Vegetarian – Page 3

Sweet potato layer cake with ginger frosting

01.08.2015 by georgie // 2 Comments

As much as I’m a little bit glad the festive season is over, I’m not quite ready to let go of all the festive flavours just yet. I love anything laden with spice: cinnamon, ginger, cardamom… and it’s the perfect time of year to eat them. With that in mind I decided to have a little play with a slightly lighter, more interesting spiced sponge – and because, lets be honest, the world and their dog are on diets at the moment so if you can shove a vegetable in a cake it’s healthy, right?

It was my dear friend Laura’s birthday this week, so unfortunately she ended up being my guinea pig. I say unfortunately, but actually I think this cutie went down rather well! My new favourite vegetable cake, it’s really rather nice.

Sweet potato layer cake with ginger and chocolate frosting

SWEET POTATO LAYER CAKE WITH GINGER FROSTING

Serves 12

280g plain flour
2 heaped teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
150g butter, at room temperature
150g soft light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs, free range or organic
260g pureed sweet potato*
100g natural yoghurt
A little spiced rum, for brushing

Frosting

150g butter, at room temperature
400g icing sugar, sifted
150g cream cheese
1 tablespoon finely chopped stem ginger
75 melted dark chocolate (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180. Grease and line the base of 2 x 6″ spring form cake tins.

Sift together the flour, ground cinnamon and ginger, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl. In a separate bowl mix together the sweet potato puree and yoghurt.

Using a freestanding mixer, or electric hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Stop occasionally to scrape the mixture off of the side of the bowl with a spatula. Add the vanilla to the butter and cream the eggs in one by one. Add the dry ingredients and slowly mix in, until just combined, don’t over work it. Fold in the sweet potato and yoghurt mixture then divide evenly between the two tins. Bake on the middle shelf of your oven for around 35 minutes until cooked through. Leave the sponges to cool in the tins for 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Whilst the cakes are cooling make your frosting. Clean your freestanding/ electric mixer and cream the butter until pale and light. Drain any excess liquid from the cream cheese and beat into the butter, only just enough to mix the two together – too much and it becomes runny. Beat half the sifted icing sugar into the mix, and when fully combine beat in the remaining half. When its smooth beat in the chopped stem ginger, with a little of the syrup from the jar and leave to one side. If your frosting has become a little runny, pop in a bowl in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up. If you want to use the chocolate (and it is delicious) swirl the cool but melted chocolate into the frosting and mix together. I keep mine a little rippled so that it has an interesting pattern when I frost the cake.

How you decorate your cake it up to you! Just remember to brush the sponges with a little spiced rum as you go. You can keep it as two cakes, frost them together and coat. Cut the sponges with a round biscuit cutter and make mini layer cakes (I cut rounds from the large cakes, and then slice those in half horizontally to make 4 layer mini cakes – see below). Or slice to two large cakes in half horizontally and create an open sided layer cake. The choice is yours.

* To make the sweet potato puree I peeled a couple of sweet potatoes, cut them into chunks and boiled them until cooked through. Drain and leave to cool and then blitz in a blender with just enough water to puree.

My ‘go to’ South Indian dal recipe

01.05.2015 by georgie // 10 Comments

When I published my dal makhani recipe a month or so ago a friend said she loved the sound of it but didn’t have the time to make it (it does take several hours), and do I have any other dal recipes that are quicker? Well, I love nothing more than a request, and of course! I’m just ashamed it’s taken me so long to upload to be honest (I blame the madness of Christmas and New Year).

So, my ‘go to’ South Indian dal. It isn’t strictly authentic, but it is based on several trips to South Indian and eating lots of dal laden with mustard seeds, curry leaves and coconut. This is a real store cupboard comfort food recipe for me; I always have yellow split peas in the cupboard, (it covers so many cuisines – Greek Fava, Swedish soup, Pease pudding, Indian dal…), low fat coconut milk is a key dry store staple for me and my biggest tip? Buy a big bag of curry leaves when you find them and pop them in the freezer. They freeze well and it means they’re always on hand. (You’ll find them in any Indian supermarket or sometimes online. You can use dry if you have them but they’re not as punchy and don’t fry as well).

It might not look like much but this dal is incredibly comforting and really is delicious. It is wholesome, filling and packed with iron and it freezes wonderfully, so perfect for a rainy day. Sarah, I hope you like it!

MY ‘GO TO’ SOUTH INDIAN DAL

Serves 4 – 6 (serve it as is for a filling and hearty soup or with basmati rice as a meal)

300g yellow split peas, soaked for 20-30 minutes before cooking
Groundnut oil or coconut oil
2 onions, peeled and finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
a thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 heaped teaspoon ground cumin
1 heaped teaspoon heaped ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tin of low fat coconut milk
20 curry leaves
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1 green chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
Half a lemon
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Pour a lug of groundnut or coconut oil into a large non-stick saucepan and place on a medium low heat. Add the onion, ginger, most of the garlic and saute the veg for 10 minutes until softened but not coloured. Add the turmeric, cumin, coriander and cinnamon and fry for a further 2- 3 minutes.

