Carrot Sandwiches

Mummy cut the crusts off

I'm sure the novelty is going to wear off soon, but it's very exciting being able to make tiny sandwiches for my son, who now has the required hardware to eat them. It's so much easier to pack a sandwich for our outings, or even lunch at home, than wondering where to warm up a puree.

What to put in the sandwiches is a conundrum though. Peanut butter, cheese and Vegemite all have quite a lot of salt in them, jam and Nutella have too much sugar. Avocado is expensive and doesn't keep well. So here are Carrot Sandwiches (or more specifically, a creamy carrot and ricotta dip that you can put on sandwiches).

Carrot and Ricotta Dip


3-4 small carrots
¼ cup fresh orange juice
¼ tsp minced ginger
2 tbsp ricotta cheese

Simmer the carrots, ginger and orange juice in a small saucepan over medium-low heat until the carrots are very tender. Allow to cool, then add ricotta cheese and blend to make a smooth puree. Serve with vegetables and crackers for dipping, or as a sandwich filling.

Gluten Free Lunch

I was originally going to do two separate posts, but I only have one photo and both dishes were for the same meal. I have a friend who's been unwell lately and needed some cheering up. So I made her a tasty gluten free lunch.


Spinach Tart with Potato Rosti Base (Gluten Free Vegetarian)


The trick with a rosti is getting the moisture out of the potatoes. I've got nicola and dutch cream potatoes at the moment. They're nice and waxy, which means they hold their shape when cooked and you get a grated potato cake, rather than a mashed potato cake. The potatoes are grated and left to drain - squeeze as much of the water out as possible. Adding a pinch of salt can help them along. The potatoes were then spread over the base of a flan tin, drizzled with olive oil and baked in a hot oven for 15-20 minutes until it started to go golden and crispy.


To make the tart filing I mixed beaten egg with wilted spinach and caramelised red onion, and seasoned well. I poured this on top of the potato base and dotted with goat cheese (fetta would work well too). I finished with a sprinkling of paprika. Then back into the oven for another 15-20 minutes until just set in the middle (it keeps cooking as it cools). You could make individual versions too if you have the tins.


Crustless Pumpkin Pie (Gluten Free Vegan)

Coconut Yoghurt is very white!

The pie doesn't have pastry, it's in the style of an "impossible pie". I've based it on this recipe, but modified slightly for the ingredients I had available, and halved the recipe for the mini springform tin I have. I was really worried that it would turn out 'pasty' - the raw mix didn't taste that good and had a really strong raw flour taste. 

The final product was delicious and moist, and got the thumbs up for authenticity from my friend (who grew up with the real thing in Canada). We ate it with a dollop of Coconut Yoghurt - something I didn't even know existed (it was lovely!).

1 cup steamed pumpkin (I used jap for its colour)
½ cup coconut cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon macadamia oil
1 tablespoon Orgran No Egg

2 tablespoons coconut palm sugar

2 tablespoons maple syrup

½ cup gluten-free flour

1 tablespoon tapioca starch

1 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder

1 pinch salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg

The pumpkin was blended to a puree, then mixed with the maple syrup, vanilla, oil and coconut cream. The dry ingredients were mixed in a separate bowl and then the liquid slowly blended in until smooth. You could also pop everything in a food processor. It was baked at 150 degrees C for approximately 40 minutes until almost firm, and then cooled slowly in the oven (as you would for a baked cheesecake).

Orecchiette Pasta with Broccoli, Feta and Roasted Capsicum

This is a super quick, one-pot pasta, and a great way to enjoy that super vegetable, broccoli. Don't forget that the broccoli stem is just as delicious as the florets - trim off the tougher outer skin, then slice up the stem. If you cut it small, it will cook in the same time as the florets. If you're cooking this for kids, leave out the almonds and the chilli. This would work equally well with cauliflower.


orecchiette pasta (or other small pasta)
broccoli or broccolini (florets and stems)
lemon juice
long red chilli
garlic
basil
fetta cheese
roasted red capsicum (from a jar)
blanched almonds
olive oil
salt and black pepper


Boil a pot with water and add salt. Cook the pasta until al dente. About half-way though the cooking time, add the broccoli to the pasta. When the pasta is done, drain, reserving a couple of tablespoons of the cooking water.


Return the pot to the stove and reduce the heat to medium. Add finely chopped garlic and chilli and cook for 2-3 minutes, then add chopped almonds, sliced red capsicum and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Add the pasta and broccoli and the basil, plus reserved cooking water. Add lemon juice and season with salt and pepper - adding extra olive oil to coat. 

One litre of milk: three tasty results

I've had an Easiyo yoghurt maker for a few years now. It's really very easy to make your own yoghurt from scratch, especially if you buy a starter culture from somewhere like Cheeselinks. This week though, I'm not just going to make a litre of yoghurt, I'm going to use that yoghurt to make some labne and, strange as it sounds, mustard!

Great for breakfast with honey

So the first step is to make the yoghurt. L has great instructions on how to do this on her blog. Get organic UHT milk if you can! I generally leave my yoghurt for 24 hours in the yoghurt canister, followed by at least 12 hours in the fridge before I use it - you get a nice thick yoghurt as a result.



The next step is to make some labne. This is a very simple style of fresh curd cheese, made by straining the whey out of some plain yoghurt. This is about 500g of plain yoghurt, with ½ tsp of salt mixed in for flavour, and to help the draining process. Place the yoghurt in a cloth-lined strainer over a jug or bowl, and leave overnight.

The result is a thick, smooth curd cheese. It has a texture similar to cream cheese but with a very light, tangy flavour. You can roll it into balls, coat with herbs and spices and store in oil, but I'm going to leave mine plain for now. It goes brilliantly with middle eastern flavours such as dried mint and sumac.


Up until now, I probably would have eaten the cheese and poured the whey down the sink, but I recently found this recipe* at Edible Aria for homemade mustard, which is handy, because I've run out! But whey? In mustard?
The whey from yoghurt is of course teeming with probiotic cultures - you can add it to preserved foods to help with the fermenting process, and to give them a healthy boost! Thank you internets yet again! This particular batch of mustard isn't fully organic, because I'm still in the process of converting my spice cupboard to organic. It already tastes and smells delicious - can't wait to eat it once it's had a chance to really develop the flavours (takes about a week). If I knew wholegrain mustard was this easy to make, I'd have stopped buying it years ago!

*I made a half-batch of the recipe, and it made about 1 cup of mustard.