light veggie meals now summer is here!

[bessie26]

I need some more ideas for easy summery meals for me, DH & DD (2.5)

I am veggie, DH & DD aren't, but will pretty much eat whatever I put in front of them!

We really like falafel/dips/salad type meals, but DH gets bored of things if I make them too frequently & then refuses to eat them for months so I could really do with some other ideas.....

In return for your help, I offer you a list of veggie recipes I am collecting!

Wow. Those are great. If I knew how to create a web based recipe book I would, but how about some of these... By the way do you eat fish and cheese?

Baked Stuffed Risotto Tomatoes
Ingredients

8 medium Tomato ~ tops sliced off
1/2 Green Pepper ~ chopped
4 cloves Garlic ~ chopped
1 pinch Chilli - Flakes
1 handful Parsley - Flat Leaf (Fresh) ~ chopped
1 tsp Paprika
1 pinch Saffron ~ in 1 tbsp boiling water
125 ml Oil - Olive
75 gram Rice - Risotto

Instructions

1. Scoop tomato innards into a bowl. Put shells in a roasting dish.

1. Put pepper, garlic, chilli, parsley, paprika, saffron and saffron water into a food processor. Pulse till coarsely chopped. Add tomato pulp and 100 ml of the olive oil. Process until well mixed.

1. Put rice in the tomato bowl and pour over the tomato mixture. Season well. Leave for 30 minutes.

1. Fill tomato shells with the rice mixture without overfilling but including as much liquid as possible. Replace the tomato caps and drizzle with the remaining oil.

1. Put remaining rice in a smallovenproof dish and cover with foil.

1. Bake for 45 minutes.

Serve hot or at room temperature.

2 Servings

and

Spanish Flatbreads With Spinach and Pine Nuts

Ingredients
2 sachets Yeast - Easy Blend
120 ml Milk - Semi-skimmed ~ at room temperature
150 gram Flour - Plain
1/2 tsp Salt - Cooking
200 gram Spinach
28 gram pack Parsley - Flat Leaf (Fresh) ~ roughly chopped
1 small handful Mint (Fresh) ~ roughly chopped
1 tbsp Oil - Olive
2 cloves Garlic ~ sliced
25 gram Pine Nuts
50 gram Manchego (or similar) ~ finely grated

Instructions

1. Mix yeast and milk. Leave for a few minutes in a warm place.

1. Mix flour and salt. Add milk and mix to a smooth dough. Knead briefly. Put in a bowl covered with clingfilm and leave in a warm place to rise for an hour.

1. Preheat oven to 200°

1. Knead dough for a few minutes. Divide dough into 2 pieces and roll out into 2 long rectangles. Put on a baking tray and prick all over with a fork, leaving a 2 cm border all round. Leave to rise for 20 minutes.

1. Put spinach, herbs and oil in a lidded pan. Season well. Wilt over a low heat, covered. Once cooked add garlic and cook to make sure all liquid is gone.

1. Bake dough for 10 minutes. Pile spinach on top. Scatter with pine nuts and cheese. Bake for 5 minutes. Drizzle witha little olive oil.

2 Servings

and

Sweet Potato Salad
Ingredients

1 large Sweet Potato ~ scrubbed
1 tsp Cumin - Seeds ~ crushed in pestle and mortar
1 Chilli (Dried) ~ crumbled
2 Spring Onion ~ sliced
100 gram Tomato - Small Vine ~ roughly chopped
1 handful Basil (Fresh) ~ torn
Oil - Olive
Vinegar - Balsamic
1 small bag Watercress ~ stalks removed
1/2 handful Sunflower Seeds (or pumpkin seeds) ~ toasted

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 200°

1. Chop potato into 1 inch cubes. Toss in olive oil, cumin, chilli and seasoning. Put in roasting tin and cook for 25 minutes until golden and softened. Leave to cool a little.

1. Put spring onions, tomatoes and basil in a bowl, drizzle with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Season.

1. Squash potatoes onto a platter. Top with tomato mix. Pile on watercress. Drizzle with a little olive oil and scatter with seeds.

2 Servings

ooh, they look great, thanks!

btw, setting up the blog thing was easy - I did it coz I got fed up of searching through a folder of torn out pages from magazines searching for recipes!

ooops - I don't eat fish, but do eat cheese (although I try not to eat too much of it)

Thanks. I'll see if I can do the same (ive also got the piles of cuttings and scraps of paper etc...) Just had Andalusian garlic bread for lunch. It was fab! here's the recipe and a couple more you might like.

Andalucian Garlic Bread
Ingredients

300 gram Tomato - Pomodorino
12 Olives - Black ~ roughly chopped
1 tsp Capers ~ chopped
1 tbsp Parsley - Flat Leaf (Fresh) ~ chopped
1 Ciabatta ~ halved lengthways
1 clove Garlic ~ peeled and halved
Oil - Olive

Instructions

1. Place tomatoes in a bowl and squash them between your fingers until flattened and the seeds jabe squished out - beware, they tend to shoot everywhere!!

