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‘Vegetarian Recipes’ Category

  1. Easy Peasy Three Bean Chilli Recipe

    February 2, 2012 by Saara

    As I’m sure you’re all pretty much aware now  (as I haven’t shut up about it all last month!) that I do love my Mexican food! Which is why I’d finally blog my gluten free, easy peasy, super healthy 3 bean chilli recipe for y’all! 

    I first came across the 3 bean chilli dish when I lived with three wonderful girls; Sophie, Amy and Fiona, in a cockroach infested house in the middle of Moss Side which was owned by the craziest of landlords! But pushing crazy landlord and cockroaches aside, living with these girls was one of my favourite years of Uni!

    [Fiona, Amy, Me and Sophie]

    It was Amy who introduced me to three bean chilli. I had foolishly assumed that three bean chilli was made with mince with 3 types of beans added which was the reason why I hadn’t tried it. The problem was, I hate mince, which was why I would never eat a dish that involved it. I don’t know why I don’t like it and even now I try my damn hardest to have it again, but I can’t make myself like it sadly!

    But when I looked in the pan that was bubbling away on the stove I was super happy to find there wasn’t any mine in sight! What’s more, the recipe was a ‘hand-me-down’ from her Peruvian brother-in-law, so I knew it was going to taste pretty amazing… and trust me it was!

    Which is why three bean chilli has become one of my favourite dishes which I either have with rice, my own gluten free tortillas or Discovery Tacos with my home made guacamole!

    Now for some little tips from yours truely!

    Although the recipe below is enough to feed the flippin’ army, bear in mind this dish freezes really well so you can always save some of it for days when you can’t be bothered to cook anything. Also, with the spices, you can also buy sachets of Chilli seasoning by Discovery [which is also gluten free] instead of buying all the different spices. However, I sometimes use the Discovery sachet… with the spices because I’m crazy like that and  feel free to use any other vegetables that you fancy! Oh and one thing [I promise!] I sometimes buy a tin of ’3 Beans’ which you can get in water or in spicy Mexican sauce, so again you have a choice of buying the one tin or three different types of beans separately.

    Ingredients:

     

    • 2 tablespoons of Oil
    • 1 Medium Onion [chopped]
    • 2 Cloves of Garlic [chopped]
    • 1 teaspoons of Ground Cumin
    • 1 teaspoons of Ground Corriander
    • 1 teaspoons of Paprika
    • 1 teaspoons of Chilli Powder
    • 1 teaspoons of Ground Cinnamon [optional]
    • Mushrooms [chopped and as much you want]
    • Peppers [chopped and as much you want]
    • 2 tins of  chopped tomatoes
    • 1 small tin of Sweetcorn [use as much as you want]
    • 1 tin of Three Beans in Water [drained] or 1/2 tin of Kidney Beans, Butter Beans and Black Eyed Beans [drained]
    • 1 small tin of Baked Beans
    • 100ml of gluten free Vegetable Stock
    • 1 tablespoon of Balsamic Vinegar [optional]
    • Fresh Coriander
    • Juice of 1 Lime
    • Salt and Black Pepper to taste

    Method:

    1. In a frying pan over medium flame,  add the oil with the onion and cook until they turn soft and brown. Then add your chopped garlic 
    2. After a couple of minutes, add your chopped vegetables [i.e Peppers and Mushrooms] 
    3. Add all the  drained beans [but not the baked beans] along with all your spices [or your Discovery Chilli sachet] and mix together 
    4. After a couple of minutes add the small tin of baked beans, along with the chopped tomatoes and vegetable stock.  
    5. Now add the balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper, corriander and the juice of one lime and simmer until some of the liquid [but not all!] is reduced! 

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    Category Dairy Free Recipes, Healthy Recipes, Meal Ideas, Mexican Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes | Tags: ,,,,, | 2 Comments

  2. Gluten Free Tortilla Wraps

    January 17, 2012 by Saara

    One of my all time favourite cuisines, has to be Mexican food! I just love every dish, flavour, dips and all the spices, so you can understand why I was a little bit miffed when I was diagnosed with coeliac disease!

    Although us fabulous coeliac’s can still eat some Mexican food, [I've just discovered we can eat Taco's - see my post here] sometimes I really miss the good old fashioned tortilla wrap! The good thing about these wraps is that they’re so versatile that you don’t have to use them to just make fajitas/burritos, you can also make them into healthy lunch time sandwiches!

    So back in the dreary summer of 2011, I decided to make some gluten free tortilla wraps to go alongside my home made 3 bean chilli. I followed a basic tortilla recipe I found on the internet and embarked on a mission to change the ingredients to suit us coeliacs [i.e changing the flour to gluten free flour and so forth!]

    But the whole process turned out to be a complete nightmare! Not only did it break when I rolled it [or even look at it for that matter!], when I finally manage to salvage one and cook it in a frying pan, it turned rock solid! I was worried I’d end up losing a part of my tooth if I took a bite and when I did bend the ‘wrap’, it just snapped in two!

    [My first time making tortillas!]
    

    So I vowed never, ever, EVER try and make gluten free tortillas again! I decided that maybe tortillas are my kryptonite and no matter how many times I practised, I would still fail. But every day that passed I kept thinking of these flipping’ gluten free tortilla wraps and I had visions of tortillas mocking me and laughing at me [to be fair, I must have been going a little crackers]. So when I planned to make 3 Bean Chilli again for me, Mike and Pete, I thought it’d be a good time to attempt to make gluten free wraps again!
    

