Top Quick Tuesday – Orechiette with chickpeas, greens, basil and mint

I’ve been finding it easy to make excuses not to go to circuit training after work during these cold dark evenings, but I’m not using “not enough time to cook” as one. Top Quick Tuesday is back!

This was based on a recipe from Paul Gayler “Pure Vegetarian”. His recipe uses broccoli raab, which I’ve never seen, but I substituted some leftover greens instead. While the pasta cooked I fried some sliced red onions, crushed garlic and chilli flakes in oil. I threw in some cooked and drained greens, a drained tin of chickpeas and then the cooked pasta. Finally I added some chopped basil and mint, stirred it all together and served it up into warmed dishes. I grated some Vegusto Piquant cheese over the top but the meal could easily stand alone without it.

This meal was ready in the time it took to cook the pasta, and it tasted fantastic, so I definitely can’t use lack of time as an excuse to miss exercise again!

Black mushroom fideau

This is a recipe from Paul Gayler – Pure Vegetarian. It’s quite a fancy book with lots of dairy but a fair few of the dishes are vegan or can be adapted quite easily. This one is naturally vegan apart from the garlic mayonnaise on the side, but that’s easily managed with a pot of Plamil or Mayola and some garlic!

This dish is Spanish and quite unusual. There is a link to the recipe available here  although in the book it doesn’t mention the vegetables. We had it as it was with the mayonnaise and some crusty bread, and it was very good indeed. Obviously, the better the mushrooms you use, the tastier it will be. I was lucky enough to be in a French supermarket fleetingly and picked up a big box of girolles to throw in. But it’s tasty enough to use supermarket mushrooms, I reckon!