Roasted beetroot houmous: a dairy free weaning recipe

Houmous is such an easy win when weaning a CMPA baby, naturally dairy free, high in protein, and every baby I meet who's being weaned loves it. I make it at every opportunity (not least for the egg replacer aquafaba - as seen in my meringues) for Harry as it's such a favourite of is. He loves it mixed with grated carrot in sandwiches, on toast for a quick and easy post swimming lunch, with veggies dipped in, or simply in a bowl to grab handfuls of (when I'm pretending not to look).

I make a few variations of houmous: roasted, or sun-dried tomato, aubergine - but hadn't tried anything else until lately when the beetroots in my Seed Pantry veg patch were ready to be harvested. M got me my Seed pantry box for my birthday, and I have to say I wasn't enamoured to begin with (ungrateful wife that I am), but it was awesome. I loved planting my seeds and growing my veggies - I still have some late French beans and spinach to pick before I need to dig our little raised bed over. My trip to River Cottage cemented just how much I've changed my opinion on growing veggies - talking to their Head Gardener and making my mental list of seeds for next year, I'm excited already.

My Barbabietola di Chioggia beetroot was beautifully candy striped, which did however, mean that the humous wasn't the vivid pink I'd initially expected, rather a muted, Instagram filtered type of pink. It had a delicate earthy flavour, which worked beautifully with some pre roasted garlic and a light olive oil. 

We enjoyed this with my home made dairy free flatbreads - the only problem about making food from your veg patch is that once the veggies have gone you can't make any more! 

This is one recipe you really do need a food processor or blitzer of some sort for. 

Roasted beetroot houmous
Dairy free
Serves 4-6 adults or 8 babies

1 tin chickpeas (brine drained and saved for egg replacer duties)
2 medium beetroot
2 cloves garlic
4 sundried tomatoes
Olive oil - I used 4 tablespoons, but it'll depend on your ingredients and personal taste. You may want more or less.
1 tablespoon tahini (optional - don't buy it specially - just add extra olive oil)
Juice of half a lemon
If making for adults, add a teaspoon or so of salt

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees
Scrub, and chop the beetroot into eighths, peel the garlic and drizzle with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil
Wrap in foil and bake for 45 minutes to an hour - or until the beetroot is soft
Leave to cool
Drain the chickpeas and sun dried tomatoes, and put in the bowl of your food processor
Add the cooled beetroot, garlic, and olive oil left in the foil parcel and blitz until a rough puree
Add another couple of tablespoons of olive oil, the lemon juice and the tahini if using, and blitz until slightly smoother - if making for adults add salt now

Flatbread recipe to follow when I manage to take pictures - I keep forgetting and we eat them warm!

When you're happy with the texture, you're done. I store this in a tupperware in the fridge. Much like home made pesto I make sure the top layer is covered with some fresh olive oil.

Meal Planning Monday: Are we nearly there yet?

It's that time of week again, I'm currently cwtched under my camp blanket, staring out at hammering rain and wishing that spring would, well, spring already. I want to want to eat the salady items that are starting to permeate my veg box, I want to be able to go out walking and running again, to enjoy the opportunity for a potter. But, what can you do - spring will spring when it's good and ready.

Over the las week or so, I've not done too well on the cooking/ eating front. It's nice to be flexible, but  just don't feel inspired. That said, I had a lovely pink day in the kitchen yesterday stewing some beautifully rosy early rhubarb that I picked up at the market, and then making some blood orange curd (I have another batch to do but have run out of eggs annoyingly).

I also finally got around to making the salted caramel & pecan brownies that I've been meaning to try for ages. The recipe came from Rachel at Baking Brownies for Mozart, as her brownie cups were one of my swaps at Let's make Christmas, which although in itself a distant memory - recreating those brownies has been playing on my mind ever since. A good friend of mine Kat (of the epic photography skills at my sister's Hen Party), taste tested them for me, and they were definitely a success.

So next week - what does this have in store?  Health wise, I'm still headachey on and off, but managing work well actually. I'm still going for easy food as my energy levels are still low. Ideally I'd be starting the week with the fridge slightly better prepared but I have a plate of picky bits ready for any dining emergencies.

Breakfasts: Porridge still (the only upside to the continuing weather) with the rhubarb I stewed.

Lunches: I wanted to make some soup yesterday, but the plastercast hindered my abilities to chop up the squash that was intended for said soup. I will be cornering M this afternoon and bribing him with brownies to do it for me. Hopefully then I can commandeer half of it for a lovely thick soup with ginger and chilli. If not, I've made a lovely batch of homemade houmous and randomly for me, am really enjoying seeded Ryvita thins, salad and crudites with it.

Dinner - I'm cooking a huge shoulder of pork today for dinner with M's parents and am hoping leftovers will be enough for Monday and Tuesday. I'll try to take the pictures as I'm using the same guidelines as I did here.

