Polenta (corn meal) is easy to prepare. This dish is delicious, nutritious and easy to create. Corn is often genetically modified so it is definitely worth sourcing only organic corn products.
INGREDIENTS
Dried mushrooms - About 2/3 of a cup
Broccoli - 1 medium sized head
Polenta - 1 cup
Rice or oat milk - 2 cups
Water - 2 cups
Olive oil - 1 TBS
Tomato - 1
Lemon thyme - 1 – 2 tsp
Salt- 1 tsp
METHOD
- Put ‘shrooms and ½ cup of boiling water in bowl to re-hydrate. Set aside.
- Grease 10 inch, deep-dish, pie pan.
- In a large pot, combine remaining 1 1/2 cups hot water, milk and salt; bring to boil.
- Reduce heat to medium-low and slowly drizzle in polenta, whisking constantly.
- Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until polenta is as thick as mashed potatoes, about 6 to 8 minutes.
- Stir in broccoli, mushrooms and their liquid.
- Spread polenta mixture evenly in prepared pan.
- Dice tomato and sprinkle the pieces on top.
- Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until edges begin to brown.
- Cool at least 30 minutes, or serve at room temperature.
Variation:
Try various vegies like cauliflower, onion, grated carrot, spinach or zucchini. Add spices and/or herbs ie; parsley, chives or thyme. Sumac and sunflower seeds sprinkled on top of the diced tomato are great.
Serving suggestion:
GREEN AVO SALAD (see recipe) we used lettuce, spinach, cucumber, alfalfa sprouts and avocado with the classic dressing tossed through-tres yummy
INGREDIENTS
Leeks, 3 sliced
2 carrots
2 stalks of celery
1 large clove of garlic
500gms of red lentils
Sea salt
Pepper
Oil
Parsley - fresh
Water
Method
· Heat oil, add chopped ingredients and fry for approximately five minutes.
· Add red lentils, salt, pepper and enough water to cover.
· Bring to the boil then simmer adding water when necessary to reach desired thickness. It takes approximately an hour for all ingredients to cook.
Variation:
Add pumpkin, ginger and freshly grated tumeric.
Serving suggestions:
Serve with toast, fresh parsley and/or process the cooked meal in a food processor and serve.
INGREDIENTS
1 pkt of wheat or rice stir fry noodles.
1 bunch of bok choy - chopped
1 large onion roughly chopped
3 spring onions – chopped
1 head of broccoli – chopped including the stem.
1 large carrot – sliced
Corn kernels of 1 cob
1 large zucchini – diced
8 mushrooms – diced
1 – 2 handfuls of whole snow peas
1 tblsp of oil
½ piece of ginger – finely chopped
Sauce:
1 Heaped tblsp of honey
Garlic 1 clove - crushed
½ cup of soy sauce or tamari
¼ cup of sesame seeds
Method
· Heat oil in wok and fry on medium to high heat all the stir-fry ingredients until just tender.
· Cook the noodles in a saucepan of water, drain when ready.
· In a bowl stir the sauce ingredients until blended and add to the ingredients in the wok and stir through for two minutes.
· Add the noodles and stir through.
Variation:
Other vegetables such as cabbage or spinach may be used. Add chopped pineapple for that extra sweet flavour.
INGREDIENTS
Lentils - 500 gms
Carrot - 1 grated
Sweet Potato - 1 roughly chopped
Onion - 1 med, finely chopped
Garlic - 1 large clove, crushed
Coriander - 2 tsps
Turmeric - 2 tsps
Sea Salt - 2 tsps
Garam Masala - 2 tsps
Cardamon - 2 tsps
Cumin - 1 tsp
Chilli - 1 tsp
METHOD
· Fry onion, carrot, garlic until tender.
· Add spices – fry for 1 minute
· Add lentils – stir and add enough water to cover – simmer (add more water when necessary) for 20 minutes
· Add sweet potato.
· Continue cooking until lentils and potato are tender and the mixture has a thick consistency.
Serving suggestions:
Serve with rice, flat bread (home baked – see recipe) and salad
INGREDIENTS
1 cup besan flour
Salt, pepper
1 cup plain flour
Curry spices or herbs (dried or fresh)
1 cup water
Lemon juice (optional)
½ grated carrot
½ grated zucchini
Oil for shallow to medium depth frying (coconut oil is the healthiest )
Fresh corn kernels from 1 cob
1 Diced red onion
Method
· In a large bowl mix flours with selected spices, herbs, salt and pepper.
· Add water gradually until a batter consistency is formed.
· Add grated and diced vegetables. Mix thoroughly.
· Squeeze of lemon and/or extra water may be added.(thin enough to enable it to be spooned into frypan).
· Heat oil in frypan.
· Add heaped tablespoons.
· Fry for approx 2 min or until brown, then flip.
· Remove from pan and drain on absorbent paper.
Variation:
Other vegetables such as spinach and spring onions may be used. Pineapple tastes great also.
Serving suggestions:
Great with pineapple cream sauce and salad. May be used as burgers on toast or rolls.
A simple and quick meal that has few ingredients and tastes magnificent.
