Once the dough has doubled in size, spray a non-stick frying pan with oil and place on a medium heat. Put 2 tablespoons of the dough mix into the pan to form each pikelet. They shouldn’t touch while cooking, so you may have to do this in several batches to avoid crowding the pan. Cook gently for 2 minutes, or until the surface looks dry and matt. Then turn them over and cook for 30 seconds.
The pikelets are best eaten warm with lashings of the whipped butter, or cold later. Freeze between layers of parchment paper and pop into a freezer bag.
PARMESAN SCONES WITH SALMON PASTE
MAKES: 18 ACTIVE TIME: 30 MINUTES TOTAL TIME: 45 MINUTES
Scones are one of the first things most kids learn to bake, especially at secondary school. So varying them is a load of fun, and to have them for breakfast is even better. These ones are cheesy and spread with a delicious mustardy paste.
For the Parmesan scones
450g self-raising flour
110g butter, cubed
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon onion granules
1 tablespoon dried chives
50g Parmesan cheese, plus a little extra for sprinkling
300ml whole milk
1 egg, for glazing
For the salmon paste
120g smoked salmon trimmings
1 tablespoon wholegrain mustard
½ teaspoon salt
a sprinkling of black pepper
5 tablespoons Greek yoghurt/crème fraîche
Preheat the oven to 220°C/fan 200°C. Lightly grease two baking sheets.
Put the flour and butter into a bowl and rub together with your fingertips until it is like breadcrumbs. Add the baking powder, salt, onion granules, chives and cheese and mix through really well. Make a well in the centre and pour in all the milk, then bring the dough together into one large mound.
Roll the dough out on a flour-dusted work surface to a thickness of 2cm, making sure to keep it to a rectangular shape. Using a sharp knife, cut it into 18 squares and place them on the baking trays a few centimetres apart. Brush with egg, sprinkle with Parmesan and bake for 12–15 minutes.
To make the salmon paste, put the salmon, mustard, salt, pepper and yoghurt into a blender and blitz.
When the scones are ready, put them on a rack to cool. Freeze half of them in bags and eat the other half spread with the salmon paste.
PARMESAN SCONES WITH SALMON PASTE
MEATLOAF ROLL
SERVES: 8 ACTIVE TIME: 1 HOUR TOTAL TIME: 2 HOURS
This is like meatloaf meets Wellington meets sausage roll. Which can never really be a bad thing. With a line of hard-boiled eggs hidden inside, it’s delicious for breakfast but also pretty delicious, cold sliced, between a soft, floury, heavily buttered bap. Makes a great snack throughout the day – and it’s perfect for picnics.
500g lean beef mince
6 sausages, taken out of their skins
1 teaspoon chilli flakes
1 teaspoon salt
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 slice of bread, blitzed into breadcrumbs, or 5 tablespoons dried breadcrumbs
a large handful of fresh parsley
5 hard-boiled eggs (boiled for 8 minutes, then plunged into cold water), peeled
500g ready-rolled puff pastry
3 teaspoons yeast extract, mixed with 1 teaspoon warm water
1 egg, beaten, for eggwash
Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C.
Put the mince, sausage meat, chilli flakes, salt, garlic, onion and bread-crumbs into a bowl and mix together with your hands. Add the parsley and mix until you have flecks of green all through the meat mixture.
Lay two long lengths of clingfilm on your worktop, one overlapping the other. Turn the meat mixture on to it and pat it out with damp hands into a rectangular shape about 30cm x 25cm. Line up the hard-boiled eggs in a row down the centre of the rectangle, short end to short end. With the aid of the clingfilm, create a large sausage shape. The eggs should be encased by the meat, rather like a long Scotch egg. Twist the ends of the clingfilm and put the roll into the fridge.
Meanwhile, roll out the pastry to about 35cm x 35cm and 5mm thickness and brush the surface with the yeast extract mix. Remove the meat roll from the clingfilm and place lengthways on the rolled-out pastry, just off centre. Bring the larger side of the pastry over the meat roll, then pinch the edges together to close. Crimp all the way round.
