Tag Archives: Celery

Gluten free spaghetti without sauce

Ever get tired of eating pasta or spaghetti with a tomato or cream based sauce – here’s an alternative which I personally love as it is simple to make and tastes great.

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What do I need to make it?

  • Handful of gluten free spaghetti cooked and drained
  • 1/2 courgette halved and sliced
  • 1 stick of celery chopped into bite size pieces
  • 4-5 button mushrooms quartered
  • 2 green chillies
  • Small onion/shallot sliced
  • 1-2 cloves of garlic minced
  • 1 tsp dried Italian seasoning
  • Handful of fresh flat leaf parsley chopped
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tsp grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
  • Salt and pepper to taste

How much will I make?

1 large serving

How do I make it?

Heat a heavy bottom pan and add olive oil and garlic – saute for a couple of minutes.   Add the sliced onions, chopped green chilli and celery and cook for 5 minutes till the onions go translucent.   Add the remaining vegetables and cook for 4-5 minutes.   Season with dried Italian herb, salt and pepper.   Add the cooked spaghetti and give it a good toss.   Finish with garnish of fresh chopped parsley, Parmesan cheese and a drizzle of olive oil.

Garden fresh – brown rice soba noodles with courgettes and herbs

With Anna away in India for three weeks I have been pretty lazy on the cooking front and coping with quick fruit salads, smoothies and omelettes.  Today I decided to use up the last of the courgettes from the garden and garnished it with a combination of herbs (plucked fresh from our herb patch).  The end result is worthy of being replicated for Anna when she gets back as I think she will like it.

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What do I need to make it?

  • 80-90 gms Brown rice soba noodles (spaghetti if you are not on a gluten free diet)
  • 3-4 medium sized mushrooms sliced
  • 1 large stick of celery roughly chopped
  • 1 small yellow courgette cubed
  • 1 small green courgette cubed
  • 2 cloves of garlic chopped
  • 1/2 tsp dried Italian seasoning
  • Handful basil, mint, oregano and curly leaf parsley chopped for garnish
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • Salt and pepper to taste

How much will I make?

A hearty bowl for one

How do I make it?

Boil your noodles or pasta and keep aside.   Heat pan and add olive oil and garlic and saute for a minute.   Add the celery and saute for a couple of minutes before adding the courgettes and mushrooms.  Stir for 5 minutes before sprinkling the Italian seasoning, salt and pepper.  Garnish with chopped herbs and add cooked noodles to the pan.   Toss around till the noodles are well coated and serve up in a large bowl.  Enjoy.

Garden fresh – cauliflower soup

Our garden patch of cauliflowers was under attack from worms and caterpillars so we decided to salvage the edible ones to make a hot batch of cauliflower soup tonight.

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What do I need to make it?

  • 1 large cauliflower
  • 1 medium onion chopped
  • 1 carrot chopped
  • 2 celery sticks chopped
  • 2 cloves of garlic minced
  • 2 sprigs of spring onion (optional)
  • 2 green chillies finely chopped
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 vegetable stock cubes
  • 50 ml almond milk
  • 1 tsp garam masala
  • 3 tbsp yogurt
  • 50 gms butter
  • 2 tbsp oilve oil
  • Salt and pepper to taste

How much will I make?

Serves 4

How do I make it?

Heat a pan, add butter and olive oil.  Saute the garlic and bay leaves first for a minute before adding the chopped onion, celery and carrot.  Stir for a couple of minute before adding a bit of salt, pepper and garam masala.  Stir for 30 seconds and then add cauliflower florets, stock cubes and about 3 cups of water.   Bring to boil and simmer till the vegetables are cooked.  Remove the bay leaves before putting blending the soup in a liquidizer to a fine puree.  Return to heat and add the almond milk and yogurt – adjust the seasoning and turn off the heat.  Enjoy.

 

Garden fresh – celery soup

Our vegetable patch bounty of celery is more than we can consume in a month and we used some to make a fresh batch of soup for dinner a couple of nights back.  I decided to experiment a bit with the finishing off the dish and added a couple of teaspoons of flavoured cream cheese which works really well instead of cream (not sure if it is healthier but different definitely).

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What do I need to make it?

  • 3-4 bunches of celery washed, trimmed and diced
  • 1 medium onion chopped
  • 2 medium carrots chopped
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 2 gluten free vegetable stock cubes
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 50 gms butter
  • 2 tbsp oilve oil
  • 2 tsp cream cheese (optional)
  • Salt and pepper to taste

How much will I make?

