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Butternut mac and ‘cheese’ with a buttery sage and oat crust

I did a little poll on Facebook the other day into what peoples comfort foods were.Mac and cheese kept getting mentioned and so I decided to see what all the fuss was about. Ill fess up now, that I have never eaten mac and cheese and that is for one simple reason. I really really don’t like melted cheese. I dont even like the smell of melted cheese and this is a real problem come lunch time in Central London. Most lunch places are rammed with folks ordering sandwiches and many of these sandwiches contain cheese (it is England after all) and lots of said sandwiches need toasting. This means that the entire place smells of slightly charred cheese. Even my beloved Fernandez and Wells isnt immune to it and whilst I am sure that they are carefully toasting a homemade sourdough with locally churned white cheddar and a cheeky pickle…I still cannot enter the smokey premises during the noon hours. It is only once the afternoon settles in and the tea pots are put to use, and the world starts thinking of cake that I can go and get my lunch.

That said I wanted to make mac and cheese but I wanted to try the ever popular butternut squash version.The logic is that you can either half the cheese in your normal recipe by adding butternut squash or you can swap it out totally. In normal mac and cheese there is a whole heap of cheese as well as butter, flour and milk or cream forming the basis of the white sauce. When you use butternut puree you do away with the need for a white sauce as it is naturally thick and clings lusciously to the pasta. I used nutritional yeast as we had some in the cupboard and I had always been a little apprehensive about trying it.

Even though it looks (and smells) a little like goldfish food, it is in fact a total powerhouse of nutrients. For anyone on a plant based diet it contains the magic Vitamin B12. It also, when used in cooking tastes remarkably like parmesan. If you want to add cheese, go ahead, try ricotta, feta or a tangy cheddar.

The topping here is toasted buttery oats flavoured with sage. They add texture, bite and a salty richness to the dish. This version is perfect comfort food. Creamy, rich and comforting but with a little hit of autumn vegetables. It is a great family friendly recipe too – the baby loves it!

Ingredients
1 butternut squash, peeled and cubed
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp rapeseed oil

4 tablespoons nutritional yeast (or 6 tbsp grated cheese)
0.5 tsp paprika
0.5 tsp ground nutmeg
200ml oat or other milk
300g dried macaroni

50g oats
2 tbsp chopped sage leaves
1 tbsp butter or butter alternative

Method
Preheat your oven to 180C
Rub the butternut squash with oil, salt and pepper
Place into a baking dish with the garlic and roast until tender
Whilst the squash is roasting, cook the pasta according to the packet until it has a firm bite
Once cooked, drain and set aside
Place the roasted butternut squash, milk, nutmeg, nutritional yeast, and paprika into a blender and process until totally smooth
Combine with the pasta
Pour the mixture into a baking dish
In a frying pan place the oats,  butter and sage and allow to ‘fry’ until golden and crispy
Top the pasta with the oats and bake for a further 15mins

 

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One pot roasted pumpkin pasta

Even though I left Norway when I was 17 my taste buds are still pretty Scandi. I like my sandwiches open, I like the combination of cheese and jam. My coffee is always strong and my tea is always black. Marzipan is delicious to me, as is liquorice…even the salty kind. I will always be fond of cinnamon and raisin buns are my favourite thing ever. Bread should always be dark and thick, cloudberries are natures golden child. Salmon is eaten with boiled potatoes, sprinkled with dill. Chocolate milk is restorative after a hard training session.

And pumpkin, to me pumpkin is savoury. It is roasted with sage and tossed into a salad with tangy goats cheese. It is paired with charred beetroot and topped with walnuts. It is pureed and stirred through peppery mashed potatoes. To me its on the same level as sweet potatoes and parsnips and all the other delicious autumn root veg. I can’t get my head around pumpkin pie, or pumpkin lattes just yet. So when a hokkaido found its way into the shopping it was chopped, drizzled with oil and sage and roasted. Then I turned it into puree, partly because I thought it would be useful for the baby, and partly because I had the one pot pasta on my agenda.