1. Add olives, capers, parsley, seasoning and 1 tbsp olive oil. Leave for 30+ minutes at room temperature.

1. Preheat oven to 200°

1. Roast tomato mixture for 15 minutes until soft and warm.

1. Brush bread with a little olive oil and either grill or fry for a few minutes until golden. Rub toasted side with the cut side of garlic.

1. Top with tomato mix.

Makes enough for 2 greedy adults.

Pea, Parsley and Lemon Risotto
Ingredients

1 tbsp Oil - Olive
1 Onion ~ chopped
1 clove Garlic ~ chopped
140 gram Rice - Risotto
450 ml Stock - Vegetable
75 gram Peas (Frozen)
1 big handful Parsley - Flat Leaf (Fresh) ~ chopped
1 Lemon ~ zested

Instructions

1. Heat oil and fry onion and garlic till softened. Add rice and cook for 1 minute.

1. Add stock gradually, cooking until each batch is absorbed.

1. Add the peas with the last of the stock and cook until all the liquid has been absorbed.

1. Add the parsley, lemon and lots of seasoning.

2 Servings

Warm Antipasti Salad
Ingredients

1/2 Ciabatta
4 tsp Harissa
100 gram Sundried Tomatoes ~ drained
140 gram Artichoke Hearts - Roasted ~ drained
140 gram Roasted Peppers ~ drained
75 gram Olives - Black (ideally oven dried) ~ destoned
1 tbsp Capers ~ rinsed and drained
1 tsp Cumin - Seeds
75 gram Halloumi ~ in small cubes
1/2 Onion - Red ~ finely sliced
1 bag Watercress, Rocket and Spinach Salad
1 Lemon ~ in wedges

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 200°

1. Cut bread in half lengthways and trim off top and bottom custs if you want. Mix harissa with 2 tbsp sundried tomato oil and spread on bread.

1. Put all remaining ingredients (except the salad and onion) in a roasting tin. Roast the vegetables and the bread for 15 minutes.

1. Toss the vegetables with the salad. Serve with bread and lemon wedges.

2 Servings

I must give credit to my sister here. I am a hardened meat eater but have just lost 30lbs thanks to her veggie recipes (and woking my ass off at the gym!)

Greek Pie

200g bag spinach leaves
175g jar sundried tomatoes in oil
100g feta cheese , crumbled
2 eggs
½ 250g pack filo pastry

1. 1 Put the spinach into a large pan. Pour over a couple tbsp water, then cook until just wilted. Tip into a sieve, leave to cool a little, then squeeze out any excess water and roughly chop. Roughly chop the tomatoes and put into a bowl along with the spinach, feta and eggs. Mix well.
2. Carefully unroll the filo pastry. Cover with some damp sheets of kitchen paper to stop it drying out. Take a sheet of pastry and brush liberally with some of the sundried tomato oil. Drape oil-side down in a 22cm loosebottomed cake tin so that some of the pastry hangs over the side. Brush oil on another piece of pastry and place in the tin, just a little further round. Keep placing the pastry pieces in the tin until you have roughly three layers, then spoon over the filling. Pull the sides into the middle, scrunch up and make sure the filling is covered. Brush with a little more oil.
3. Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Cook the pie for 30 mins until the pastry is crisp and golden brown. Remove from the cake tin, slice into wedges and serve with salad.

From the Good Food website, but it is delicious!

Just barbecued some halloumi and ratatouille-ish kebaba which were muy yummyosa

Chunky chop aubergine, courgette, pepper and halloumi - marinate in olive oil with chopped herbs (I used parsley, rosemary and lemon thyme) and crushed garlic. After a couple of hours, threaded the lot onto skewers (would have chucked on some cherry tomatoes too, but we didn't have any!), then bung on the barbie until chargrilled.

Hi bessie I was just commenting on this very problem yesterday. All the things I have cooked in the last few months are quite heavy and stodgy and now the sun is even shining up here it is time for some lighter foods.
I shall steal all the great ideas watch with great interest.
If anyone else has a go at the recipes can they post and let us know how they got on please?

Asparagus and pea risotto

Halloumi with lemon juice, chilli and parsley served with salad leaves

Greek salad

Greek-style butter beans with salad, tsatziki and pitta bread

oooh, some brilliant ideas here - thank-you very much! I have stolen carefully stored them on my blog (look for the "Light Summer Meals" tag) & look forward to trying them out soon!

off now to look for more greek recipes

A pleasure. I'm now off to nick the ones that aren't mine

I and DCs love quinoa salad 1.Cook quinoa 2. while warm add vinagrette in a pretty bowl 3. Add chopped avocado, spring onions, garlic, parsley fresh and or dried basil etc. to taste mix gently and enjoy.

Iam allergic to vinegar so make my vinaigrette with olive oil, walnut oil, fresh lemon juice and sometimes tamari and mustard or tiny chopped garlic I keep it in a screw top jar in fridge. Easy to shake as well.