Torn lasagne with kale and kimchi

Full recipe here.

The Quick Lowdown:

• Ingredients: this recipe required a bit of shopping for lasagne sheets, ricotta, kimchi, but they were all easy to get.
• Prep work: This is a really easy way to make a lasagne-type meal. The tomato sauce takes about 20 minutes to cook, and the kale leaves need to be cooked as well before the meal is assembled in the dish and baked.
• Dirty dishes: Cutting board, knife, baking dish, frypan, saucepan, bowl to make the ricotta mix.
• Taste: This was cheesy and tasty but the kimchi does give it a funky taste that I’m not quite sure about. I think I like my lasagne unadulterated.
• Family-friendly: Maybe
• Regular rotation worthy: Probably not.

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Cauliflower Manchurian

G doesn’t like cauliflower, so I made this one lunchtime when my daughter was over. We both liked it a lot … I mean who doesn’t like fried cauliflower? The sauce is made by cooking up finely diced celery, capsicum and green onions with ginger, garlic and chilli. Then soy sauce, tomato ketchup and apple cider vinegar to give a kind of spicy, sour sauce.

The Quick Lowdown:

• Ingredients: mainly pantry staples, plus cauliflower, green chilli (from my garden), celery, capsicum, green onions.
• Prep work: There is a bit in this recipe, with making the batter, coating the cauliflower and dicing up the veggies for the sauce.
• Dirty dishes: Cutting board, knife, frypan, saucepan, bowl for the batter.
• Taste: The mild, sweetish taste of the cauliflower pared well with the tangy sauce.
• Family-friendly: Maybe
• Regular rotation worthy: Maybe. I don’t often fry foods, but I enjoyed it.

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Brussels Sprouts two ways with pear and mustard chutney

I got a bag of Brussels sprouts in my box of produce, as well as beurre bosc pears, so I had to try this recipe. The salad features finely sliced raw brussels sprouts and roasted Brussels sprouts. You need to plan for this recipe because the pear and mustard chutney takes 1.5-2 hours to cook. I made a small batch because that’s how many pears I had. Peeled and chopped pears (450g), sugar (60g), mustard seeds (1 tbs), half a lemon, finely sliced and deseeded, salt (1 tsp), bay leaf, dijon mustard (1 tbs), pinch of chilli powder are mixed in a saucepan, then bought to a boil over medium-high heat. Then, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 1.5-2 hours until it is reduced and thickened. Turn off the heat and stir in 1.5 tbs apple cider vinegar. To make the salad trim and halve about 400g of Brussels sprouts, 500g of cooked chickpeas and place on a roasting tray, drizzle with oil season with sea salt and pepper and roast for 20-25 minutes until golden and tender. Finely slice the remaining 200g of Brussels sprouts. Combine the roasted and raw sprouts, chickpeas and some parsley in a bowl. Add some chutney, olive oil and sea salt and mix. Taste and add more chutney if you want.

The Quick Lowdown:

• Ingredients: if you have pears and Brussels sprouts this is a great recipe.
• Prep work: Since there are a few different processes, it was a bit more involved than a lot of the recipes in the book, but once the chutney is made, it is fairly easy.
• Dirty dishes: Cutting board, knife, saucepan, baking tray, serving bowl.
• Taste: This tasted great. I like Brussels sprouts roasted and raw so this was a winner for me.
• Family-friendly: My son ate it so maybe.
• Regular rotation worthy: When I get pears and Brussels sprouts in my box, I know what I will be making.