We all need a little more beans sometimes. These little superfoods have basically everything going for them. Most beans are full of all the good stuff, such as protein, iron, fibre and complex carbs. They’re also cheap and – when cooked with love – downright delicious. All in all, they make me happy.

I’ve been trying to create tasty baked beans for a while. Sadly, they have often turned out a little bland and barely preferable to the canned stuff.

But, this time I think I’ve cracked it. Here is my new favourite baked beans recipe. I predict that this dish is going to see me though many a cold Winter night in the coming few months…and probably a few frosty mornings and lunchtimes too…

Ingredients
600g dried beans (I used kidney and cannellini) (soaked overnight)
3 tbs olive oil
1 large brown onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, chopped finely
1 chipotle chilli (substitute with normal chilli and smoked paprika)
1-2 carrots, diced
3 sticks celery, diced
2 cans tomatoes (400g each)
1 small red capsicum
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
3 bay leaves
2 cups stock (I used vegetable)
2 tbs maple syrup/honey/molasses/apple juice concentrate, to taste
2 tbs Worcestershire sauce, to taste
salt and pepper, to taste

To serve:
Sourdough bread, toasted
Olive oil
Feta
Fresh herbs of your choice

Method

You will need to begin this recipe a day ahead of planned eating time. Soak your chosen beans overnight – for at least 12 hours – in a non-reactive bowl. Rinse the beans a few times (this supposedly reduces the gassy effects of beans – their one negative effect).

Choose a large pot. Heat the olive oil over a low-medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and chipotle chilli and sauté for about 5 minutes. (If you can’t find chipotle chilli, you can replace it with normal chilli or chilli flakes, and add some smoked paprika at the end of cooking. Alternatively, if you’re not a chilli person, you can forgo the heat and just add the smoked paprika.) Add the carrots and celery and continue to sauté for about 5 more minutes.

Next, add the soaked beans, tomatoes, capsicum, rosemary, bay leaves and stock. Partly cover and simmer for at least 2 hours, until the sauce is lovely and rich, and the beans are soft. Remember to check and stir occasionally. Add a few tablespoons of maple syrup (or honey, molasses or apple juice concentrate) for sweetness, to taste. Add a few tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce for sharpness, to taste. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove the bay leaves and rosemary sprigs.

(You could cook this in the oven for more authentic ‘baked’ beans, but I like the control that the stovetop gives me. Simply turn the oven on low, up the cooking time and reduce the liquid a little.)

To serve, toast the sourdough and drizzle it with some olive oil. Crumble feta and some fresh herbs over the top. (Scrambled eggs also go really well with this.) Any extra baked beans can be frozen and eaten later – this is important to add as this recipe is very generous!

A few months ago, I found myself in Unawatuna on the teardrop-shaped island of Sri Lanka. Unawatuna is a beachside town that ticks all the boxes: sun, sand, surf, cheesy bars, and – of course – tasty food.

One day, some like minded food-loving friends and I decided to forgoe the beach and learn some of the local cuisine. We found a cooking school called Sonja’s Health Food Restaurant and booked in for a day-long class.

There were several vegetarians/vegans/pescatarians in our group, so everything we cooked was meat-free except one fish curry. We made pumpkin curry, red dhal curry, tuna curry, beetroot curry, devilled potatoes, dhal burgers and coconut roti with sambol. The food we prepared and ate that day was, without doubt, the best food that I ate in Sri Lanka.

Since I came home, I’ve been itching to recreate the beetroot curry in particular. It was pretty unusual but I remember it being delicious. I’ve adapted the recipe a little to suit Australian tastes and the ingredients I had in my pantry.

On remake, I’ve decided that this dish definitely needs its curry-friends all around it to make it a more satisfying and complete meal. By itself, it’s just too much of one flavour. I’ll try to cook a few more Sri Lankan dishes over the next few weeks to share with you.

