Category Archives: Roast

A pesto bean bake that the Larger Loin Fruit unexpectedly didn’t like all that much

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The larger loin fruit is very partial to pesto. And so it was reasonable to assume that a bean loaf flavoured predominantly with said pesto would be a hit. With SheWhoMustBeFed and the VegHead – a big hit. With the larger loin fruit – not so much. NB: this wasn’t even a starter with the smaller loin fruit – fussy bugger.

Anyway – the two most important people in the house liked this so we’re keeping the recipe for posterity:

For the putting in:

  • One (450g) tin of mixed beans (aka “Four Bean Mix”)
  • Half a packet of firm tofu (about 175g)
  • 1 cup of oats – not quick cook (see note below regarding making this gluten free)
  • 1/3 cup of pesto
  • 1/2 cup of pine nuts
  • Teaspoon of cumin powder
  • Teaspoon of ground pepper
  • Splash of tamari
  • 3 medium size mushrooms
  • 1 medium courgette
  • Olive oil

For the making:

Mash the tofu in a large mixing bowl until well smushed.

Process the oats in a bamix dry food processor attachment thingy (or food processor) until they have reduced to a fine flour.

Combine tofu, oats, beans, spices, pesto, pine nuts, tamari and mix thoroughly. Use your hands or a spoon rather than a masher so that you keep some lumpy consistency.

Slice the mushrooms. Slice the courgette in coin shapes.

Using a medium size, lidded baking dish of your choice: add half of the tofu/bean mix. Cover this with the mushroom slices, artfully arranged. Drizzle the mushroom slices with olive oil. Add the remaining tofu/bean mix. Cover the top with the sliced courgette, again making sure you arrange the slices in a manner most pleasing to the eye. Drizzle this layer with olive oil.

Bake in a preheated medium-high oven with the lid on for about half an hour, then remove the lid and bake for another ten minutes until the courgettes brown.

Adapting to gluten free:

Replace the oats with lightly toasted cashews, same weight and same processing

Add a binding agent. Recommended method is: two teaspoons of linseeds ground in the way as the cashews, then soaked in 2 tablespoons of water until gooey. Add this mix to bowl when combining everything.

Cous cous and bean stack

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On Saturday night, SheWhoMustbeFed and The VegHead had a bean tagine, with a side dish of cous cous and stir fried broccoli spears. Thus yielding some left over cous cous. There are few better ways to create the two cups full of cooked cous cous thaqt you will need for this dish. Remember that and you’re life will be moderately more glorious.

This dish also relies on having some Giant Baked Beans handy.
And its not a bad idea to have some Pesto in the fridge too.

Ingredients….
Cous cous layer:

  • 2 cups of cooked cous cous
  • 1/2 cup of oats
  • 2 tablespoons of hemp seeds
  • 1 tablesoon of dried italian herbs
  • fresh rosemary and thyme – chopped
  • a few thin slices of onion – chopped
  • 1 clove of glaric – crushed
  • pepper
  • a generous amount of olive oil

Regular readers may notice that al that was basically a stuffing recipe, only made with cous cous, hemp seeds, and oats rather than bread crumbs.

Bean layer:

  • 1 cup of giant backed beans
  • 1 cup of chopped cauliflower florets
  • teaspoon of paprika
  • 1/4 teaspoon of spanish smoked paprika

Making a party in your baking dish…

  • Mix up each layers worth of ingredients into seperate bowls
  • In a baking dish, dvide the mixtures into 4 even layers (meaning two layers of each), starting with a layer of the beans and cauliflower.
  • Mix about one tablespoon of pesto with an equal amount of water. Evenly spoon over the top of the last layer
  • Bake in a covered dish, on high for 45+ minutes
  • Server with roasted or steamed vegetables, and a boat of gravy if you’re feeling indulgent.

Bread stuffing in pumpkin

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The problem with stuffing is what to stuff it in when you’re not cooking a dead bird. Solved this today by stuffing a small butternut pumpkin.

Ingredients

  • One small pumpkin (really, the size of the pumpkin then establishes how much of everything else you need to make. My pumpkin was a bit larger than a softball and had a fairly thin layer of flesh)
  • Two slices of bread; toasted
  • 1/4 cup of roasted almonds
  • 1 clove of garlic, crushed
  • A few thin slices of onion, finely chopped
  • Fresh parsley, dill, thyme – chopped
  • Ground pepper
  • 1/4 cup of olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon of tamari (or soy sauce)

What to do..

  • Cut off the top of the pumpkin in such a way that you can put the lid back on later. Scoop out all the seeds and discard (but don’t compost these unless you want a million pumpkin vines growing everywhere you use the compost down next spring)
  • Turn the toast into breadcrumbs and crush the nuts in your preferred manner. I am a big fan of “BaMix” hand held blender for this task.
  • Combine all ingredients to make the stuffing.
  • If the stuffing is a bit dry add a little water
  • Stuff that pumpkin tightly, leaving room to fit the lid back on.
  • If possible, skewer the lid with a metal or wooden skewer to hold it on
  • Roast until the pumpkin flesh is soft

Serve with other roast vegetables etc etc