I ask Daniel “what do you feel like for dinner?” His usual answer is “nothing off the top of my head” which really doesn’t help me come up with menu plans. But this time he actually told me “maybe vegetarian tonight?” He actually had naughty(?) foods for a couple of days in a row over the weekend. He and his mate watched footy at the pub on Friday, which means pizza and beer. We got invited to my friend’s barbeque next day, which means more meat for him. I also cooked some chicken for lunch today. Yep, time for veggies! I didn’t plan what to cook for dinner so I was glad he said “vegetarian!”. I pulled out little cute Le Creuset pots out of the drawer and filled up with lots of veggies and rice, topped with nutritional yeast and baked in the oven. Za’atar flat bread is so flavoursome even just by itself. If you can make fresh za’atar spice blend and top with a good quality of olive oil, it is so divine. Make this flat bread when you have a dinner party next time and serve with some humus, olives and cheese. Yum! heaps better than normal Turkish bread. Your guests will be impressed.
Mini Veggie Rice Casserole
Ingredients
1/2 cup of cooked glutenous wild rice
1 tsp of coconut oil
2 grated carrots
1/2 grated zucchini
1 sliced onion cooked
1/2 cup of chopped mushrooms
1 cup of chopped spinach
1 tsp of Dijon mustard
1 tsp of minced garlic
1/2 tsp of smoked paprika
2 tsp of nutritional yeast
salt and pepper to taste
Rinse and cook the rice in a boiling water for 20-25 minutes until cooked al dente. Preheat a pan and cook all vegetables with coconut oil. Season with salt and pepper. Combine cooked rice and vegetables in a large bowl. Add garlic, mustard, paprika and nutritional yeast into the bowl and stir to combine. Pour the mixture into two ramekins, sprinkle more nutritional yeast on top and put in the preheated oven (180) for 20 minutes. Serve warm.
Za’atar Flat Bread
Ingredients
200g flour
1 tsp of dried yeast
1/2 tsp of brown sugar
a pinch of salt
1 tbsp of olive oil
2 tbsp of za’atar spice blend (4tbsp toasted sesame seeds, 3tbsp dried thyme, 2 tbsp sumac, 1 tsp sea salt)
1 cup warm water
Place half of the flour, dry yeast and brown sugar in a large bowl. Add warm water in and stir with a wooden spoon. Let it stand for 10 minutes. Then add the rest of the flour and stir to get a sticky dough. Turn out the dough onto floured surface and knead gently until soft. Sprinkle more flour if too wet or add more water if too dry. Place dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and stand until doubled in size. Gently knock it down and roll out the dough to about 1/2-1 cm thick. Use your fingertips, make dimples onto the dough. Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle a generous amount of za’atar all over. Bake on the middle shelf in the preheated oven (200) for 15-20 minutes until golden. Serve it warm right out of the oven.
