Meatless Monday - Jewelled Couscous Salad

The multi-coloured glossy peppers make this salad look jewel-like so it is beautiful on a buffet. It is also a great thing to have in the fridge over a couple of days as it goes with just about anything and as well as being tasty, it is good for you too. Peppers and other roast vegetables are full of anti-oxidants and although couscous it isn’t a whole grain, it contains protein, some B vitamins and fibre. (You can buy whole grain varieties of couscous now, but I have to confess I prefer the taste and texture of the traditional sort. But please do use them if you prefer.) The couscous that you normally buy here in the West is an ‘instant’ variety, and does not require the long steaming that traditional couscous does, making it quick and easy to cook.

Once again, I use my favourite go to ingredient, Roast Vegetables, in this dish, but I cut the pieces smaller and roast them for less time.

1 onion (red if possible), cut in small chunks

1 zucchini, top and tail removed, cut in half lengthways and then cut in half moons

(If you cannot get a zucchini, use a sweet green pepper instead.)

1 red pepper, de-seeded and cut in small chunks

1 yellow pepper, de-seeded and cut in small chunks

2 tablespoons olive oil plus a bit more for dressing the salad

2 to 3 teaspoons Balsamic vinegar plus a bit more for dressing the salad

2 cups couscous

4 cups vegetable stock

salt and pepper to taste

2 to 3 tablespoons chopped fresh flatleaf parsley or 1 tablespoon dried parsley

Preheat the oven to 375℉ or about 190℃.

Place the vegetables in a roasting dish and toss in the 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 to 3 teaspoons of Balsamic vinegar. Roast for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables begin to soften and turn golden on the edges. Remove from the oven and cool to room temperature.

Meanwhile, heat the vegetable stock in a saucepan until nearly boiling. Place the couscous in a large, heatproof bowl and pour the stock over top. Cover with aluminum foil and set aside for about five minutes or until all the liquid is absorbed. Stir through with a fork and set aside to cool.

Mix the roast vegetables and the couscous together, adding a bit more oil and vinegar just to dress the salad and bring everything together. (You won’t need more than about a teaspoon or so of oil and a few sprinkles of vinegar.) Grind in some black pepper and taste the salad. Add salt if necessary. Stir in the parsley and store in the fridge until ready to serve.

Meatless Monday - Mediterranean Vegetable Tart

I would love to be able to tell you that I always make pastry from scratch, but like most busy moms, I just can’t do that every time. Luckily there are some wonderful ready-made pastries out there, and as long as you find one that uses vegetable shortening (do avoid the hydrogenated kind), they are perfectly fine for vegetarians. Of course, it you would rather make your own scratch pastry that is even better.

If you keep some Roasted Vegetables ready in the fridge, this doesn’t take more than a few minutes to put together, but even if you have to make them specially, it is well worth it for the delicious warming flavour this colourful tart provides.

I make this in a long rectangular quiche dish, but you can use a pie plate if you prefer. It is lovely served with salad or hash browns if you want to make a heartier meal. I have also served it alongside vegetable stew - a combination which has proved very popular in our house.

To serve about four to six people you need:-

1 ready made or homemade pastry to cover the bottom and sides of your chosen pan (I use this brand as it fits my quiche pan perfectly)

3 tablespoons tomato sauce or paste

2 tablespoons basil pesto, homemade or store bought

1½ to 2 cups roasted vegetables

1 to 2 handfuls of vegetarian cheese

(mozzarella is best but any meltable cheese works well)

Preheat the oven to about 350℉ or 170℃.

Place your pastry in the pie or quiche dish, rolling the pastry out first if necessary.

Mix the tomato sauce and pesto together and spread the mixture over the bottom of the pie crust, coating right to the edges.

Top this mixture with the roasted vegetables, spreading them right out to the edge. Sprinkle with the cheese.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is melted. Allow to sit for about five minutes after it comes out of the oven before slicing.

The 21st Century Housewife's Delicious Chicken Marinade - A Cook Once, Eat Twice Recipe

This marinade has been a favourite in our house for a very long time. One of the things I love about it is it is great for ‘cook once, eat twice’ recipe combinations. It’s spicy, but not too much so, and kids love it. The first night you can barbecue or bake the chicken in the oven and the second you just need the oven or barbecue for about twenty minutes.

The original recipe was from a wonderful cookbook my late Aunt Trish gave me when I was in my teens called the Anne of Green Gables Cookbook, a collection of recipes by Kate Macdonald, inspired by the writings of Lucy Maud Montgomery. I’ve change the recipe over the years, modifying the proportions of many of the ingredients and adding balsamic vinegar into the mix, something that really wasn’t widely popular back in 1985 when the book was published.