Drain the yellow split peas, rinse and add to the pan along with the can of coconut milk. Add 600ml of water to the pan, or more, ensure that the split peas are completely covered. Gently bring to the boil and then lower to a simmer and cover the pan. Cook over a low heat for around 1 hour and 15 – 20 mins, so that the split peas have completely cooked through and have turned to mush. Check the dal every so often during cooking, and top up the water if it feels like it is getting too thick. You’ll probably need to add a splash here and then. Squeeze in the lemon juice, season to taste and leave to one side.

EDIT/ NB: Someone just asked me on Instagram if I pureed my dal, as it looks so smooth, which I didn’t. But having said that I did use yellow split peas I bought in Greece which become very creamy. If your peas haven’t completely broken down then do try pureeing them with a hand/ stick blender for a smooth finish.

Add a few tablespoons of groundnut or coconut oil to a small frying pan and place on a medium heat. After a minute or so add the mustard seeds and fry for around 30 secs – 1 minute until the seeds start to pop. Once they do add the garlic, curry leaves and chilli and fry everything for a few minutes, until the garlic and chilli are golden and the leaves look translucent.

Check your dal, as it will probably have thickened a little as it cools, so add a splash of boiling water if it feels too thick. Serve the dal in bowls, and drizzle a little of the temper over the dal- the flavoured oil and leaves, chilli and mustard seeds.

TIPS:

l love this recipe with spinach added at the end of cooking. Stir in a handful of frozen spinach balls for the last 5 – 10 minutes of cooking, or a large bag of baby spinach chopped up for the last few minutes. Great for an added iron boost.
I didn’t have any fresh green chillies to add to my temper for the picture above, so I ended up just giving it a drizzle of chilli oil before eating, which is totally acceptable too!

Healthy cinnamon, fig and coconut granola

12.01.2014 by georgie // 9 Comments

Bar a vat of coffee, I was never much of a breakfast person until I started dating Pete. (Pete is one of those naturally skinny people who has to eat every few hours or becomes mute and/ or grumpy). Now however it is my favourite meal of the day. For the last few months we have started the day with a bowl of chopped seasonal fruit and yoghurt, which has been perfect but now that the days are getting colder we’re finding we need something a little more filling. Porridge has made a welcome wintery return, however you can only have porridge for so many days on the trot without feeling like you are living off wallpaper paste. And cereal is pretty much a no-no in the Hayden household now (Sugar! Sugar!), and although some are ok, a lot of my dear boys favourites have been kicked to the curb. What to do?

Cue: homemade granola. With Pete’s nut allergy it wasn’t easy finding a granola or muesli that was nut free and wasn’t full of sugar. And when I did find one that was ok, it was crazy expensive! Much cheaper and more satisfying to make your own I say. So today I set about creating a delicious and healthy nut-free granola, to pimp up our fruit and yoghurt breakfast. It is incredibly quick to make, you know exactly what goes into it and, without blowing my own trumpet, it is pretty bloomin’ good.

Cinnamon, coconut and fig granola — Healthy cinnamon, coconut and fig granola

HEALTHY CINNAMON, FIG AND COCONUT GRANOLA

Makes around 16 servings

2 tablespoons groundnut oil (or any flavourless oil – light olive oil, sunflower, veg etc)
125ml runny honey
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
275g rolled oats
125g mixed seeds (I use a mixture of sunflower, pumpkin, sesame and poppy seeds. Around 100g of the larger seeds and then a few spoonfuls of the little ones)
50g unsweetened coconut flakes
100g dried figs, chopped
75g dried cranberries

Preheat your oven to 150/ gas mark 2.

In a large bowl whisk together the oil and honey.

Crush the sea salt with your fingers into the bowl and add the oats, seeds, ground ginger and cinnamon. Mix everything together well with a large spoon and divide the mixture between two baking trays. Spread it out as much as possible and then pop into the oven for 20 minutes. Remove the trays from the oven a couple of times during cooking and mix everything up so it goldens nice and evenly.

After 20 minutes the granola should look pretty golden. Stir in the coconut, chopped figs and cranberries and pop the trays back into the oven for a further 6 – 8 minutes, until the coconut has toasted and you have a lovely crisp granola.

Leave to cool in the tray completely and then spoon into an airtight jar or container. It will last up to a month. Serve with milk and/ or yoghurt, with fresh fruit. Dreamy.