Recipe: Eggplant Parmigiana

Parmigiana. The quintessential pub meal. Whether or not you call it a parmy or a parma, this dish of delicious deep-fried crumbed meat (usually chicken) slathered with a rich tomato-sauce and cheese can be found in nearly every pub in Australia. Seriously. I dare you to prove me wrong.

Our love for parmigiana knows no bounds. For the vegetarian, other substitutes have popped up. Eggplant, mushroom even. BUT did you know parmigiana is traditionally made with eggplant?! Cheers Wikipedia.

Recipe: Fatteh

Fatteh is a Lebanese/Middle Eastern vegetarian dish. I recently stumbled upon this dish through my internet browsing. I looked up a few recipes and came up with the easiest meal ever!

This dish is essentially flatbread with chickpeas and yoghurt. The flatbread forms the base of this layered meal and is a great way to use up stale flatbread as it softens underneath all the toppings.

Since I participate in #meatfreemonday each week, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to make diverse and interesting vegetarian dinners. This was a welcome and healthy change.

The layers from bottom: torn and toasted flatbread, roasted eggplant, chickpeas, garlic yoghurt, sprinkle of cumin, pine nuts and parsley.

Recipe: Spiced beetroot fritters with paprika prawns

The worst thing about canned goods is that I’m left handed. Can openers and I aren’t good friends. And who really is willing to risk cutting themselves with the traditional ring-pull cans?

Enter the technology of vacuum-packed freshness!

Love Beets are new vacuum-packed, Australian baby beetroots. The lack of additives means these are 100% beetroot in all it’s brightly-coloured goodness.

Who said that food can’t look good and be good for you too? The lovely people from Love Beets sent me a packet to try.

There’s a plethora of things that beetroot can be used to make! The sky is limit as you’ll no longer be put off by cooking beetroots from scratch!

These can be added to salads or eaten on their own! Serve alongside a BBQ for people to add to burgers. Make a statement at dinnertime with a beetroot and melted brie risotto. Mix it in with some Greek yoghurt or sour cream for a dip.. More recipe ideas can be found here, straight from the Love Beets website!

Then again… you could make these super easy beetroot fritters. Because why not! Topped with prawns for protein, serve these with a salad on the side and you’ve got a balanced and healthy meal! Vegetarian? Leave out the prawns!

Spiced beetroot fritters with paprika prawns

Makes: 8 fritters

Ingredients:

• 1 250g packet of Love Beets Baby Beetroot
• 3/4 cup self-raising flour
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tsp Hungarian sweet paprika
• 1 tsp chilli flakes
• Salt and pepper
• 10 prawns
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• Baby spinach/any salad mix, to serve
• Sour cream and sweet chilli sauce, to serve

Method:

1. Grate baby beetroot straight from the packet. Drain beetroot juice (or reserve for a super healthy smoothie).
   
2. Sift flour into a bowl, add paprika, chilli flakes, salt and pepper and mix. Make a well in the centre of the flour.
3. In a cup, lightly whisk milk and egg together. Add liquid and grated beetroots to flour. Mix until combined.
   
4. Heat a large frypan on high heat. Heat up a bit of oil. Add prawns to pan and sprinkle over smoked paprika. Toss frequently until cooked through. Transfer to a plate. Use paper towel to wipe frypan.
5. Heat up some oil again in the pan over medium heat. Add a heaped tablespoon of batter into pan and spread with the back of the spoon to make a flat-ish, circular fritter. I was able to fit 3 at a time.
   
6. Cook until bubbles start to form on fritter then flip! Cook through for about 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate and repeat step 5 until all the batter is used up.
7. Serve as a stack with prawns on top. Add a dollop of sour cream and chilli sauce on the side. Don’t forget to add your greens too!

Notes:

This was my first time making fritters and I love how easy it was! The baby beetroots are pre-cooked which means convenience! The baby beetroots were great as I didn’t have to deal with cutting up a large whole beetroot beforehand either! It was a cinch to grate. Even stopping to take photos along the way dinner was made in about 30 minutes!

You could add in heaps of extra veggies to mix it up – grated carrot or zucchini, corn, etc.

My mixture could’ve been a little thinner i.e. use an extra dash of milk or add less flour which would’ve make it easier to spread once in the pan. Best to try a little test batch first to gauge consistency and timing!

Enjoy!

This recipe post used Baby Beetroots supplied by Love Beets. 

Recipe: Vindaloo sweet potato and eggplant curry

Meatfree Monday is a regular thing that I do every week. I started off periodically towards the end of last year and it’s progressed into a fixed routine that I set for myself (and Nic, on his behalf haha!).

Many people agree that we all consume way more meat than we should.

I’ve never been a big meat-eater although I do enjoy meat. I could never become vegetarian. I think it’s fine to eat meat as long as you try to aim for higher welfare, sustainable, ethical meat. At the same time, not over-consuming more than necessary.

Part of keeping with this sustainability means that I try to include more vegetarian and vegan dishes in my diet. Meatfree Monday means that I challenge myself to ensure that I help in this way. It also means that I start off the week with a huge boost of vegetables. It counteracts some nights when I don’t eat very well!

Tonight’s dinner was Indian-inspired. Lots of Indian dishes are vegan and vegetarian. Plus, you never have to sacrifice on flavour and it’s super easy!

Serves: 3

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup sweet potato, peeled and diced into 1cm-ish cubes
• 3/4 cup eggplant, diced
• 1 cup lentils, soaked and drained
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 tbs minced garlic
• 1 tsp minced ginger
• 1 x 400 g canned diced tomatoes
• 2 tbs vindaloo spice mix
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• Dried chilli flakes, optional
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Method:

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onions and cook until translucent.
2. Add spices as well as ginger and garlic. I like my curries hot so I added about 2 tsp of dried chilli flakes. Cook for 2 minutes, mixing continuously to prevent burning.
3. Add sweet potato and eggplant. Mix well until all ingredients are well coated in spices.
4. Add in lentils and canned tomatoes as well as 1 1/2 cans of water. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil and then turn down to simmer for at least 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. You can cook this longer if you prefer it to be less soupy. Serve hot!

Notes:

Serve either with plain rice or pilaf (rice cooked with onions and stock). Alternatively, you can serve on its own with bread or wraps as I have. It’s quite a filling curry as it is already bulked out with lentils and sweet potato!

Curries are great overnight and freeze fantastically too. Double the portions and freeze the rest for lazy night dinners.

Happy #meatfreemonday! 🙂

Condiment conversation: Nando’s Garlic sauce with peri-peri

I have a lot of Nando’s sauces so much so that when I first moved into our new place we had a shelf dedicated to Nando’s sauces. Lined up like a supermarket.

It’s a bit weird.

Y’see, I won a Nando’s comp a while ago in which Peri-medics visited me at work and gave me sauce to last the ages. And boy, has it lasted. Several months on and I still have sauces in my cupboard.

One of the ‘mild’ options given by Nando’s is a garlic sauce with peri-peri. A creamy-based sauce that they suggest using over grilled or roasted vegetables.

Did you know that all of Nando’s sauces are vegan?

I tried this sauce recently on a partiularly lazy #meatfreemonday.

I opted for a super easy vegetable bake.

Thinly sliced veggies, poured over the sauce, chucked in the oven for an hour-ish and then eaten.

Easiest dinner ever.