Tag: easy cooking

Fatteh

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This is my version of Fatteh, a traditional Middle Eastern dish usually made with crispy baked flatbread, yogurt and chickpeas. My version has slightly more spice, and while usually eaten for breakfast, this is a dish that also makes for a super quick and easy dinner!

Don’t eat this with utensils – the mess is half the fun!

Ingredients (for 2):

  • 1 x 400g can chickpeas, drained
  • 1.5 cups plain Greek yogurt
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 tsp Ras El Hanout
  • 1/4 cup almonds, flaked or crushed
  • Lebanese or Turkish bread (as much as you feel like really)
  • Olive oil

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 200*C. Cut up the bread into pieces, spray with olive oil and bake until golden and crispy.
  2. In a fry pan on medium heat, toast the almonds until crispy. Set aside.
  3. In the same pan, cook the garlic in the olive oil until fragrant. Add the chickpeas, honey and Ras El Hanout and cook for another 3-5 minutes.
  4. To serve, place the Greek yogurt in a bowl and top with the chickpea mix and almonds. Serve alongside the toasty bread.

3 ingredient no-churn Biscoff icecream

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The easiest 3 ingredient ice cream ever for Father’s Day – because even though my dad isn’t the biggest dessert fan, turns out he loooooves Biscoff!

Whip 600ml of thickened cream, then add a 395g can of sweetened condensed milk and stir until well combined. Layer with Biscoff spread and freeze until firm.

No churn, no icy bits – just creamy, biscuity, damn good ice cream!

PB and J biscuits

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I saw the divine Reece Hignell and Jess Lemon (from Australia’s Masterchef ‘Back to Win’) share an epic 3 ingredient peanut butter biscuit recipe on Instagram.

So I thought, “let’s make it PB&J – but healthy?”

The original recipe is just 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of peanut butter and 1 egg, mixed together into balls and flattened with a fork, baked at 170*C for 12 minutes.

I changed mine up a little and used:

  • Baked at 170*C for about 15 minutes, then drizzled with Noshu low sugar white chocolate chips and served with a dollop of Natvia low sugar raspberry spread – bliss!

    • Easy Pumpkin Salmon Gnocchi

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    This is “cooking” for when you don’t have time to cook (i.e. me around exam time!).

    Ingredients (serves 2-3)

    • Packet of store bought pumpkin gnocchi
    • 150g hot smoked salmon, flaked
    • Squeeze of lemon juice
    • 1 tbsp garlic infused olive oil
    • 150g baby spinach
    • 2 tbsp fresh parsley and basil, finely chopped

    Method

    1. Cook the gnocchi as per the packet directions in a pot of boiling water. Once cooked, drain and return to the pot but off the heat.
    2. While still warm, stir in the spinach, herbs, oil, salmon and lemon juice. Serve immediately.

    Vegan Chickpea Stew

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    I was at a loss as to what to name this. It’s technically not a curry. It is more like a tagine in texture, just not cooked in a clay tagine pot. Whatever you call it, it’s delicious, earthy, and packed full of veggies!

    Ingredients (serves 4)

    • 300g passata
    • 3/4 cup vegetable stock
    • Extra virgin olive oil
    • 2 tsp crushed garlic
    • 1 small potato
    • 1/4 medium sized butternut pumpkin
    • 1/2 large eggplant
    • 1 can chickpeas, drained
    • 1.5 tsp Ras el Hanout (or Moroccan spice mix)
    • 125g baby capsicums
    • 3 large carrots
    • Handful fresh flat leaf parsley
    • 1 tsp fresh garlic chives
    • Spinach leaves, cherry tomatoes and brown rice to serve

    Method

    1. Dice the potato, pumpkin, eggplant, capsicums and carrots into large chunks of similar size.
    2. In a large fry pan over medium heat, briefly sauté the garlic in olive oil until fragrant.
    3. Add the potato, pumpkin, carrots, 1/2 cup chicken stock and passata with the spice mix and bring to a simmer until soft (about 15 minutes).
    4. Add the eggplant, capsicums and fresh herbs, and continue to simmer until soft (about 5-10 minutes).
    5. Remove from the heat and stir in the chickpeas. Serve with fresh baby spinach and brown rice, with cherry tomatoes to garnish.

