Checking in, recent meals out and a vegan vanilla caramel butterfly cake

Well, hello. It is odd to log onto Blogger after nearly 2 months away. I confess that I haven't missed the act of blogging but I have missed the outlet for sharing food-related news and for connecting with regular readers. I hope you are all well.

I have been less active than I expected in reading blogs too. I opened Inoreader this week with a little apprehension - how much would have built up? - but found it freeing to look at 2 months of others' activity and know I could pick and choose what to read and what to comment on. It was a lovely surprise to see Johanna's reflection on blogging as part of my catch up. Her post captures many of my views and it summarises how blogging has changed and time can feel stretched for all of us.

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London

I think and hope I may be in a position to return to posting a little more often, but will make no promises in this post. I am pleased, however, to announce one update: Bite-sized thoughts is now on Instagram (@bitesizedthoughtsuk). I resisted Instagram for a long time because I thought it would be another thing to monitor and manage, but I like that I can share snapshots of products and meals when I wouldn't manage a full post. If you're on Instagram, let me know and I will look you up.

For now, I am pleased to share some highlights from the last 2 months.

Mini Bite in action

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Red lentil dhal

How do you spell dhal / dal / daal? I vary back and forth but seem to favour dhal. I couldn't tell you why though and I am not aware of a rationale for one spelling over another.

However you spell it, dhal is a classic lentil dish and a recent addition to our regular meal rotation. I started making it as an alternative to the spiced carrot and red lentil soup that everyone in the house still loves, but which I got a bit sick of having every week. This dish is a great alternative that is still a hit with Mini Bite and Mr Bite (and me) but is a bit simpler to make, and nicely versatile in that you can pair it with rice or bread or even enjoy plain.

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Spiced carrot and red lentil soup

I have made this soup four times now, which isn't bad going in the space of two months. It is a hit with all three of us and Mini Bite also enjoys helping me to make it. This is because I pull out the food processor for grating the carrots, and the NutriBullet for blitzing the soup later on, and what self-respecting toddler doesn't enjoy feeding carrots into a food processor and pushing buttons on things that whiz? These steps do make the soup more labour intensive than the chunky vegetable, non-pureed variety, but it is so tasty that I don't mind. Getting Mini Bite involved in the kitchen is a fun development too.

The soup itself is really simple and packs a hearty punch thanks to the lentils. You can play around with the spices and seasonings, and even throw extra vegetables in if you like. This mix is a winner in our household though.

Spiced carrot and red lentil soup

A delicious, satisfying soup that makes 4 generous servings

Lightly adapted from the spiced carrot and lentil soup on BBC Good Food

Blender or food processor needed

Ingredients

1 tbsp dried ground ginger

1 tsp mild dried ground chilli

1 tsp dried ground paprika

1 tsp olive oil

1 bunch leeks, trimmed and sliced

1 L (4 cups) vegetable stock

3 sticks celery, trimmed and sliced

600g carrots, grated (no need to peel)

1 cup dry red lentils

125ml (1/4 cup) unsweetened almond milk

Method

In a very large saucepan or soup pot, dry fry the ginger, chilli and paprika over medium heat for approximately 1 minute. Add the oil and leeks and saute for 2 or so minutes.

Add the stock, celery, carrots and lentils and bring the mix to simmering point. Stir, reduce heat to medium-low, and allow to cook, covered, for approximately 30 minutes (until the lentils are soft). Add the milk at the end and stir through.

Allow the soup to cool before blending in a blender or food processor. Reheat before serving.

Keeps well in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Do you have a favourite soup recipe?

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African sweet potato and tomato quinoa

I've become very partial to the African flavour mix of sweet potato, smoky tomato or paprika, and creamy peanut butter. This dish is a simple twist on this classic combination and it is satisfying, comforting and tasty. It's also very easy.

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Creamy vegan tomato and basil pasta

It turns out the old adage about children and pasta is true. Mini Bite is pretty good with most foods, but she loves pasta and is capable of tucking away an enormous amount of it when hungry. My go-to easy sauce for her is a mix of tomato pasta, tahini, dried oregano and nutritional yeast, but recently I have been looking for some different sauces that we can all enjoy. This creamy tomato basil pasta was one result.

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Vegan pizza pinwheels

If you have children or use Pinterest, you are probably familiar with the internet phenomenon that is pinwheels. These are rolled up swirls of puff pastry that can be filled with savoury or sweet ingredients. They are renowned for being easy to make, easy for children to eat and delicious.

I finally jumped on board the pinwheel trend last weekend. Indeed, they are easy to make, easy to eat (for children and adults alike) and delicious. I don't tend to cook with puff pastry regularly and so I'm not likely to make these on a frequent basis, but they will be going into rotation in my kitchen. My pinwheels were pretty messy and I'm sure you could make neater ones, but even with my sub-par pastry skills they held together and cooked with no problem.

