Category: Vegetarian Main Dishes

Pasta al burro/ Pasta Bianco/ Poppys pasta

This is the quickest simplest pasta dish I know. White pasta or pasta in butter – can be made with olive oil, but I prefer the buttery version. I guess it depends if youre from northern or southern Italy. I’m not. In its simplest form, its cooked pasta in butter with parmigano sprinkled on top – but we can do better!

Cook a portion of pasta (c100g), drain and retain some of the pasta water.

In the empty pan, add a small knob of butter and a little crushed garlic (c1/2 a clove for 1 person) and mix til it is softened and smells less harsh.

Add the drained pasta back to the pan, and toss it in the butter & garlic. add another knob of butter, and a swig of pasta water and mix – the butter should mix to make a creamy sauce.

Add some grated parmagino and mix as it melts into the sauce. you may need another glug of pasta water if it looks claggy.

when it looks ‘right’ dump into a bowl and top with more parmagino and some black pepper. nom

Sweet Potato Falafel

1 can chickpeas
2 smallish sweet potatoes – baked
1 small onion, fine dice
1 clove garlic
2 handfuls flatleaf parsley – fine chop
1 handful corriander – fine chop
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tbl lemon juice
1 tsp salt

Mash the chickpeas with the sweet potatoes, add other ingredients and mix to paste. Roll to walnut-size balls and bake at 200ºc for 10 mins or so.

Chana Dahl

200g green lentils
2 onions, fine dice
1’thumb’ ginger fine dice or grated
2 cloves garlic paste
3 tomatoes, chopped
1tsp cumin
1tsp turmeric
1tsp garam masala
1tsp red chilli powder
salt to taste + green chillis (dealers choice)
handful of rough chopped coriander leaf

sweat the onions, add ginger, garlic, tomatoes, cumin & turmeric. Add the lentils and enough water to just cover them. cook for c30 minutes until the lentils are cooked (timing depends on the type of lentil).  You will need to add some water as you go, making sure the dahl doesn’t stick or burn.

when cooked, add salt to taste, maybe a splash of lemon/lime juice if needed. Once off the heat, stir in garam masala, coriander and green chillis – split length-wise.