Crustless Roasted Vegetable Quiche

On my runs around the park, I'm seeing more and more people lazing about on the grass, enjoying the sunshine and light breeze. It's gotten me thinking about outdoor picnics and barbecues. This quiche would be perfect for either. Sometimes barbecues can be meat overload, and vegetable sides are great to lighten things up! As for picnics, keeping things vegetarian means you don't have to worry about food poisoning and it's a nice change from never-ending sandwiches.

This quiche is super versatile. Add whatever vegetables you want in! Potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkins and starchy vegetables will give substance to your quiche, and a selection of other vegetables like capsicum, courgettes, onions, beans, asparagus or even broccoli will allow you to play with various flavours.

Roasting all the vegetables before making the quiche ensures that everything is cooked through and tender, and can give a caramelised crust as well. I roasted all of mine at the same time with salt, pepper and mixed herbs for just 15 minutes, tossing halfway through. Keep in mind if you have vegetables that need longer (like potatoes) then you can boil them first so they cook the same time in the oven.

A glass pyrex dish like this one allows the quiche to come out easily, without needing oil, even though it's crustless. So you can bake it like this, then cut into squares when its cooled to take out for a picnic, or bake it in a disposable foil baking tray if you like!

Just top with cheeeeeeesssssseeeeee! And dig in!

Full recipe here->

Vegetarian Kimchi Rice Burger

The Guardian recently wrote an article titled Crisis in Korea as younger generation abandons kimchi. It's certainly a shocking title, and I panicked internally that there would be no more kimchi anymore. To my relief though, the abandonment refers to the fact that today's generation of Koreans are (unknowingly or not?) consuming kimchi that is imported from China, rather than authentic local Korean-made kimchi.

Interestingly, the article claims that most Koreans are none the wiser that the kimchi they are being sold and served is often Chinese (due to it being cheaper). That's good news to me because, having never been to Korea and eaten kimchi made by a true Korean, there would be no way for my taste buds to know the difference, and I can happily buy kimchi sourced from anywhere without worrying about an unauthentic taste.

Of course, it is a shame that most exports of kimchi are not from the country of origin, because it is supposed to be the national dish. I can see why the 'traditionalists' are fighting hard to keep kimchi culture going in Korea, and not lose the market to the Chinese giants.

I went to my local Chinese (!) grocery store, and they only sell one brand of kimchi - Chongga. This is actually a product of Korea, and a bit of Googling research led me to understand that it is a massive South Korean company. 

Yay for supporting Korean kimchi! ;)

My usual kimchi-related dishes are kimchi fried rice, kimchi noodles and kimchi pancake. Which are all delicious, but I wanted to try something different.

Apparently there is a new food craze across the pond in New York [citation needed] involving ramen and burgers. While I haven't tried or seen that yet, I've met the rice burger. This was very popular in Hong Kong a few years back, I think due to a Japanese trend? It was even available in Hong Kong McDonald's!

Makiko Itoh at Just Bento and Sonia at Nasi Lemak Lover both show you how to make a rice burger, but recommend you use Japanese short grain rice. I don't have short grain rice at home, and it is relatively more expensive to buy it, so I've attempted (and succeeded!) to make it with Thai long grain Jasmine rice.

I think the key was to mild it while it was still warm, press it down gently but firmly - really pack it in! - and then to chill it afterwards.

I boost the amount of kimchi filling and give it a bit more substance, I fried some sliced onions and zucchinis with the kimchi. There's room for variation here, add whatever vegetables you've got at home instead - capsicum (or peppers if that's what you call them), carrots, potatoes, leeks...

Or even, for all you people out there who can't survived without meat, add some sliced beef / pork / chicken! It's a burger, fill it with whatever you want!

Just keep the kimchi. That's a must.

Oh, and a runny egg.

It is divine!

Do note though, it isn't the easiest thing to eat. I mean, even normal burgers create a mess, so this one's just the same. Or maybe messier. ;)

Enjoy! And lemme know what you think!

Full recipe-->

Portobello Mushroom Grilled Cheese and Pesto Sandwich

In an ideal world, I would have amazing sandwiches for lunch errrday. Delicious slices of bread with lots of scrumptious filling would definitely make my days. Beef steak with rocket, pesto chicken and tomatoes, smoked salmon with avocado, caramelised onion and sausage... Oh my!

In reality, I have pita bread. Plain. On a good day, when I have time to grab something from the kitchen counter and shove it into my bag. Otherwise it's a low calorie day for me!

That's because I don't get up early enough in the morning to make lunch, and I wouldn't make it the night before in the fear it wouldn't taste the same a whole day later. Self-inflicted, really.

So I suffer through the week, but that's what makes weekend lunches so much more to look forward to.

I've still got my massive bag of portobello mushrooms, so they're definitely going to be on the menu today. And tomorrow. And the day after. Hopefully not the day after that, but maybe. 

These meatilicious mushrooms are a great vegetarian sandwich filler because of their texture and flavour. I roasted these in the oven at 200˚C (fan-forced) for 15 minutes or so until all the juices had steamed off and they started getting dry and crispy on the edges. All I added was some olive oil and salt and pepper.

On two thick-cut slices of bread I smeared one side with pesto, and topped the other with cheese. I used Red Leicester. It's actually the first time I've tried it (I bought it because of the beautiful orange colour) and it's definitely something I would go for again. If you don't know what it is either, I'd describe it as similar to cheddar, but milder and more nutty.

Grill those in the oven on the top shelf until the cheese melts and bubbles.

Arrange your mushrooms on top of the slice with cheese. Then top with the other slice. 

The flavours and colours of this sandwich are wonderful. Green pesto + Orange (not red?) Red Leicester cheese + Black portobello mushrooms + Golden toasted white bread.

Depending on the size of your slices of bread, this sandwich can be quite a mouthful and not practically easy to eat. In that case, cut in half and go from there.

I bet you're salivating ;)

Roasted butternut pumpkin spread

I wanted something healthy to snack on and boost my brain power, so I decided to spread some avocado on slices of Ryvita, because, y'know, avocado has good brain boosting fats or something. Only to cut into a very raw avocado. 

Absolutely devastated.

So I had to hunt around my kitchen for something else to snack on. I found a butternut pumpkin lying around (from October probably?!) and thought about making soup. So I peeled it up and cut it into chunks and roasted it in the oven with some olive oil and salt and pepper.

30 minutes at 200˚C in my fan oven, and it's perfect. It's lovely and soft, still moist and just starting to caramelise around the edges. It was just too good to make into soup.

I was just going to eat it on the Ryvita, but it was not an easy feat. The pumpkin chunks don't stay on and you have to manoeuvre the crispbread carefully so that it doesn't wobble, crack and fall apart when you bite into it. So I decided to squash the pumpkin into the crisp bread a little, so it had a bit more staying power.

Then I thought, why not mash it all? 

Then you get a bowl of golden mush. Sweet, buttery, nutty, mush. I didn't add anything to it, but you could plop in a blob of butter to make it extra buttery.

It's quite a chunky spread, you could pulse it through a food processor if you like. I like mine chunky and 'rustic', ha. I love how they call things that look a bit rough and ready, not neat and pristine, 'rustic'. Makes it all okay. =) 

It spreads easily enough anyway onto the Ryvita crispbread, and allows me to get a nice and thick layer on.

Super quick and easy, this will last me days! It's not a recipe as such, just another way to eat butternut pumpkin if you're looking for a delicious, surprisingly filling, healthy and brain boosting snack!