I’m eating meat again at the moment, although not much, and I couldn’t resist trying this delightfully simple crockpot Beef Stroganoff recipe from Best Recipes, on the weekend. I love this recipe site, and this beef dish will now be a firm favourite. Not only was it easy, but it tasted fabulous and the consistency was perfect – rich and creamy just like a stroganoff should be.
I did it on LOW so all up it was 8 hours cooking time – the 5 hours they say at the top of the recipe is if you cook on HIGH.
This definitely serves 6 as the recipe states, and could actually serve more if you have it as part of other dishes – great for a party buffet. I didn’t bother cooking pasta and green beans, as suggested, because I knew it would be very filling and there’s only me to feed – I just had a little black rice with mine. I have lots of leftovers in the freezer now!
OMG this vegetarian spaghetti bolognaise was fantastic! Taste has such great recipes, from a variety of magazine sources and all thoroughly tested with good photos and clear instructions. I make a lot from this site and love the comments people add, to help me decide if I will give something a go or not. I’m always on the lookout for new vegetarian things to try and this fits the bill perfectly – it’s perfect for dinner parties or pot lucks where you need a vegetarian dish.
I did add 2 tiny red birds eye chillies, finely chopped, to the initial sautéed veg mixture, and increased the garlic a tad.
I also halved the amount of dried spaghetti, as I thought mmmm I think 500 gms is a hell of a LOT. I don’t know about you, but I like my pasta to have a real amount of sauce through it, not just 90% pasta with a tiny little blob on it! Halving the pasta quantity was the right decision as it was perfect with 250 gms, and looking at the website’s photo I can’t see how that is 500 gms of pasta unless they doubled the sauce. 250 gms is just right, as with all pasta dishes this is VERY filling – so it will still serve 4-6, depending on whether you have just a bowl of it on it’s own or serve it with salad, garlic bread etc.
I guess you could substitute other types of lentils, but red are perfect in this instance I think, and they cook so quickly, so no need for any pre-soaking/cooking.
As with any pasta dish, sprinkle liberally with freshly grated parmesan cheese if you like…..mmmmmm yum.
I had a go at making these last week for a quick dinner after work. This was SO easy and I thought for sure it would be a winner, but for me the flavours didn’t quite work. I found it too greasy tasting, and mine did not come out as perfect looking – in fact they sunk when cooling down, into concave little cheesey blobs really. I had trouble getting them out of the tin, despite it being non-stick and oiled, and the taste just didn’t do anything for me. I ended up scraping it all into the bin and ordering a szechuan prawn Crust pizza instead!
I do think this is a great recipe for kids to make though, and I think little taste buds would enjoy the flavours more than I did.
Sometimes I experiment with disastrous results – you don’t get to read about those attempts usually, as I’m ashamed of my efforts haha. You DO get to hear, when I have a success. This ravioli bake is something I actually thought would be a complete disaster – I got home from work and had a packet of fresh chicken & mushroom ravioli in the fridge that absolutely needed to be used or chucked out. I was super tired, having just completed my 4th day of work out of 6 in a row, with the next day being an 11.5 hour shift – so was in no mood for cooking at all really. It was only that I had this pasta needing to be used up, that I thought omg what can I do with this that involves things I already have in the fridge/pantry and no effort on my part????
I literally did the following:
Place a 375 gm packet of fresh stuffed pasta (ie ravioli, tortellini, agnolotti) in a casserole dish.
Spoon 200 gms low-fat cottage cheese over the pasta.
Add a few fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped with a pair of scissors.
Pour over a 550 gm jar of pasta sauce (I used a basil flavoured one).
Add 1/4 cup of white wine to the empty pasta sauce jar and swill around to collect the residue stuck to the jar sides, and then pour this over the pasta as well.
Place a lid on the dish and bake at 180C for 45 minutes. And that’s it!
Serve in a bowl, topped with freshly grated parmesan cheese.
Serves 2-3 depending on how hungry you are and whether you have it with other things ie salad, garlic bread. Choose a vegetarian pasta if you like – I personally think that the filling is so tiny they all taste the same!
WELL I have to say, this tasted amazing! I have read many recipes for “baked” pastas of various kinds, where the pasta is actually cooked in a saucepan of boiling water first, but after doing this I say why the heck would you bother when it can just as easily cook in the oven with a sauce over it, while you are free to do your own thing while it cooks? (in my case this involved having a shower and pouring a glass of wine!)
Uber-easy, and uber-tasty. A no brainer really.
Sometimes, chucking it all in and hoping for the best does work.
Enjoy this simple pasta salad with your next BBQ. You can use any type of pasta – shells, bows, penne etc. or even a filled tortellini or ravioli.
Quantities are approximate – I just throw it all in until it looks about right!
Curried Pasta Salad
400-500 gms dried pasta
1 tsp curry powder
3/4 cup mayonnaise (I use low-fat)
1/4 cup milk
6 spring onions, chopped
3/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
cracked pepper, to taste
Mix curry powder with mayonnaise and milk, and blend well.
Cook pasta in boiling water with a splash of olive oil, until al-dente (either on the stove or in the microwave). Drain and add the curried mayonnaise mix, stirring through while the pasta is still hot. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Refrigerate until serving, giving it a toss before using (and add a splash of extra milk just prior to serving, if it looks/feels too thick & stodgy).
Variation – add some finely chopped red capsicum or mushroom.
