Meatless Monday - Chole Chaat (Chickpea Curry)

Chole Chaat is basically a chickpea and tomato curry flavoured with ginger and garam masala. It is hearty and warming and just perfect for this ridiculous cold-snap we are having in Brisbane at the moment. 

It is hands-down one of our favourite meals and both our boys practically lick their plates clean when we have this for dinner, which is a pretty big tick of approval! I honestly don't think I was eating chickpea curry at 19 months old!

Like most curries it tastes better the next day so make it ahead of time, even a few hours, if you can.

Chole Chaat

Adapted from A Little Taste of India, Murdoch Books, 2003 p129

3 cans of chickpeas

2 tbs ghee or oil

1 onion, finely diced

1 ts ground coriander

1 ts ground cumin

1 ts ground turmeric

1 ts garam masala

2 cm piece fresh ginger, grated

2 red chillies, finely diced (or 1/2ts hot chilli powder)

1 tin diced tomatoes

1 tbs veggie stock powder

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat and cook the onion until golden and softened. Add the dry spices and cook 1 minute. Add the ginger, chilli and tomato and stir to combine. Add the chickpeas and 1 tomato tin of water along with the stock powder. Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Bring to the boil then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 5 - 30 minutes. Serve with brown rice and a sprinkling of fresh coriander.

Serves 4. 

This post is linked with Veggie Mama's Meatless Mondays:

Sunday Baking - Apple and Cinnamon Muffins

I've been thinking a lot about healthy lunchbox ideas recently. My husband takes his lunch to work every day (saving us literally thousands of dollars a year!) and always likes a little sweet something to have with his morning coffee. It's now also only a matter of months until Oscar starts kindy next year when having interesting and healthy treats will become even more important. 

These apple and cinnamon muffins are something I've been making for awhile and are a bit of a twist on what can be a sugar and fat-filled indulgence. They stay really moist and are perfect to freeze for lunches.

Apple & Cinnamon Muffins

Recipe by me

3/4 cup self-raising flour

3/4 cup wholemeal plain flour

1/4 cup rapadura or brown sugar

1 ts baking powder

1 ts cinnamon

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup low fat milk

1/4 cup coconut oil

1 ripe banana, mashed

1 large apple, washed and grated (skin and all)

1 egg

Preheat oven to 180 / 160 degrees celsius. Line a 12 cup muffin tray and set aside.

In a large bowl add the flours, baking powder, cinnamon, oats and sugar and whisk to combine. 

In a smaller bowl place the milk, egg, coconut oil and banana and whisk together. 

Add the grated apple to the dry ingredients then pour over the wet ingredients. Using a fork, stir until only just combined.

Spoon the mix into the prepared tray and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer comes out clean. Makes 12. Suitable to freeze.

I was pretty happy with this batch but they did stick to the paper cases a bit. Not a huge problem though and Oscar loved eating the extra 'cake' on the paper!

Spiced Pumpkin Muffins

We tend not to make sweets with pumpkin in Australia. Buying pumpkin in a can or even pumpkin pie spice blends are unheard of. But it's actually no trouble at all to make your own and I'm sure it would be cheaper.

I had pureed some pumpkin to stir through the kids' pasta for dinner and ended up with about a cup left over. What to do? A quick search on Tasty Kitchen led me to these pumpkin muffins and wow, they were amazing! The house smelt like Christmas and warm from the oven the muffins were moist and absolutely delicious.

The perfect treat to brighten up a grey and chilly winter's day.

Pumpkin Muffins

Adapted from A Cozy Kitchen via Tasty Kitchen

1 cup plain flour

1/4 cup wholemeal flour

2 ts baking powder

1 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 cup coconut oil, melted and cooled

2 eggs

2/3 cup brown sugar

1/4 ts salt

1/2 ts cinnamon

1/8 ts ginger

1/8 ts allspice

1/8 ts nutmeg

Preheat the oven to 180 / 160 degrees celsius. Line a 12 cup muffin tray with paper liners and set aside.

Whisk together the flours, baking powder and spices in a large bowl. In another bowl whisk together the pumpkin, oil, eggs and sugar until smooth. Pour this mixture over the flours and using a rubber spatula, fold together until just combined.

Divide the mixture among the muffin cups (they should be at least 2/3 full).

Bake for 20-25 minutes (mine took 22) or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Serve warm or freeze to eat later.

This post is linked up to Crazy for Crust's Crazy Sweet Tuesdays.

Meatless Monday - Vege Bean Patties

Recently I've been trawling some old magazines and cookbooks looking for cheap eats. My mother in law lent me a set of Women's Weekly Menu Planners from the late eighties and that's where I found this little gem aka Vegetable Bean Patties. Think a veggie burger, but old school.

It was exactly the type of thing I was after. Cheap, easy, no fancy ingredients and something I could make with very little notice given we already had all the ingredients in the pantry. I also did most of the work in food processor so it took next to no time to make. You could of course do the grating and chopping by hand.

And the verdict? Yum!

I made a very simple salad of baby leaves, parsley and tomato dressed with lemon juice and olive oil and it was all absolutely delicious. We will definitely be having this again!

Vegetable Bean Patties

Slightly adapted from The Australian Women's Weekly Menu Planner No 6, ACP 1988 p24

2 cups mashed potato

1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

2 carrots (about 250g) grated

1 egg

1/2 red onion, finely diced

1 ts curry powder

1 1/2 cups dry breadcrumbs

olive oil for shallow frying

Place the mashed potato in a large bowl.

Using a food processor, add the onion and pulse a few times or until broken up. Add the kidney beans and pulse again until coarsely chopped and combined. Switch to the grating attachment and grate the carrots. Add it all to the potato. Add the lightly beaten egg and curry powder and mix with you hands until well combined.

Divide mixture into 8 equal portions, roll into patties and roll each patty in breadcrumbs.

Heat the oil in a large frypan over medium-high heat. Add the patties (in batches if you need to) and cook until golden brown on both sides and heated through. Remove and drain on paper towel. Serve with a salad.

Best Ever Custard

There are probably a dozen different varieties of custard at the supermarket - full fat, low fat, skinny, extra thick, pouring, chocolate flavoured, brandy flavoured, snack size ... you name it. But do any of them even come close to homemade? Nope!

The beauty of a good custard is you can just eat it straight out the pot or serve it very simply with some passion fruit or sliced bananas and you have a little bowl of heaven.

I was inspired to make some yesterday afternoon after watching Gary make a gorgeous apple strudel with cream and custard on Masterchef. This is his recipe with only a few minor changes. It is seriously the best custard I have made. Ever. It will most definitely be served with our Christmas pudding this year, and probably quite a few times before then as well!

Custard

Recipe very slightly adapted from MasterChef

300ml pure cream

200ml low fat milk

5 egg yolks

1/4 cup caster sugar

25g corn flour

1 ts vanilla extract

Place the cream and milk in a saucepan over a medium heat and heat until just before boiling.

Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and vanilla in a large bowl until thick and pale before whisking in the corn flour. 

Pour half of the hot cream into the egg mixture whisking continuously. Pour this mix back into the saucepan with the remaining milk/cream and return to a medium low heat. Stir continuously with a wooden spoon or heatproof spatula until the mixture is thick and coats the back of the spoon. 

Strain the custard through a fine sieve to remove any stray bits of egg. Serve immediately or to serve later, place this bowl over another bowl of iced water and stir until cooled to room temperature.