Posts in Lunch
Roasted Pumpkin & Sweet Potato Soup
Photography by Elisa Watson, Styling by Kate Bradley for Nourish Magazine May/June 2014.

Photography by Elisa Watson, Styling by Kate Bradley for Nourish Magazine May/June 2014.

Melbourne is officially heading into the wintery weather. The mornings are cold, the days are overcast and rainy and the nights are even colder than the mornings. This weather for me means one thing, soup.

I find soups are perfect for winter. They are warming, they are nourishing and pack in a whole heap of vegetables. They are also nice and light for the evenings. Winter is the season that we tend to over indulge and hence a nice nourishing, nutrient packed soup at night will keep us from pigging out on stodgy foods and will instead keep us feeling good! So here is a delicious recipe for a Roasted Pumpkin & Sweet Potato Soup - always a go to on cold wintery nights.

This is another recipe in my 'Good Food for Busy People' recipe spread for May/June 2014 issue of Nourish Magazine. For the full spread check out Nourish Magazine in Coles, Woolworths and news agencies across Australia!


Serves 4

Ingredients
1 brown onion
3 cloves garlic
1/2 kent pumpkin
1 large sweet potato
3/4L vegetable stock
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cracked black pepper

1 tbsp olive oil

To serve
2 spring onions
1 tbsp chilli flakes
1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
1 tsp olive oil

Method
Roughly chop pumpkin and sweet potato to large pieces. Leave the skins on. Roll in olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Slow cook in oven until flesh soft.

While pumpkin and sweet potato are cooking, slowly cook onion in olive oil until light caramel colour, add garlic and cook 5 mins.

Remove skin from pumpkin and sweet potato. Discard the skins. Place in blender (I use my Vitamix blender as it gets the soup extremely smooth!) with the onion, garlic and veggie stock and blend until smooth.

To serve, sprinkle with chopped spring onions, chilli, pepper to taste and a drizzle of olive oil.

No Meat Sausage Rolls
Photography by Elisa Watson and styling by Kate Bradley for Nourish Magazine May/June 2014.

Photography by Elisa Watson and styling by Kate Bradley for Nourish Magazine May/June 2014.

Sausage rolls are part of Australian culture. Whether it's eating one from the school canteen, having an amazing one made by your nan, smashing one at the footy or late at night after you've had too much to drink (normally from 7/11), it's always been there.

However the sausage roll as we know it is not really a nourishing item nor is it a nutritious item, so I knew I had to set this right! This humble sausage roll is gluten free, vegan* and just as delicious as it's original counterpart!

This recipe is part of a quick lunches spread I contributed for the May/June 2014 issue of Nourish Magazine. To check out the full spread and more recipes you can pick up a copy from Coles, Woolworths and news agencies across Australia.


Serves: 4-5

Ingredients
400g tin lentils
bay leaf
2 cup sliced button mushrooms
1 tbsp rice bran oil
2 cloves garlic (crushed)
marjoram
parsley - 1/2 bunch fresh
1 brown onion (diced)
2 tbsp flax meal
6 tbsp water
1/2 c gluten free oats or flaked quinoa
1 faux beef stock cube
1 tbsp tomato paste
2-3 sheets gluten free puff pastry
2 tbsp seeds of choice
1 tbsp plant based milk *optional

Method
Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.

Place lentils, mushroom and bay leaf into food processor and pulse until mushrooms are chopped but not mushed. In a medium fry pan heat the 1 tbsp of rice bran oil and add in the onion. Once onions are translucent add in the the lentils and mushroom mix. Cook ingredients for a couple of minutes.

Add in the crushed garlic, herbs, flax meal, water, oats/quinoa flakes, faux beef stock cube and tomato paste. Stir ingredients in fry pan and let cook for 5 minutes then remove from heat.

Defrost the gluten free pastry sheets. Cut sheets into halves. In the middle of each pastry half, place in the mushroom/lentil mixture. Roll pastry on each side and place the fold at the bottom. Cut the sausage rolls into size of choice, brush with milk and sprinkle with seeds.

Place in oven for 20-30 minutes until pastry is golden and crunchy.

*Check packaging of gluten free pastry to make sure you get a vegan option.