Cooking pasta is hardly that strenuous and even with a homemade sauce you are probably only left with two pans and a colander to wash. But one pot pasta is exactly that, its a kind of self saucing pasta that doesn’t require draining. The water that the pasta cooks in helps form the sauce, so all you do is cook and serve. You could try this out with any pasta shape and with any ‘sauce’ you fancy. Throw in penne with some tomatoes, onion, chilli and basil, or try a creamy sauce with wilted greens. Honestly whatever you fancy. I wanted to do pumpkin because I could imagine that the richness of the puree would help make a thick silky sauce, and it did.

All I did was place the pasta into a large shallow pan, then added a chopped shallot, some chilli, some fresh sage and a few spoons of pumpkin puree. Add water, stir over a medium heat for 10 mins or so….watch the magic happen then devour.

Ingredients (serves 4)
300g Spaghetti
3 tbsp pumpkin puree
1 finely chopped shallot
1 tbsp chopped sage
1tsp chilli flakes
400ml boiling water
Salt and pepper

Method
Place the spaghetti into a wide enough pan for it to lie flat
Add all the ingredients to the pan
Bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer stirring to stop the pasta clumping, If the sauce gets too thick before the pasta is fully cooked then add more water as needed
Once the pasta is cooked remove from the heat and allow the sauce to thicken for a minute or two
Stir in some goats cheese or parmesan if desired and then serve

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Baked celeriac

I love the audacity of a single ingredient meal. The fact that one product can, with a little love, provide total nourishment.

Ive thrown my back out again, I think it’s emotional. The baby turned one, the husband turned a corner, the family returned home after a blissful weekend. I haven’t had the energy or desire to cook properly but I also know that my soul needed something good even if my belly wasn’t sure. I needed something that didn’t need me. Nothing that required measuring or stirring. No weighing. No checking.

This baked celeriac simply needed a clean, then a good glug of olive oil and then to be parceled up with some rosemary & a couple of garlic cloves, salt & pepper.I put the oven on, I forgot about it. As with most root roasts, the longer & slower the better. I gave this one a good 90minutes.

This is as comforting as a jacket potato. The outside is slightly taught & crispy, the inside perfectly fluffy. You simply dive in, mix in a little of the roasted garlic & a knob of butter. If you have any good bread to hand then spread some of the fluffy celeriac on, add a sprinkle of tangy sheep cheese & a extra grind of pepper.

This is comfort food. This is food that says it doesn’t matter that your back hurts, that the baby’s teeth are annoying or that the husband let the summer pass him by. This is food that warms your belly & gives you a little hug from the inside.

One ingredient, pure comfort.

Ingredients
1 cleaned & trimmed celeriac

2 – 4 cloves garlic

2 tbsp olive/rapeseed oil

Salt & pepper

2 sprigs rosemary

Method
Preheat your oven to 160C

Place the cleaned celeriac onto a piece of tinfoil

Rub with olive oil & season

Add the garlic & rosemary to the foil and then wrap up into a parcel

Place into the oven & bake for approx 90mins

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Sexy roasted cauliflower

Have you had a nice weekend? We had a lovely one as my sister and her family came to visit. We headed down to Tegernsee one morning to have time at the lake, to drink locally roasted coffee and drink pale beer. We cycled the kids around in the bike box, hung out at the swings and celebrated the littles ones first birthday again. My sister made the most epic cake topper version of our bull terrier Nanuk and we had round two of lemon cake this time with fresh strawberries in the middle.

Each night once the kids were asleep we could sit and eat together. One night we had german ‘brotzeit’ but the second night I made sexy roasted cauliflower. I have been making roasted cauliflower for a few months now. Alex had a ‘cauliflower steak’ in California last year dressed with herby,tahini lemon salad and it had been on my ‘must recreate’ list since then. Its called sexy roasted cauliflower because Alex thought that cauliflower was an aphrodisiac…I had to break it to him that most of the cabbagy/brassica family is probably considered the opposite for rather unfortunate reasons.

This meal though. Seriously. This meal. Firstly cauliflower has never been top of my food list. Its one those vegetables that I normally ignore if I am honest, but all that has now changed and this is now my go to dinner/dinner party/easy meal. Somehow boiling and then roasting a cauliflower turns it into a thing of beauty and there is also a actual beauty to it when you place it down on the table. The entire head, slightly charred and golden. We have been serving it up with lemon dressed salad but it is delicious with a tangy goats cheese too. A large cauliflower head with serve 4 adults but dont be afraid to make it just for two, its delicious cold the next day…and you might be surprised how much you eat. You can use a standard cauliflower or a romanesco….or do both when you have friends over. Place them on the table whole, slice like a loaf of bread, serve with a huge salad and a chilled rose.