Yummy dinner earlier this week with both of our mums….an Italian place in Carine called Vincenzo’s. I’ve been there before and it has been delightful on every occasion. This time we shared an entree of Prosciutto-Wrapped Asparagus, grilled and drizzled with olive oil.
I just can’t get enough seafood at the moment – I’ve been devouring prawns, oysters and calamari so much recently (as well as my usual copious quantities of salmon!). For my main I had fettucine with garlic & onion sauteed prawns. Although in the photo it looks like there is only one prawn peeking out amongst the pasta, in fact there were ten – I kept coming across another one – and they were all yummy BIG ones!
This was an interesting meal – I am now doing some casual library work, and after arriving home last Saturday I was pretty exhausted. Did not feel like cooking anything too time consuming, but I was hungry and really wanted something healthy and refreshing. I decided to try this recipe from the current Super Food Ideas magazine – literally just cooked pasta with salmon, herbs and lemon juice folded through.
The original recipe called for rocket, which I find too bitter, so I substituted baby spinach instead, and I also added some green beans, as I had bought some lovely fresh ones that day.
I really loved this dish; however, my boyfriend hated it! He is usually very appreciative of my cooking efforts and has a reputation at work for bringing in delicious leftovers for his lunch. Not this time though – I ate the rest cold as a salad for my next two lunches, which I was quite happy to do as it meant I didn’t have to share it and could be a complete pig lol.
See what you think anyway……
Smoked Salmon Penne
500 gms dried penne pasta
2 tbsp fresh chives, chopped
1/3 cup fresh dill, chopped
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
130 gms smoked salmon, chopped
100 gms baby spinach leaves
180 gms green beans
extra lemons, cut into wedges, for serving
Cut green beans into 5cm lengths and cook for 2 minutes in a little water, on HIGH in the microwave. Drain.
Cook pasta in a large saucepan of boiling, salted water, until tender. Drain and return to pan.
Add all ingredients to the cooked pasta and toss gently to combine until the spinach wilts.
I love this pasta recipe, which is based on a standard recipe on the back of a cannelloni tube box – but over the years I’ve tweaked the quantities. I think it is better my way!
Spinach & Ricotta Cannelloni
250 gm pkt instant cannelloni tubes
375 gms ricotta cheese (low-fat)
250 gms tasty cheese, grated
250 gms frozen spinach, thawed and drained
2 eggs
cracked pepper, to taste
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 x 425 gm cans diced tomatoes
1 tbsp red wine (optional)
1/2 tsp dried basil leaves
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sugar
pinch of salt
Method:
Sauce:
Mix together tomatoes, red wine (if using), basil, oregano, thyme, salt, pepper & sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to a gentle boil and simmer, covered, for a few minutes. Remove from heat and let cool whilst making the cannelloni.
Filling:
Mix spinach, ricotta cheese, eggs, garlic, 1/4 cup of the grated tasty cheese, nutmeg, salt & pepper together thoroughly in a medium sized bowl. Fill the cannelloni tubes with this mixture (Tip: the easiest way to do this is to use a wooden or bamboo chopstick, to pick up clumps of mixture and poke it right down into the tube).
Using olive oil spray, lightly grease a 25 x 20cm ovenproof baking dish. Spoon a thin layer of sauce over base, leaving enough left to cover cannelloni. Place a single layer of filled cannelloni side by side in the baking dish. Spoon over the remaining sauce. Sprinkle with the remaining grated cheese.
Cover with foil and bake in 180C oven for 45 minutes. Serves 6-8 depending on whether you are having side dishes with it. Salad and garlic bread is always good!
You can substitute fresh baby spinach or any other greens, for frozen – I have used bok choy for example – but you need to allow a large quantity in order to have about 250 gms after steaming/chopping it.
A couple of years ago, I needed to make a dish that was vegetarian, but I wanted it to have the flavours of a Chicken Cacciatore type dish. This what I came up with – you can use any kind of tortellini that you like, which can of course be meat-filled (although in my opinion the bought tortellini pretty much all tastes the same, regardless of what it has inside it!).
Tortellini Cacciatore
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, peeled & cut into wedges
4 cloves garlic, peeled & thinly sliced
1 pkt dried French onion soup mix
1 cup water
375 gm pkt tortellini (any kind of filling)
425 gm can chickpeas (including the liquid)
425 gm can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
10 large button mushrooms, thickly sliced
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 tbsp light soy sauce (I prefer Pearl River Bridge brand)
cracked pepper, to taste
Heat olive oil in a large saucepan; saute onion and garlic for 3-4 minutes. Blend the French onion soup with a little of the water, to form a paste, then add this and all remaining ingredients to the pan.
Cover, bring to boil then turn down to low heat and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent it sticking to the bottom. Serves 4
(Optional – add a handful of chopped, fresh asparagus to the pan for the last 5 minutes of cooking)
If you are admiring the embroidered linen centrepiece underneath the bowl, in the photo, yes I made this myself! – it’s a Ukrainian Whitework piece, 19″ square, that I stitched last Aug/Sept.
Happy Fooding!
PS: I have uploaded this recipe on the Taste website, and Australian Good Taste magazine are sometime soon going to have a whole issue full of just reader recipes – based on the highest rated recipe. So if you do try this recipe and enjoy it, please go here and rate me, thanks!
Salmon & Avocado 