Creamy Lentil Curry

Another recipe that used some of my Christmas skipping haul. I washed and cooked up some red lentils till they started to go a bit mushy (I actually blended them as well for a smooth consistency). I fried up some various curry spices, onion, and garlic in a frying pan with lots of oil. I added this to the lentil mixture, along with some cooked chickpeas and some carrots and broccoli that I got from the skip and let it all mellow out together.

I don't eat dairy, but I had six cartons of skipped cream to use up, so I threw one in to the curry. It really set it off and gave it a lovely, well, creaminess. Coconut milk would give the same effect, but you don't often find that in the skip. Serve with some rice, or potatoes, or whatever you have lying around and you're done. It's pretty quick, and an especially good way of using up left-over veg, of which there is plenty at Christmastime.

Dara's Sandwich no. 5

Courgette, tomato, fresh onion, and caramelised onion houmous on Toasted Rye Bread

All of the vegetables for this one came from right here on the farm in Sweden where I'm working. Even the homemade sourdough rye bread is made from rye flour from the farm. Good lunch.

- Dara

Curried Potato, Aduki Bean Mix, and Beetroot Salad

Hej! I'm currently working on an organic vegetable farm near Björklinge in Sweden with some other friendly folk. We work hard, and it's pretty hot here, so the best bit is coming in to a big, well-deserved lunch. We take turns cooking and I volunteered for my turn the other day. It was my first time cooking for eight people, but luckily there was enough for everyone to have seconds! Oh, and all of the ingredients, apart from the spices and beans, came from right here on the farm.

Curried Potato, Aduki Bean Mix, and Beetroot Salad

First, I chopped and boiled up the potatoes. While they were cooking I diced and fried up up some onions in a big pot. I added some sugar, curry spices, and plenty of oil to the onion mix. Once the potatoes were done I added them in and stirred it all up.

For the bean mix, I chopped up some old tomatoes and fried them up with some of the chopped onions and oil. I added lots of lovely chopped courgettes and some water, cider vinegar, and a tiny bit of water with a stock cube. After this had simmered for a while I added in some aduki beans, that had been cooked and conveniently frozen, and left the whole thing to simmer a bit more.

I roasted some beetroot that was lying around and diced it up with some cucumber and tomato for the salad. As a dressing, I mixed some nice Swedish mustard, homemade cider vinegar, sugar, and oil.

And there you have it! Food for eight hungry farmers, plus second helpings!

Thai Courgette and Cashew Nut Cous Cous

This is a wonderful dish, and not just because of the alliteration.

Dry roast a handful of cashews. No, dry roast several handfuls, then you can save some for later.

(Dry roast just means heat it without fat, either in a pan or in the oven / grill.) This will bring out the sweet nutty flavour of the cashews.

Fry up some Thai green curry paste and add some diced courgette. When it's nearly done pour in a load of boiling water then throw in the cous cous and stir. Keep doing this till you get a cous cousish texture. Add a load of cashews and mix in till it's pretty.

Thinly slice an onion or two, fry it up with a bit of sugar then add a load of chopped chard. When it's wilting throw in some tinned sweetcorn.

So!

Spoon the sweet vegetables on to a bed of fragrant cous cous and sprinkle with cashews. (Gastro speak-a-go-go.)

This can be prepared pretty quickly; I think it took me about 7.42 minutes.

Harissa Cous Cous

This is some sort of harissa paste:

Mix LOADS of tomato paste with a good deal of paprika, chilli powder, ground cumin, coriander powder, black pepper and olive oil. Taste it and do what you want to it, then stir it into a big bowl of cous cous that's just been covered with boiling water. Leave it to sit for about three minutes then add more harissa or water as necessary.

Chickpeas and cous cous are a marriage made in culinary heaven. They are made for each other. This lot had courgette, onion, garlic and sweetcorn as well, and most veg will be pretty tasty fried up and served on top of this tasty goodness.