Recipe Round-Up: Cook The Pantry

I do love my Robin Robertson cookbooks, and Cook The Pantry by Robin Robertson is no exception. It's another one of her books that focuses on easy, quick to make recipes, with the focus on ingredients you should mostly be able to find in your pantry. This is the first time I have posted about this book, and here's what I've been making!

Pantry Pasta Salad: This salad is packed full of beans, artichokes, peas, olives, tomatoes and capers. It also calls for roasted capsicum, but of course I left that out. There are a range of suggested extras you can add, I added extra peas, grated carrots and avocado. I didn't have any celery at the time, but that would be a great addition to give it some crunch. I don't like oily dressings, so I subbed the oil in the lemon-based dressing for some water with guar gum to thicken it a little.
Rating: :)



Chunky Chickpea Sandwiches: I do like chickpea sandwiches. In this case I left out the onion (raw onion doesn't aggree with me) and added in some grated carrot to go along with the celery, I also increased the amount of smoked paprika. It was a little let down by using a sub-par vegan mayo (I had a bottle of Melrose from a vegan box, normally I always use Vegenaise). I enjoyed it on a toasted sandwich with avocado, cheese, spinach, tomato and mayo. It says it makes 2 sandwiches, I had enough filling for 3. It is also nice as a dip with celery sticks.
Rating: :)



Dinnertime Scramble: This tasty scramble calls for 1 cup of frozen onion and capsicum pieces, I just used 1/2 cup of raw onion and no capsicum. As well as onion, it has mushrooms, cheese (I used FYH cheddar shreds) and chopped bacon (I used some Uptons I had in the freezer from a previous US trip). This claims to serve 4, but I got two and a half serves, serving it with some potatoes, greens, tomato and kraut.
Rating: :)



Quick Quinoa Pilaf: I like a higher vegetable to grain ratio in my pilafs, so I decreased the amount of quinoa from one and a half cups to one cup, which provided three big servings. The veggies are onion, pees, carrots and scallions, but you could add other things as well. The toasted almonds give it a lovely crunch, and herbs (I used coriander) give it some freshness. I served this with some baby spinach, roasted green beans and Tofurky chick'n.
Rating: :)



Lemongrass Jasmine Rice with Asparagus: I found that the lemongrass flavour got a bit lost in this, it was very subtle if you really thought about it. I tend to be cursed when it comes to cooking stovetop rice dishes, so I needed to add an extra cup of water and cook for an extra 5 minutes for the rice to cook all the way through. I added some peas, and served it with spinach and tofu, and I got three serves.
Rating: :)



Pantry Bulgur Pilaf: This was a bit bland, but was quite good with some nooch mixed in. Bulgur is mixed with carrots, scallions, cranberries and almonds. I added some peas and chickpeas for bulk, and served it with some spinach. I used 3/4 cup of bulgur rather than 1 cup, and adjusted the stock accordingly.
Rating: :|



Tofu and Broccoli Stir-Fry: I love tofu and veggies. I added extra broccoli, grated carrot and peas, used raw onion instead of frozen and skipped the capsicum, and used bamboo instead of water chestnuts. I doubled the sauce (though used the same amounts of oil and sugar), which led to quite a saucy dish! Served with baby spinach and brown rice.
Rating: :)



Tuscan Chickpea Frittata: This says it serves 1-2, and I ate the whole thing. It is chickpea flour based, and I have terrible luck with flipping large chickpea pancakes. As always, it broke up so I ended up portioning it up to finish cooking it. I also added parsley to the batter, as well as the tomatoes, olives and spinach.
Rating: :)



Black Bean Picadillo: I love the mix of olives and raisins in picadillo, and this was no exception. I left out the roasted capsicum, but everything else was made as is. I got three servings, rather than four. This tends to be a theme... I guess I have a big appetite!
Rating: :)



Red Beans and Quinoa with Chipotle Queso: The star of this recipe is the cashew-based queso, which is very nice. I used a sprinkle of chipotle powder, rather than an actual chipotle, so I could keep the heat mild. It did get a bit thick and overheated in my super fast blender, so I thinned it out with a bit of extra milk. Again, I decreased the amount of quinoa from one and a half cups to one cup (adjusting the stock accordingly), and I left out the chiles. I added a bit of parsley for colour, as I had some that needed using up, and I served it with green beans and spinach.
Rating: :)



Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Aurora, living up to her Sleeping Beauty inspired name. She went to her forever family yesterday! We miss her around the clinic, but so happy that she has found her home.