Slow Cooker Vegetable Curry

I'd recommend a slow cooker to any busy parent, I know the idea of cooking something for 4-8 hours may seem like a waste of time. But personally I find it a life saver! I put the dinner on when the little people are having their afternoon nap. Then when I've finally put them to bed, tidied up their mess, the last thing I want to do is start cooking, which is why the slow cooker works so well! It's great for meat eaters, you could put on beef casserole in the morning and it would be lovely and succulent by the evening. 

However my husband doesn't eat red meat - and I'm not keen on chicken, therefore I mostly do veggie meals, and finding veggie recipes for slow cookers isn't that easy. Check out my stuffed peppers in the slow cooker. Stuffed peppers

Here is my vegetable curry recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp cumin seeds (use powder if not available)
• 1 onion. sliced
• 2 curry leaves (not always so easy to find in a supermarket - I have some growing in the garden which i had found in a garden centre.
• 1 in piece of fresh ginger, finely chopped
• 2 fresh red chillies, deseeded and chopped
• 2 tbsp curry paste (any according to your preference, I used tikka
• 2 carrots, sliced
• 1 cauliflour, cut into florets
• 3 tomatoes, peeled and chopped
• pinch tumeric
• 250mls hot vegetable or chicken stock
• 85g frozen peas
• 115g mangetout

My slow cooker fry's, if yours doesn't you may want to use a frying pan first. 

• Heat the oil in the slow cooker on fry setting.
• Add cumin to the pan, if using seeds, when it start popping add the curry leaves and then the onion slices. 
• Stir for a few minutes until the onion has softened.
• Add the ginger and chillies and cook stirring occasionally for a minute
• Stir in the curry paste, cook and stir for a few minutes
• Add the cauliflower and carrots, cook for 5 mins 
• Add the tomatoes, turmeric and season with salt and pepper if required
• Cook for a few minutes, then add stock and bring to the boil
• turn to slow cooker setting, low, medium or high, depending on how quick you need it. I found 2 hours on high was works, but probably best 5 hours on low for the best flavour
• I added the mange tout and peas near the end of cooking, as I found that the mange touts wilt and they both lose their colour.

Here are how I served it for my 11 month old and my 2.5 year old, went down very well.

Check out my stir fry veg rice: stir-fry-vegetable-rice-

No Cook Ricotta Courgette Rolls

I have never made these before, and now I have just tasted one, I am actually very impressed. They would make great canapés or a dinner party starter, maybe served on a bed of mixed leaves with some smoked salmon. No cooking required as they are marinated in balsamic vinegar which softens the courgettes.

Ingredients 

• 1 courgette would serve 2 people as a snack or several people as a starter
• a tub of ricotta
• juice of half a lemon
• a handful of basil leaves
• I used chilli flakes as i like things spicy, but pine nuts would also be delicious 
• balsamic vinegar
• olive oil

Method

• chop ends off the courgettes
• slice very thinly using a peeler
• drizzle a tbsp of olive oil and balsamic onto a platter
• lay the courgette slices one by one on the platter 
• then drizzle with more olive oil and balsamic
• place in fridge covered for at least 20 mins and up to 6 hours
• Mix the ricotta lemon juice, basil leaves, chilli flakes and pine nuts if using
• season to taste 
• next take one courgette piece and at one end place a tsp of the mixture and then roll from one end to the other 

They can be placed in the fridge until needed.

Vegetarian Tacos

I wasn't going to include this, as it's not home cooked food as such, but I thought I'd share an alternative to meat tacos as an easy dinner.

I obviously cheated and used a taco dinner set, the difference is I use quorn. 

The problem in my household is that hubby used to be vegetarian and decided he would eat meat again, but only kosher chicken. Before I met hubby I wasn't vegetarian as such, but hardly ever ate meat, and the meat I did like was red meat, which hubby will not eat! As there is no point making two dinners we eat mostly vegetarian, but I found I missed certain foods, like chilli con carne, spag bol and tacos. I then found quorn and realised I could have my favourite dishes and be healthy.

So here is how we do tacos in my house.....

Ingredients 

• Taco dinner set 
• Iceberg lettuce 
• Grated cheese 
• Quorn mince

Method 

Cook quorn in a frying pan, I normally add a couple of tbsps of water, and then the seasoning mix. 

In separate bowls place some grated cheese, lettuce and salsa. Guacamole, sliced tomatoes and creme fraiche is great with this too.

Summer evenings vegetarian dinner

It worked! Can't believe it wasn't as difficult as I thought, and actually quite yummy! 

I know it's been a little while since I posted, children are very time consuming!

But I just had to share these fab homemade vegetable samosas.

Made with peas, sweetcorn, red onion and feta cheese, with a sprinkling of tikki seasoning and wrapped in filo pastry.

Reasonably healthy as baked in the oven and so yummy ! 

Both my 2 year old and hubby love them, and they're perfect for a picnic, or a summers evening dinner. My daughter has hers with steamed veg and new potatoes and hubby and I are going to have ours with some tabbouleh, which by the way I've never made before ! 

Bulghar wheat, red onion, tomato, lemon juice and zest, olive oil and parsley and mint from the garden! 

So there we have it, a perfect summers evening dinner!

Samosas, tabbouleh, tzatiki and halloumi