Vegetarian Pumpkin and Silverbeet Lasagne with Ricotta

I love lasagne. It is one of my favourite comfort dishes - but there's a catch: I don't like very creamy or cheesy lasagne. Bechemel sauce is a no-no, I much prefer tomato sauce based lasagnes. I think it's because I have a lactose intolerance and have avoided cream sauces since childhood because they made me feel quite sick, and it wasn't until I was in my teens that I tried a lasagne I liked. As with most Italian pasta dishes, there is room for variations on the theme through different regional influences. The tastiest meat lasagne I have baked to date used gravy beef cooked in a pressure cooker with fresh tomatoes, which I based on the traditional ragu-style of rustic tough cuts slow cooked to pull-apart tenderness.

While I am a part-time meat eater, I am very aware of the impacts meat consumption has on the environment at large and my heath. I like to take dishes and convert them into vegetarian-friendly meals which not only gives me a higher nutritional intake, but it also helps the hip pocket. 

In this post you'll see a vegetarian lasagne that uses less pasta by substituting sliced pumpkin, making the glycemic index of this dish a very low one. The carbs come from the pasta and also from the red lentils added to the tomato sauce. The vegetable count is six per serve (onion, carrot, celery, pumpkin, silverbeet, tomato) and protein is provided by the lentils, the ricotta, and the cheese topping. All in all it is a really balanced meal that will satisfy even the most dedicated meat eaters. Did I mention it's also incredibly delicious?

Below the pics you'll find the recipe and directions on how to freeze this dish, along with a costing of the whole thing and individual portions. Keep some handy in the freezer for those nights you get home late, or keep some in reserve for family or friends that need a gift of food when they're sick. I promise, you won't even be able to tell it's been frozen. Best of all? each serve costs $1.25.

Sliced pumpkin, washed silverbeet and ricotta cheese

Tomato and red lentil sauce

Sliced pumpkin layer

Silverbeet and ricotta layer

Topped with sliced pumpkin

Top layer is tomato sauce and mozzerella and pecorino cheese

Vegetarian Lasagne

Ready for the freezer

Recipe

Makes 12 serves

Cooking time 1.5 hours

Ingredients

olive oil

1 brown onion, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

2 sticks of celery, chopped

3 cans of whole peeled tomatoes

1 cup of red lentils

1 half of a Jap pumpkin, peeled, seeded and sliced into thin pieces

1 large bunch of silverbeet, washed and stalks removed

600 grams of dry ricotta cheese (from the deli)

1 packet of large lasagne sheets (250 grams)

1 cup of mozzerella cheese, grated

1/4 cup of pecorino cheese, grated

Method

In a large saucepan heat olive oil and fry off brown onion for 2 mins. Add the celery and carrot and cook for a further 4 mins, until vegetables are softened. Add the canned tomatoes and 4 or 5 canfulls of water. Add to this the red lentils and bring to the boil for 20 mins, until lentils are cooked.

Preheat the oven to 200C.

In a large backing pan with deep sides spoon in the tomato sauce so it covers the bottom of the pan in a layer. Add a layer of dried lasagne sheets, topped with another layer of tomato sauce. Ontop of this lay the sliced pumpkin so it covers the whole area. Top the pumpkin with the silverbeet, making a thick layer. Top this with large chunks of the ricotta cheese and then top with more pumpkin. Add a layer of tomato sauce, followed by lasagne sheets, and top everything with a layer of tomato sauce. Sprinkle with cheese, cover with aluminium foil and bake in hot oven for 35 mins. Remove foil and bake for a further 10 mins.

Lasagne will have dropped in height because as the silverbeet cooks it looses its structure and collapses.

Breakdown of layers (bottom to top)

tomato sauce

dried lasagne

tomato sauce

pumpkin

silverbeet

ricotta

pumpkin

tomato sauce

dried lasagne sheets

tomato sauce

mozzerella and pecorino

To Freeze

After lasagne is cooked, let it cool at room temperature for an hour and then place in the refrigerator for 12 hours. Cooling the lasagne makes it easier to cut as it holds its shape better than if it's cut hot. Cut lasagne into 12 serves, and ready 12 large sheets of baking paper and 12 large sheets of aluminium foil. Place one serve of lasagne onto baking paper and wrap it securely, then wrap in alfoil - this double wrapping minimises freezer burn. You can opt to place each foil-wrapped serve into zip-loc bags to further reduce freezer burn. Label and date lasagne and freeze. Keeps in the freezer for up to 3 months.

