Tag: spinach

Spinach and ricotta cannelloni

~ Sophie ~ Leave a comment

Sometimes you just need tubes of pasta full of iron-rich spinach and creamy cheese, enveloped in a rich garlicky tomato sauce. And of course topped with melted toasty cheese

  • 400g spinach
  • 6 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 egg
  • 30g parmesan, grated
  • 250g ricotta
  • 30g basil, roughly chopped
  • 150g (around 15 tubes) dry cannelloni
  • 4 cloves garlic, finely sliced
  • 400g passata
  • ½ tsp sugar
  • Salt and pepper
  • 40g cheddar, grated
  1. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a large deep pan
  2. Sauté the spinach until it wilts then tip into a sieve – you can do this in stages if the spinach doesn’t doesn’t fit at once
  3. Press and squeeze out all the liquid from the spinach
  4. Then leave to cool for a bit, and then chop the spinach
  5. Put the spinach in a bowl, add the egg, parmesan, ricotta and half the basil
  6. Stir together well and set to one side
  7. Heat the other 4 tbsp oil over a medium heat and add the garlic slices
  8. Sauté until garlic is golden and then add the passata, sugar plus half a tin of water
  9. Stir together, season with salt and plenty of black pepper
  10. Heat to a bubble, cook for 5 mins and then stir in the rest of the basil
  11. Turn off the heat and set to one side
  12. Pre-heat the oven to 170C fan/190C
  13. Use a teaspoon (or, if you’re fancy, a piping bag) to fill the cannelloni tubes one at a time. There should be enough mixture to the fill each one to overflowing
  14. As you fill them, place the filled tubes neatly in rows in an ovenproof ceramic dish
  15. Pour the tomato sauce over the top and sprinkle with grated cheddar
  16. Bake for 45 mins until the top is browned and the pasta is soft when you stick a sharp knife into one of the tubes
  17. Leave to stand for 5 mins before serving so as not to burn the inside of your mouth off with molten sauce

Herb pancakes

~ Sophie ~ Leave a comment

Tender and green, this is the perfectly quick weeknight dinner. Makes 8 pancakes.

  • 300g plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 200ml milk
  • 3 eggs
  • 50-60g soft herbs, finely chopped (I like a combination of parsley and dill with a bit of mint and sage. But anything works. Try coriander, tarragon, chervil, chives. Whatever you like – or have guiltily wilting in the back of the fridge)
  • 100g mature cheddar cheese, grated
  • 100g baby spinach
  • Salt and pepper
  • 3 tbsp veg oil
  • Chop the spinach and pop in a sieve. Boil the kettle and pour the boiling water over the spinach to wilt it. Then press out as much of the liquid as possible
  • Dump all the ingredients except the oil (but including the spinach) into a bowl and whisk gently until just combined. If it’s too stuff, just add a little more milk but take care not to over-beat it or it’ll be chewy when you cook it
  • Turn the oven on to 50-70C to keep the pancakes warm as you cook them
  • Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat
  • Use a serving spoon to scoop 3 scoops of batter separately into the pan to make 3 small pancakes. The edges should sizzle!
  • Leave for 3-4 mins until golden brown on the bottom and puffy on top, then flip it and give it a couple of mins on the other side
  • Pop the cooked pancakes into the warm oven, then add another tbsp oil to the pan and repeat the process
  • Keep going until all the batter is used up and then serve while still warm
  • Change up with different herbs, different cheeses, whatever you’ve got hiding in the fridge.
  • Serve with a lovely crisp salad and some guac. Or some honey mustard roast carrots. Or crunchy red cabbage slaw. Or just chilli sauce and mayo for dunking. Tuck in!

Murgh Lasan (chicken with garlic and dill)

~ Sophie ~ Leave a comment

The most fantastic, low-effort curry you’ll ever put in your mouth. Maximum flavour – incredible creamy spicy rich fragrant savoury deliciousness – courtesy of the fantastic Romy Gill and tweaked by me because I don’t have a big food processor and I like spinach. Feeds 4

