Roasted Garlic and Roasted Onions

The great thing about roasting a quantity of alliums, is that as well as softening the harshness of raw garic in recipes, and intensifying the sweetness and flavour of onions, you can then freeze them for future recipes.

They are sooo versatile too! Roasted garlic is delicious in dips, mayonnaise, soups, butter (roasted garlic butter rubbed under the skin of a chicken before roasting - yum!), mashed potato, and many other things.

 

Roasted onion (halves) are equally as versatile - all of the above (chopped up for some of them, obviously), and also on the side of roast dinners, sausage and mash, and too many things to mention! 

Cook in bulk to make the most of using the oven, and in order to freeze, squeeze out the garlic cloves first.

How To Cook Brown Rice In The Microwave - Easily!

 

Okay, put aside your skepticism and try this way of cooking brown rice, for perfect results every time!

We all know brown rice is more of a pain to cook than white rice, and sometimes it feels like it takes forever. Well, no more under-cooked chewy brown rice, or soggy, mushy rice - this recipe gives consistent results every single time.

Serves four.

Sweet Cinnamon Apple Peel Crisps

A tasty treat from apple peelings!

Instead of throwing them in the compost heat, why not give this a go?

I've been making morning smoothies for everyone, and I've been peeling the apples in them as my children say they're 'bitty' when I add unpeeled apples. So, now I make a little bowl or container of acidulated water (just water, with a good squeeze of lemon juice), and peel the apples in relatively similar sized peices of peel (I go around the top and bottom in two strokes each, then vertically around the apple). Then, when I have three, I make this naughty little treat!! N.B. Apples with pink / red skins make pretty crisps - I like Gala, Braeburn etc.

Caesar Salad Dressing with Roasted Garlic

A delicious, creamy dressing, packed full of flavour.

This tastes a thousand times better than anything you can buy in a bottle, and you can tweak it to your own tastes.

It's also incredibly easy to make, and if you're gluten free, there's an easy substitution you can make for one of the ingredients, plus if you don't like the flavour of anchovy, you can skip it.

It will keep in the fridge for a week, so get yourself some Cos lettuce (tip: soaking the leaves in ice cold water whilst you prepare other ingredients will crisp it right up), and any 'illegal' toppings you fancy adding to it - I like grilled chicken and crispy bacon, but shhhh, don't tell the purists!

Quick and Easy Oven Roast Cherry Tomatoes

A delicious taste of sunshine all year round!

I'd say this is almost more of a method than a recipe, but either way they're so quick and easy to prepare it's hard to go wrong and you can adapt the 'recipe' to your own tastes.

I prefer to bake mine on Pyrex as the bottoms don't burn, and they don't stick. I've recently fallen in love with Pyrex baking trays, which I only discovered quite recently - especially as they fit really easily standing up in the plate rack of the dishwashers, and don't take up so much room as the good old Pyrex dishes which are always a bit awkward to fit in!