Stuffed Pasta Shells
1 tub (250g) ricotta cheese
3/4 cup grated Parmesan
2 small green bell peppers, finely chopped
1 small tub (100g) mushrooms, chopped
1/2 tbsp dried mixed Italian herbs or handful of chopped fresh herbs
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
3 cups zingy pasta sauce
2. In a large mixing bowl, make the filling by mixing together all the ingredients above except for: pasta shells, 1/4 cup of the parmesan cheese, and pasta sauce.
3. Spoon 1/2 cup of pasta sauce evenly over bottom of large baking dish.
4. Individually fill the cooked pasta shells with 1-2 tbsp of the filling made in Step 2. Place the stuffed shell in the baking tray. Repeat with the remaining shells.
5. Drizzle a tbsp of sauce on each shell and sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan. Cover loosely with foil and bake for about 35 minutes.
Asian Noodle Soup
This is one of my favourite soups. You can make it in so many different ways with just the simplest of ingredients you have at home. It’s extremely nutritious and quick to prepare. Either you can enjoy it as a light soup with the mushrooms and cucumber only or make it a lunch/dinner main dish by adding other goodies to it (as mentioned below)! We have made a few different versions of it; overall I prefer it with edamame (for texture) and mock chicken to maximize protein intake.
Serves 4/Prep time: 5-10 mins; Cook time: 10 mins
5 oz of mushrooms
1/2 cucumber
2 springs onions
few sprigs coriander
3 garlic cloves
1 pint water/650 ml
1 oz (handful) of chinese noodles
2-3 tbsp soy sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
optional
1 cup mix of sweet corn, mixed beans, 1 diced chili, mock chicken, edamame, or other vegetables
1. Thinly slice mushrooms or other vegetables of your choice.
2. Cut cucumber in half, scoop out seeds with teaspoon and slice thinly.
3. Chop garlic, spring onion and coriander.
4. Heat oil in a pan, add spring onions and garlic and sautee for about a minute. Add mushrooms/other additions and stir fry for 2-3 mins.
5. Stir in water and break the noodles in half and add to the soup. Bring to boil
6. Add cucumber slices, salt, pepper and soy sauce and simmer for 2-3 mins.
7. Garnish with coriander and Enjoy!!!
Here is another version with the addition of green beans and broccolli….
Grilled Vegetable Sandwich
This is one of my all-time favourite sandwiches. Why? It has so much nutritional goodness and uses 10 grain baguette. It’s so simple and quick to make yet a totally guilt-free and satisfying meal. In any great sandwich, I believe the most important ingredient is the bread. I mean you can almost always eat the everything between the bread layers on its own, so why eat the bread! The bread has to be worth it to eat those extra carbs! 🙂
When I think about some of my favourite sandwiches, the actual bread is the main thing that comes to mind. For example, in the US, Panera Bread and Publix use the yummiest bread! That said, by far the most variety that I have seen is in German bakeries, it was like walking into bread paradise! When I was in Munich last year for about five months, I truly fell in love with German breads (not because I had nothing else to eat in the country where people love their meats :)); so many whole grain varieties packed with flavour and goodness!
We all see whole-grain this and that, but what does that really mean and why is it good for us? Whole grains contain all the parts of the wheat stalk without its bran and germ removed by milling. Whole grains are naturally packed full with vitamins, minerals, and other essential nutrients including fibre, iron, and zinc. As this is a high-fibre food, it makes you feel full for longer and helps you reach/maintain your healthy weight. Not only that, many studies have shown whole-grain to help lower your risk of diabetes, heart disease and certain types of cancer.
It’s easy to meet that daily allowance of whole-grain: you don’t really have to try as it’s actually hard to avoid it :). Use whole-grain bread instead of white bread, eat oatmeal or buckwheat cereal, whole-meal waffles or pancakes, corn tortilla, brown rice, etc. Nowadays, most of the products you will have a whole-grain option! Next time when you are shopping, be sure to check for the word “whole” as part of the first ingredient.
Feeds 2/ Foot Long Sandwich/Total Time: 15-20 minutes
Ingredients:
1 Zucchini/Courgette
1/2 medium Eggplant/Aubergine
2 Portobello Mushrooms
2 Red/Orange bell peppers
Handful of fresh spinach leaves
3-4 tbsp of Pesto
Hard cheese of your choice, sliced
Foot long baguette, preferably multi(7-10) grain
Olive oil (‘Extra Virgin’ for drizzling and cold-pressed or blended for grilling)
Salt & Pepper, to taste
1. Cut all vegetables into long thick slices/chunks, except for spinach.
2. In a pan, heat some olive oil and grill all the vegetables on high heat for about 5-7 minutes until tender and season with salt and pepper.
3. While the vegetables are grilling, slice the baguette, spread pesto on the inside of the two halves. Once vegetables are prepared, layer each of them on the baguette. Next, place the slices of cheese and finally, layer fresh spinach. Drizzle little bit of extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper over spinach and cover with the other half of baguette. Delicious!
Thanks to the kind and generous gift from my close friends in Atlanta, Ni and Monisha, we now have a Cuisinart Grill/Griddle machine that makes grilling anything so easy and you always get that charred flavour coming through. We are yet to crack into the packet of paneer that has been in the fridge for a few weeks so watch this space for the tikka recipe!
On a final note, for those that wondered whether my blogging career was already over after 30 posts, fear not: we have a family wedding over this weekend for which I was quite thrilled to be asked to prepare some bite-size desserts. I will post up how I got on in the coming days 🙂
VegDelights 