Lunch Friday 16 November 2007 - Middle Eastern Vegetable Parcels & Butternut, Halloumi & Prawn Roast

Middle Eastern Vegetable Parcels
½ red pepper, chopped (about 75g)
½ green pepper, chopped (about 75g)
½ orange pepper, chopped (about 75g)
1 large onion, chopped (about 140g)
3 cloves garlic. chopped
1 carrot, chopped (about 75g)
2 ribs celery, chopped (about 100g)
3 green chillies, chopped
10 ml macadamia nut oil (or any good quality oil)

50g shelled pumpkin seeds
handful coriander leaves
1 teaspoon ground coriander seed
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground sumac
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 teaspoon chilli flakes
7 large spring roll wrappers (about 125g)

The veggies all need to be finely diced for this recipe.

Saute the red, green & orange peppers, onion, garlic, carrot, celery & chillies in the vegetable oil until softened.

Stir in the pumpkin seeds, coriander leaves and spices and combine well. Divide into 14 portions.

Cut the spring roll pastry (or you could use filo) in half so you have 14 rectangles.

Place one portion of the filling mixture one the end of each strip and then fold the strip over to form a triangle and enclose the filling. Keep folding the parcel over itself, like folding a flag. Seal the ends by brush the pastry with a little water on the last fold.

Spray a non-stick baking sheet with a little olive oil and arrange the parcels on the sheet give each parcel a little spritz with oil, too and then bake in a hot oven, Gas 7 for about 15 minutes until browned.

Makes 14 parcels

Nutrition Data per serving
Calories (kcal) 65.2
Carbohydrate (g) 9.5
Protein (g) 1.3
Fat (g) 2.5
Fibre (g) 0.9

Butternut, Halloumi & Prawn Roast
1 tablespoon macadamia nut oil (or any good quality oil)
1 large onion, cut into eighths
6 cloves garlic
½ small butternut squash, peeled and cut into chunks (about 150g)
1 block of reduced fat halloumi cheese, cut into 2cm cubes (225g)
200g raw prawns
salt, pepper & chilli flakes to taste
small handful fresh oregano or marjoram
1 preserved lemon, chopped finely

In a heavy roasting tray, toss the onion, garlic, squash and halloumi in the oil. Season well with salt & pepper and roast in a hot oven, Gas 8, until tender and well coloured, about 20-30 minutes. Check the tray every 5 minutes or so and give it a good shake to keep the mixture well distributed.

When the veggies are cooked, add the raw prawns and chopped, preserved lemon to the tray. Return the tray to the oven for a further 5 minutes, until the prawns are cooked through.

Sprinkle over the marjoram and some chilli flakes and serve at once.

Makes 2 servings
Nutrition Data per serving
Calories (kcal) 500.6
Carbohydrate (g) 17.2
Protein (g) 50.0
Fat (g) 25.9
Fibre (g) 5.2

These were both really tasty, if I do say so myself. I had my friend Lisa around and we started off with some anchovy stuffed olives, then had the parcels and a starter and the roast as a main. Also managed to work our way through a bottle of prosecco, a bottle of rose and a bottle of Chardonnay.

A nice lunch, but I forgot to take pictures! Oh, well.