Kale and Blue Cheese Pasta

Recently, while grabbing some groceries in a post-work stupor, I picked up the little Autumn foods magazine they have in the Waitrose checkout line. I had a quick flip and thought the recipes seemed simple enough so I took it home and had a proper read through. One of the main benefits that instantly stood out with that their recipes seem to try and use quantities that they have in store. For example, this recipe called for 200g of kale... and conveniently, they sell kale in 200g bags. While I'm all for trying to use up leftover ingredients in other tasty dishes, sometimes it's just nice to have exactly what you need.

This recipe was ridiculously quick and easy - the only time consuming bit was chopping up the celery (which took all of two minutes). I noticed I had a sad-looking half of a red onion wallowing in the bowels of the fridge so I tossed that in with the celery. What I really liked was that this could easily be done as a one pot meal if you wanted (after draining the pasta and kale, use the original pot to sauté the celery). All in all, I'd give this recipe a seven out of ten for tastiness - it was maybe a bit bland so next time I think I'll try a different blue cheese. Cambozola was the recommended option in the recipe but I think I'd prefer a nice Gorgonzola dolci. 

Recipe via www.waitrose.com

Prep Time: 5 min

Cook Time: 10 min

Serves: 2

Ingredients: 

200g pasta (I used Elicoidali as recommended but any pasta would work)

200g kale torn into bite size pieces, hard stems removed 

3 stalks of celery, finely chopped
1/2 a red onion, finely chopped

75g blue cheese, crumbled
salt
pepper

Method: 

Boil salted water in a large pot and add the pasta. Cook to packet instructions and add the kale in the last two minutes. Before draining, reserve a cup of cooking water.

Meanwhile, sauté the celery and onion over medium high heat until softened. Add to the pasta and kale.

Finally, stir in the blue cheese and add a little of the pasta water to help it melt. Stir over a low heat until the blue cheese has melted and become incorporated.

Enjoy! 

Beat the Heat Summer Salad

Tasty salad!

Hello! I'm back from lovely Rome to scorching heat here in London. With only my small desk fan for company, it's been absolutely baking all day both inside the flat and out. After running a few errands, I was ready for a tasty treat that wouldn't require too much energy and wouldn't add to the heat! Although this recipe does require the use of an oven, it's only for five minutes. Plus, I recommend doubling the kale and enjoying it as a snack later. I also cooked all six vegetarian sausages so that they'd be ready to go next time so that I wouldn't have to use the stove more this evening.

Prep Time: 5 min

Cook Time: 5-10 min

Serves: 1

Ingredients: 

2 handfuls of chopped Kale
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt
Pepper
1 beetroot, cooked and chopped
1/4 red pepper, chopped
1/2 an avocado, chopped
1 green onion, chopped
1 veggie sausage
2 tbsp hummus
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 tsp honey

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C.

Mix the kale, olive oil, salt and pepper in a bowl and tip out onto a baking tray. Pop into the oven for 5-10 minutes, until the kale is crispy. Set aside.

Saute the veggie sausage for 3 minutes in a dash of oil until it is browned on all sides. Slice into disks and set aside.

Whisk the hummus, vinegar and honey into a dressing. Add a splash of water if it seems too thick. Finally, assemble the kale, sausage and remaining ingredients in your salad bowl and drizzle with the dressing. Enjoy!