Ingredients

1 Spanish onion, diced
1 tbs vegetable oil
4 medium beets, peeled and cut into sticks about half a centimetre thick
10 curry leaves
1 stick cinnamon
1 ½ tsp cumin seeds, pan-roasted and ground
1 ½ tsp coriander seeds, pan-roasted and ground
½ tsp turmeric, ground
1 tsp salt
1 tsp chilli flakes
1 ½ tsp black mustard seeds
400ml coconut cream (1 can)
1 tsp garam masala

Method

The first step is to prepare your ingredients. Dice the onion into pieces about 1 centimetre square. Peel the beets (you can use a sharp knife) and cut into french-fry size sticks. Measure out the spices. I like to sharpen up my spices by dry-frying them for a few minutes in a hot pan (before grinding). This just brings out the flavour a little and you can skip if you like.

Heat up the oil in a large pan on a low heat. Chuck in the onions and let them soften.

After a few minutes, add all the spices except for the mustard seeds and garam masala. Continue to saute until the onions are very soft. This will take between five and ten minutes.

Turn up the heat to medium. Add the mustard seeds and continue to cook for about 30 seconds, until the mustard seeds begin to pop.

Add the coconut cream and beetroot sticks.

Cook for about 15 minutes over a medium heat, until most of the coconut cream has evaporated or absorbed.

Serve with rice and a few other curries. Dream of Sri Lanka.

A few months ago I was feeling pretty rough.  After a few doctor visits and several needle jabs, I discovered that my iron levels were severely lacking.

Ever since then, I’ve been trying to incorporate more iron into my diet. A friend of mine makes these fab little tahini balls which are packed full of iron and other necessary nutrients. I’ve been whipping them up with frequency lately.

Emily has christened them ‘vegan power balls’ and the name has stuck, ridiculous though it may be.

I think these are pretty awesome but they don’t please everyone. I took them on a plane trip recently and when I offered them around my friends accused me of being like the dorky mum who gives their kids ‘healthy’ snacks to take to school. Anyway, I care not what they think! In my opinion, these little balls tick all the boxes of being healthy, easy and super-tasty.

Ingredients
1 cup tahini, preferably unhulled for extra nutrients
½ cup LSA mix (ground linseed, sunflower seeds and almonds)*
¼ cup nuts (use any such as almonds or hazelnuts)
¼ cup dried fruit (again, use any such as sultanas or apricots – we used cranberries)
3 tbs honey
½ cup dessicated coconut

These ingredient quantities are pretty malleable. Use more or less of anything to suit your own personal specifications.

Firstly, chop up nuts and dried fruit into smallish pieces.

In a medium bowl, add tahini, LSA, nuts, dried fruit and honey.

Mix well with a fork to incorporate all ingredients. If the mixture is too loose to roll into balls, add more LSA. If the mixture is too solid, add more tahini. Taste the mixture and adjust any of the ingredients further until the flavour and texture is to your liking.

Roll the mixture into balls of about 1 inch in diameter. Pour the dessicated coconut onto a plate. Roll the balls in the coconut.

Place on a platter and enjoy. Power up.

*LSA and tahini are available from health food shops or the health food section in the supermarket.

Happy Melbourne Cup day! It makes me so happy that we Melburnians get an annual leave day thanks to a horse race!

While you would think Spring Racing is about the horses, really its about frocks, food and drink. Race day food needs to be portable, delicious and preferably easy on the cook. Last year Saskia and I made cheesecake pops which ticked the first two boxes but were an incredibly time consuming experience. We vowed never to make them again and one year on, have both managed to keep that promise!

More successful on the race day food front are Saskia’s signature dips (her hummus is always a winner), smoked salmon bagels and perhaps a cupcake or two. After a run of weekend cupcake making (again) this year I decided on a simpler route for sweets, baking a swag of the ultimate choc chip cookies. I didn’t quite bet on just how long it would take to bake said cookies, given I only do 4 to a tray and I have a temperamental oven. Nonetheless,  2 hours of solid baking later, I have 36 salted choc chip cookies packed and ready to go.