 

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Easy cauliflower and aubergine vegetable curry

I have made a few vegetable curry dishes over recent months but neglected to photograph or post them. This is a shame, because our evening lighting was lovely in the middle of summer and I could have taken decent photographs if I'd thought to do so. Going with the spirit of better late than never, I am pleased to share this curry that I photographed in waning evening light this week.

Mr Bite is not, historically, a big fan of these sorts of curries. He also has a low opinion of cauliflower and aubergine. However, we have discovered that mango chutney and naan bread go a long way to winning him around. So it was with this meal. I don't think he would have been happy to have the curry and rice alone, but with chutney and naan bread, he professed himself satisfied.

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Golden couscous salad

It has been a while between couscous recipes. There is no particular reason for this, other than the usual one of my favoured foods going through cycles. I may be re-entering a couscous phase since reminding myself of how easy it is to make.

Today's salad is golden in lots of ways. There is orange in three formats (zest, juice, segments) plus grated carrot, chopped butternut squash and turmeric. Coriander, ginger and a dash of soy sauce round out the flavour mix, whilst chickpeas and spinach leaves round out the meal. It all comes together very easily and the result is hearty enough to stand alone as a meal, whilst also being well suited to picnic-style eating or a barbecue side dish.

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Meal planning

For a long time, I have been someone who aspired to create a weekly meal plan, but who never did so. It has taken our current circumstances to push me from aspiration to realisation. You see, while I am back at work 4 days per week, Mr Bite is now home with Mini Bite. This takes advantage of the UK system allowing parents to take up to a year of parental leave between them. I was home for 11 months; Mr Bite is taking the last month to soak up time with Mini Bite and to ease the transition for her before she starts nursery in August.

To make life easier for all of us, I have taken to planning Mini Bite's meals and snacks for the week. We try and eat similarly to Mini Bite where possible during the day, so there are run-on plans for us too, and I am planning our evening meals separately.

To anyone else who has contemplated meal planning but not quite managed it - do it! It makes such a difference. Some of it will roll from one week into the next, so it is the first week that requires most thought. I don't plan Thursdays or Saturdays in detail, as Mr Bite has a take-away on Thursday (I make something easy at home as local vegan take away's aren't that inspiring, unless we've been out somewhere in the day where I can pick up a vegan meal). We then have burgers on Saturday.

I don't expect to share our plans every week, but I thought I would give you a peek into a week of menus. It reflects the day-to-day of plant-based eating as well as the more impressive meals and recipes that are more likely to make it online. At present we are relying a little more than usual on processed foods (like veggie sausages), but the plan below is a pretty accurate snapshot of how we regularly eat.

Chickpea flour pancakes with a tomato-bean filling

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Easy lentil, spinach and tomato puff pastry triangles

I have previously posted a recipe for Indian-spiced lentil and vegetable pastry puffs. Today's post is basically a simpler and quicker version of that recipe. These lentil-filled triangles are not as extensively flavoured as their Indian counterparts but they are still very enjoyable.

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Lentil potato cakes (version 2)

I have shared a recipe for lentil potato cakes before. This one makes a few tweaks to the original and offers much better photos! I am pleased to update my Recipe index with this new version.

My previous recipe involved cooking the cakes on the stove top in a frying pan. This version bakes them in the oven instead, which frees you up to do other things while the patties are cooking. I also used dried green lentils for these, although if you prefer the tinned variety it would be easy to swap back to using a tin. Dried red lentils would be nice too.

The potato cakes are seasoned with nutritional yeast, paprika, coriander, parsley, lemon and tahini. Most of these are regular seasonings in my kitchen and they come together beautifully here. The patties work well on top of salad but could be included in a burger for an even heartier meal. They are complemented nicely by chutney or tomato sauce, but will stand up on their own if you are condiment averse.

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Satay chickpea stew with grains

This recipe is really an adaptation of Angela's Oh She Glows 'Soul Soothing African Peanut Stew'. I mentioned last November that I had tried and enjoyed that dish, and realised on making this that I was channeling Angela's flavours. My version is a little simpler than the hers though, and is designed to be served with grains rather than as a stand alone meal. I liked it a lot and am documenting it for my own future reference as well as to share with you!

To me, meals like this are the ultimate comfort food. As is obvious from this site, I love chocolate and desserts and they are comforting too in their own ways. However, there is something warming and comforting about a big bowl of full-flavoured vegetables and grains. It's like a wholesome hug.

I used tinned chickpeas for this, in part from laziness and in part because I wanted to use chickpea water to thicken the stew. If you cook yours from scratch, just reserve a little of the cooking water to add to the mix.

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Cocoa and paprika split peas

In the spirit of reducing food packaging and preparing ingredients in advance, I cooked up a batch of yellow split peas on the weekend. Some have been eaten plain or simply, but this cocoa and paprika mix gives a more adventurous variation. Borrowing from the concept of a mole sauce, the split peas are flavoured with cocoa powder, paprika, cinnamon and tahini. If you are in the mood for something spicy (oddly for me, I wasn't) then a dash of chilli powder would be a great addition too.

