Lentil and Vegetable stuffed roasted Sweet Potato Boats

At Easter, entertaining is easier with recipes you can prepare ahead of time.  This makes a filling vegetarian meal with some of our leftover spiced Lentil Salad  (a fabulous Belinda Jeffery's recipe already featured on our blog - so versatile and delish! )  http://feedyourinnercook.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/red-lentil-fragrant-spiced-salad-with.html

All I did was match it with another wonderful Belinda Jeffery's recipe for roasted Kumara (or Sweet Potato) boats.  Belinda Jeffery lives in Northern New South Wales and her Australian cookbooks are filled with delicious, nutritious, seasonal food ideas - fresh and fabulous - so inspirational - love them!   https://belindajeffery.com.au/

Best wishes for a Happy Easter with family, friends, good simple food and no stress!  No chocolate either!  Cheers!  Colleen

Preparation   2 hours (sweet potato cooks in oven for 1 - 1/2 hours) so not really hard work
Cooking        30 minutes
Feeds           4   or more depending on how many sweet potatoes you cook

Ingredients
some Red Lentil spiced salad (refer above link)
3 - 4 sweet potatoes  medium to large size- peeled.  Cook as many as you need.
1 eggplant    medium/large

added options  (amounts depend on how many sweet potatoes you need to fill
dried chilli flakes
red capsicum strips drained and chopped  (or fresh finely sliced)
green beans - diced
baby spinach leaves
Parsley, mint etc - chopped
salt and pepper to taste
may need extra curry powder or cumin - to your taste

topping options
pine nuts
pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
diced fetta cheese

Method
Preheat oven to 180 celsius.
Place peeled and lightly oiled sweet potatoes on a foil/baking paper lined oven tray (that has a slight lip).  Do the same with the eggplant ensuring you have pierced eggplant several times with a fork.
Pierce the sweet potatoes a couple of times with a strong skewer.
Eggplant will only need 50min to an hour.  Check and remove when soft.
Bake sweet potatoes for 1 - 1 1/2 hours until cooked.  Check with a skewer.
Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly.
Using a spoon scoop out much of the cooked sweet potato - leaving a casing to hold the stuffing - will look a bit like a boat
In a large bowl - combine the scooped out sweet potato, lentil salad mix, mushed eggplant, spinach leaves, capsicum etc with salt, pepper and optional herbs and spices.  Taste and adjust to your preference.
Spoon into the sweet potato casing boats generously.
Top with pine nuts or pepitas and optional Fetta.
Bake in 180 celsius oven until warm and golden on top.
Serve with green salad etc.

Optional to do ahead ready to assemble later on
lentil salad
roasting the sweet potatoes and eggplant
scooping out and refilling the sweet potato boats.

Enjoy ! Colleen

Flourless Lime Cake

Looking for a cake that is both Gluten Free and Dairy Free, then here it is. The texture is light and fluffy more like a souffle consistency.  Ideal with fresh cream and your choice of berry coulis.

Ingredients

4 eggs, separated into 4 yolks and 4 whites, at room temperature
2 Tablespoons of Lime zest

1/2 cup of sugar, measure 1/4 cup and another 1/4 cup
1 1/2 cups finely ground almond flour/meal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamon
1 teaspoon of white or cider vinegar
Pinch of salt

Method

Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius.

Grease and place baking paper in the bottom of a 9 inch springform tin.

Beat egg yolks, 1/4 cup sugar and lime zest in a large bowl with a wooden spoon until smooth.

In a separate bowl whisk almond meal, baking powder and cardamon.
Add the almond mixture to the egg mixture and combine.

In an electric mixer beat the egg whites until stiff when bubbles appear add the salt and vinegar, this will help maintain better structure.

Gradually add the sugar a small amount at a time, whilst continuing to beat the whites until soft peaks form.

Fold the beaten egg whites into the almond mixture with a large metal spoon try to incorporate whilst still keeping the mixture light.

Once well combined pour batter into prepared tin.

Bake for 35 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Run a knife around the cake and remove from the tin.