A last minute addition to my race day food offering is this delicious guacamole. Yes, it is just guacamole but it is damn good and since discovering it in a cookbook I already owned (thanks for the tip Eatnik!) I have made it 4 times already…. in 4 weeks. It’s tasty, easy to prepare and should travel pretty well to the track. To prevent the guacamole turning an unappetising brown I will be liberal with the lime juice and cover tightly with plastic wrap touching the surface of the dip. Fingers crossed it works!

What will you be eating on Melbourne cup day?

Guacamole

Adapted from a recipe in The Cook’s Book

3 small avocados
1 small tomato, skinned, seeded and chopped
1 sml jalapeno or green chilli, seeded and finely chopped
1/2 small onion, finely chopped
handful coriander, chopped
3 tsp lime juice
salt to taste

• Mash the avocado, then stir in the rest of the ingredients.
• Serve with corn chips or raw vegetables.
• Enjoy!

A month or two ago, Mr M attended a Cath Claringbold cooking class at the Essential Ingredient. My urgings to write a guest post on the experience have fallen on somewhat deaf ears. Nonetheless, an excellent outcome of the class is this recipe for quinoa tabouleh, which is quickly becoming a favourite around our house. I think it has been made 3 times in about a month.

The class Mr M attended was titled ‘ingrained in the Mediterranean’ and explored a range of alternative grains (freekah, bulgur, quinoa etc). Since regular tabouleh ordinarily has bulgur (wheat) in it, I have eaten very little of it in the past 5 years (the notable exception being when Saskia made it for me with buckwheat). I love this twist on tabouleh, the roasted cauliflower reminds me of the fabulous cauliflower salad I often make and I love the freshness from the generous use of herbs. Another aspect that gives a real burst of flavour is the pomegranate.  Unfortunately, pomegranate is no longer in season in Australia although you can buy fresh pomegranate from California at present. Personally, the whole ‘food miles’ thing bothers me somewhat, so I just omitted the pomegranate. I added a little squeeze of lemon to the tabouleh to add a slight acidity, in place of the pomegranate.

This is a really delicious, simple and filling salad. While it is best freshly made, it also held up pretty well as lunch the following day. I can’t wait to make it again! 

Quinoa tabouleh with roast cauliflower and herbs

Adapted from a recipe by Cath Claringbold

Note: I reduced the quantity of raisins as I found it a little sweet. As discussed above, if you don’t have pomegranate handy, a squeeze of lemon helps to add a burst of freshness (although of course, it lacks the texture and the wow factor of the pomegranate!)

Salad

160g white quinoa
500ml chicken stock
1 head of cauliflower
2 tbs olive oil
1/4 cup slivered almonds, toasted
1/3 cup raisins, roughly chopped
1/2 bunch chives, finely chopped
1 bunch of coriander, shredded
1/2 bunch parsley, shredded
Seeds from 1/2 a pomegranate
Salt and pepper to taste

Dressing

 1 tbs pomegranate molasses
2 tbs red wine vinegar
3 tbs extra virgin olive oil

• Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
• Finely slice the cauliflower into pieces, season with salt and pepper and toss in the olive oil. Spread the cauliflower in a single layer on a baking tray.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes (it usually takes me a bit longer) until the cauliflower is evenly browned. Shake the cauliflower from time to time so that it browns evenly. Set aside and allow to cool.
• Meanwhile, wash and then cook the quinoa. You can cook it in a small saucepan with the stock or alternatively, put the stock and quinoa in a rice cooker. You want the quinoa to be tender and the liquid to have evaporated. Set aside and allow to cool.
• Make the dressing by whisking all the ingredients and season with salt and pepper.
• In a large bowl, combine the cooled cauliflower and quinoa. Mix in the balance of the tabouleh ingredients (almonds, raisins, chives, coriander, parsley and pomegranate).
• When you are ready to serve, toss the tabouleh in the dressing. Enjoy!