  • 8 chicken thigh fillets, left whole
  • 8-10 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 20g fresh dill, roughly chopped
  • 10g ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 1 tsp ground turmeric
  • 2 birdseye chillis, roughly chopped
  • 1 onion, roughly chopped
  • 1 lime, juice and zest 
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tin coconut milk
  • 3 tsp veg oil
  • Handful fresh coriander, chopped
  • 200g spinach
  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C fan (200C)
  2. In a mini food processor, add the garlic, dill, ginger, turmeric, chilli, onion, lime juice and zest, salt, ground coriander and 2 tbsp coconut milk
  3. Whizz into a paste as fine as you can get it
  4. Heat the veg oil in a deep, ovenproof frying pan over a medium heat
  5. Add the paste, stir and cook for 2 mins until it goes a shade darker
  6. Then add the remaining coconut milk and stir through
  7. Fry for another 2-3 min until it’s fully combined and bubbling
  8. Add the chicken thighs and turn them over in the sauce to coat them
  9. Bring the sauce back to a bubble around the chicken
  10. Put the pan in the oven uncovered and cook for 45 mins, stirring around the chicken once or twice while it bakes
  11. While it’s in the oven, steam or stir fry the spinach until wilted. Then put into a sieve and press as much moisture out as possible
  12. When the bubbling curry comes out of the oven, stir in the spinach and scatter with coriander
  13. Serve with basmati rice or parathas

If you wanted to make this vegetarian, you could definitely cook the sauce on the hob for 30 mins over a low heat, stirring occasionally. And then just fry some paneer cubes or roast some cauli florets to stir through at the end

Salad bag pesto and butternut squash lasagne

~ Sophie ~ Leave a comment

It’s got stripes of orange and green! And it’s flipping delicious! There’s literally no down side. Feeds 4.

This recipe is multi-stage, but every step is very simple and the end result is fully worth it, promise.

It’s also endlessly adaptable, so the perfect way to use up leftover odds and ends of nuts, fresh-but-floppy herbs and a slightly-past-its-best bag of salad. Especially as bagged salads are one of the most wasted foods in Britain, with over half of them ending up in landfill. This recipe is inspired by and dedicated to the bloody extraordinary Jack Monroe.

  • 1 butternut squash, deseeded and peeled
  • 1 head of garlic, cloves separated but unpeeled
  • Nutmeg
  • 3 tbsp veg oil
  • 100g bag of salad (I like a rocket, spinach and watercress combo, but anything will work as long as it’s not iceberg)
  • 100g nuts, toasted gently in a dry pan until golden (I prefer a combination of almonds and pine nuts but, again, it can be anything you like/have leftover)
  • Handful of fresh herbs (parsley is good, or basil, a bit of dill or mint. Not so much the hard herbs like rosemary)
  • 2 tsp garlic oil
  • 50ml olive oil
  • 30g parmesan, grated
  • 200g mascapone
  • 100g cream cheese
  • 60ml milk
  • 7 pucks frozen spinach, defrosted and liquid squeezed out through a sieve
  • 50g cheddar, grated
  • 250g fresh pasta sheets
  • Salt and pepper
  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C fan (200C)
  2. Quarter the butternut squash from top to bottom, and slice into thin pieces around ½ cm wide
  3. Chuck the slices into a baking tray with the unpeeled garlic cloves, then drizzle over the veg oil and season with salt, pepper and a few scrapes of nutmeg
  4. Mix well and then stick in the oven for 30-40 mins until the squash is tender and soft
  5. Take out and pop on the side to cool a bit. Then squeeze the garlic out of its skin and back into the pan. Use a potato masher to roughly crush the squash and garlic together. You’re after a chunky mash, not a smooth puree
  6. Meanwhile, tip the salad into a bowl, add the herbs, toasted nuts, garlic oil, olive oil and a large pinch of salt
  7. Use a hand blender to whizz it into a bright green, fragrant pesto – don’t blitz it into oblivion, you still want a bit of texture
  8. In another bowl, mix the mascapone, cream cheese, spinach and milk. Season with salt and pepper (and a bit more nutmeg wouldn’t go amiss here too)
  9. Now you’re ready for construction! Get yourself a deep oven dish roughly the size of your lasagne sheets – I like glass so I can see the layers through the side, but ceramic would work just as well. (My lasagne sheets need soaking in cold water for 2 mins before using, so do that too if you need to)
  10. Spoon half the crushed squash and garlic into the bottom of the dish, smoothing out to an even layer. Top with a lasagne sheet. Then half the pesto, spreading it out to a fairly even layer. Then a lasagne sheet. Then half the mascapone spinach mixture, smoothing that out fairly flat and sprinkling with half the grated cheese. Then a lasagne sheet, press down gently and start all over again. Squash – pasta – pesto – pasta – mascapone + cheese – until you’ve finished everything up and ended with a layer of grated cheese on top.
  11. Stick in the oven for 40 mins until the pasta is silkily soft, the sides are bubbling enticingly, and the top is crusty and bronzed
  12. Leave to stand for 5 mins before eating if you can bear to, just to avoid burning your mouth.