Mamma Marmalade

Slow Cooker Red Wine Beef and Dumplings

As Autumn tries to take hold in our semi-tropical climate it will be soon time to dust off the slow cooker and makes some comfort food with minimum effort. Great for the working parents or new mums the slow cooker is the gift that delivers delicious food, effortlessly. 

Beef with Red Wine and Cheesy Dumplings

Ingredients

1kg stewing beef, I always prefer chuck steak, diced
2 Tablespoons plain flour for dusting
2 Tablespoons of Olive Oil
2 large brown onions, sliced
3 carrots, peeled and thickly sliced
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 cup of Red Wine
2 cups of liquid Beef stock
3 Bay leaves

Dumplings

125g Self Raising Flour
1/2 teaspoon Baking powder
60g Butter
1 teaspoon of chopped fresh rosemary
100ml of milk or enough to obtain correct consistency
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese


Method

Tip flour into a large bowl season with salt and pepper. Dredge the beef in the flour.
Heat Olive Oil in a large frying pan and working in batches, brown the beef.
Add beef to the slow cooker
Pour the wine into the frying pan to deg-laze, scrape contents into the slow cooker.
Add onions, garlic, carrots and bay leaves.
Add the stock and cook on low for 7-8 hours

Dumplings

Rub butter and flour together with fingertips until it resembles moist breadcrumbs. Stir in rosemary.
Gently combine the mild and cheese to form a light scone dough.

Form into golf ball sized balls and place them directly on top of the stew, leaving room for the dumplings to expand.  Replace the lid and cook for another 30 minutes on high until the dumplings have puffed up and are cooked.

Note:

Frying off the beef adds extra flavour but if short on time it is still equally nice just to combine all the ingredients (apart from dumplings) in the slow cooker together.

If you don't have a slow cooker, bake in the oven in a covered casserole dish for 3 hours on low.

Mamma Marmalade

Crunchy Green Cabbage Salad with Asian dressing

Most Aussies would have had a tasty salad favourite made with a packet of Crunchy Fried Noodles - so here is my updated, healthier version - still crunchy because of the celery, snow peas, radish and nuts, but without any longlife oil or additives.  I like to use toasted Pine Nuts but toasted almonds would be great too.   
If you want to serve as a main meal - a little sliced beef or chicken  or juicy cooked prawns tossed through is an easy option - very versatile 
Just be sure to wait until immediately before serving before adding the dressing and nuts.                 Enjoy!   Colleen

Crunchy Asian Salad by Feed Your Inner Cook

Preparation
15 - 20 minutes to shred veggies and prepare dressing
2 minutes final assembly

Ingredients
1/2  Wombok (Chinese cabbage)  or regular cabbage - finely shredded
1/2  red onion - very finely sliced
4 shallots (long green stalk/spring onions) - sliced
red capsicum - finely sliced
3 radishes - finely sliced
3 stalks celery - sliced
2 carrots - finely sliced or use a julienne shredder
handful Snow peas - sliced
Coriander / parsley / mint  - shredded
Options: finely sliced red chilli or shake dried chilli flakes

Dressing
1 1/2 tablespoons White Vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons Castor Sugar (finer, dissolves faster)
3 teaspoons Soy Sauce
Shake ground white pepper to taste  OR use a little ground Sichuan pepper
1 teaspoon Sesame Oil
1/4 cup Rice Bran Oil  (or Light Olive Oil  - which means lighter flavour NOT less calories)
Taste and adjust to your preference 

Nuts
good handful toasted -  pine nuts or roughly chopped almonds.  Reserve separately until ready to serve the salad

Method
Combine and mix all the sliced and shredded vegetables in a large serving bowl or platter with a lip.

Pour all the dressing ingredients into a jar with good screw cap.  Shake really well to combine ensuring sugar is dissolved.  
Taste and adjust if needed.  
Keep dressing in lidded jar until ready to serve.

When ready to serve:
Shake the dressing again and pour some over the salad, gently toss to combine and add a little more dressing if needed.  
Scatter the nuts over the salad
Garnish with chilli and a few herb leaves if desired.
      Enjoy!  Colleen