Monday: Leftover roast pork, with vegetables

Tuesday: Either leftover leftovers - maybe in a pitta bread or shredded into some steamed veggies.

Wednesday: Chicken, butternut squash and barley casserole (on the proviso that M chops up said squash)

Thursday: Fingers crossed for aforementioned soup and soda bread

Friday: I can't remember what or where we're up to next weekend so I think we'll have the leftovers from the minced meat hash I made this weekend - as if we've got no plans I'd like to pop and see my Mum I think. I think topped with a poached egg and a a good dollop of ketchup it should be better second time around.

Well that's the Pantry - what about you? What're you up to this week? Be sure to head over to At Home with Mrs M for more meal inspiration

Meal planning Monday: would anyone else like to do this for me?

Now, don't get me wrong, I love to cook. I write a food blog, that much is obvious. I am the woman who, 5 weeks in to a chronic migraine thought making 17 jars of marmalade was a good move. Today, this week, I just can't be bothered. Quite frankly my student diet of pasta/ marmite on toast for the whole week would be fine. If I weren't trying to be healthy. It seems even having a reason to be healthy isn't motivation enough to want to cook when you're flat out exhausted. It's obviously because I'm back at work and what's left of the gray matter is working again. But still, cooking? Eating? Meh! Not so much.

I think in part it comes down to that time of year as well, the fresh colours of daffodils, and crocuses aren't out yet, the days are getting interminably slowly longer, it's too cold, too grey, and I just feel bleurgh. Interestingly since leaving hospital I've been taking supplements and I'm hoping that they're going to start taking effect, but as anyone knows they need to be backed up by a nutritious diet. So, incredibly slowly and with much prevarication, here is this week's meal plan (deliberately styled to restock my freezer with easy midweek meals):

Monday: Spaghetti bolognaise, with cabbage instead of pasta for me

Tuesday: Chicken, leek, butternut squash and barley casserole

Wednesday: Butternut squash, chorizo and cannelini bean chilli

Thursday: Leftovers from one of the above

Friday: As M will be at his parents, probably steamed fish and greens

I'm seeing a friend who's a pescatarian at the weekend, so I'm not sure what I'm cooking. Or even if I'm cooking! I have promised M's parents a roast at mine (probably that pork shoulder again) on Sunday as they're helping to ready his house to go on the market.

Baking wise, I've got a salted caramel and chocolate brownie recipe to try out to take to a team meeting on Friday as a thank you for my colleagues who have picked up my classes while Mr migraine has left me indisposed. I also really fancy some dark chocolate so am going to make some triple chocolate cookies from a scribbled recipe I got at a Guiders weekend some years back. Far too good for Guides though! Although I suspect they would be an actual cure for any camp injury/ homesickness!

I'm also going to restart my starter. Mabel is sadly no longer with us, and in lieu of anyone having a starter that has a baby I could pinch, I shall start my own. Or something *vague*

Lunch wise, I really fancy a good soup but Riverford are sending me salady veg this week so it'll be homemade aubergine houmous and crudites.

Breakfast is still porridge, I am loving it and I think it's helping my calcium levels too as I have upped it from water to half and half water and milk. With a big dollop of unsweetened, stewed apples, a pinch of cinnamon and a sprinkle of dark brown soft sugar. I'm a happy bunny till lunchtime.

Well, I'd better do the online shop to get this lot started I suppose. D'you think M will do the ironing if I bribe him with a triple chocolate cookie?

Now, be sure to pop over to At Home with Mrs M to see what everyone else is up to

Spannakopittas and Aubergine & red pepper houmous

The weather has turned today, and of course my nearly dry washing got soaked in the first downpour. However, before today we have been basking in a beautifully sunny couple of weeks. Not being a fan of the BBQ, as that was always my Dad's domain, I decided a Greek feast was in order. My friend Jess (of Dreaming Wide Awake) was coming over for dinner, so it needed to be vegetarian. Jess, being exceptionally knowledgable about wine, took this information very seriously and turned up with an amazing bottle of wine (Fetzer Valley Oaks Syrah Rose) which went very nicely with the feast I spent the afternoon knocking up.

First thing I did was make Spinach and Feta parcels; these were the product of a pastry challenge at Rhubarb Crumble & Custard - I should explain, we have a weekly ingredient challenge, where a person chooses something and everyone has to try and make something featuring that, and then photograph it and post both the photo and the recipe. It's fun, and a really good way to get you to try ingredients that might not otherwise make your shopping list.

I had looked at lots of recipes for Spinach and Feta parcels (which Google helpfully told me are also known as Spannakopittas) and cobbled together the following recipe from them. They were amazing, really light, and even when I thought they weren't going to come together as they went in the oven, they came out looking crisp and pretty and importantly held in their contents.

Luckily, living in a fairly Greek pocket of London meant that I could pick up fresh filo in the fresh aisles of the supermarket, but most larges stores keep it frozen. I've certainly frozen what was left for another batch.