I enjoyed this with a new bread discovery - Polish sunflower seed sourdough bread - but the mix could also top rice or quinoa, fill a wrap, or balance out some sweet potato fries. Indeed, it is tasty enough to be eaten plain if you so desire.

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Lentil and apricot tagine

I may be taking liberties with the term 'tagine' here, as I do not have a tagine dish and this is not a traditional North African recipe. Tagine-stew is probably a more accurate term. Whatever you call it, the dish is enjoyable and combines vegetables, lentils and dried apricots to pleasing effect.

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Vegan-friendly Italian sausage stew

I wasn't going to post this recipe, because it is only lightly adapted from the sausage and mixed bean casserole that Dannii recently shared on Hungry Healthy Happy. However, I ended up making more adaptations than intended, and because I enjoyed the stew I wanted to document the ingredients for future reference. If I'm honest, I also managed to take photos in good daytime light conditions and thought it a shame to waste them!

This isn't the sort of dish I grew up eating, and indeed sausage stews or casseroles are fairly new to me. As a child, we had (meat) sausages fairly infrequently at barbecues. They were a novelty and eaten in a bun or with barbecue themed side salads. Perhaps as a result, vegan sausages now frequent either in buns or alongside potato and salad. However, Dannii's casserole caught my eye as a hearty cold weather dish and as something suited to my current preference for make ahead dinners. (The time immediately before our dinner is usually taken up with bathing and feeding Mini Bite.)

Dannii's casserole used turkey sausages so an obvious adaptation in my dish was to substitute veggie ones. I used the Linda McCartney brand, which is one of our most frequently purchased vegan sausage options. I also put one potato into the stew and paired it with pitta bread instead of a mashed potato side. I left out the beans as I eat so many of them in other formats, added some additional vegetables (carrot, pepper, spinach), and tweaked the seasonings.

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Red pepper and lentil bolognese

I have previously shared an aubergine and pepper bolognese that offers a satisfying mid-week (or anytime) vegetable-packed meal. This red pepper and lentil bolognese is a worthy alternative. I paired this version with pasta spirals instead of spaghetti and really enjoyed the result. I know pasta shapes don't matter that much, but somehow they change the feel of a meal and I think this one suits spirals!

 

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Easy chicken-style vegan burritos

This is a meal with many shortcuts. The burritos and salsa were store bought, and the chicken-style pieces come courtesy of Quorn. It is also easy to make in advance, something I have found helpful if Mini Bite naps during the day. Whereas workday dinners needed to be made from start to finish as efficiently as possible, maternity leave dinners benefit from two-stage preparation! I confess this is also a meal with photography shortcuts but the recipe was good enough that I am posting it even with the poor images.

The advance preparation here meant cooking up the vegetables and Quorn pieces in the afternoon, and compiling the burritos then, before cooking everything through in the oven in the evening. The dual cooking time means you can get away with chopping rather than grating the vegetables. A bonus if you are avoidant of manual vegetable grating and dirtying your food processor unnecessarily!

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Thai bean burgers

This is another pre-baby meal and, again, another meal I look forward to recreating one day. Some of the pictures also reveal my late pregnancy craving for vinegar. I was making homemade chips regularly for the primary purpose of smothering them with the stuff! I had very few pregnancy food cravings (just aversions in the first trimester) but in the final weeks I seemed to want malt vinegar in copious quantities.

As for the actual burgers, I have previously shared two Thai-style veggie patty recipes flavoured with ginger, chilli and soy sauce. Clearly I know my burger tastes because today's recipe is really a third variation of the same concept. However, I think it is the best variation yet. These burgers are bigger, heartier, meatier, and sturdier than the patties I've shared before.

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Smoky barbecue calzone with aubergine and peppers

Many thanks for your lovely comments on my last post. It's safe to say that parenthood is a whole new world, with many ups and downs, and that I have a new appreciation for the effects of persistent sleep deprivation. However, Mini Bite is delightful and I am learning to ride out the challenging moments and savour the cute, lovely, satisfying ones.

This post shares a recipe from before we had a newborn. I am definitely not rolling out dough or finely chopping vegetables at the moment! However, I hope I can re-create this one day because it was a meal we both enjoyed and I absolutely loved the smoky vegetable filling.

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Mediterranean pasta salad with tofu

We have had a few cold dinners this week, on account of some hot summer days and overly warm summer nights. The nice thing about England is that, generally, the hot weather doesn't last for weeks on end like it does in Australia. The flip side is that air conditioning isn't common here, so when it is hot, you are hot.

For those of you in the northern hemisphere, this Mediterranean pasta salad is perfect for summer nights, barbecues or picnics. It's easy to make ahead and then serve cold. For those of you in the southern hemisphere, I imagine it could work as a warm pasta dish too.

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