    However, this time I decided to use my secret weapon – my dad! He’s such an amazing cook and he has such a passion for it too. He can literally make a top notch meal that’s fit for a king, with just a few shoe laces and old dust bin lid! [All right, I may be a little biased since he's my dad but trust me, he's an amazing cook!]. But having him on the other side of the phone, helped me with my confidence with making these again!
    

    Firstly I was going to add Xanthan gum which I didn’t use before [if you're unsure what that is, I wrote about it here] to the mixture. I’d decided that I was not going to roll them out too thinly as this made them rock hard too and I was also going to roll the dough in between two pieces of cling film, [a little tip my friend Fiona gave me-thanks Fi!] which I found worked an absolute treat!
    

    Another little tip my dad did give me was to stop obsessing with rolling the tortilla out into a perfect circle. The thing is, I’m so bad a rolling dough out and no matter how many videos I watch on how to roll dough into a perfect circle, it just never happens. Plus the whole point of cooking is for it to enjoyable and I was not enjoying this at all!
    

    Ingredients:
    

     
    

      

    1. 1 teaspoon of Xanthan Gum
      2. 

    2. 1 teaspoon of Sugar
      3. 

    3. 1 teaspoon of Salt
      4. 

    4. 1/2 teaspoon of Baking Powder
      5. 

    5. 125g Gluten Free Plain Flour
      6. 

    6. 200ml Warm Water
      7. 

    7. 2 tablespoons melted Butter or Oil
      8. 

    

    Method:
    

    

      

    1. Add all the dry ingredients [xanthan gum, sugar, salt, baking powder and flour] into a bowl and mix together 
      2. 

    2. Add the melted butter/oil and gradually add the water until it forms a dough 
      3. 

    3. On a well floured surface, kneed the dough and then separate them into 4 balls 
      4. 

    4. Generously flour two sheets of cling film and pop one of the dough balls in between the sheets and gently roll them out [not too thin remember!] and do this for the rest of the dough balls too 
      5. 

    5. Add a little oil in a non stick frying pan and carefully add the rolled out tortilla 
      6. 

    6. Cook on the frying pan until golden on both sides 
      7. 

    7. After you’ve cooked the tortillas, now it’s time to tackle the kitchen and clean up the aftermath of the flour explosion! 
      8. 

    

    

    

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    Category Egg Free Recipes, Gluten Free Doughs, Mexican Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes | Tags:  ,,  | 10 Comments
    

      
    
    
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    Gluten Free Falafel Recipe
    
      
      
    January 6, 2012 by Saara
    
	
      
    
      
	  
    I’d never tried (or heard) of a falafel until I moved to Manchester for University! It was in my first week of being a student, that I ventured into the famous Curry Mile, where I ws literally like a little kid in a sweet shop!
    

    

    For those who don’t know, the Curry Mile in Manchester has the largest array of Pakistani, Indian, Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi cuisine! There’s so many fabulous restaurants, cafes and take outs that even the fussiest of eaters will find somewhere they like and it was here where I tried my very own falafel!
    

    Anyways, for those who don’t know, a falafel is a fried ball [or patty/burger] made from ground chickpeas and spices. They’re usually served in a pitta bread or on a bed of salad. As you can already tell, these beauties are ideal for either lunch or dinner and make a quick, easy peasy and oh no healthy meal!
    

    

    Ingredients:
    

     
    

      

    1. 1 Can of Chickpeas
      2. 

    2. 1 Garlic Clove [chopped]
      3. 

    3. 1 Small Onion [chopped]
      4. 

    4. 1 tsp Ground Cumin
      5. 

    5. 1 tsp Ground Coriander
      6. 

    6. 1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper [optional]
      7. 

    7. 2 tbsp Gluten Free Plain Flour
      8. 

    8. A handful of Coriander leaves
      9. 

    9. 1 tbsp Oil
      10. 

    

    Method:
    

    

    

      

    1. Drain the chick-peas then let them dry on some kitchen paper 
      2. 

    2. After the chick-peas have dried, pop them into a food processor and blitz them until the look like breadcrumbs 
      3. 

    3. Add the chopped onion, garlic, ground cumin, ground coriander, plain flour coriander leaves and cayenne pepper to the chickpeas in the food processor and blitz together 
      4. 

    4. After blitzing all the ingredients together, carefully empty the mixture into a clean bowl [If you've got a shoddy and annoying food processor like mine, you might have to mash the mixture a little with a fork/potato masher] 
      5. 

    5. Shape the mixture into little balls, then flatten to make little ‘patties’ . In other words, make them look like little burgers! 
      6. 

    6. Heat some oil in a frying pan and fry the patties for 3 minutes until lightly golden [I know in the bottom picture, it looks like I'm drowning the poor patties but I thought I would deep fat fry them... this just made them soggy so I tried again and fried it in a tablespoon of oil, which worked wonders] 
      7. 

    7. Serve in either a gluten free pita bread like moi [I used Asdas free from pitta bread] or on a bed of salad! 
      8. 

    

    

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    Category Appetisers / Snacks / Side Dishes, Dairy Free Recipes, Dinner Recipes, Egg Free Recipes, Healthy Recipes, Indian Recipes, Lunch Recipes, Mediterranean / Spanish Recipes, Vegetarian Recipes | Tags:  ,,,,  | 2 Comments
    

      
    
    
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