Although you can use chicken legs, wings and thighs, I prefer to use it for chicken breasts, not only because my family like them best, but also because they work better for these recipes. To serve four people for two meals you need:-

1 onion, peeled and finely chopped

1 teaspoon Very Lazy Garlic (or 1 clove of garlic)

2 tablespoons olive oil or other vegetable oil

1 cup ketchup

½ cup balsamic vinegar

juice of half a lemon

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

3 tablespoons brown sugar

a generous pinch of salt

Melt the butter in a small saucepan, and gently sauté the onion until it begins to appear translucent. Add the Very Lazy Garlic and stir it in. (If using a garlic clove, grate it into the mixture now and stir in.) Let the mixture cook for about a minute. Now add all the remaining ingredients and stir together. 

Bring the mixture just to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for about ten minutes. 

You can either cool the marinade down to fridge temperature and then marinate cold chicken breasts in it for several hours in the fridge before you cook them, or just put it warm on the chicken as you are about to cook it.

Cook the chicken on the barbecue (or in the oven at about 375℉ - that’s 170 to 180℃) turning once until no pink remains inside. In the oven this will take about 30 to 40 minutes. Remember never serve leftover marinade that has been used to marinate raw meat.

On the first night, serve the chicken with baked potatoes and vegetables (we love corn on the cob and green beans with this). Reserve four of the chicken breasts for the second night, cooling them quickly and refrigerating as soon as possible. On the second you can make a delicious dinner sandwich.  I’m relying on you already having some roast vegetables in the fridge, but if you don’t you can always just use some roasted red peppers from a jar instead. 

Healthy Chicken Supper Sandwiches

To serve four people you need:-

One long baguette (I like to use wholemeal as it is better for you but any will do)

3 to 4 cooked marinated chicken breasts, sliced

about 1 cup of roasted vegetables

4 slices of Monterey Jack or cheddar cheese, cut in half diagonally

Cut the baguette in four pieces and then slice each slice in half. Stuff each sandwich with some sliced chicken and some of the roast veggies and top with a slice of cheese. Wrap each sandwich tightly in foil and bake in the oven or barbecue for 20 to 25 minutes until piping hot. Serve with salad and a few good potato chips.

The 21st Century Housewife's Roasted Sausage and Vegetable Pasta

This is another really quick and easy recipe that requires very little work from the cook, aside from a bit of light chopping, so it is a great one for after a busy day.  You can use whatever tomato sauce you have to hand.  I try to always have homemade tomato sauce in the freezer, but I often find myself using a canned or jarred sauce when I’m making this recipe and it still tastes great.   The tomato sauce you are using probably has spices already in it, but taste as you go along and see how you feel.  You might want to add about a half a teaspoon of dried basil and/or oregano or about a teaspoon of chopped fresh herbs.  Oh, and do use really good sausages for this recipe - whether you choose the vegetarian or meaty variety, you want ones with a lot of good for you ingredients and without fillers and nasty stuff. 

Mascarpone is the cultured Italian cream cheese you often find in desserts like tiramisu, but a small amount used in savoury recipes can make them taste really special.  

This recipe serves 4, but it is easily doubled.  

1 large onion (preferably a red one for colour), peeled and cut in fairly thick slices

1 red pepper, de-seeded and chopped in chunks

8 sausages

1 tablespoon vegetable oil (preferably olive)

2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

1 garlic clove, finely chopped or 1 teaspoon Very Lazy Garlic (ready prepared and chopped garlic)

2 cups prepared tomato sauce

¼ cup mascarpone cheese

herbs and salt and pepper to taste

10 to 11 ounces of pasta (I like penne for this recipe but any pasta shapes will do) 

Place the prepared onion, pepper and sausages in a roasting dish and drizzle with the oil and balsamic vinegar.  Add the garlic and toss everything lightly to coat with the oil and vinegar.  

Put in the dish in the oven and roast the sausages and vegetables at about 375℉ or 190℃.  This will take about 30 to 35 minutes, and you should stir the mixture after about 15 minutes to make sure it is all cooking evenly.  The sausages are done when there is no pink remaining inside.  When the sausages are cooked, remove the roasting dish from the oven, cover with foil and keep warm.  

Cook the pasta in boiling salted water in a large pan according to package directions.  Heat the tomato sauce over low to medium heat in a small saucepan.  When it begins to get warm, taste it for flavour and add any herbs or salt and pepper you feel it needs.   Then stir in the mascarpone cheese.  It might take a few minutes for the cheese to meld with the sauce, just keep stirring gently until it does.  Heat through thoroughly, but don’t let the mixture boil. 