INGREDIENTS
Jasmine rice - 1 – 2 cups
Coconut cream - 1 x 270ml tin
Cinnamon - 1 fresh stick or a couple of tablespoons of powdered cinnamon.
Method
· Simply cook the rice and then mix through the coconut cream and cinnamon.
· If you use a rice cooker, you can place a fresh cinnamon stick in the cooker with the rice.
Variation:
Sultanas added to it are great and make it extra sweet. Other dried and chopped fruit and/or seeds and nuts may also be added.
INGREDIENTS
1 large clove of garlic - crushed
1 large onion – cut into small slices
1 large carrot - grated
1 large zucchini – grated
Quarter of a cauliflower – roughly chopped
1 can of red kidney beans or fresh kidney beans soaked and cooked.
1 can of chick peas or fresh soked and cooked.
Corn kernals from 1 cob
2 cans of crushed organic tomatoes
1 x 270ml can of coconut cream
2-3 cups of cooked rice
1 tblsp of oil
Spices:
1 tblsp of mild curry powder or make your own using spices such as….
Turmeric Coriander Cumin Cardamon Garam Masala
Chilli Sea salt & Pepper
Method
· Heat oil and add garlic and vegetables fry and stir frequently for three to five minutes.
· Add curry powder (or curry spices), chilli salt and pepper.
· Stir and fry for two minutes.
· Add canned tomatoes, cover and simmer until vegetables are tender.
· Add beans, coconut cream and cooked rice. Mix thoroughly.
· Gently simmer for two minutes.
· Turn off heat, cover and let sit for five minutes. (This helps the rice to absorb some liquid and thicken the curry.)
Variation:
Add green beans, spinach and/or diced sweet potato or pumpkin.
Serving suggestions:
Hot on its own or served cold the next in lettuce leaves or with Green Salad.
This makes two servings. Simply use a whole packet of noodles (200gms) and double the other ingredients for more servings.
INGREDIENTS
½ packet (100gms) Vermicelli rice noodles
20g dried shitake mushrooms
Corn kernels from ½ a cob
Bok choy – chopped
3 spring onions – chopped
1 clove of garlic – crushed
1cm cube of ginger
Dried seaweed to taste
1 tblsp of olive oil
Soya sauce
Method
- Place vermicelli and chopped shitake mushrooms in saucepan, cover with boiling water and let stand whilst preparing other vegies (aprox. 10 min.).
· In a pan fry the chopped veg, ginger & garlic in oil until softened.
· Drain the noodles and mushrooms and add them to the vegies.
· Stir in soya sauce to taste.
Serving suggestions:
With rice is nice
For a quicker version you can use tinned organic chickpeas. Otherwise soak the fresh chickpeas for four hours or leave them to soak overnight. The amounts below make enough pasta and sauce for four to five servings.
INGREDIENTS
Chick peas - 1 cup Organic pasta - 500g
Mushrooms - 2 cups Carrot - 1 Red onion - 1
Garlic - 1 – 2 cloves Tinned tomatoes - 2
Coconut cream - 1 x 270ml tin
Parsley - 1 tblsps Thyme - 1 tsp
Chilli - pinch
Method - Cook the chickpeas
· Chop the garlic and onion and fry in a large saucepan with oil.
· Grate the carrot and slice the mushrooms and add to the saucepan
· Add the spices and tinned tomatoes and let it reduce.
· Stir in the coconut cream.
· Add to cooked pasta.
Variation:
Flavour with any spices you like. Add sultanas and seeds.
Serving suggestions:
Green salad
Vegetable Pastie. This is a recipe for 4 large calzoni. Any filling you like can be used. Try fruit for dessert calzoni eg; blueberries or apples… ala apple turnovers, and dust with sugar or drizzle on honey.
INGREDIENTS
PASTRY:
Wholemeal Flour. - 4 Cups Sesame seeds - 2 TBS Salt - 1 tsp
Olive Oil - 1 TBS Water
In a mixing bowl combine everything except the water, then mix through the water to make a soft dough.
Rollout four dinner plate sized portions on a floured surface.
FILLING:
Cabbage - ¼, chopped Onion - 1 diced Garlic - 1 clove, crushed
Carrots - 2, grated Sweet Potato - 1 steamed.
Tomatoes - 2 chopped Chilli - 1 tsp Parsley - Chopped
Salt and pepper Any other spices for desired taste.
Silver beet or spinach
METHOD
- Fry garlic, onions for one minute. Add other vegies and spices. Fry till cooked.
· Add the sweet potato and mash through.
· Chop the silver beet. Place it onto the pastry but only cover half of each portion (the pastry will be folded over later)
· Place the mixed vegies onto the silver beet.
· Fold the other half of the pastry over the mixture and press the edges together with a fork to join them and seal it into a pasty shape.
· (Optional) - Brush with oat, rice or other milk and sprinkle on sesame seeds.
· Bake in oven at 200C until the pastry is cooked. (aprox 30 min)
Variation:
Experiment with any ingredients you like. Fill with leftovers, etc. Use fruit for sweet ones, etc.
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