You can also freeze the whole lasagne if you won't be needing the baking dish in the meantime. Simply wrap the whole dish, top and bottom with cling wrap and cover again with alfoil to minimise freezer burn. 

To defrost both individual and whole lasagne, take out and leave in the fridge the night before, and re-heat by your favourite method. I prefer using the oven to re-heat, but this can dry the lasagne out a bit. 

Costing

I weighed the ingredients and kept receipts of everything I used in order to make a costing of this dish . The total ingredients in cost $15.10 and each serve costs $1.25 or thereabouts. I did use up some lasagne sheets I had in the pantry and made a guess at the cost of a cup of red lentils (guess is around .20c).  

Blog Tinkering/Personal update September 2013

I've been doing this for a little while now and decided that it was time I did some post editing and widget adding. My Introduction post is now a lot nicer with more personalised information, as well as some book recommendations and a couple of photos. 

I've added a category cloud and some other things down the side of the blog, and have made comments open to the public. One thing that I've failed to find a solution for is the problem of printing straight from the blog.

I've been looking into it and have possible tech-support in the form of Carlos, but it may mean that I'll be shifting this blog to another platform (possibly wordpress) if said platform supports printing. I mean, it's a recipe blog (mostly) and printing might be something my readers will want access to one day.

I'm also really keen on saving for a DSLR and taking classes for that, but I figure it wont be for at least another 6 - 12 months. Since summer is approaching my access to natural light will be vastly improved so hopefully photos will be improved also.

I've been reading a whole lot of books about Low Glycemic Index stuff and will be mentioning things here and there as I learn them. Lately I've been pretty proud and in control of my portion sizes, which really helps keep my blood sugar on an even keel. Carlos and I are eating better than ever - with a home made lunch almost every day and home-cooked dinners we're really upping our vitamin and fibre intake. The other week I had lunch out and ordered a chicken schnitzel roll. A year ago I wouldn't have thought twice about it, but this time I looked at the roll and realised that it was at least 14 cm across the top (it was a round roll) and the schnitzel was one of those really big pieces cut into two. I thought to myself that half of the roll would be plenty, and I only ate half of it - I kept the rest for a mid-afternoon snack and had a light dinner. This is an illustration of how my perceptions of food are changing, and I think it's a good thing. 

Another nice food-related moment comes from a lovely brunch I had with some really awesome people. We had lots of talks and really enjoyed each other, and the food. The food was pretty amazing.

 

I ordered the "Colonel's Mistress" - Southern fried chicken, mango, lime and peanut slaw, chipotle aioli. Yes, it was as good as it sounds. I found that I enjoyed the slaw so much and had not thought to include salad things in a breakfast setting, but I will be thinking about that a lot more from now on. 

I'm also exercising more. My G.P. referred me to an exercise physiologist and it has been such a good thing for me. I now know that I have to get my heart rate up to 145bmp if I'm going to shift any excess weight. He took me through a circuit routine and helped me realise that as long as the heart-rate is at the "butter-zone" for the whole 30 mins I can do things like stretches and low-impact stuff, and if I feel the rate going down, do some stepping exercise and get it back up. It is so much more MANAGEABLE than I ever thought it could be, and I'm pretty sure that starting out like this will help me to institute regular movement as a really positive thing. So yeah. Exercise Physiologists are an EXCELLENT way to figure out what to do and how to do it.

Meal planning has kind of fallen by the wayside - mainly because we were given a lot of home-grown food that I wanted to cook with. I've got a meal plan for the next 3 weeks' dinners, and lunches will be developed on a day-by-day basis. 

Anyhow, I'm having fun and enjoying the Spring weather and hope you're all doing something you enjoy...

cheers for reading,

Esther.

Vegetarian Cabbage Pasties with Low GI Pastry

We've been lucky enough to be given some home-grown cabbages and I wanted to use them up. I was browsing online and saw a recipe for Lamb pasties which inspired the creation of these delicious beauties.