    Vegan Pumpkin Soup

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    Warms the soul as well as the belly!

    Ingredients (serves 2-3)

    • 200g butternut pumpkin
    • 4 large carrots
    • 125g can coconut cream
    • 4 fresh sage leaves
    • 1 sprig fresh rosemary
    • 1 litre vegetable stock
    • Chives to serve

    Method

    1. Preheat the oven to 200*C and roast the pumpkin and carrots until soft and golden. Allow to cool slightly.
    2. Place the roasted pumpkin and carrot, sage, rosemary, stock and coconut cream in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Alternatively, place the mixture in a large bowl or saucepan and blend with a stick blender until smooth.
    3. Serve hot with chives on top.

    Pie Maker Savoury Muffins

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    After a recent baking spree for night shift, I can now truly appreciate why people are going nuts over these pie makers!

    You’d be surprised at what people can create in such a short space of time with one of these (a real bargain considering they’re only $29 from Kmart). For some epic recipe ideas, definitely look up the Australian Kmart pie maker recipe group on Facebook!

    As part of my experimentation, I made an old recipe of mine, a cross between a muffin and a frittata – a fruffin if you will (because mufftata sounds a bit risky).

    I made two different flavours of these by changing the spice, otherwise the base recipe is the same!

     

    Ingredients (makes 12)

    Method

    1. Turn on the pie maker.
    2. Beat the eggs, then add the milk, flour, yogurt and spice mix and stir well to combine.
    3. Place spinach leaves at the base of the pie mould, then pour 1/8th cup of filling mixture on top. Place a small piece of cheese, then add another dollop of filling mixture to cover.
    4. Cook in the pie maker until golden brown (about 3-5 minutes). These will cook more evenly the more full the mould is.
    5. Store in an airtight container in the fridge if they don’t all get eaten!

    Lemon quince Pterodactyl wings

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    Sorry for the radio silence! Between studying for fellowship and moving, I’ve barely had time to function this year.

    Now, I know this is not my normal kind of recipe, but if these make dinner easy and delicious for anyone else who’s busy like me then I’ll be happy!

    These enormous turkey wings were cooked in my brand new oven, and what can I say, I’m impressed!

    Ingredients

      Turkey wings (about 800g which was 5)
      • 2 tablespoons lemon infused olive oil (I used

    Cobram Estate

      )
      2 tablespoons quince paste

    Method

    1. Preheat the oven to 170*C.
    2. In a bowl, mix the lemon olive oil and quince paste together. Spread the mixture on top of the turkey wings.
    3. Wrap the turkey wings all together in a parcel of baking paper (so that the quince doesn’t burn) and bake until cooked through (about an hour). Allow to rest before serving with your favourite greens!

    One Tray Mediterranean Chicken Bake

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    This is one for those ‘cooking when you can’t be bothered cooking’ kind of days!

    Ingredients 

    • 4 chicken breasts
    • 2 medium zucchinis
    • 500g mushrooms
    • 2 red capsicums
    • I head of broccoli
    • Herbs of your choosing – I used my favourite garlic lovers mix from Gewurtzhaus but a clove of garlic and a generous sprinkle of mixed herbs or parsely + oregano will work just fine!

    Method

    1. Preheat the oven to 180*C. Line a baking dish with paper or grease with olive oil.
    2. Chop the zucchinis, broccoli and capsicum into roughly even sized chunks.
    3. Place the vegetables on the bottom of the dish, then place the chicken on top, covered with a little olive oil and the herbs of your choosing.
    4. Cover with alfoil and bake until cooked through (about 30 minutes). Remove from oven when chicken is just cooked (as the veggies will be cooked underneath). Serve hot or use as meal prep to fill the freezer!