A busy meal prep day today. I got my grocery delivery as usual at about 10 a.m. Here is my haul of veggies.
I also got quite a bit of fruit. I am pleased that they had the flat peaches again – they are lovely, as long as they are ripe enough. I keep them on top of the microwave where they get lots of warm sun to ripen them. I thought the strawberries had come to an end last week, but they had them again this week – we love to have them as long as they are available.
Here are the veggies after I’d prepped them.
I made some more almond milk this morning, and I used the pulp that remains after you’ve squeezed it through the nut bag, to make some more hummus. I have made this several times and it’s absolutely delicious. Here it is, surrounded by all the other ingredients that went in along with the nut pulp. The top is sprinkled with paprika.
Here are all the ingredients laid out ready to make some vegan pate. The main ingredients are aubergine and chickpeas. When I cook chickpeas I use my electric pressure cooker (Ninja Foodi) and cook more than I need for any given recipe. Most recipes seem to call for a 15-oz tin, which is about 1 1/2 cups of cooked chickpeas. I have a chart giving the weight of dry legumes required for any amount of cooked ones that a recipe calls for, and I usually freeze them in batches of 1 1/2 cups so they are ready for use in a number of different recipes.
Here is my new Morphy Richards PrepStar food processor in use. Before I got this, making this vegan pate wasn’t very successful – a food processor is essential. The carrots, pepper and aubergine were diced and roasted and added with the remaining ingredients, and processed together to make the pate.
Here is the machine in use. The motor is in the tall cylindrical part sticking up. This is very clever, because when you store the machine, you insert this part into the lid by rotating it into a different position from when it is in use, and it slips down inside, so it takes up a lot less room. The control is on the top, which rotates to set the speed, and the on-off button is in the centre.
Here’s the pate after it was processed. Yes, I know… it looks absolutely disgusting!!! But believe me, it’s delicious! I had to scrape it down several times during the processing. I like to leave it with a bit of texture and not make it completely smooth.
Here it is, ready for use, together with the box of hummus.
These, and the vegan “cheese” that I make from cashew nuts, are all lovely with home-made sourdough starter crackers – a firm favourite and something I make regularly.
As usual, I saved all the offcuts when prepping the veggies, and boiled them up in my electric pressure cooker (Ninja Foodi). This time I also cooked a couple of sweet potatoes in the microwave and added these. In the bowl on the left is the stock that the veggie offcuts made, and below is a bowl of other veggies (carrots, butternut squash, parsnip, leeks and onion) that I roasted. These are now boxed and in the freezer in readiness for making up into different dishes.
I made some nice thick veg soup with the boiled veggies and sweet potatoes, and the veg stock. I did this in three batches, using my high speed blender. I did this quite late at night and it was still warm, so it will go in the freezer tomorrow.
I also used my julienne slicer on my new chopping machine to make some nice thin slivers of raw beetroot to go in salads. This keeps in the fridge pretty well. We had some tonight to accompany our main meal.
I’ve also been busy this week with apples from our tree in the garden. It looks like a monster crop this year! My hubby picks them and chops them for me, and so far I’m just stewing them and putting them in the freezer. I managed to burn the last lot a bit – they are fine, but my large pan has been soaking for a couple of days to try and get it clean!
All in all, a busy day – I spent a bit longer in the kitchen than I really wanted to, but I feel satisfied with the results of my labours. Plenty of goodness, plenty of fibre! All cooked completely oil-free.