Brush the pastry with the egg wash and place on a baking tray. Put it into the preheated oven and bake for about 1 hour, or until the pastry is golden and the roll is cooked through.
TO GET AHEAD
If you want to get ahead, you can prepare all this the night before and bake it in the morning. After brushing the roll with the eggwash, wrap it in clingfilm and place it in the fridge on its baking tray overnight. The following morning, preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C, remove the clingfilm, and cook the roll for 45 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 180°C/fan 160°C and bake for a further 30 minutes, until cooked through.
MEATLOAF ROLL
Recipe List
BLENDER BEETROOT
THREE CHEESE CRISPY PANCAKES
TZATZIKI QUESADILLAS
LENTIL AND ORANGE SOUP
SPICY SCRAP SOUP
INSTANT NOODLES
CRUSTLESS SPINACH QUICHE
PECAN BRIE BRÛLÉE
ASIAN AUBERGINE WEDGES
CREAMY MARINARA CHICKEN
KIWI SALAD
EDAMAME WILD RICE SALAD
COTTAGE CHEESE AND ONION POTATO SKINS
PRAWN MALAY RICE
CORONATION TUNA
ONE-POT TORTELLINI
SAVOURY FRENCH TOAST
BAKED BEAN FALAFEL
PANEER PITTA
HONEY MUSTARD CHOW MEIN
CORNED BEEF SUB
CLOUD BREAD WITH CREAMY MACKEREL TOPPING
SWEET POTATO AND GOAT’S CHEESE TART
FISH PIE BURGER
BLACK PEPPER POKE SALMON BOWL
CORNED BEEF BOMBAY PIE
WATERCRESS QUINOA KEDGEREE
PIZZA PARATHA
BLENDER BEETROOT
SERVES: 5 TOTAL TIME: 10 MINUTES
I love anything where as little cooking as possible is required – not because I don’t like cooking, it’s just that sometimes I don’t want to do it. All you need for this is a blender, smoothie maker or processor – whatever you use to make mush – it will work, and the only cooking is the pasta. This tastes delicious but my goodness, the colour! This recipe will give you two portions of the glorious beetroot sauce; but if you just want to make a single batch today, halve the ingredients in green.
500g pasta
600g cooked beetroot, drained
100ml olive oil
1 teaspoon fine salt
4 cloves of garlic
1 large red chilli (deseeded if you don’t want it too spicy)
200g feta cheese
20g fresh dill, finely chopped
1 tablespoon lemon juice, out of a bottle
extra olive oil, for serving
Cook the pasta as per the instructions on the packet.
Meanwhile make the sauce. Put the beetroot into a blender and add the olive oil, salt, garlic and chilli. Blend to a smooth paste.
Put half the sauce into a small ziplock freezer bag, seal and freeze. Now you have another batch of the sauce ready for another meal.
Crumble the feta cheese and place in a bowl. Chop the dill and add to the cheese, then drizzle over the lemon juice and mix.
Once the pasta is cooked to your liking (I like it a little bit firm), drain and put back into the pan. Pour in all that beautiful beetroot sauce and mix through. I can’t help but be mesmerized by nature when the colour mixes with the pasta, staining it bright pink.
Tip it out on to a serving dish and sprinkle over all the feta and dill mix. Drizzle with a little extra oil for good
measure before serving.
The frozen sauce will keep for up to 6 months. Store in a labelled ziplock bag.
BLENDER BEETROOT
THREE CHEESE CRISPY PANCAKES
SERVES: 4 (WITH SOME FOR LATER, IF YOU’RE NOT TOO HUNGRY TODAY) ACTIVE TIME: 30 MINUTES TOTAL TIME: 1 HOUR
I never ate these freezer aisle equivalents until I made a trip to a specialist freezer supermarket. I absolutely loved them! But as with most things, I dissected them and made my own version, with no less than three cheeses and a dip to go with them. We make 8 here, which will either serve 4 very hungry people, or you can pop a few in the freezer to have your own homemade version ready as instantly as the shop-bought variety!