I realise this is a very meaty start to a post on a blog that I share with a non-meat eater. But, this is seriously delicious.

I was having a discussion recently with my friend C, who commented that she would like to see more savoury dishes on the blog. Obviously, I’m not surprised at this, I know I have a penchant for all things sweet (I love sweet things!). But it is a valid point. This discussion coincided with C telling me that a friend is giving her some lamb from their farm. C was looking for suggestions about what to do with it and I remembered this cracking recipe which I have made several times, but failed to blog up until now, due to the ‘meat’ factor.

This is quite simple but very tasty. The lamb is stuffed with preserved lemons, herbs, bread and pinenuts and roasted. This is a particularly good recipe if you are cooking for a crowd, we made three of these for a sit down lunch for 20 people and there were plenty of leftovers. Serve with some roast potatoes, some greens and an interesting salad. Delicious!

Stuffed leg of lamb

Loosely based on a recipe for stuffed lamb from Jamie Oliver.

Note: The first time we made this, Mr M bought a leg of lamb with the bone and boned it himself. The second time we made it, we made life significantly easier on ourselves by buying the lamb de-boned. You should definitely do the same!

Ingredients

3 cloves of garlic, peeled
3 large handfuls of fresh herbs (mint, thyme, parsley and oregano)
6 slices of pancetta or bacon
3 tbs of roughly chopped preserved lemon
100g bread torn into small pieces
a handful of pinenuts
salt and pepper to taste (be careful with the salt as the preserved lemon is already salty)
2kg leg of lamb (deboned)
a large bunch of rosemary
olive oil

Method

• Pre-heat your oven to 200C/400F.
• Place the garlic in a food processor along with the mixed fresh herbs. Add the pancetta/bacon and preserved lemon and pulse to combine. Remove the mixture and set aside. Add the bread to the processor and process until  fine. If you don’t have a food processor, just chop everything finely.
• Mix the breadcrumbs with the herb mixture, then add the pine nuts and salt and pepper (easy on the salt!).
• If you have not deboned your lamb, you will need to. This is a bit of a task, so its much easier to get the butcher to do this for you! You should also remove a lot of the fat on the outside.

• Place the stuffing on a third of your lamb:

• Roll the lamb tightly so that the stuffing is in the middle. Secure with kitchen twine – criss-cross the twine at 1 inch intervals.

• Push some pieces of rosemary under the string. Season with salt and pepper and pat with olive oil.
• Roast for approximately 1 hour. When the lamb is cooked, rest it for 15 minutes before serving.
• Enjoy!

Thai Food also features some awesome descriptions of taste. Hopefully I’m not breaking too many copyright laws by sharing here Thompson’s description of how shrimp paste relish – or nahm prik - ought to taste (research purposes only, I swear):

It should taste hot, salty, slightly sour and slightly sweet. The structure of the tastes should be seamlessly poised. The garlic prevents the shrimp paste swamping the dish; the chillies sharpen the taste and hone the palate; the shrimp paste, the principal ingredient, enriches with its redolence and prevents the disparate tastes pulling away from each other. The seasoning then tightens the various tastes: the fish sauce lengthens and concentrates the flavour, the sugar rounds and smooths any abrupt tastes, while the lime juice finally cleans and reveals the finished product.

I wish I could describe food like that! I’m still stuck on single words like ‘good’!

So far, I’ve only cooked one recipe from Thai Food: the ubiquitous hot and sour soup known as tom yum goong – or, as Thompson spells it, dtom yam gung. This version is pretty simple and more about ‘balance’ than mountains of ingredients.

The recipe here is enough for about four servings as part of a larger meal of shared dishes, which is the Thai way. That said, I quite like to eat tom yum soup on its own when I’m feeling a little under the weather – it’s kind of like a prawn version of chicken soup.

