Mushroom stroganoff
by Good Food
Ingredients
2 tsp olive oil
1 onion finely chopped
1 tbsp sweet paprika
2 garlic cloves crushed
300g mixed mushrooms chopped
150ml low-sodium beef or vegetable stock
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce or vegetarian alternative
3 tbsp half-fat soured cream
small bunch of parsley roughly chopped
250g pouch cooked wild rice
Method
Heat the olive oil in a large non-stick frying pan and soften the onion for about 5 mins.
Add the paprika and garlic, then cook for 1 min more. Add the mushrooms and cook on a high heat, stirring often, for about 5 mins.
Pour in the stock and Worcestershire sauce. Bring to the boil, bubble for 5 mins until the sauce thickens, then turn off the heat and stir through the soured cream and most of the parsley. Make sure the pan is not on the heat or the sauce may split.
Heat the wild rice following pack instructions, then stir through the remaining chopped parsley and serve with the stroganoff.
Click here to view the Mushroom stroganoff recipe from Good Food.
Sweet potato gnocchi with buttery sage and hazelnut sprinkles
by Food and Travel
Ingredients
550g sweet potatoes, ideally all around the same size
80g soft goat’s cheese log
2 egg yolks
95g fine cornmeal, plus extra for rolling
95g chestnut flour
1?2tsp sea salt flakes
1?4tsp freshly ground black pepper
2tbsp extra virgin olive oil
30g unsalted butter
To serve:
4 tbsp skinless hazelnuts, toasted in the oven for 8 minutes
2tbsp extra virgin olive oil
30g unsalted butter
28 sage leaves
30g chunk Italian hard cheese
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/ 160C F/Gas 4. Rinse the sweet potatoes in cold water and prick the skins in a few places with a skewer. Put on an oven tray and bake for 1 hour, or until a skewer goes right through. Peel off the skins as soon as they are cool enough to handle.
Put a large pan of salted water on to boil. Remove any black bits from the potatoes and roughly chop into a processor, add scoops of the goat’s cheese and the egg yolks and whizz to a smooth purée. Tip into a bowl and add the cornmeal, chestnut flour, sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper. Without overworking, gently fold together to form a dough.
Dust a board with cornmeal and cut the dough into 4 pieces. Roll a piece at a time into a sausage shape, 24cm long, and cut into 12 pieces, so you end up with 48 pieces.
As the water boils, add 12 gnocchi pieces and turn down the heat to a simmer for a few minutes, until they float to the surface. Scoop them out with a slotted spoon and arrange on a kitchen paper- lined tray to drain. Continue rolling and cooking the remainder in the same way. They can now be fried right away or kept chilled for a few hours or overnight.
When ready to serve, heat the oil and butter together and fry the sage for a few seconds until crisp but not coloured. Pour the buttery, sage-flavoured oil into a bowl to reserve for serving.
Put half the oil and butter for frying the gnocchi in the frying pan and fry half a batch at a time for 1 1?2-2 minutes on each side, until golden and crisp. Once they are all are fried in the same way, put them all back in the pan to reheat.
Crunch up the hazelnuts with the side of a heavy cook’s knife and crumble 4 of the fried sage leaves into them. Add to the reserved butter and oil and serve over the gnocchi with the rest of the whole sage leaves. Shave the Italian hard cheese over each serving using a vegetable peeler.
Avocado, courgette and lime drizzle cake
by Olive
Ingredients
300g thin courgettes coarsely grated
75g (weight after peeling and stoning) ripe avocado
75ml sunflower oil plus a little extra for greasing
2 limes zested and juiced
175g golden caster sugar
3 large eggs beaten with a fork
1 tsp vanilla extract
350g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
Lime Drizzle:
140g icing sugar
1 lime zested and juiced
Method
Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Oil and line a 900g loaf tin with a long strip of foil and a long strip of baking paper that comes up and above the narrow ends of the tin. Put the grated courgette into a clean tea towel and squeeze out as much liquid as you can.
Blend the avocado with the oil in a food processor until smooth. Tip the courgette into a big bowl with the avocado oil, lime zest, sugar, eggs and vanilla. Stir together to mix thoroughly, then fold in the flour and baking powder. Scrape into the tin and bake in the oven for 1 hour.
Test the cake by pushing a skewer into the centre and checking it comes out clean – if there’s still some wet mixture, bake for another 15 minutes and re-test. Cool for 20 minutes in the tin, then lift the cake out onto a wire rack. Prick the top with some more skewer holes, and drizzle over the juice from 1 lime. Leave to cool completely on the wire rack.
When the cake is cool, peel off the paper. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl, then mash in enough lime juice to make a stiff but runny icing – you should have one lime left-over from the cake, and one new one. Drizzle the icing thickly over the cake and scatter with the last of the zest. Let it set for another 20-30 minutes, before slicing and eating.
Cook’s tip: Boost your plant points
"This cake already packs in two plant points from the avocado and courgette, but if you swap the egg for flaxseed 'eggs' (2 tbsp flaxseed mixed with 5 tbsp boiling water), you add in an extra point. For a healthier, plant-boosted icing, soak 100g cashews in boiling water for about an hour, drain then blitz with 4 tbsp coconut yogurt and juice of half of lime."
Click here to view the Avocado, courgette and lime drizzle cake recipe from Olive.