Udon noodles with broad beans and fresh greens in a ginger and coriander sauce

Good one this. Very low fat too as there's very little frying involved. Here's the plan...

Ingredients:

Dried udon noodles
2 large carrots, sliced
200g spring greens
100g broad beans
Sesame seeds to garnish

And for the sauce:

1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
2 tsp root ginger, grated
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp mirin or sugar
2 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
2 tsp cornflour, mixed in around half a cup of water

Method:

Get the sauce ready as everything else goes really quickly! In a smallish saucepan fry the garlic and ginger to release its flavour and to take out some of the garlic's after burn effect, after a minute or so add the soy sauce, vinegar, lemon juice and mirin, cook for a couple of minutes and then add the coriander and cook for just a minute or so. Now add the cornflour and water mix and stir constantly until you've got a nice smooth sauce. Set to one side.

Now I cooked the noodles (for five minutes) in the base of a steamer over which I steamed the vegetables. After five minutes check that the carrots are just about done, then remove from the heat, rinse the noodles really well and then stir the vegetables and noodles together, introducing the sauce and mixing through. Plate up, and then sprinkle with sesame seeds and a little fresh coriander to look dead posh.

Tempeh quinoa plus spinach and broad beans in tahini sauce

I swept into cooking dinner at a bit of a pace last night so this is all from memory, consider it a rough guide to the dinner! Adopt and adapt as you see fit. The tahini sauce was a bit of a triumph, and was inspired by a similar recipe which arrived in our veg box from those fabulous people at Riverford.

Ingredients

225g spinach
1 cup broad beans
3 tbsp tahini
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cold water
2 cloves garlic
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp rice wine vinegar

--

2 cups quinoa
1 red onion
150g tempeh
1 cup pumpkin seeds
Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
2 tsp sea salt
2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
1 tbsp vegetable oil


Method:

To give yourself a bit of time, get the tahini sauce sorted first. Put the tahini, soy sauce, sugar, cold water, garlic, lemon juice, sesame oil and rice wine vinegar in a blender and mix until creamy and smooth. if the mixture is too thick to use, add more water. The steam the spinach and broad beans until tender (around 10-15 minutes for me) and then shell the broad beans, mix together and the. Add the tahini sauce. You're ready.

At the same time (I know, you need to multitask), prepare the quinoa. First of all chop the red onion and tempeh and begin to fry in the vegetable oil. Get the quinoa going by boiling in a sauce pan, usually for 10 minutes or so. After the onion and tempeh has started to brown, add the garlic and then after a few minutes, the parsley, sea salt and pumpkin seeds. When the whole mix has browned nicely, add the quinoa and mix through.

Serve, sprinkled with sesame seeds if you want to be posh.

Courgette and Broad Bean Linguine

It's been a bit quiet on the food blog front. Apologies. I've been in France, amusing the locals with rough and ready explanations of my veganism. In the land of tortured ducks and full on foie gras, I can't say I did too well. Everyone was very jolly, though, and there was some very lovely bread, beer and wine. Anyway I'm back now and the new excitement in our kitchen is a grill pan, which was my prezzie for father's day. As a result, everything's getting grilled now! This recipe features grilled courgette, which is gorgeous, plus some lovely fresh broad beans. Yum.

Ingredients:

One large courgette, sliced diagonally
500g broad beans, in their pods
Three cloves garlic, roughly chopped
Juice of half a lemon
Sea salt
Linguine
Olive oil

Method:

Heat your grill pan and then add the courgette slices after brushing them lightly with olive oil and sprinkling lightly with sea salt. Pop the pieces of the chopped garlic in between them to let it toast. Grill on both sides - take your time - until the courgette's tender and just on the point of falling apart. Remove from the grill pan and slice roughly, and set to one side, covered.

To prepare the broad beans, steam them for around ten minutes or so, then rinse very briefly in cold water and proceed to undertake the rather laborious, but worthwhile, process of shelling them. I genuinely can't imagine not shelling them (you don't need to really) as the resulting 'naked' broad beans are so beautifully green and delightful. It's worth the effort. I shell them by making a small cut in the top of the bean and then squeezing the bright green inner through the cut.

Mix the beans, toasted garlic and the courgette together with a little more olive oil and squeeze the lemon juice over the top. Meanwhile cook your linguine, rinse with boiling water, and turn over in a little more olive oil before turning the vegetables through the hot pasta. Then serve.

As an added option, I also grilled some peppers to serve on the side of this one, and some slices of a fake vegan ham that we picked up at the chinese cash and carry. It's quite lovely for a faux meat, popular with the kids, and made by some folks in Bletchley at a fab sounding place called 'Veggie World'!