Spicy Vegetable Soup with French Lentils

In this weather, a hearty bowl of soup is a welcome meal day or night.  I always make extra of this because it is even more delicious the next day.  All you need is some good bread and butter and you have a brilliant meal.

1 tbspn olive oil

1 fennel, diced

2 large carrots, diced

3 sticks celery, diced

2 zucchini, diced

2 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes

1 cup puy lentils (sometimes sold as French lentils)

1 heaped tspn paprika

½ -1 tspn cayenne pepper

½ tspn cinnamon

salt & pepper

2 litres vegetable stock

parmesan cheese, to serve (optional)

Heat oil in a large saucepan, over medium heat. Add fennel, carrot and celery and sauté for 10 minutes. Add zucchini, tomatoes, lentils, stock and spices. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally for 40 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning to your taste. Serve with shaved parmesan and crusty bread.

Quinoa Roast Chicken

I have recently started making roast chicken with stuffing after I came across a recipe for a cous cous stuffing. I think that quinoa works beautifully here, it is a little lighter than cous cous, but for a faster version use instant couscous or left over cooked rice.

1 chicken

1½ cups cooked quinoa, cooled (I used black quinoa, but any colour works)

¼ cup toasted slivered almonds

¼ chopped pistachio kernels

zest of one orange

12 dried apricots, diced

3 tbspn chopped parsley

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ground cumin

 ½ tsp ground coriander

olive oil

salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Wash chicken and pat dry. Line a baking dish with baking paper. Mix cooked quinoa with spices, zest, nuts, apricots and parsley.

Stuff the chicken lightly (don’t overstuff) with the quinoa mixture and truss the legs with string or baking paper. Put the remainder of the quinoa in the baking dish and put the chicken on top of it, breast side up. Brush the chicken with olive oil and season well.

Roast at 200 degrees for 20 minutes, then turn the oven down to 180 degrees and roast for a further 60 minutes.

Serve with the quinoa from around and inside the chicken.

Dukkah Crusted Salmon

This is one of those blessed weeknight meals that take less than 5 minutes to prepare. All you need to do while the salmon is roasting is open a bottle of wine and make a crisp green salad or steam some green and dinner is done. Dukkah is a spice blend usually made with crushed nuts, sesame seeds, cumin and other spices. You can substitute with sumac, zaatar or chopped fresh herbs and lemon zest.  By double lining the roasting dish with foil and baking paper, cleaning up takes less time than preparing!

2 fillets of salmon

1 tbspn olive oil

5 tbspn dukkah

salt

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line a baking dish with foil and baking paper. Brush salmon with oil. Sprinkle dukkah on a plate and press salmon into the dukkah. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Cover salmon with foil and bake for 10 minutes. Remove foil and bake for a further 10 minutes or until cooked to your liking (time will vary depending on the thickness of your fillet).