If you want to make it in advance, you can make it earlier in the day all the way up to the final stint in the oven. Cover and keep in the fridge til you’re ready for it.

Spanakopita

~ Sophie ~ 2 Comments

Spinach pie. Wholesome – because so much iron in spinach! – prettily greenly herby, crunchy on the outside, and mouthwateringly yummy. An excellent vegetarian main course for 4.

  • 500g fresh spinach 
  • 1  onion, finely chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, crushed 
  • 2 tbsp veg oil
  • 8 sheets of filo pastry 
  • 4 tbsp of butter, melted 
  • Grated nutmeg
  • 200g pack of feta cheese, crumbled 
  • 2 eggs, beaten 
  • Handfuls of fresh parsley, dill and mint, chopped 
  • Salt and pepper 
  1. Pre-heat your oven to 160C fan (180C)
  2. Wash the spinach and chop it. In a large pan, heat 1 tbsp of the oil and cook the spinach until wilted
  3. Transfer it to a sieve and squeeze out as much water as possible
  4. In the meantime, add the other tbsp of oil into the same pan, drop in the onion and garlic, and saute until soft – about 5 mins
  5. Put the spinach, onion and garlic into a bowl and add eggs, herbs and feta. Grate a few gratings of nutmeg over
  6. Season and mix well until everything is combined
  7. Time for the butter! Best to apply it using a pastry brush if you have one. Butter the inside of a ceramic oven dish then place in a layer of filo pastry, letting the edges drape over the sides. Brush the filo with melted butter and then put the next sheet on. Do this with 5 sheets of filo altogether. You don’t need to butter the top one because you then fill your filo-lined dish with the spinach mixture
  8. Cover with the remaining filo sheets, buttering each one in turn, then flip the trailing edges over onto the top of the pie. Scrunch and crinkle them before also brushing them with butter for an extra crunchy top. (With hindsight, I know I called this dish wholesome – and I stand by that – but it’s also buttery and cheesy and eggy, so definitely not a diet food!)
  9. You can scatter the top with sesame seeds if you want to make it especially tempting and crunchy
  10. Bake for 20-30 mins until the top is golden brown and crisp
  11. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 5 mins before serving straight from the dish

A tomato salad goes really beautifully with this dish – incredibly simple to make. Beautiful, refreshing and delicious to eat. Just cut up some lovely ripe tomatoes (slices or wedges or whatever you like), sprinkle with salt, a good grind of black pepper, a large pinch of sugar and some decent extra virgin olive oil. That’s it.

Saag paneer

~ Sophie ~ Leave a comment

Brilliant dish as part of an Indian feast with friends, or just sitting on the sofa in pjs, watching Queens Gambit and eating a bowl of it on its own. It’s the power of squeaky cheese. This is enough for 2 if you’re not having anything else with it. And for 4 as a side dish.

  • 2 tbsp veg oil
  • 220g firm paneer, cut into small cubes
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 3 cm piece of ginger, grated/minced (highly recommend a microplane grater for this!)
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 2 tsp garam masala
  • ½ tsp turmeric
  • 2 tomatoes, diced
  • 300g spinach, washed and roughly chopped
  • 50ml single cream
  • ½ tsp salt
  1. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a deep frying pan, pop in the paneer and fry until golden. Then remove from the pan
  2. Add the other tbsp oil and the cumin seeds. Fry for 1 min until you can smell them, then add the onion
  3. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5-8 mins until the onion is golden and completely soft
  4. Stir in the garlic and ginger, cook for 1 min and then add the garam masala and turmeric. Season with salt
  5. Add the tomato to the pan and stir everything together. Cook with the lid on for 10 mins, stirring occasionally and adding a small amount of water if it’s starting to catch
  6. Put the spinach in the pan and carefully stir into the mixture – you might have to do this in stages
  7. Once spinach is wilted, pour in the cream, a splash of boiling water and the paneer cubes and combine
  8. Heat until bubbling and serve straight away