Ingredients
10 uncooked prawns
4 cups water
large pinch of salt
1 tbs fish sauce plus extra, to taste
3-7 birds eye chillies (be brave – go for 7!)
2 stalks lemongrass, chopped
3 kaffir lime leaves, torn
3 tbs lime juice
a handful of coriander leaves

• I only like to use really fresh prawns because otherwise they taste too ‘prawny’. Blackened heads indicates that the prawns are not fresh. To prepare, peel the prawns and cut out the ‘veins’ (or poo shoot as they were calling it on masterchef). I remove the ‘vein’ by lying the peeled prawns flat and then slitting along the back with a sharp knife. Reserve the heads and shells.

• Rinse the heads and shells briefly. Add to a saucepan of the water and salt and bring to a simmer. Do not cook for longer than 15-20 minutes.

• While the stock is simmering, prepare the remaining ingredients. Bruise lemongrass and chillies with a pestle. Tear the kaffir lime leaves, squeeze the lime juice and chop the coriander.
• Strain the prawn stock and press down on shells to retain as much flavour as possible.
• Return stock to the stove and bring to the boil. Season with fish sauce.
• Add the lemongrass to the stock along with the torn kaffir lime leaves.
• Add peeled prawns to stock and simmer for a minute or two until they have just changed colour.
• In the serving bowls, divide up the lime juice, chillies and coriander. I only used 3 chillies because my mum hates spice! But in hindsight the soup definitely could have done with more heat. Perhaps I should have pounded them a little harder with the pestle.

• Ladle the soup into the bowls. Adjust seasoning as needed – I added a fair bit more fish sauce. I’m sure the exact quantities required depends on the brand of fish sauce you are using – and personal taste of course.

I have made a vegetarian version of this using water and tofu. It still works! I loved this prawn version but I wonder whether my stock was a bit cloudy. It didn’t have the vibrancy that I was hoping for in terms of appearance. Perhaps I simmered the prawn shells for too long? I don’t think I have quite mastered this Thai classic yet…

Ok. Only 672 more pages of recipes to go…

Regular readers will know that both Saskia and I are on a mission to try to find ways of making do and using the food we have rather than throwing things out (check out Saskia’s crumble and her banana cake and my carrot cake). In this vein I was at work one day pondering the random collection of food that was in the kitchen at home and desperately needed to be eaten.

I was trying to come up with a recipe to use the beautiful kale that I bought at the Collingwood children’s farm market. My mate C suggested a simple recipe from Bill Granger with chickpeas, spinach and tomatoes. I swapped the kale for the spinach and had all the other ingredients lurking around the house.

This was an incredibly simple, but delicious and filling weeknight dinner. I’ll definitely be making this again.

Chickpea and kale stew

(adapted from a recipe by Bill Granger)

splash of olive oil
1 diced red onion
3 finely sliced garlic cloves
2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
1 seeded red chilli
800 g tinned chickpeas
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon turmeric
250 g cherry tomatoes
1 head of kale, chopped
salt and black pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons of lemon juice

• Heat olive oil in a frying pan over a medium to high heat.
• Fry the onion, garlic, ginger and chilli for about 5 minutes, or until the onions are soft.
• Add the drained chickpeas, 80 ml (1/4 cup) water, cumin, turmeric and cook for about 5 minutes.
• Add the tomatoes and kale and cook for another couple of  minutes until the kale has softened.
• Remove from the heat, stir through lemon juice and taste for seasoning.
• Enjoy!

I absolutely love using preserved lemons in my cooking. I use them in Middle Eastern recipes such as tagine and pilaf,  but also to give a flavour lift to other dishes such as risotto and pasta or as a stuffing for chicken or lamb. My only issue is that I tend to go through the preserved lemons quickly and given I usually buy them from specialty stores, they are not cheap.

Last year Saskia found a bounty of lemons on a tree overhanging our back lane (it was in the public space!). Saskia used these to make preserved lemons and kindly gave me a jar of them. I recently finished up the jar and decided it was time to try preserving for myself.

While lemons are available all year, the peak season for lemons is from April to October. I caught up with my mate M recently and while dropping her home couldn’t help but notice the enormous lemon tree in her front yard that was literally heaving with fruit. The next time we caught up she provided me with a bag a full of them!

