Polenta.

This week I had lunch at The Gladstone, Brighton. Only one vegan option but a tasty one at that! Veggie sausages (the vegetable kind, not the fake meat kind) with polenta mash and an average vegetarian gravy. This was my first taste of polenta and I was impressed, the texture made for a more interesting mash and the seasoning was spot on.

I stumbled upon this recipe on - by now you know it's my favourite food blog - Chocolate-Covered Katie (She does savoury food too, who knew?!) and decided I should give polenta a shot in my cooking.

I changed the recipe to be one big pie rather than single serve and bought ready made polenta from Sainsbury's - way less aesthetically pleasing! I also used a tin of mixed beans in chilli sauce rather than pinto beans. I cooked up a few matchstick fries which added a nice crunchy texture on the plate. Overall though, I don't think the polenta added anything to the dish, perhaps I did something wrong (sliced and laid on the pie, how wrong can that be?) but the chilli filling was great and would perhaps have worked well with rice or nachos. If anybody has any polenta related stories, success or otherwise, I'd love to hear. Or if you want to tell me how much you love my blog or that it's super boring you can do so now - ANONYMOUSLY! The comment box is working yipee.

Warning: Moving to a new kitchen (and house) next weekend so my next post could be early - or, more likely - late.

5-a-day Chili

Just a quickie this week, been flat hunting and French learning (and ipad playing) this weekend but still found time to make this, a great easy healthy meal which freezes really well.

Ingredients to make 4 portions:
1 Onion
1 Clove of garlic
1 Pepper (I used half a green and half a yellow)
1/2 Chili pepper -  I'm quite a wimp but mine was super mild, use more or less depending on your spice threshold.
5ish Mushrooms - any variety
1 Tin kidney beans
1 Tin baked beans
1 Tin chopped tomatoes
Chili powder
Olive oil

1. Chop onion and mince garlic, fry in 1tbsp olive oil with the lid on until translucent.
2.Chop pepper into small slices, chop mushroom into 8ths, chop chili finely - add all to pan.
3. Fry for approx 5 mins until mushroom is cooked. Add kidney beans and baked beans and simmer for 5 more mins.
4. Add chopped tomatoes and after 5 mins add 2 tsp chili powder.

 5. Leave for another 5 mins and taste for spiciness, add more chili powder if required. Leave to simmer for another ten minutes and you're done, pretty quick ey?

Served with sweet potato chips

 If you fancy making these sweet potato chips, (they're nutritious chips, who wouldn't!) Just peel sweet potatoes, cut into desired shape, boil till just soft, toss in olive oil and roast in oven until they reach your desired crispiness (12 mins pour moi).

And here's a little something cute:

A beautiful spring posy
from my mummy