Courgette Bread

Bread in captivity.

I have a new favourite brunch cafe in London. It's called Lantana, and they do the most amazing eggs with generous heapings of avocado, sides of spinach, amazing cornbread and a truly lovely coffee.

What they also do and I totally love is courgette bread. Apart from having a lightly speckling of green throughout the bread, you wouldn't know there was a cheeky vegetable hiding in there. Of course, being the courgette lover that I am, I had to have a go at making it for myself.

This is the recipe from their book, with a few adaptations. Frankly I could make a few more tweaks to make it more healthy, but lets consider this version 1. Courgette bread 2.0 will no doubt follow at some point!

What You'll Need

Makes 1 loaf

- 2 courgettes/zucchini 

- 2 1/2 cups self-raising flour

- 1 teaspoon baking powder

- 1/2 teaspoon salt

- 1 1/2 cups mature cheddar

- 50g butter

- 4 eggs

- 1/2 cup milk

The How-To:

- Preheat oven to 180 celcius

- Grate the courgette and squeeze it to get as much water out as you can

- In a large bowl combine courgette, flour (sifted), baking powder, salt and almost all the cheese

- In a small pan, melt the butter, then remove from heat and add in milk and eggs (whisked with a fork)

- Pour liquids into the mixing bowl and stir gently until all combined and not a minute longer. Do NOT overstir or else you'll end up with jawache trying to chew this bad boy!!

- Pop into a silicon loaf tin or regular tin lined with baking paper

- Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top

- Cook for 60-80 minutes, until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean

- Cool on a wire rack until completely cool before attempting to cut

Winter Warmer: Lentil, Carrot and Chorizo Soup

What did the chef say when the first course was ready?

Soups-on!

(I know, I'm hilarious).

For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, the clocks are about to turn back and the nights are definitely turning in. At this turn of the season, nothing gets you into the winter vibe more than a steaming bowl of hearty soup with a nice chunk of rustic bread.

This soup is incredibly filling - the lentils are high in fibre and protein (hi fibre! hi protein!) to keep you going as the rain and sleet and snow sets in, the chorizo helps give a hearty depth to the flavour, whilst the carrots add vibrant colour (and who knows, with all that Vitamin A they contain, might help you see better at 3.30pm when it gets dark!).

Added bonus - eaaaaaasy and mega cheap to make in bulk! Freezes excellently and only gets better with age, so bake with the biggest saucepan you have and soup-er size your cooking!

What You'll Need:

Serves ~10

- 1/2 stick chorizo (or use 4 rashers of bacon)

- 6 carrots

- 5 cloves garlic

- 1 tablespoon turmeric

- 1-2 stock cubes (any flavour, but probably veggie is best)

- 2 cups red lentils

- 2.5 litres boiling water

- Black pepper to garnish

The How-To:

1. In a pan, cook the chorizo over a low heat for a few minutes

2. Remove most of the chorizo from the pan, turn up the heat and cook the rest until crispy. Set aside and turn down heat again. 

3. Grate/finely chop 6 carrots and add to pan with garlic (peeled but whole) and turmeric

4. Boil 2.5 litres of water and mix in a separate bowl with the stock cubes

5. Put stock, 2 cups of red lentils and carrot mix into large saucepan or slow cooker

6. Cook on highish (NOT boiling) for 20-30 mins, then turn down low for as long as poss (in a saucepan, as many hours as you can, ideally more than 2, or if using a slow cooker just leave it on low all night!)

7. Ladle out a generous bowlful, garnish with crispy chorizo pieces and black pepper, and a side of courgette bread!

Travel Tip: Want to take soup to work but worried about spillage? Fill up an old sauce jar with soup and whack in the freezer. Take the frozen soup to work, and leave on the side to defrost until lunchtime when you can pop into a bowl and heat. No spills, no tears!

Healthy Spring Rolls: Be-Leaf it or Not

This 'recipe' was borne of a nearly-empty fridge. My poor shelf hadn't been stocked in a bit too long, and all that was to be found was half a head of iceberg, a handful of carrots, a bit of chorizo and a lone courgette. It was cold out, and I'd come home from a startlingly wild game of netball absolutely ravenous. So what on earth to make from my odd little collection of ingredients?

Spring rolls! Except without rice paper. And without being rolls. Whatever they are, they're a fantastically easy to make dinner that is jam packed full of colour, veg and crunch. Feel free to chop and change for different vegetables, or chicken/beef/beans in place of chorizo.

Be-leaf me, you'll want to try these. 

What You'll Need

Per Person

- 1 courgette

- 2 carrots

- 5cm of chorizo

- 1/4 head of lettuce

The How-To:

1. Chop chorizo into small pieces and pop into a frying pan over a low heat with a little oil for about 5 minutes until warmed through

2. In the meantime, wash and chop the carrots into pieces the same size as the chorizo, and add in to the pan

3. Use a julienne peeler to create 'courgetti' (or just chop into small pieces if no peeler to hand), and add in with the carrots/chorizo

5. Stir everything for 3-4 minutes until warmed through

6. Tear away each iceberg leaf individually and give a quick rinse

7. Scoop a generous amount of courgette/carrot/chorizo mix onto each leaf

8. Eat immediately!