Making preserved lemons is so ridiculously easy I cannot believe I have never made them before. Simply quarter the lemons, massage them in salt and pack tightly into a preserving jar with bay leaves, cinnamon, cloves and black peppercorns. Then just leave them in a cool, dark place for a month or so and they are ready to use. There are plenty of lemons about this time of year so get preserving!

Back alley lemons - overhanging into public property

Preserved lemons

Adapted from Stephanie Alexander

250g coarse kitchen salt
10 or more thick skinned lemons (depends on the size of your jar)
2 bay leaves, torn into pieces
5-8 cloves
2 sticks of cinnamon, broken into shards
5-10 peppercorns
extra lemon juice

• First, sterlise your jar. You can do this by washing the jars in soap and water,  boiling them on the stove in a stockpot for 10 minutes, then draining on a towel and placing in a 150C oven until dried thoroughly. Fill the jars while hot.
• Alternatively, you can wash the jars in soap and water, then put them through the dishwasher by themselves on the hottest setting, without adding detergent.
• Scrub the lemons clean, then chop into quarters. Discard any lemons with imperfections.
• Scatter a large tablespoon of salt into your sterilised jar.
• Place the lemons into a large bowl and cover with remaining salt:

• Massage the salt into the fruit:

• Pack tightly into the jar, skin side out, inserting pieces of bay leaf, pepper, cloves and cinnamon at intervals.
• Press down hard on the fruit so that as much juice is released as possible.
• Make sure that the lemons are completely covered in juice, otherwise mould will develop. If required, squeeze extra juice into the jar to cover the lemons:

• Dip a clean cloth in boiling water and wipe the cap of the jar free of salt. Tightly close the lid.
• Leave in a cool, dark cupboard for at least a month before using. Refrigerate the lemons once you have opened the jar.
• Enjoy! Once my lemons are ready to eat I will make and post some of my favourite recipes. I think chicken tagine will be on the list!

A few years ago my workmate S had all the girls in our team over for a Sunday lunch. I remember that there was a lot of gossiping and a lot of wine. There was a lot of food too, but the only thing I remember was the delicious mushroom soup, which was S’s mother’s recipe. Naturally, I asked for the recipe and it was hastily written down on a little scrap of paper, which I put into my recipe folder. Up until recently, my recipe folder was a disastrous mess, with random recipes jammed everywhere and a whole heap of loose recipes shoved between the covers. A very thoughtful birthday gift from Z & B was a new folder and with it, an opportunity to clear through the mess and cull some of the clippings.

During my clean out process I found this little recipe again. I had actually made the soup around the time I got the recipe but had forgotten about it. A hearty mushroom soup was the perfect antidote to a very cold and rainy Sunday.

I like this recipe because it is very simple and unlike many mushroom soup recipes, it does not require ridiculous quantities of cream. I just can’t bring myself to make a soup that requires a litre of cream! This recipe has no cream at all, although the original version made up for it by including a whopping 750g of butter. I wasn’t really okay with this either and reduced the butter substantially and this is still a rich, comforting soup.

As this soup is very simple, the key is adding quite a lot of black pepper and some parsley on the top. Enjoy!

Mushroom soup

190g butter
2 onions, chopped
4 cloves of garlic
700g mushrooms (I used field mushrooms, but of course, this time of year you could use some other varieties, such as pine mushrooms or slippery jacks)
2 tbs flour
2 tsp ground coriander
600ml milk
600ml water
salt and pepper to taste
handful of parsley

• Fry the onion and garlic in the butter until translucent.
• Add the mushrooms and cook until they are soft, dark and fragrant.
• Add the flour and coriander and cook for 3-4 minutes (so that the flour cooks).
• Add the milk and water. Bring to the boil, then simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Blend the soup together.
• Season with plenty of salt and black pepper. Serve with parsley on top.
• Enjoy!