Recipe

Makes 8 pasties

Cooking time 1 hour +

Ingredients

For the filling:

1 whole small cabbage, chopped

2 carrots, diced

1 brown onion, roughly chopped

2 large ribs of celery, diced

2 teasppons olive oil

100 grams pecorino romano cheese, grated

6 eggs, beaten

Black pepper to taste

For the pastry:

2 cups plain wholemeal flour + extra for dusting

1 cup oat bran

7g sachet dried yeast

1 tablesppon sugar

1 teaspoon celery salt

1/4 cup celery leaves, wash and chopped finely

1 to 1+1/2 cups of cold water 

Method

Place the chopped cabbage in a steamer and cook until soft, about 10 mins. In a large frying pan heat the olive oil and cook the onion, celery and carrot on a medium heat for 3 mins, then cover pan and reduce heat to low and cook for a further 5 mins. Once both cabbage and celery mix are cooked, place in small bowls and leave to cool slightly. Grate 100 grams of pecorino cheese in a bowl and set aside.

Once cooked ingredients are cooled mix them in a large bowl with the cheese and eggs. Add freshly cracked black pepper and set aside.

To make the pastry add the flour, oat bran, yeast, sugar, salt and celery leaves to a large bowl and mix well. Make a well in the centre and slowly pour 1/2 a cup of water in and work the pastry together with a blunt butter knife. Once pastry has come together add another 1/2 cup of water and mix again. You may need more than a cup of water, I found I needed about 1 and 1/4. 

When dough comes together cut the large ball into equal segments ending up with 8 rounds of dough. On a floured surface roll each segment out until it is about 10 - 12 cm wide. Place a spoonful of the cabbage and egg mix onto the pastry and fold up the side, making an elongated shape, and place on a baking tray. Continue working through the dough until 8 pasties are made. If you have any left-over cabbage and egg mix, place it in a small oven-proof dish and make a frittata with it.

My pasties did leak a bit in the oven, but they cooked very well and the leaked bits weren't a problem.

Cubed carrots

Mirepoix mix

Cabbage in the steamer

Once the cabbage and Mirepoix are cooked

The cabbage, Mirepoix and cheese mix

Pasties

The left-over filling made a very tasty frittata

Vegetarian Avocado and Egg Potato Salad

I'm not the biggest fan of mayonnaise. I love Carlos' mothers' home made aioli and her Russian salad, but there's always a limit to how much I can eat. I find the same sensory-blow out with other very rich foods such as pate and seafood - I can be fine with a couple of mouthfuls, but then I hit a wall and can't handle any more.

This week I had to do something with some left-over potatoes from an empanada my partner made. I thought a potato salad for dinner with some celery and apple soup would be a nice light meal, but I didn't want to make mayonnaise so I improvised with some smashed avocado and mustard. It was amazing and I'll be making this from time to time in the future - in fact I've had the request already from Carlos.

Recipe

Makes 4 serves

Cooking time 30 mins

Keeps in fridge 2 days, but doesn't look as pretty as the first day

Ingredients

2 medium sized Kestrel potatoes (or buy the Low G.I. Charisma Potatoes at Coles)

4 spring onions, washed and cut into 1 cm pieces

3 small ribs of celery, cut into small pieces

1/4 red onion, cut into thin crescents

lettuce leaves

1 avocado, mashed

1 tablespoon of seeded mustard

2 teaspoons of american mustard

3 egg, hard boiled

Method

Cut the potatoes into medium sized cubes - you can leave the skin on. Place potato into a steamer and steam until soft, about 12 mins. Once potatoes are cooked remove and let cool. Place eggs in a saucepan of cold water and bring to the boil. Once at a boil set a timer for 6 mins. Keep the eggs at a steady boil, once 6 mins is up run the eggs under cold water until egg is cool to touch. Peel and set aside.

Chop up the spring onion, celery, and red onion and place in a large bowl with some lettuce leaves. cut boiled eggs into quarters and add to bowl.

In a small bowl mash the avocado with a fork until smooth. Add mustards and mix through.

When potatoes are cool add them to the vegetables and mix. Add the avocado mix and stir through gently until everything is evenly coated.

