Steamed Mini Veg

This recipe is one which is mega tasty with little effort.  It's made with courgette and carrot and is ready to eat in a few minutes.  In the pic below I just used courgette which works fine on it's own if you don't have a carrot.

You will need:

1 Courgette
1 large carrot
Butter
Salt
Pepper

Wash the courgette and peel it and wash the carrot.  Finely chop both, place them into a bowl and mix them up.  Add a knob of real butter and cover with clingfilm.  Microwave for 1-2 minutes, leave to stand for another minute or two and then add salt and pepper and stir.

That's it.  So delicious...

Courgettes (Zucchini) In Cream

This is one of my favourite dishes but I don't cook it often and you'll see why after you've made it and eaten the entire dish yourself!  It is so simple and yet so delicious and unfortunately high in calories.  I learned how to make this one in France where emmental cheese is used in it but you can use cheddar if you prefer. In recent times I have been leaving out the garlic as I think it overpowers the flavours a bit - a small clove is enough if you do decide to use some though.  The ingredients below make a small dish and are approximate as I don't measure the cheese or the cream I just know by now how much to use.

3 Courgettes

125ml Fresh Cream

Approx. 1 Large Cup Grated Emmental or Cheddar

Salt

Pepper

1 Small Clove Garlic

Wash the courgettes and slice them.  Put them into an ovenproof dish, add some salt, a little pepper and the crushed garlic clove (if required) and pour the cream over the lot.  Give it a stir to ensure that the courgette slices all have a coating of cream.  Flatten them down into the dish a little and cover with a layer of cheese.  

Cook in the oven on 190 deg. C/gas mark 5/375 deg. F until the cream has evaporated and the top has formed a golden crust.

I serve this with a large baked potato.  It freezes well too (if there's any left)...

Tabbouleh

Tabbouleh is middle Eastern in origin but has become more and more popular in Europe etc. in recent years.  It can be made with either bulgar wheat or couscous but in this recipe I will be using a fine couscous.  The best one that I have come across is in Lidl, it's really fine.  There are many variants to this dish so there are no set rules, the ingredients can be altered according to what you like best or what you have available.  I make two versions with minor ingredient changes but which taste quite different. Version 2 is more spicey and contains cumin and red chilli pepper.

Ingredients (for a medium sized bowl)
1 x mug Couscous (or bulgar)
1 x mug boiling water
2 x cloves garlic
1 x small red pepper
1 x small green pepper
Half a lemon
Half a red onion
3 x medium vine tomatoes
1 large handful fresh corriander or mint (version 1)
1 large handful fresh parsley
Olive oil
Black pepper
Salt
4 x teaspoons Cumin (version 2)
1 x red chilli pepper (version 2)

First, get the couscous ready by pouring 1 x cup/mug full into a bowl and covering with the same amount of boiling water.  Cover the bowl with a plate while you are preparing the rest of the ingredients.

Chop the tomatoes into small pieces (as small as you can) and do the same with the peppers, the red onion, and the herbs.  Crush the two garlic cloves.  For version 2 leave out the corriander/mint as you will instead be adding the cumin and chilli peppers.

When the couscous has absorbed all of the water, remove the lid and fork it to separate the grain and leave to cool.  When cold, add the chopped ingredients, squeeze on some lemon juice, add a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper.  If you are making version 2, this is where you add the cumin and the finely chopped chilli pepper.  Refridgerate for an hour or two or even better overnight to let the flavours infuse.  Serve with warm pitta or Naan bread with a side serving of Tzatziki or plain greek style natural yoghurt.  Yummy.