Roast Vegetable Salad

Someone asked me for this recently, so here it is...  Roast vegetables can be prepared the day before.
[Sorry, no photo - it got eaten before I could do that!]

800g pumpkin
1 large sweet potato
3 large carrots
1 large red capsicum
250g mushrooms
1 x 400g tin lentils (brown)
125g Danish fetta (less salty than standard fetta)
3 tablespoons, or more, of basil pesto
2 packets baby spinach leaves

Preheat oven to 180deg. C.

Peel, remove seeds and chop pumpkin, sweet potato, carrots, and capsicum into 2cm pieces (no smaller).  Line a baking tray with aluminium foil and sprinkle with olive oil.  Place vegetable chunks on tray and toss around in oil until covered.  Roast root vegetables first, for about 40 minutes, until just starting to burn on the edges.  Roast capsicum for about 20 minutes.

Remove dirt from mushrooms, trim stems slightly, and quarter (or halve them if they're small ones).  Roast as above for about 15 minutes.  Check them and roast for longer if needed.

If you're clever, you can add the capsicum and mushrooms to the oven at the appropriate time so that all the vegetables finish cooking at the same time. :-)

Leave vegetables to cool.

Drain and rinse lentils. 

In a large bowl, combine lentils with roast vegtables.  Don't mix too vigorously, as the vegetables will break up easily and turn into mush.  Mix in basil pesto, then fetta.  Mix until just combined.

Empty spinach packets into your serving salad bowl.  Add roast vegetable mix and toss lightly.

Add salt and pepper if preferred.

Gingerbread Cookies

These are bascially a gingerbread recipe, with a few extra "Christmas-y" things added!  Hope you like them, because we do!

180g butter, softened
125g brown sugar
200g golden syrup
1 tablespoon water
500g plain flour (I used a mixture of half white and half wholemeal flour)
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cardamon
1 teaspoon mixed spice (cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon/allspice) [Alternatively, you could use 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves and 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg.]
150g almonds, processed into small chunks
1 teaspoon lemon rind

Preheat oven to 180deg. C.

Combine butter with brown sugar.

Add water to golden syrup in a jug or seperate bowl.

Add golden syrup mix to creamed butter and sugar.

Combine flour and ground spices seperately, then slowly add to wet mixture.

Add almonds and lemon rind last.  You may need to remove the mixture from your mixer (if using) and knead by hand to finish it off.

Roll out to 6 or 7mm thick, on a floured surface.  Cut out cookies using shapes of your choice. [The smaller the shape, the less baking time required, so adjust it to what you need.]

Line baking tray with baking paper.  Arrange cookies on tray and bake for 10 minutes.  They should be slightly browned.  Leave on a rack to cool.  They will continue to cook and harden up slightly as they cool.

Merry Christmas!

Chocolate Balls

I've often tried these at Christmas parties and never liked them much.  They were always too sweet and sickly tasting.  So here's a more enjoyable version...

1 x 250g packet Choc Ripple Biscuits (Arnotts), or similar plain chocolate biscuit
100g dark chocolate
120g raw almonds
about 2/3 of a 395g tin of sweetened condensed milk
1 cup coconut

Process Choc Ripple biscuits in a food processor until fine.  Empty into a seperate bowl.

Process dark chocolate into small pieces.  Add to ground Choc Ripple biscuits in bowl.

Process almonds into small pieces.  Add to other ingredients in bowl and mix well.

Add sweetened condensed milk gradually, stirring well until mixture is just combined and sticky.  Don't use more than necessary to create the right texture, as this ingredient is what will make the balls too sweet.

Spread coconut out on a plate.  Form mixture into small balls and roll in coconut.

Place in refrigerator for a few hours to become firm (overnight is okay).

Another yummy addition would be pieces of glace cherries....

Choc Ripple Tim Tam Cake

I created this awesome, rich, Tim Tam cake, Choc Ripple style, for Gunnar's birthday on the weekend.  Here's how it goes:

300ml cream (add an extra 100ml if you want to cover the edges as well and completely incase the cake)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 teaspoon icing suger/caster sugar
1 x 250g packet Choc Ripple biscuits
1 pkt Tim Tams, original or dark chocolate, + 1 Tim Tam more

Fresh strawberries, to serve.

Beat cream, sugar and vanilla essence together until firm peaks form.

Spread a little cream on some baking paper or cake plate as the base, making a circle shape.  Place seven choc ripple biscuits on the base, close together.  Crumble one Choc Ripple biscuit on the side and use crumbs to fill in the gaps between each biscuit.

Spread a thin layer of cream on top of the Choc Ripple biscuits.

Crumble your Tim Tams, the size is up to you.  The larger the chunks, the more crunchy the cake will be (and harder to cut neatly).  Fill in the gaps with smaller pieces.

Spread over another layer of cream, and repeat the Choc Ripple and Tim Tam layers again, with cream in between.

Finish with a layer of cream. 

Refrigerate for 6 hours, or overnight.

Before serving, wash and hull strawberries (remove tops).  Halve them and place on top in whatever pattern you like. 

Enjoy!

If you don't have access to Choc Ripple biscuits, you can use any plain baked chocolate biscuits.  The idea is that the Choc Ripple biscuits and the biscuit part of theTim Tams absorb moisture from the cream, making them soft like cake.

Almond Butter

 A friend of mine told me how to make almond butter - or almond spread - a while ago and I've been making it ever since.  This batch used 3 kgs of almonds, roasted in a 180deg oven for 30min, then processed in a food processor with extra virgin olive oil and macrobiotic sea salt (has tonnes of original minerals from the sea in it).  No sugar added!!  Just add the oil slowly into the ground almonds whilst in the processor.  After about a minute it will turn into a paste.  Don't add too much oil too soon, as you can't take it out again!  Store in the fridge... ours lasts only as long as takes us to consume it, and so far that has been a few months, which has been fine.