Author: jennifer.macrae

Roast Tatties (almost oil free)

Roast Tatties (almost oil free)

Roast potatoes are right up there in my hierarchy of essential foods. It’s a small list, but consists mainly of carbs if I’m completely honest – and a lot of those carbs come from potatoes in various forms. In a somewhat feeble attempt to limit 

Singapore Noodles

Singapore Noodles

Today I started a new job!  I moved to my current house almost 2yrs ago, and since then I’ve been waiting for a permanent Health Visiting post to come up – but there’s just been nothing. That’s until now! I somehow managed to nab my 

Red Lentil and Tomato Soup

Red Lentil and Tomato Soup

Just when you think it’s almost safe to relax a little, and maybe even plant a wee seedling outdoors, Mother Nature comes along and reminds you she IS the BOSS. No planting, or indeed T-shirt donning shall take place until she’s good and ready for it.

Take today for instance – blistering sunshine when I left for work at 7.30am, but by 11.30am we had hailstones. I mean….what could be stranger? Well, 3pm in Edinburgh comes to mind, when we had blistering sun, blue skies AND hailstones! I have no clue where they fell from as there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Gotta love Scottish weather (at least that’s every Scottish person’s mantra).

Anyhow, the soup-making continues unabashed, and most likely will throughout summer. This is a hearty soup, designed to keep you full and happy for hours (regardless of the weather). I’ve used bacon flavoured seasoning here, which is very easily available on Amazon (along with chicken flavouring etc), but in this instance I tried Deliciou for the first time. It’s worth the money….very, very deliciou (why no s????).

Recip (see? leaving off one letter does not make a word cool!)

oil of choice

1 leek – sliced

1 onion – chopped small

1 parsnip – chopped small

2 carrots – chopped very small

2 stalks celery – chopped

2 cloves garlic – chopped finely

200g red lentils – washed

1.5l veggie stock

2 bay leaves

1 tsp all purpose seasoning

2 tsp dried mixed herbs, or fresh of your choice

4 TBS tomato puree

juice of 1/2 lemon

1 heaped tsp bacon flavouring

sprinkling chilli flakes

salt & pepper

Method

  • Heat around a TBS of oil in a large saucepan and fry all the veggies until soft and translucent, then add the garlic and cook for no more than a couple of minutes.
  • Add absolutely everything else, put on a tight lid, and allow to cook for at least 30 mins.
  • Keep an eye on the water level. For some reason, not all lentils are created equal, and I’ve made this soup probably 100 times, yet sometimes I need to add more liquid. Just top it up with boiling water and adjust the seasoning.
  • when the veggies and lentils are cooked you can either leave it as is, or get a tattie masher and pulverise everything to a softer and less defined soup. I think this is much nicer, but it also seems require even more liquid! (Lentils clearly have magic powers!)
  • Taste, season, try some more lemon juice, add some chopped parsley, or bacon style pieces, and enjoy!
No-Chicken Balti

No-Chicken Balti

I am so ready for Scotland to start easing lockdown restrictions! I was never really one for going out to the pub, but I used to really, really enjoy going out to eat (what a surprise!). With the clocks changing, the nights getting lighter and 

Chickpea & Mushroom Masala

Chickpea & Mushroom Masala

Indian food is so incredibly flavourful, but many people don’t even attempt to make it at home as they think it’s complicated, or they’re put off by long lists of ingredients. In truth, some dishes ARE a bit tricky, or take a while to prepare, 

Pea & Mint Soup

Pea & Mint Soup

My love of soup is no secret, but as the warmer weather approaches my taste in soups changes slightly. This is a lovely light soup, yet still substantial enough to satisfy my lunchtime hunger pangs, especially if served with some crusty bread or a savoury scone.

It’s also the work of mere minutes to whip up, and the chances are you’ll have most of the ingredients kicking about – major bonus if you live in a small village with only one small grocery shop (like me!).

I’ve kept the amount of mint quite minimal here, as I don’t like soup to remind me of my toothpaste – feel free to increase it, or omit it completely as the soup is still tasty on its own.

Recipe

oil

1 onion

2 carrots

2 sticks of celery

1 courgette

2 cloves garlic, minced

750g frozen garden peas

1 litre stock (veg or chicken flavour)

2 tsp All Purpose seasoning

salt & pepper

juice of half a lemon

6 or 8 mint leaves, finely chopped

  • Chop all veggies to a similar size.
  • Sautee the onion, carrots, celery, garlic and courgette in some oil till soft.
  • Add the garden peas, all purpose seasoning and stock
  • Simmer for 10-15mins
  • Add chopped mint leaves
  • Adjust seasoning and add lemon juice
  • Blitz in a blender and serve

I enjoy sprinkling some seeds over the top and a few chilli flakes, but it would also be lovely with a swirl of plant based cream or some chopped chives.

Hamburger Helper

Hamburger Helper

I have absolutely no clue why this dish is called by this rather peculiar name, but I remember the first time I went to the States I was was intrigued enough to try a box (along with several other things we hear about all the 

Store-cupboard soup

Store-cupboard soup

I really dislike tinned soup, or soup from a carton, or a packet…basically the only soup to make the grade is homemade soup. If that makes me a soup-snob, then so be it, I’ll take that! I love how every single pot of homemade soup 

Everything Seasoning

Everything Seasoning

I live in the UK, so every time I heard a recipe suggesting the addition of ‘Everything But the Bagel’ seasoning I died a little inside. We don’t have Trader Joe’s here – which seems like an injustice of the greatest magnitude, because I keep seeing all these wonderful things that are ‘easily available’ from TJ’s – but not for me!

I’ve been lucky enough to travel to the USA twice – on both occasions I was more excited about the incredible grocery shopping options than the mega-shopping malls, which are probably larger than my village!

Anyhow, I’ve tasted the real deal, and loved it; but since I am not prepared to sell my children just to be able to afford a small bottle of genuine EBTB from Amazon (check out the prices!) I turned to the internet to help me recreate it. After trying a few versions, this is the combination I settled on. I’ve kept the quantities of every component simple so it can be scaled up or down very easily.

One caveat before I launch into the recipe itself – it’s absolutely essential to use the correct type of garlic, onion and salt. All the separate components of this seasoning need to be roughly the same size, so they can distribute evenly throughout the mixture – otherwise you’ll end up with loads of salt or garlic granules lurking about the bottom of your jar!

Recipe

2 tsp flaked sea salt (nothing else works as well – I used Maldon flakes)

1Tbs dried minced garlic (not garlic granules or garlic salt)

1 Tbs dried minced onion (not dried onion flakes or onion granules)

1 Tbs white sesame seeds

1 Tbs black sesame seeds

1Tbs poppy seeds

Mix it all together, pop in a pretty jar and sprinkle it all over everything!! It’s really delicious on bruschetta, avocado toast, baked potatoes, hummus, salads …..the list goes on! And on!

Just need to persuade Trader Joe’s to open in Scotland now for all the rest of the goodies they sell!

Kale Pesto

Kale Pesto

I love kale – really love it. I’d normally simply fry it up in some olive oil, with lots of salt and pepper, and eat it as a side to just about anything. I can eat mountains of the stuff – but I was today