came out brown and firm.

Served with roasted squash (as there was still 750g left!) and buttery leeks and cabbage, this was probably one of the healthiest meals we've had yet, and dead cheap at just 98p per head.

Best for... Hearty winter fare or, if you're feeling lazy, a killer veggie shepherd's pie.

Taken from... Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - River Cottage Every Day

Helen says... So that's what lentils are! Pretty substantial and appetizing, would be great with cheesy mash too.

Jamie's Cauliflower and Squash Rogan Josh

By Helen

Main Ingredients:

• Butternut squash
• Chickpeas
• Cauliflower
• Curry paste
• Spinach
• Chapattis, rice, yogurt

Week two of Veggie Lent and one of the less exciting-looking recipes. No crazy ingredients - in fact nothing I hadn't already added to a meat curry before. I wasn't convinced that this would be particularly memorable.

I started by chopping an alarmingly large pile of vegetables - two onions, garlic, most of a squash and a whole cauliflower. They clearly weren't going to fit into the saucepan I had optimistically pre-heated so once I'd juggled the whole lot into two pans I could add the Patak's paste, chickpeas and coriander.

With that bubbling away vigorously I could turn my attention to the rice (microwaved since there weren't any pans left), sprinkling the chapattis with turmeric and keeping warm in the oven, and dressing the grated carrot with ginger, lemon juice, flaked almonds and more coriander. 

Thankfully by this point the veggies were looking less raw and taking up a little less space so I could chuck in some spinach and make the ten-second lemon pickle with mustard seeds, chilli and turmeric. This was a real hit with Chris - much more fragrant and less astringent than the jars of Lime Pickle we've had before.

So, lots to do - even though the yogurt and chapattis were pretty much ready-made and one of the sides is 'BEER'. Overall it was definitely worth it - the cauliflower quickly broke down to make a surprisingly creamy sauce and the chickpeas had lost all their chalkiness, even in the relatively short cooking time. 

And the vital stats? 38 minutes and a bargainous £1.40 a head.

Best for... Feeding (and impressing) a crowd that has descended on the flat to watch a sporting event 

Taken from... Jamie Oliver - 30 Minute Meals

Chris says... The carrot salad was the perfect example of something I wouldn't have even tried before we started this project, but I loved it!

Hugh's Beetroot & Cumin Soup with Stilton & Leek Tart

By Chris

Main Ingedients:

• Beetroot and Cumin
• Vegetable Stock
• Leeks and Stilton
• Double Cream
• Eggs and Pastry

So for my first Veggie Lent, I thought I'd go ambitious - I've never cooked a quiche from scratch and I've only ever cooked with beetroot once before. Admittedly, I did cheat and use pre-rolled pastry, but it was still quite a faff and took two hours from start to finish.

For the soup, I fried onions, garlic, oil and butter, then chucked in some cumin seeds and a massive 750g of chopped beetroot. The whole mixture was simmered for 30 minutes and then blended with my trusty hand-blender, before being served with spiced yoghurt.

The quiche was more of a challenge, especially when I realised that I knew nothing about blind baking and had no idea what baking beans were (they're kinda like magic beans, right?). In the end, I used rice and greaseproof paper to weigh down the pastry for the blind baking, but not enough to stop it from swelling up to an alarming size.

Nonetheless, I stabbed the quiche bubble and mashed it down, making it ready for the yummy filling. Three leeks were chopped up roughly and sweated down with some butter and black pepper.

To this I added 100g of Stilton, two eggs, two egg yolks and an artery-stopping 300ml of double cream. The whole concoction came out rather nicely after 30 minutes at 170 degrees. 

This was served with a green salad (natch) and mashed sweet potatoes. All in all, a challenge that was worth the effort, and I didn't even miss the meat all that much! And I'm starting to see another reason for going veggie - at £2.07 per person, this was easily the cheapest meal we've made so far.

Best for... A springtime dinner which is half wintery and half summery.

Taken from... Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - River Cottage Every Day

Helen says...A surprisingly subtle and eggy tart beautifully complemented by the tangy mash. And the soup was lovely too!

Introducing... Veggie Lent

'Help, I've sprung a leek!'

By Chris,
To mix things up a little, we have decided to add a theme to our culinary adventures for the next few weeks. As the title suggests, we will be cooking only vegetarian meals during the weeks of Lent. Whilst the idea of going permanently veggie terrifies me (see right), I'm looking forward to this side-project for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, we have a couple of vegetarian friends and it would be nice to learn how to cook them something more interesting than a salad. Also, I like the idea of eating veggie meals more often and trying some exciting, unusual ingredients.

Last time I did this, I was 10 and hence I didn't have much of a say in the matter. This time we'll be relying on our usual library of recipe books for inspiration, but if you have any suggestions for meat-free meals, please share them with us and help us spare some animals from their usual, delicious, fate.

Hugh and Jamie's Pan-Mediterranean Feast

By Helen

As the food gets better, the photography is still lacking..

Dishes:

• Chorizo in wine and honey
• Fried halloumi with sesame seeds
• Tortilla (Spanish potato omelette)
• Rosemary and tomato focaccia
• Parma ham and olives
• Hummous

As a weak wintery sun shone hopefully down, our thoughts naturally turned to warmer times and climes. 

Cheered by the thought that it might not actually be winter FOR EVER I decided to celebrate the coming of spring with a mezze/tapas style meal, combining all the best dishes from Hugh and Jamie.

This was a really fun one to make and to eat - none of the dishes was especially complicated or needed to be served hot, so it didn't matter that each one made it to the table at slightly different times. For the second week in a row we made bread, which swelled up to an alarming size and could have done with some more tomatoes, but was excellent for mopping up leftovers.

Hugh almost threw a spanner in the works by suggesting (unnoticed by me) that I should boil the tinned chickpeas for three hours (!) before blending - again proving that although Jamie's meals may take over 30 minutes, Hugh's certainly aren't feasible for most people to make everyday. Thankfully an Internet recipe suggested that this was unnecessary and sure enough the chickpeas blended happily enough with oil, garlic, lemon, water, tahini and cumin to make around 1ab (one abundance) of moreish hummous.

Everything else was pretty self-explanatory - fried potatoes and red onion were set and grilled with six eggs and lots of rosemary for the tortilla, and the chorizo was fried with honey, a splash of red wine and balsamic vinegar which made a lovely sticky glaze. Sesame seeds (from last week) were pressed into chopped halloumi and fried until the cheese was golden.

Even between three hungry people there was a huge amount left for some rather impressive weekday lunchboxes - assuming that four hungry diners could have made more of a dent, the per-head cost comes out at a remarkably reasonable £2.93. Roll on spring!


Best for... Lazy summer picnics without a cloud in the sky (or as close as you can manage in the UK).
Taken from...Hugh, Jamie and BBC Good Food
Chris says... One of the best yet - the halloumi and chorizo were fan-bloody-tastic!