Stuffed Summer Squash

Another lovely find in the organic box: yellow summer squash. The following main course, being vegan, is incredibly tasty but not very filling, so you need quite a lot of it - one reason why eating vegan/vegetarian food is not exactly cheap. What you see on the photos was just about enough for two of us. Adding grated cheese to the rice and/or topping the dish with cheese, such as parmesan or pecorino, would help alleviate that :)



2-3 smallish summer squash, halved and flesh scooped out

Herby rice:
1/2 large mug of brown rice
1 1/1 large mugs of cold water
1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/2 red chilli, finely chopped
2tbsp shelled pistachios, roughly chopped
2-3tbsp fresh herbs, roughly chopped - here, I used equal amounts of basil, rocket and coriander
extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper
sea salt

Tomato salsa
250g cherry plum tomatoes, quartered
1 shallot, very finely chopped
freshly ground black pepper
tabasco or chopped chilli, optional


1. Heat some olive oil in saucepan. Add the chilli, 2/3 of the garlic and onions and soften over a medium-low heat. Add the rice and stir until the rice is well coated with the mix. Pour in the water and add some coarse sea salt. Put the lid on and simmer until the rice is cooked.

2. Meanwhile, split the sqash in half and scoop out the flesh with a spoon. Set aside.

3. Chop into small chunks. Heat some oil in a non-stick frying pan and fry the squash with the remaining garlic over quite a high heat until browned all over. Season with black pepper (I didn't use any salt) and transfer into a bowl, if necessary lined with paper towel to drain of excessive oil.

4. Mix the cherry tomatoes, season with pepper (again I don't add salt) and tabasco/chilli if used. Leave to marinate.

5. Once the rice is cooked, drain off any remaining liquid. Season with pepper and add the pistachios, browned squash flesh and chopped herbs. Mix and check the seasoning.

6. Season the squash shells with pepper and salt and spoon to rice mixture into them.

7. Set on a lightly oiled oven proof dish, cover with tin foil and place in the middle of the oven at gas mark 6/200-220°C for about 40 minutes or until the squash are tender.



Serve with the tomato salsa and, optionally, a zesty salad.

Carrot Salad with Sesame Seeds

500g carrots, peeled and coarsely grated
herb salt
freshly ground black pepper
2tbsp sherry or white wine vinegar
2tbsp extra virgin olive oil or cold pressed sunflower oil
2tbsp sesame seeds, toasted in the oven at a very high heat until golden
1tsp toasted sesame oil (optional)

Mix pepper, herb salt and vinegar, then add the oil. Pour over the carrots, mix well and leave to marinate for a couple of hours before serving. Add the toasted sesame seeds just before serving.

preparation time: 15 mins
marinating time: at least 1 hour

Spring Greens with Mozzarella

Another veg in the organic box was a lovely bundle of dark green spring greens. These, too, were given the sauté pan treatment.



500g spring greens, tough stems removed, washed and roughly chopped
extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground pepper
sea salt
100-150ml dry white wine or vegetable stock
1 mozzarella ball, cut into cubes

Heat the olive oil and add the spring greens. Turn the heat down and move the veg around until completely covered with the oil and starting to brown. Pour in about 100ml of wine. Season with pepper and salt. Place a lid on the pan and gently simmer until the spring greens are tender adding more liquid if necessary. This can take anywhere from 5-15 minutes. Transfer into a warmed bowl and scatter with the mozzarella cubes.

Spinach with Soured Cream

Normally, I feel that it's a bit of a shame to steam baby spinach and prepare it raw as a salad. But this week, we ordered our first organic box and the spinach was a much larger leaved variety that was much more suitable to be turned into a vegetable side dish.

500g spinach, washed with some water still clinging to it to aid the cooking process and roughly chopped
1 small onion, very finely chopped
1-2 garlic cloves, very finely chopped
2 generous tbsp soured cream
extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper
sea salt
freshly ground nutmeg

Heat the olive oil and sauté the onion and garlic until soft but not browned. Add the spinach and mix the ingredients. Cook over a medium heat until the spinach is tender. Season with pepper and salt. Add the soured cream and mix. Transfer into a warmed serving bowl and grate a little nutmeg over the top.

Smoked Mackerel Pâté

200g smoked mackerel, skin removed and roughly broken up
2-3tbsp/75 ml natural yoghurt
freshly ground black pepper
a few drops of Tabasco
1 garlic clove, crushed
juice of 1/2 lemon

Put all the ingredient into a food processor or whizz up with a hand-held blender. Chill for 1-2 hours to set. Serve with crudités, hot toast/toasted baguette slices, oatcakes, fresh bread/baguette - whatever takes your fancy.

A great starter or amuse-gueule to get dinner party guests' mouths watering. I also have it for lunch on some chunky home baked bread.

Storing Mushrooms

Wrap them in newspaper!

Unfortunately, most supermarkets nowadays not only chill produce to death but also sell so many items pre-packaged in plastic baskets. Mushrooms really should not be stored in plastic at all, let alone be sealed with cling film. At least that's what I was tought when we went mushroom hunting when I was little...

The other day, I spotted a wee note on a packet that suggested to remove the cling film and to cover the mushrooms with kitchen paper. That sort of worked but I've found that wrapping the mushrooms incl. the basket in 2-3 sheets of newspaper (from a broadsheet) works even better.

If the mushrooms are super fresh, they last for days in the fridge. In fact, we finished some last night (Thursday) that we'd bought last Friday without chopping bits off, pealing them or throwing any away.

Easy BBQ and Oven Cleaning

Get yourself a packet of these little guys to clean the your barbecue and oven racks as well as the inside of the oven. Just add hot soapy water and you'll never again need elbow grease or nasty spray cleaners.