Meanwhile, keeping everything in the roasting pan, slice each sausage into about four bite size pieces.  Cover and keep warm.

When the pasta is done, drain it and return it to its pan.  Add the chopped sausages and roasted vegetables along with the mascarpone tomato sauce.  Stir through and serve on warmed plates or bowls with crusty rolls on the side.  

Fish on Friday-The 21st Century Housewife's©Pesto Crusted Fish with Couscous and Roasted Vegetables

I love fish, and am all for reviving the tradition of eating fish on Fridays, whether for religious or secular reasons. Fish is good for you, and provided you buy products that have been sustainably fished, it is good for the environment too. According to UN estimates, meat production accounts for nearly one-fifth of manmade greenhouse gases so eating fish one day a week can only help. Although “fresh” fish can be expensive, frozen fish is often a very good buy. And to be fair, unless you are buying directly from a fish monger, most of the fish labelled as "fresh" has actually been previously frozen just after it is caught and thawed under controlled temperature conditions so it can be marketed as "fresh" in the supermarkets. As a result, I tend to buy the majority of my fish frozen, both for reasons of freshness and economy. For example, I can get a big pack of sustainably fished cod loins really reasonably at Costco, and they are suitable for cooking straight from frozen.

Cooking time for fish will vary, depending on whether it is cooked from fresh or frozen, and how thick the fish is. A general guide is that when fish is cooked it should no longer be opaque and it will flake easily with a fork. The timings I have listed here are for my “cook from frozen” cod loins which are fairly thick as well. So go carefully, as overcooked fish is not nice - but then neither is undercooked fish :). Also oven temperatures can vary pretty radically oven to oven, so the first time you make this recipe, just keep an eye on it and go carefully. You can always turn the heat down a bit if things seem to be cooking too fast.

Don’t be put off by the long list of ingredients; this recipe is so delicious it is well worth the trouble, and it really does not take very long to put together. If red or yellow peppers are too expensive, you can use green bell peppers instead, or even some roasted red peppers from a jar (don’t roast the jarred peppers though, just heat them through with the couscous at the end of cooking). Same thing goes for the red onion - a plain onion will do nicely if the red ones are pricey.

My family love this recipe, but I love the fact that it is special enough for company too. It’s easily doubled if you have extra guests.

For the fish:-
4 cod or haddock loins, filleted, bones removed
(fresh or frozen)
2 tablespoons prepared basil pesto from a jar
2 tablespoons matzo meal (or bread crumbs)
drizzle of olive oil
grated rind and juice of 1 lemon

For the vegetables:-
1 red pepper, de-seeded and chopped in medium pieces
1 yellow pepper, de-seeded and chopped in medium pieces
1 zucchini, chopped in half moons
(cut the zucchini in half lengthwise, and then slice)
1 small red onion, peeled and cut in eighths
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Enough couscous for 4 people, prepared according to package directions.

4 large squares of aluminum foil

Start with the vegetables – place the peppers, zucchini and onion in a roasting dish. Drizzle with the olive oil and balsamic vinegar and toss to cover. Place in the oven and roast at 400℉ (200℃) for about twenty-five minutes, stirring once half way through.

Meanwhile, mix the pesto, matzo meal and lemon rind together in a small bowl. Drizzle a small amount of olive oil into the mixture and stir.

Place each cod loin on a square of aluminum foil, skin side down. Sprinkle a bit of lemon juice over each piece. Using a spoon and your fingers, gently press the pesto mixture on to the top of the fish. Seal the aluminum foil up round each piece in a package shape. (Don’t press the foil down on to the fish or topping.) Place the fish parcels on a baking sheet and bake at 400℉ or 200℃ for about ten to fifteen minutes.

At this point, remove the fish from the oven and open the top of the parcels, leaving the foil open. Return to the oven so that the fish can finish cooking and the pesto crust can brown a little. This will take about five to ten minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish and whether it was fresh or frozen to start with. The fish is done when it is no longer opaque and flakes easily with a fork.

If the vegetables have finished cooking before the fish, just remove them from the oven and cover with aluminum foil and a clean tea towel to keep warm.

Prepare enough couscous for four people according to package directions. (This should normally take about five minutes.) Mix the couscous and roasted vegetables together (including any remaining oil in the roasting pan), and divide between four plates.

When it is fully cooked, serve the pesto crusted fish on top of the roasted vegetable couscous.