Mediterranean Roasted Vegetables with Haloumi

Morgan made scrumptious roast harvest vegetables for me last week. He was inspired by this recipe. We made it with BBQ steak, but it would work beautifully as a stand-alone dish. I've never eaten roast broccoli before, but it was truly delicious and very different to the more familiar steamed broccoli we eat.



4 cups broccoli crowns, trimmed and cut into bite-size florets
1 cup baby tomatoes
1 green capsicum sliced
1 baby eggplant sliced
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon lemon juice
10 pitted black olives, sliced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons capers, rinsed

4 slices haloumi



Toss broccoli, tomatoes, eggplant, green pepper, oil, garlic and salt in a large bowl until evenly coated. Spread in an even layer on a baking sheet. Bake until the broccoli begins to brown, 10 to 13 minutes.



Combine lemon zest and juice, olives, oregano and capers (if using) in a large bowl. Add the roasted vegetables; stir to combine. Serve with slices of fried haloumi.

Broccoli and potato pizza

Broccoli and potato are two pizza toppings that taste fantastic, but I haven't enjoyed them since living in New York and Melbourne respectively.



Broccoli heaped high on a pizza slice is a classic choice at Penn Station at 34th street. Now, the Yanks like their pizzas fairly plain. They often go for a single topping, such as pepperoni, broccoli or even just cheese. That's their culture. Where as I'm the sort of person who orders a vegetarian pizza and add chicken.



Potato on a pizza might be seen as carb-loading, the sort of thing Michael Phelps might inhale before an Olympic swimming event. However, when done modestly, the crackle and softness of herb encrusted roast potato pieces is the perfect addition to any pizza. I first tried it in Lygon St. Melbourne and suddenly remembered how good it tastes.



Anyway, before the toppings comes the dough-making athleticism of my beloved husband Morgan! See the recipe here. Last night he even allowed me to touch the stuff mid-knead. I felt like a bit of a duffer, every time I tried to gently squish the dough, it tore. Ah well, practise, practise, practise. :)


While the dough sits to rise. Chop up a sweet potato, 1 potato and 1 beetroot into 3cm-5cm cubes.


Oil a baking tray and add veges. Cover with a little oil, rosemary, tarragon, salt, pepper and smoked paprika. Put in a medium oven for 40mins. Take out the sweet potato and beetroot. Let the potato cook for another 10-20mins.

We use Alfa One Rice Brain Oil Cooking Spray. Rice bran oil has a mild nutty flavour and a high smoking point, which is good in the oven. We use it to spray around the metal bowl for the pizza dough too.


Dough is ready!


Chop up broccoli florets. Make a mixture of olive oil, vinegar (I used pomegranate balsamic), lemon juice garlic, salt and pepper. Use this mixture in addition to tomato paste for the base of the pizza. You can also sprinkle it on top of the ingredients before they go into the oven. You don't want the broccoli to get dry.


Put tomato paste onto rolled out dough. Add grated mozzarella cheese next. Finally add: broccoli, torn salami and slices of roasted sweet potato.


Mmmm, broccoli


Finished!


For the potato pizza, start the same as above, but then add cubes of roast potato, roast beetroot, 2 slices prosciutto, sliced olives, some crumbled feta and sliced mushrooms


Delicious!

Honey Garlic and Rosemary Roast Lamb

Easter Sunday and roast lamb feels appropriately sacrificial. I haven't reinvented the wheel here, but there's a couple of flavours that I couldn't resist adding.


Roast lamb

Start with a classic garlic roast lamb recipe. That is, make 10 slits on a 1.5kb leg of lamb and stuff holes with slivers of garlic and sticks of rosemary. Then, mince up another couple of cloves of garlic with 3 tbsp olive oil and 2tbsp honey. Slather the lamb in honey mixture. Coat with 3tbsp rosemary leaves. Add pepper and salt and pop in a hot oven...



...prepare potatoes and sweet potatoes by washing them and dicing them. Coat in olive oil, smoked paprika, cumin seeds (whole seeds are important here), rosemary twigs and leaves, salt and pepper. Pop into a hot oven for 45mins, move them around and then leave in a medium oven for another 30mins or so.

After putting in the roast veges--approx. 20-30mins after lamb started cooking--add 1 cup of white wine and/or water to the bottom of the roasting pan and turn down to 180 degrees for approx. 1hr. The water stops the honey from burning. Cover in foil after taking from the oven and let rest for 20mins.


I made mint sauce with a bunch of mint, 1/2 cup of cider vinegar, 2tbsp brown sugar and some water.


Parsley, fetta, red onion and lemon juice to sprinkle over steamed broccoli (start steaming when lamb comes out of the oven).


Serve lamb next to heaped broccoli sprinkled with onion mixture and roast veges. Spoon over mint sauce to taste.


Lovely broccoli

Enjoy the rest of the autumn equinox folks! Next festival is Anzac day and remembrance.

Creamy Broccoli and Tarragon Soup

We have loads of broccoli! There's only two of us, so cooking food that makes good leftovers makes sense. Time to make soup!



Ingredients

1 onion finely chopped
2tbsp butter or olive oil (I used a bit of both)
1 carrot finely chopped
1 stalk celery finely chopped


3 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 tsp tarragon
1 litre beef stock
150ml sour cream


2 heads of broccoli chopped into little florets
1/2 lime
Cheese slices with low melt threshold (e.g. castello)
Chives
salt and pepper to taste

Method
Saute onions in butter/oil for 5mins. Add carrot, celery, garlic and tarragon and cook on low for another 10mins. Add stock and bring to the boil. Add sour cream and broccoli and simmer for 15mins or so until the broccoli softens. Ladle batches of soup into the blender. But, don't get too carried away. Some of the natural texture is tasty. Squeeze lime juice in just before serving.


Add cheese and chives on top


Watch it melt! Nommy. :)

This is a really filling soup! I tried to eat a slice of toast after a big bowl and it was overwhelming.