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.

Falafels / Chickpea Patties

This one's not my own creation; I got it from the internet and altered it a bit according to what I had in the cupboard. I made these for a BBQ as I can't eat meat (sausages for example!) and the meat-eaters quite enjoyed these as well!

2 x 400g cans Chickpeas, drained
1 onion, chopped
fresh parsley, chopped (1/2 cup is ideal, but whatever you have is okay)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 egg
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 tspn ground coriander
1 tspn salt
1/4 tspn lemon pepper (you could use lemon juice and ground black pepper instead)
1 tspn baking powder
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup dry breadcrumbs
oil for frying

Makes 8 large or 16 small patties

Mash chickpeas until thick and pasty - don't use a blender as it will make them too runny.

In a blender, blend together onion, parsley and garlic until smooth. Add a few drops of water to it if it's not blending well.

In a small bowl mix together egg, cumin, coriander, salt, lemon pepper and baking powder. Stir into chickpea mash together with the olive oil. Slowly add breadcrumbs until mixture is not too sticky but will hold together. Add more or less breadcrumbs as needed.

Form balls (according to desired size) and then flatten into patties. Heat 2cm of oil in a large frypan over medium-high heat. Fry patties until brown on both sides. Stack on a plate covered with absorbent paper.

Vegetarian Enchilades

I found this on the International Vegetarian Union website (see right) and is so good that I have to share it here!

Serves 6-8

Sauce
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon dried oregano (or 3 tablespoons fresh oregano, chopped)
2 tablespoons flour
170g tomato paste
3 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vinegar

Saute garlic in oil on low heat, about 3 minutes. Add oregano and cook 1 minute. Add flour and stir constantly until oil is absorbed. Gradually add tomato paste and water, stirring constantly. Cook on low-medium heat until thick. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 175 C.

Filling
1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tablespoon oil
2 to 3 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 tin '3 bean mix' or other beans as desired
1 to 2 cups of mixed vegetables of your choice, chopped small and lightly steamed or boiled (use whatever you have in the fridge or garden, but I used green zuchini, yellow zuchini, and green beans - tinned corn would be great in this)
8 or more tortillas

Saute onion and garlic until soft. Add cumin, coriander, beans and vegetables, and stir through. Cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes.

Assembly

Lightly grease a deep baking tray. Spoon about 1/2 cup of filling into each tortilla. Roll up and place in tray. Repeat for each tortilla. Pour some sauce over tortillas, about a cup or so. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until bubbling.

Notes: You can heat the remaining sauce and serve with the enchiladas, or you can freeze it for next time (which is what I did because it was so much). You should have enough sauce over to do another tray of tortillas.

I found that I could only barely fill 9 tortillas, and I could only fit that many into my baking tray! The original recipe was for 12 tortillas!