For the crispy pancakes
250g mascarpone
25ml whole milk
150g any hard cheese (I like a combo of red Leicester, mature Cheddar and Parmesan)
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 medium red onion, chopped
8 crêpe pancakes
4 eggs, beaten
300g golden breadcrumbs
cooking oil spray
For the sauce
1 x 215g jar of jalapeños, drained
75ml olive oil
a pinch of salt
a small handful of fresh mint leaves
Mix the mascarpone with the milk and blend to a smooth paste. Stir in the cheese, garlic and chopped onion.
Have ready a baking tray that fits in the freezer. Lay out the pancakes on a work surface and divide the filling mixture between the centres. Brush the edges very lightly with the beaten egg, then fold them over and press together to create semicircles, firmly so they stick together. Flatten them a bit with your hand, then place on the tray and put them straight into the freezer. To save space you can freeze one layer of pancakes on top of the other, with sheets of baking paper in between.
Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C and have two greased baking trays ready. Have the whisked eggs ready on a plate with sides, and the breadcrumbs on another. Take the pancakes out of the freezer, dip them into the egg and then into the breadcrumbs, then pop them on to the trays. Press down and really push the crumbs into the egg so they stick. Spray the pancakes generously with oil and bake for 30 minutes, until crisp and golden.
To make the sauce, put the jalapeños, oil, salt and mint into a blender and whiz to a smooth sauce. I like to use the sauce as a drizzle over a simple leaf salad or just as a dip.
Once cooked, the pancakes can be frozen.
TZATZIKI QUESADILLAS
SERVES: 5 TOTAL TIME: 45 MINUTES
For a quick meal, quesadillas are my favourite thing to make when I have roast chicken left over from Sunday dinner. But I always have roasted chicken breasts in the freezer – you can buy them by the bagful – something that was my saving grace a few years ago when we were ferrying the kids between one after-school activity and the next. This is what I love to do with leftover or pre-cooked chicken, keeping it fresh with the flavours of tzatziki and adding cheese to melt the quesadillas together – they are firmly up there as a total fave in our house.
350g roasted chicken breast, sliced (or scraps off a roasted chicken carcass)
½ a cucumber, grated
2 tablespoons Greek yoghurt
1 teaspoon dried mint
1 teaspoon garlic granules
2 teaspoon za’atar (you can find this with the spices in the supermarket aisle)
½ teaspoon salt
120g Cheddar cheese, grated
1 x 215g jar of jalapeños, drained
5 large tortilla wraps
cooking oil spray
Put the chicken into a bowl. Squeeze any excess juice out of the grated cucumber and add to the bowl, then stir in the yoghurt, mint, garlic granules, za’atar, salt and cheese. Chop the jalapeños and stir through the chicken mix.
Spread the filling over one half of each tortilla, making sure to spread it all the way to the edge, then fold over. Do the same with the other 4 tortillas.
Pop a griddle pan on the heat and spray it with oil. Cook one tortilla at a time, using a slotted turner to press down so the cheese melts and helps to stick the wrap together. Cook for 3 minutes on each side.
If you are serving these at a get-together, leave them to cool slightly and cut them into smaller triangles, but otherwise just cut them in half and serve.
Leftovers freeze well, and can be heated from frozen.
The filling can be kept in the fridge for 5 days, and is great with a jacket potato if you don’t fancy quesadillas again.
LENTIL AND ORANGE SOUP
ACTIVE TIME: 15 MINUTES TOTAL TIME: 40 MINUTES SERVES: 6–8
This lentil and orange combo is one of my favourites. Lentils were a staple when I was growing up and they still are. I love them, and so do my children, so I have found loads of ways of cooking them, some traditional and others a bit less traditional. They work brilliantly to thicken up a soup. And once a soup is made, you have one of the quickest lunches all ready to go in your fridge or freezer.