Notes:

When I make this again I think I will omit the lettuce leaves as they didn't last in the fridge - I think it would be a good idea to take the potato salad and leaves separate and add them just before eating. I think this salad would work really well with butter beans in place of potato. 

Spring onion, celery, red onion, and mixed lettuce leaves

Mashed avocado with mustard

The next day - a little worse for wear in the colour dept.

Lamb Cutlets with Veg

There's no recipe for this, but I wanted to post it because the cabbage was the best I've had in a long time. It was home-grown by Mrs. Lopez and was soooooo good!

We had lamb cutlets pan fried with roasted pumpkin and broccolini, peas and sauteed cabbage with butter. Yes, I know, naughty naughty, but I love cabbage cooked that way. We had mint jelly on the side, proper Anglo-styles.

Home grown

Beef Noodle Salad

This is another of our mid-week lunches that I made up out of what was in the fridge and pantry. Carlos made me beef empanada last Saturday and had some beef left over which I put in a marinade of ginger, garlic, oyster sauce, fish sauce and ginger wine. Into the fridge it went on Saturday night. On Sunday night, after getting home from Father's day celebrations I fried off the beef and quickled some veg (quick pickled) - this was the most delicious thing! It's my first attempt at cold noodle salads and I can confidently say I will be making a lot more over the coming summer.

Recipe

Makes 4 serves

Cooking time 30 mins

Keeps in fridge 3 days 

Ingredients

100 grams rump beef, marinaded at least 4 hours

2 large cloves garlic, grated finely

1 large piece of ginger, grated finely

1 tablespoon of oyster sauce

2 teaspoons of fish sauce

1 teaspoon of green ginger wine

4 cm wedge of red cabbage, chopped into thin pieces

2 carrot, grated 

3 ribs of celery, grated

1/4 red capsicum, grated

1/2 red onion

1 teaspoon of caster sugar

1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup cashew nuts

rice vermicelli noodles, soaked in boiling water for 10 mins

Method

Place the rice vermicelli noodles in a heat proof bowl and cover with boiling water. Set aside for 10 mins. In a small frying pan cook off the beef using a high heat until cooked to your preference. Set aside and let cool.

In a large food processor using a grating plate, process the cabbage, carrot, onion, celery and capsicum. When everything is chopped sprinkle with sugar and vinegar and mix well. Leave for a few mins and the squeeze the excess liquid out of the vegetables. Discard liquid.

Strain the noodles really well and place into a large bowl. Add the squeezed vegetables and mix through. Take the cooked beef and slice thinly, adding it to the salad. Add the cashews and toss well.

Serve.

Getting to Grips with Carb Portions - Cauliflower and Mungbean Curry

Home made curry beats take away every time

I got the idea for this recipe from an amazing book I own called Fat-Free Indian by Shehzad Husain and Manisha Kanani. I've made the Potato and Mungbean Curry in the past, but wanted to update it with a Low G.I alternative - and cauliflower really works!

For a while I was convinced I had to stop eating things that encouraged the consumption of rice - things like curries, stir-frys and some casseroles. That made me a bit frustrated, but I started to really explore different cooking styles and different ideas about what should go onto a plate - namely, what serving sizes are appropriate. I began to make stir-frys without carbs - just a plate of veg and protien, and found that was satisfying. It wasn't until a couple fo weeks ago that I started re-reading a Low G.I. book and discovered that my hazy memories or proper eating were not representative of a fully balanced Low G.I diet. It turns out that carbohydrates are extremely important for our bodies - but only when we choose the right kinds, the Low G.I. kinds.

I now enjoy Low G.I. basmati rice a couple of times a week because I am able to enjoy a much smaller portion that what I was used to. So that period of confusion really helped me to pull back from the habit of eating 2 cups of cooked rice plus the curry/stir fry/casserole to the point where I'm eating 3/4 cup cooked rice and enjoying the curry/stir fry/casserole more.

I also discovered a very cool thing - I can microwave papadums! Of course I have to be wary of over-eating them because of their energy density, but one or two pappadums really make a lovely addition to a curry.

All in all, there are a lot of things we can do to include our favourite kinds of foods in our weekly meals while keeping an eye on the size of the carb load as well as the kind of carb.

Mungbeans - not just for the 1970's