Roast Red Pepper and Courgette Lasagne

Ingredients
Roast Red Pepper Sauce:
2 red peppers, halved with seeds removed
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 stick celery, sliced
1 heaped tsp paprika
600ml (1 pint) vegetable stock
2 dessertspoons tomato puree
1 teaspoon pesto
25g fresh basil
Cheese Sauce:
Milk
Flour
Butter
Cheddar cheese
Bay leaf
Lasagne
2 courgettes
Fresh mozzarella
Parmesan
Lasagne sheets

Method
Preheat the oven to about 190C.
Preheat the grill to hot.
Make the roast red pepper sauce:
Brush the peppers with oil and put them under the grill until the skins are black and blistered. When they have cooled remove the skins.
Fry the onion, garlic, celery and paprika until soft. Add the stock, tomato puree and pesto. Bring to the boil. Add the peppers.
Blend the sauce, then add the basil and season.
Make the cheese sauce:
Heat the butter in a pan. Add the milk and bay leaf. Sprinkle the flour in, whisking to avoid lumps. When the milk is hot it will thicken. Add the cheese and remove the bay leaf.
Put the lasagne together:
Cut the courgettes into thick slices. Brush with olive oil and grill until they are slightly brown (not black like the peppers).
Grate the mozzarella and parmesan.
Layer half the courgettes on the bottom of a lasagne dish. Cover with red pepper sauce. Sprinkle half the mozzarella over. Cover with lasagne.
Repeat this to make another layer, although without the mozzarella.
Cover with cheese sauce. Sprinkle mozzarella and parmesan over the top. Cook for about 45 minutes, until the cheese is golden brown and bubbly on top.
Serve with salad.

Thoughts
The red pepper sauce came from Food for Thought. It worked very well as a pasta sauce, so we thought we'd try it in lasagne. It goes well with the courgettes and lots of mozzarella.

Pumpkin, coconut and lime soup

Ingredients
Prepared weight 1kg pumpkin, chopped and skin removed.
1 lime
300ml coconut milk
2 cloves garlic
Yellow split peas

Method
Fry the crushed garlic for 1 minute. Add the pumpkin, split peas and enough boiling water or stock to cover them. Allow to cook until the pumpkin and split peas are soft. Add the coconut milk and lime juice. Add water or stock to achieve the desired consistency.
Puree the soup.

Thoughts
Garnish would be nice eg pumpkin seeds or chopped herbs.

Quinoa Salad and Tex-Mex style wraps

Ingredients
Red quinoa
Halloumi
Sun blushed tomatoes + oil
Fresh parsley

Method
Cook the quinoa.
Cut the halloumi into slices, grill until golden, then chop into small cubes.
Cut the tomatoes into small pieces.
Mix it all together and add some of the oil the tomatoes came in.

Thoughts
This is a very easy, delicious salad either warm or cold. Gemma and I only discovered quinoa a few months ago but fell in love with it. It is very tasty, has a nice texture, is easy to cook and is, it turns out, incredibly good for you with all the amino acids you need in one food.

Tonight, we had some left over quinoa salad. I wrapped it in tortillas and heated the wraps on a dry frying pan. They worked really well as an accompaniment to Sweetcorn Soup.

Sweet Vinaigrette

Ingredients
2 Tablespoons Balsamic vinegar
2 Tablespoons Extra virgin olive oil
1 Tablespoon Wholegrain mustard

Method
Mix all the ingredients in a small bowl or jug.

Thoughts
Personally, I like to toss the salad leaves in the dressing so the taste spreads through the salad instead of pouring the dressing over the salad on the plate.

It's fun to explore with vinaigrettes. I found this simple combination tonight and thought it worked particularly well. It has an unusually large proportion of vinegar to oil, but with the slightly sweet mustard this works really well. We had it on a salad made with a variety of leaves and cherry tomatoes cut in half.

Gnocchi with cheese sauce and aubergines

Ingredients
Gnocchi
Cheese sauce
Sun blushed tomatoes
Aubergine
Onion
Olive oil
A little white cooking wine

Cheese sauce ingredients
Milk
Flour
Butter
Cheddar
Parmesan
Bay leaf
Black pepper

Method
Cut the aubergine into slices, brush with olive oil and grill.
Make the cheese sauce by combining all ingredients except the cheeses in a pan. When it has heated and thickened remove the bay leaf and add the cheese.
Cut the onion into small pieces and fry it lightly with the wine.
Cut up the sun blushed tomatoes.
Cook the gnocchi in boiling water.
Add the onions and sun blushed tomatoes to the cheese sauce.
Cut the aubergine into pieces.
Drain the gnocchi, coat in cheese sauce and serve. Sprinkle aubergine pieces over the top.

Asparagus and sun blushed tomatoes with pasta

Ingredients
Buffalo Mozzarella & Tomato Filled Pasta
Asparagus (10 spears)
Sun blushed tomatoes
Sun blushed tomato oil
Rocket
Parmesan
Vinegarette

Method
Cut the asparagus in half and steam.
Cook the pasta.
Chop the sun blushed tomatoes into small pieces.
Lightly toss rocket in vinegarette.
Drain the pasta when it is cooked and cover it in a little sun blushed tomato oil.
Mix tomatoes, asparagus and pasta together and serve.
Sprinkle with rocket and parmesan.