300g split red lentils
2 litres cold water
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
1½–2 teaspoons salt
1–2 teaspoons chilli flakes
150ml vegetable oil
8 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons coriander seeds, crushed
zest and juice of 2 large oranges
To serve
fresh coriander
cream, to drizzle
crusty bread
Put the lentils into a large saucepan, then wash and rinse them until the water runs clear. Drain, then put them back into the saucepan and add 2 litres of cold water.
Add the baking powder – this helps to retain a bold colour. Add the turmeric, salt and chilli flakes. Stir it, otherwise it will all just sit on the surface. Pop the pan on to a high heat and bring to the boil, stirring all the time. You have to stir to stop the lentils sticking in the first instance. As soon as it has boiled, leave it on a medium heat to simmer away.
After half an hour, put the oil into a small pan over a high heat, then add the garlic and cook till golden brown. Add the coriander seeds and as soon as they start to pop, pour the mixture into the lentils and stir through.
To finish, add the zest and juice of the oranges and simmer for another 5 minutes. Take off the heat and serve with chopped coriander, a drizzle of cream and some crusty bread.
If you have any soup left over you can let it cool, then put it into individual portions in Tupperware containers and freeze.
LENTIL AND ORANGE SOUP
SPICY SCRAP SOUP
SERVES: 8 ACTIVE TIME: 10 MINUTES TOTAL TIME: 2 HOURS
I have been saving scraps for as long as I can remember. I started when I began weaning my second little boy. I needed to save money and we had to find ways to waste less, eat comfortably and not be totally short at the end of the month. It seemed mindless to throw away these beautiful peelings, the most nutritious and delicious part of most root veg, full of flavour and full of fibre, and it helped my conscience as well as my wallet. The scraps developed from baby foods to peelings I would deep-fry to soup. This recipe varies and changes, but each time we end up with a hearty, healthy soup that could have otherwise ended up in the bin.
700g frozen scraps (potato peel, parsnip peel, carrot peel, broccoli/cauliflower stalks, you get the idea …)
1 tablespoon chilli flakes
3 tablespoons onion granules
2 tablespoons garlic granules
2 tablespoons salt
2 lemons, juice and zest
7g dried coriander (that’s a whole jar)
2 litres of vegetable stock
1 slice of bread
Tip out the frozen peelings into a large stock pot.
Add the chilli flakes, onion and garlic granules, the salt, lemon and dried coriander.
Add the stock and rip slices of the bread into the pan. The brea
d is what gives it a lovely creamy texture.
Pop the pan on a high heat and bring everything to a rapid boil. As soon as it has boiled lower the heat and leave on a medium heat. With the lid on, leave it to cook for at least 1½ to 2 hours till everything in the pan is soft and falling apart. By this point it should start to look less like peelings.
Take it off the heat and blitz using a stick blender till you have a smooth soup. If you’re eating this or making it for the family, pat yourself on the back for making soup – hot, delicious and nutritious – out of peelings, food waste, potential compost. A wholesome meal. If you’re serving this to friends, ask them what they think went into it. I reckon they won’t be able to guess!
To serve, add a dollop of Greek yoghurt and small sprinkling of freshly scissored chives.
Once cooled, it can be portioned and frozen.
INSTANT NOODLES
SERVES: 1 PERSON; PASTE MAKES ENOUGH FOR 4–8 TOTAL TIME: 15 MINUTES
Instant noodles are my favourite thing when I need comfort food – they’re easy, simple to make and so versatile. They can be eaten as they are or jazzed up to be a bit more special, either with extra chilli sauce or bulked up with some vegetables. By making my own, I’m never short of noodles when I run out of the foil packet variety. I’ve given the ingredients for four variations – these are the ones I enjoy the most, using up things I tend to have at home. You’ll need a selection of 500ml jars with lids – each variation makes one jar. And get your scales out, because we’re making a big batch of spice paste to last.
For the spice paste
Time to Eat Page 5