Three quick vegetarian dinners

[sam_t]

Spiced Chickpea Pittas
1 small tin chickpeas, drained
1-2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp (sweet) paprika
1 tomato, chopped
lemon juice
olive oil
2 wholemeal pittas
1/2 - 1 head little gem lettuce

In a frying pan, warm about a dessertspoon of olive oil and add the spices. After a minute, add the chickpeas and tomatoes, and season with salt and pepper. While the chickpeas are warming, toast the pittas. When everything's hot, add a good squeeze of lemon juice (to taste) to the pan, stir, and take it off the heat. Make a slit in the side of each pitta and stuff with lettuce leaves and the chickpea mixture.


Aubergine and Goat's Cheese Pasta
Original recipe from the Good Food Magazine website, here.

What I did was as follows:
1 portion multi-grain penne (This is the first time I'd tried it - it was no more exciting than ordinary wholemeal pasta, really)
splash olive oil
1 onion , chopped
1 aubergine, cut into small chunks
400g can chopped tomatoes
pinch sugar
small handful basil leaves, chopped or torn
1/2 log goat's cheese, cubed
Small knob of butter
1 small garlic clove
1 wholemeal pitta

The day before, soften the onion in a little olive oil, then add the aubergine and fry until soft and slightly browned at the edges. Refrigerate.

On the day, empty the chopped tomatoes into a non-stick pan, add a pinch of sugar, and simmer to reduce slightly. Meanwhile, put the pasta on to boil and mash the garlic clove into the butter with a little salt. After about 5 minutes, put the reserved vegetables into the sauce to warm through. Season lightly.

A couple of minutes before the pasta will be done, toast the pitta. When it's toasted, cut in half horizontally and spread with the garlic butter*. Drain the pasta and return it to the pan. Stir in enough sauce to coat the pasta (keep the rest for another day), the cheese and the basil. Serve with the garlic bread.

*The garlic will still be raw, although warmed slightly by the heat of the bread. This is a lot quicker than making garlic bread in the oven, but if you'd rather not eat raw garlic, either miss it out or make it the more traditional way.



Warm Lentil Salad with Walnuts and Goat's Cheese
Original recipe from Delia's website, here.

What I did was as follows:
Most of a small tin of green lentils, drained
The other 1/2 of the log of goat's cheese, cubed
About 1 dsp balsamic vinegar
Olive oil
1 very small onion, sliced
1/2 - 1 tsp dried thyme
1 small clove garlic, sliced
1/4 - 1/2 tsp dijon mustard
1 head little gem lettuce
Small handful pecan nuts, broken

Toast the pecan nuts gently in a dry pan, then put on a plate for later. Cook the onion in a little oil with the garlic until soft and beginning to turn golden. Add the lentils and thyme. While they're warming, combine the vinegar, about the same amount of olive oil, the mustard and some salt and pepper to make a dressing. Cut the lettuce into strips and arrange on a plate.

When the lentils are warmed, stir in the dressing, nuts and cheese, and serve with/over the lettuce.

I can see that it would be better with the walnuts, red onion and rocket, and the extra garlic, but I didn't have the first three and the second seemed anti-social given that I was going straight out.

Comments

[forthwritten.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting these - I tried goat's cheese for the first time yesterday, so your timing is spot on!

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

The recipes don't specify what sort of goat's cheese, but in that situation I tend to assume they mean the 'log' sort, with a squishy middle and a brie-like rind round the outside. I used a mild one, but a stronger one would be equally good if you like them.

I do get mildly annoyed by recipes which just list 'goat's cheese' - it's only slightly more helpful than 'cow's cheese' would be, really, and gives the impression that if you've tried one, you've tried them all. You can get really mild, soft cheeses, blue cheeses, the 'log' sort (in different sizes and strengths), springy cheeses, crumbly cheeses, smoked cheeses, and so on. The log and the soft sort are the most common, though, so I tend to assume that if you cut it up it's the former, and if you stir it or spread it it's the latter.

[elettaria.livejournal.com]

Ooh, the first sounds like a nice alternative to falafel, which we eat fairly often, we'll have to give it a try. We usually fling sundried tomatoes and/or olives about when making something like that.

If you're making something which calls for garlic which will remain raw and you don't want quite that level of kick (or being kicked by unfortunate people you may happen to breathe on in the next three days), garlic purée makes a decent alternative. It depends what you're making, of course, but it certainly works well in basil pesto. Also handy when you just need a tiny amount. Naturally the flavour isn't quite as good, but if you're making something fairly strong to begin with, like basil pesto, it'll glide into the background more anyway.

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, olives might be good, yes. I think sundried tomatoes might be a little overwhelmed by the spices, but you could give it a try and see what happens. Coriander or parsley (or both) would be a good addition, I think, but I didn't have any to hand last week (come on, Spring, I want to plant some herbs!).

I've never used garlic purée, as I generally have garlic around anyway (if I need it in a hurry, I tend to peel a clove and bash it, put it in whole and fish it out later) but it does sound like a good compromise here. How does it keep?