Bruschetta with Tomato-Basil Relish

Ingredients

Grilled Toast Rounds 16 slices French bread (or about 8 slices Italian bread)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 garlic clove

Brush both sides of bread slices with olive oil and place on medium hot grill; grill until lightly brown; turn and grill other side.

Remove from grill and rub one side of toasts with garlic.

Serve with Tomato- Basil Relish (below).

Tomato-Basil Relish

1 cup chopped fresh tomatoes

2 tablespoons finely chopped onion

1 small garlic clove, minced

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

2 tablespoons chopped basil

SaltPepper

Mix tomatoes, onion, garlic, olive oil, vinegar in a small bowl. Stir in basil and season with salt and pepper to taste Cover and let stand about 30 minutes

Muffins - prune and bran

Ingredients:

1 cup processed bran breakfast cereal, (pre soaked for 40 mins in 1 cup of water)
1 cup pitted prunes
1/2 cup brown sugar, finely chopped
2 tablespoons canola oil, (extra canola oil for greasing muffin tins)
1 egg , lightly beaten
1 cup self raising flour, sifted

Direction

:1. Place prunes, sugar and bran in a food processor and blend until smooth. Place mixture in bowl.
2. Add oil and egg, mix well.
3. Fold in flour, until well combined.
4. Spoon into greased small muffins tins.
5. Bake at 180˚C for 10 - 15 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer.

Pasta with roasted pumpkin, basil and tuna fillet

Ingredients:

800 g Queensland blue pumpkin, peeled, seeled and cut into 2cm cubes

1 onion, peeled and chopped

1/2 red capsicum, seeded and slices

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup basil leaves, finely sliced

4 cloves garlic, unpeeled

2 x210g can tuna filled, cut into 2cm cubes

400 g dried pasta shapes, (for example penne)

100 g semi-dried tomatoes, roughly chopped

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese,

gratedblack pepper, cracked

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200°C.

2. Place pumpkin, onion, capsicum, olive oil, basil and garlic in a shallow roasting pan, season to taste.

3. Toss to coat in oil.

4. Roast at 200°C for 20 - 30 minutes or until pumpkin is soft. Squeeze cooked garlic from cloves and stir through pumpkin mixture.

5. Add tuna and semi-dried tomatoes and roast for another 5 minutes or until pumpkin is browned around edges.

6. Cook pasta in plenty of boiling, salted water until just tender (al dente). Drain pasta and return to saucepan, add pumpkin mixture and toss to combine.Notes: High in carbohydrates, medium in fat, low in sugar. Use egg free pasta if you are preparing food for people with an allergy to egg. Divide pasta among 4 bowls, and top with Parmesan cheese and cracked black pepper.

Vegetable, bean and bacon soup

Ingredients

2 cups salt-reduced chicken stock
2 cups water
4 potatoes, peeled and chopped
2 parsnips, peeled and chopped
1 leek, washed and sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
400g can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
375ml can lite evaporated milk
1 cup frozen peas
1/4 cup chopped mint
2 bacon rashers, rind removed
1/2 loaf Turkish bread, cut into slices

Directions

1. Combine stock, water, potatoes, parsnips, leek and garlic in a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Cook for 10 minutes or until vegetables are soft.
2. Ladle one-third of the soup into a blender or food processor and blend until almost smooth (it’s better if the soup is a little bit chunky). Pour into a clean saucepan and repeat, in 2 more batches, with remaining soup. Add beans, evaporated milk, peas and mint to the soup and reheat.
3 .Meanwhile, preheat the grill to high. Cook bacon for 1 minute each side or until crisp. Roughly chop. Lightly toast Turkish bread under the grill.
4. Spoon soup into bowls, and top with bacon and mint. Serve with toasted Turkish bread.

Celeriac and herb salad with smoked salmon

Ingredients

1 small celeriac
1 lemon, halved
1 cup good quality mayonnaise
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp lemon juice
Flaked salt and cracked black pepper
1 tbsp chopped oregano
1 tbsp chopped chives
8 slices smoked salmon
2 limes, cut into cheeks

Directions

Peel celeriac thickly, cut into quarters and place in a bowl of water with the halved, squeezed lemon. Combine mayonnaise, mustard and lemon juice in a bowl and stir well to combine. Season to taste. Remove celeriac from water, drain and shred pieces using the grater disc on a food processor (or use a hand grater). Mix immediately with the mayonnaise.
To serve, add oregano and chives to celeriac mixture and stir to combine. Pile celeriac onto four serving plates and top with curls of smoked salmon. Accompany with lime cheeks and cracked black pepper.

Serves 4.

Baked apple, ricotta and honeycomb

Ingredients

4 small red apples
80g sultanas
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
4 tbsp honey
60g butter
250g ricotta
120g honeycomb

To improve the final presentation of baked apples, slice off the top 5 millimetres of each fruit with a sharp knife before cooking.

Remove the core and, once the centre of the apple has been filled, replace the top before baking.

This way the cooked dessert looks more like a whole apple and, if the fruit was bought with stalks, these can be removed and reserved before baking and then popped back into the top of the apple for serving.

Directions

Preheat oven to 200C.

Slice the tops off the apples, reserve.

Remove cores with an apple corer. Mix sultanas and cinnamon in a small bowl and stuff into apple cavities. Place in a baking tray, drizzle each apple with honey and top with a tablespoon of butter. Roast for 10 minutes.

Turn oven to 170C.

Baste apples and bake a further 20 minutes. Serve with a spoonful of ricotta, a chunk of honeycomb and a drizzle of pan juices.

Serves 4

Minestrone

INGREDIENTS

2 onions, peeled

2 carrots

2 courgette

2 celery stalk

2 potatoes,

2 tomato50g

2oz green beans

2 small cauliflower

1 small head of broccoli

1 Swiss chard leaf

3 tbsp olive oil

3-4 garlic cloves,

crushed100g/3½oz peas

3 handfuls of alphabet pasta

shapeshandful of spinach leavessea

salt and freshly ground black pepper

parmesan cheese, freshly grated, to serve



DIRECTIONS


1. Cut the onions, carrots, courgette, celery, potatoes and tomato into 1cm/½in dice.

2. Top and tail the green beans and cut them into 1cm/½in lengths.

Cut the cauliflower and broccoli into small florets.

Separate the green leaf from the stalk of the Swiss chard and set aside.

Cut the stalk into 1cm/½in dice.

3. Heat the olive oil in a large, deep saucepan, add the onions, carrots and garlic, and sweat gently for 2-3 minutes. Then add the courgette, celery, potatoes, green beans and Swiss chard stalk and sweat until the vegetables start to yield a little moisture.

4. Put half the peas in a bowl and crush with the back of a fork. Add to the pan with the whole peas and cook for 3-4 minutes.

5. Cover the vegetables with double the volume of water, bring to the boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes.

6. Add the pasta, cook for 10 minutes, then add the broccoli and cauliflower and cook for 5 minutes.

7. Roughly chop the spinach and the Swiss chard leaf and add to the pan. Cook for 5 minutes longer, then add the tomato and warm through for a minute or two. Season to taste and serve with grated parmesan