So recipe... Spinach & Feta Parcels



1 bunch spring onions, finely chopped
1 kg leaf spinach (picked and washed)
Fresh nutmeg
Pepper
500g feta
1 pack of fresh filo pastry cut into 15cm squares

Chop up a bunch of spring onions finely and cook until soft in about 4 tableespoons of olive oil
Add 1 kg of leaf spinach to the pan and wilt down, grate about a quarter of a nutmeg on, add pepper, but not salt as the feta is salty enough already
Take off heat and allow to cool,
Add 2 beaten eggs and 500g of feta that you've chopped up.
Cut filo into 15cm squares, and butter each of 4 peices with a pastry brush as you lay them over each other to make a star shape.
Add a dessert spoonful of filling in the middle and scrunch up (this is infact a technical term that all the best chefs use) the filo,
Brush with more butter and bake in the oven (200 degrees C) for 20 minutes.
This made 12 parcels, but you could easily make mini ones

I lazily purchased taramasalata, but made my own houmous, I'm sure I've posted the recipe here before but here goes anyway

Houmous



1 aubergine, cut in half and flesh scored into cubes. Cook in a hot oven until the middle is squishy
1 jar of sundried tomatoes in oil
2 cloves garlic
2 tins of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
Juice of 1 lemon
5 tablespoons Olive oil

I make this in a food processor, so once the aubergine is cooked it's literally a case of letting it cool and then blitzing everything until it reaches a consistency you're happy with.

Greek Potato Salad



I was taught how to make this by the friend of a friend who is Greek herself, I much prefer it to the mayonaisse laden English version. I haven't put quantities in the recipe as it depends how many you're cooking for, and it needs to be made to your taste. This needs to be made and dressed whilst the potatoes are still warm as that way they absorb the dressing and the flavour.

Salad onions, chopped finely
Large bunch flat leaf parsley chopped finely
New potatoes
Salt
Pepper
Garlic
Olive Oil
Lemon juice

Chop the salad onions and parsley finely and set aside
Wash the potatoes (don't rub the skins off) and cook in boiling salted water until just soft
When the potatoes are cooked and still hot, peel the skins off and discard
Dress the potatoes whilst still warm in the Olive oil and Lemon juice (I use about half the volume of lemon juice to olive oil)
Add salt, pepper, crushed garlic, parsley and salad onions and toss all the ingredients together
Leave to cool and serve at room temperature

I had fully intended to make my own pitta bread to Jules from Domestic Goddess in Training's recipe, but was slightly disorganised so used some that I had picked up in case of emergency. Definitely next time though.

For pudding we had Greek yoghurt with chopped strawberries, peaches and raspberries with honey. Well I say we had it, actually I forgot about it, and left it in the fridge so had it for breakfast on Monday. And very nice it was too. Sorry Jess.

The good, the bad, and the ugly... Bread matters, chicken sausages don't

The Good: The time off work recuperating from my back injury has given me time to finally get around to reading a book recommended by one of the eternally helpful ladies from handbag.com, and so far the verdict is that it's both fabulous and incredibly insightful. Andrew Whitley is the author of said book, Bread Matters. As seasoned blog readers will be aware, I'm very interested in the ethics behind our food as well as making sure that what I eat is as good for me as possible and having switched to home-made bread almost exclusively before reading this book - it's still been very eye opening.

The Bad: Well I'm back at work part-time, and under the supervision of the Occupational therapy nurse which is oddly reassuring. I'm so glad that I'm feeling better that it's tempting to do too much and end up as I did for most of yesterday, flat out on my back, asleep. Life is so exciting when you're me. I slept all afternoon, got up, ate leftover summer vegetable risotto (last week's Monday masterpiece) and steamed curly kale, watched some more old episodes of Friends (Monica and Chandler just got together and Ross tried to marry Rachel not Emily) and then ate my flatmate's mum's crumble (verdict: I'm uber jealous, it's much better than mine - not that this stopped me inhaling it last night), tried to recruit someone as a new Guider (work in progress) and then went back to bed; and slept for about 12 hours.

and The Ugly: Chicken sausages. No really. Just don't. Ever. I felt it would be rude to take a picture at the table. But really, avoid them at all costs. Basically a variation on the really bad hotdogs you may (as I did) adore as a child. As an adult my tastebuds pretty much rejected them. I'm still recovering, with the aid of a lot of tea.

Monday masterpieces to be blogged later* should be: cabbage, bacon and potato soup, pitta bread, and home-made houmous (which I thought I had blogged about before, but apparently not). Randomly I'm craving scones, cream and jam but hopefully using up last week's vegetables (from a seated position in case the OT nurse is reading) should distract me from thoughts of soft scones, fruity jam and clouds of whipped or clotted (i'm not fussy!) cream... *dribbles*

*not necessarily later today, but definitely this week. Promise. Brownies honour and all that.