Serves 4

How do I make it?

Heat oil and butter in pan and add garlic and bay leaves to it.  Saute for a minute before adding the onions and sweating them down a bit.  Then add the celery and carrot and give the pan a good mix.   Add 500 ml of water and the stock cubes and bring to a boil.  Simmer the soup on low heat for 30-40 minutes till the vegetables are cooked.  Remove the bay leaves before blending the soup in a food processor till you get a fine puree.  Return to heat and adjust the seasoning.  Add couple of teaspoons of cream cheese, mix and switch off heat.  Serve hot.

Garden fresh – mushrooms and celery

Not exactly the start I’d imagined for a Friday morning.  Our little girl Lola decided to wake up at 4:45 and wanted me to get her morning milk.  As I could not go back to sleep I decided to treat Anna and myself to a cooked breakfast before the school run.  Anna’s garden is in full bloom and the celery plants were ready to be picked.   Breakfast comprised of sauteed mushrooms and celery with scrambled eggs (spiced up with green chilies and spring onions).  The combination of mushrooms and celery is divine – if you love each individually you will love the taste of them combined.

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What do I need to make it?

  • 200 gm assorted mushrooms thickly sliced
  • Small bunch of celery chopped
  • 2 cloves of garlic minced
  • 1/2 tsp crushed red chili
  • Knob of butter
  • Salt and pepper to taste

How much will I make?

2-4 servings

How do I make it?

Heat the butter in a pan and saute the garlic for a minute.  Add the crushed red chili and saute for another 30 seconds before adding the mushroom and celery.  Saute for ten to fifteen minutes till done – adjust the seasoning and serve hot as an accompaniment with eggs or as a topping on toast.

Soup de jour – leek and potato

Thanks to the intermittent summer weather we have in the UK tonight was an opportunity to make a hearty bowl of leek and potato soup.  We saw some fresh leeks on offer at Sainsbury’s and decided to pick some up to make the soup.  Making it is not exactly rocket science but the soup tasted great and so we’ve decided to share it with you.

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Leek and potato soup

What do I need to make it?

  • 2 leeks roughly sliced
  • 4 medium potatoes peeled and cubed
  • 1 carrot cut in pieces
  • 2 sticks of celery cut
  • 1 bunch of spring onion chopped
  • 50 ml sour cream
  • 2 vegetable stock cubes
  • 30 gms of butter
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • Salt and pepper to taste

How much will I make?

4 hearty bowls

How do I make it?

Heat pan with butter and olive oil.  Add the carrots, celery and spring onion first and allow the vegetables to sweat for five minutes before adding the leeks and potatoes.  Stir the vegetables for ten minutes before adding the stock cubes and about 1 litre of water.  Season with salt and pepper and allow to cook on low heat till done.  Blitz the ingredients to a puree and return to heat – add sour cream and switch off the heat.  Serve hot.

 

 

 

Mushroom soup

Fall in love with mushrooms again after you make this fresh batch of soup using an assorted range of mushrooms.  Normally I make soup with closed cup mushrooms but this time I went a bit bizerk in the supermarket aisle and picked up five different varieties.   The net result when combined with other soup staples produced a real flavourful bowl of soup.  It really doesn’t matter what type you use but key is to experiment with different varieties.

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What do I need to make it?

  • 250 gms closed cup mushrooms
  • 250 gms  forestiere mushrooms
  • 100 gms chestnut mushrooms
  • 100 gms wild mushrooms
  • 100 gms Anis mushrooms
  • 1 small onion
  • 3 sprigs of spring onion
  • 2 sticks of celery
  • 1 green pepper
  • 1 carrot
  • 2 red chilies
  • 2 pods of garlic
  • 2 vegetable stock cubes
  • 150 ml soured cream
  • Handful chopped tarragon
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • Knob of butter
  • Salt and pepper to taste

How much will I make?

Serves 4

How do I make it?

Prepare all the vegetables by washing them and chopping them into equal size pieces.    Heat oil and butter in pan and saute garlic for a minute (just want to infuse the flavour into the oil).   Add onion, celery, spring onion, green pepper and chili next and stir for 5-8 minutes.   Then add chopped up mushrooms and reduce heat to medium.   Cook this for another 5-8 minutes and then add 2 stock cubes dissolved in 1 cup of warm water.   Bring the soup to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.   Blitz the soup in a blender and bring it back to boil – adjust the seasoning.   Add the soured cream and garnish with fresh chopped tarragon.