Recipe | Weekday Pasta

 Hi lovelies! I haven't talked about it much on the blog, but I have a very active job. What with running up and down stairs and long shifts I've been finding I need quite a bit of fuel to get me through the day. I've been experimenting with pasta recipes that are quick to make on a weeknight and then take the leftovers to work the next day. 

Recipe | Simple Spicy Vegetables in Honey Soy

After a fairly crazy weekend of birthday and Australia Day celebrations I found my nutrition levels to be fairly lacking. During the week I like to chill out and restore my body to a more healthy state and in addition to my daily seed-based breakfasts and salads for lunch I try to avoid heavy carbohydrate-based meals in the evening. This is one of this weeks detox meals full of vitamins but also flavour and different textures. Feel free to change up the vegetables with your favourites. 

Ingredients

broccoli, separated from head

mushrooms, halved

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2tsp hot chilli paste

1/4 light soy sauce

1tbsp honey

Preheat oven to 180°. Prepare baking dish with baking paper.

In a medium mixing bowl mix garlic, chilli, soy sauce and honey together vigorously. Set aside. 

Bring a small to medium pot of water to the boil. Place broccoli and mushrooms in boiling water momentarily; until the green becomes much brighter. This process is called blanching and normally happens in under a minute. You wouldn't normally do this to mushrooms but I find it gently breaks through the skin which allows the marinade to soak through better.

Drain vegetables and add to marinade. Toss throughly and let sit for 5-10 minutes. Move vegetables from marinade into prepared baking dish and bake for 15-20 minutes. 

Serve and enjoy!

If you have any healthy fulfilling snacks, feel free to recommend them in the comments.

Erin xx

Vegetable Tempura Lovin'

I've been pretty bored of late, being unemployed and in a city without my friends, and so have been taking to cooking a lot more than usual. I love Japanese food and have never made Tempura before, or deep-fried anything for that matter. So, I gave this a go and thought you'd all like to see how I went. It's a really tasty, grease-crave-fulfilling, yet healthy option. Don't be frightened by deep-frying if you've never done it but definitely proceed with caution. Good luck!

Ingredients

Various chopped vegetables eg. carrot, zucchini, mushrooms, sweet potato, capsicum (see image for ideas and desirable size of mentioned vegetables)

Vegetable oil, for deep-frying

Tempura Batter

1/2 cup (75g) cornflour (cornstarch), sifted

1/2 cup (75g) plain (all-purpose) flour, sifted

1 tsp sea salt falkes

1 cup (250ml) cold soda water or beer

1 egg white

Tempura Dipping Sauce

1 cup (250ml) dashi 

1/4 cup (60ml) soy sauce

1/4 cup (60ml) mirin

To get it out of the way, and to ensure time between pan, plate and eating is as quick as possible, its best to make the dipping sauce first. Combine all the dipping sauce ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Once boiling, remove it from the heat, let it cool and set aside for use later when serving.

To make the batter combine the flours (cornflour and plain), salt and soda water/beer in a bowl and whisk until just combined. Whisk your egg white in a separate bowl until stiff peaks form (just like when making a pavlova) and fold gently through the batter. 

In a large deep saucepan (I used a wok), heat the oil until you can see it just starting to smoke (approx. 180°C/350°F if you have a cooking thermometer). Dip the vegetables in the batter, shaking to remove any excess, and deep-fry, in batches, for 3-4 minutes or until light golden and the vegetable is at your preferred eating consistency. Drain on absorbent paper and serve immediately with the dipping sauce. 

I served mine with some chicken thighs I had baking in the oven after marinating in honey, soy and sesame - but thats another recipe for another Sunday afternoon. 

Please let me know if you try any of these recipes or if I could write them in a more helpful way. So far I feel they're alright but I would love some feedback.

Erin xx