This is simple,delicious week night meal or a phenomenal alternative to a sunday roast. Let me know if you make it…we love it!

Ingredients
1 large cauliflower head
1 tbsp salt
3 tbsp olive/rape seed oil
salt and pepper to taste

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C
Place the whole cauliflower (leaves removed) into a large pan of salted boiling water
With the lid on, simmer for 10 mins
Remove the cauliflower, drain, and then place onto a large baking tray lined with baking paper
Coat the cauliflower in salt, pepper and olive oil
Place into a hot oven for approx 40mins or until golden brown

 

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Yogi Pie

I has been a funny old week and to be honest I am glad that its Friday. The last two and a half years have been full of upheaval for us as a couple. We finished a project in Germany and were set to move back to London when we were informed that Alex would need to spend at least 7 months of the year in Germany. I moved to London and Alex visited. A few months in and I was in Germany for the weekend when we found out I was pregnant after years of trying. We went to bed overwhelmed with joy but the next morning I had to be at the airport. A week after announcing that I was pregnant we realized that we couldn’t spend 7 months apart each year with a new born and that would mean giving up my beloved London and us all moving together to a new city in Germany. We planned all this whilst on holiday in LA. We also got married whilst we were there. We flew back together and then alex flew back to Germany the next day. Those weeks in LA was the longest period that we had together whilst I was pregnant. We picked a flat in a city we didn’t know from separate countries. We met in Munich for one weekend in order to find a doctor willing to deliver the baby (you have to book early in Germany) and to secure a hospital place. I got here 6 weeks before the baby arrived (2 weeks late) and we have been a family here ever since.

The thing is though, we miss London and yet we daren’t say it. To the outside world we have all that we could ever hope for. We have the most amazing daughter, we are healthy and we are financially stable. But life is about connections. Its walking down streets that make you look up from your phone and smile. Its customs and traditions that you understand, that you recognize. It is a way of life.It is the white van driver that waves you across the road and the corner shop that lets you pay tomorrow. Life is fuller with your tribe and your community. I miss my city. I miss the city that made me who I am. I miss my family and my friends and most of all I miss that they don’t see the baby every week. But most of all I miss my husband. He isn’t the same here. Not as happy, not as inspired, not as relaxed. I miss his jokes and his cheekiness, I miss his drive and his selflessness. We never thought it possible but he misses London more than I do.

This week was a week when he felt it and there was nothing much I could do except hug him and watch from the sidelines. I think its time to book a little trip, to have a day or too eating sushi, walking the streets of soho and showing the baby our favorite haunts. But for today I will make this yogi pie, because nothing seems more British than a pie. This yogi pie follows the same base as a cottage or shepherds pie but replaces meat for lentils. I used cooked red lentils but you could use any colour or a mix of all. If your little one is just starting out on food, then simply puree the veggies and lentils and then serve with a little spoon of mashed potato. This is warm, autumn food. Serve with a green salad tossed with vinaigrette and a side of love. Happy weekend x

Ingredients (serves 4)
4 large mashing potatoes
1 tbsp milk
1 large tin red lentils drained (400g)
1 onion finely chopped
1 carrot finely chopped
1 courgette
1/2 yellow pepper finely chopped
1/2 red pepper finely chopped
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp grated ginger
2 tomatoes
1 tsp tumeric

Method
Peel the potatoes, cut into chunks and boil until soft
Preheat the oven to 180C
Whilst the potatoes are boiling, heat the oil in a large frying pan and add in the onion, carrots and courgette
Allow the vegetables to soften and then add in the ginger, peppers and tumeric
Cook for a few minutes and then add in the chopped tomatoes and the lentils
Cook for another few minutes and then transfer to a baking safe dish
Take the cooked potatoes, add in some milk and mash till smooth
Top the lentil mix with the potatoes leaving peaks
Sprinkle on some cheese if you fancy and then bake for 25mins

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