Turkey and noodles with tangy onion sauce

It suddenly feels like spring has arrived this week. The sun has been shining, the weather is warmer and the flowers are coming out. Despite lockdown, this promise of summer days to come has lifted many people’s spirits. Like the plants, my daughter also seems to be having a spring growth spurt. Suddenly there is some ankle poking out at the bottom of her trousers and her appetite has rocketed. Despite having a hearty 2 course lunch and tea at nursery she has also been demolishing her dinner in the evenings. To support this I have been cooking many of the things that I know she loves and that fill her up, which generally means a lot pasta, gnocchi, sweet potato and noodles. When my husband and I used to have dinners with noodles we would cook one portion (one individual packet of straight to wok noodles or one nest of dried noodles) between us. As our daughter started to express her preference for large amounts of noodles we realised we needed to start cooking two portions or we would be left without. This week when I cooked this recipe she polished off one and half portions of the noodles on her own (as well as a decent portion of the turkey and carrots), and stole some of my husband’s noodles when he didn’t eat them fast enough, leaving us to eat mainly turkey and vegetables. This recipe is a nicely balanced quick, easy and healthy midweek meal with a fresh and tangy sauce which nicely suits the warmer spring weather.

Turkey and noodles with tangy onion sauce

Cooking time: 20-30 minutes
Dietary info: dairy free (see the tasty twists for vegan and gluten free options)
Serves: 3

• 300 g turkey steaks, cut into strips
• 250g spring greens, sliced
• 300g carrots, cut into batons
• 2 portions of noodles (I used straight to wok udon noodles, but you can use dried, fresh or straight to wok) – you can easily cook more noodles if needed to bulk this out

Tangy onion sauce

• 1 medium onion, diced
• 250ml water, plus extra as needed
• 4 tbsp white wine vinegar
• ½ tsp chili powder
• Zest of 1 lemon and 1 lime
• 2 tbsp lemon juice

1. Put the onion, water, vinegar, zest and chilli powder in a saucepan and cook at a gentle simmer until the onion is very soft and the flavours have melded together, adding more water if it starts to dry out (about 15-20 minutes)
2. Stir in the lemon juice
3. Put the turkey and carrots in a non-stick saucepan or frying pan with a splash of water to stop it sticking and help it cook and cook for a few minutes until the turkey is no longer pink on the outside
4. Stir in the spring greens and cover until the spring greens start to wilt
5. Continue to cook until the turkey is cooked all the way through (no pink in the middle) and the vegetables are tender
6. Cook the noodles according to the packet instructions (usually cook in boiling water for a few minutes) and serve the turkey and vegetables with the noodles and the onion sauce drizzled over everything

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A few tips to prep ahead:

• Make the onion sauce and keep in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 3 days
• Prepare the vegetables the night before and keep in a sealed container or bag in the fridge until you need them
• On the night, cook the turkey and vegetables, cook the noodles, heat the onion sauce until hot all the way through (3-4 minutes in the microwave or in a small saucepan) and serve

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Some tasty little twists…

• Swap the turkey for chicken or beef for other meat versions
• Swap the turkey for prawns, salmon or firm white fish like monkfish for a pescatarian version
• Swap the turkey for diced tofu for a vegan version and make sure you use vegan noodles (i.e. don’t use egg noodles)
• For a gluten free version use gluten free noodles such as rice noodles (check the packet to make sure that they are gluten free as some also have a bit of wheat in them) or serve with rice or baked sweet potato instead of noodles
• For a lighter (and gluten free) version, you can replace the noodles with spiralised courgette or carrots, cooked in a non stick frying pan until just starting to become tender but still with a little bit of crunch
• Vary the vegetables to suit your preferences by swapping some or all of the carrots and spring greens with other vegetables such as sliced chinese cabbage, sliced peppers, sliced mushrooms, diced aubergine, sliced sugar snaps or mange tout, baby sweetcorn cut in half or quarters lengthways, beansprouts etc.
• Use the onion sauce as an accompaniment for grilled meat, fish or vegetables, served with noodles, rice or roast sweet potato
• Season with soy sauce to taste if you want

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Baby bites…

• This recipe is low in salt so no need to adapt for a baby, but don’t add soy sauce to your baby’s portion
• Chop or puree to suit your baby’s preference and stage of weaning
  • My daughter loves her noodles whole, her vegetables in batons (though she won’t touch the spring greens – too much like lettuce or cabbage which she considers only fit for goats and parents) and her turkey broken into tiny pieces so it is easy to chew
• For further guidance on feeding a baby see my baby bites page

Cherry tomato stuffed pitta breads

This week has felt very intense. Work has been busy and needed a lot of energy and my daughter seems to be in the process of dropping her nap in the day. If she naps in the day she struggles to go to sleep at night but she still finds it a bit hard to get all the way through the day without getting too tired. This means she needs a lot of entertaining to keep her engaged and happy, and sometimes a lot of work to either stop her falling asleep in the day when she doesn’t quite have the energy to carry her all the way through, or to go to bed at night if she has ended up napping in the day. This hasn’t left a huge amount of my time or energy for cooking so I have fallen back on quick and easy meals that are appealing even to a rather sleepy toddler. My husband and I love tortilla pizzas and quesadillas but my daughter is never so keen on the tortilla part. However, she does love pitta breads so I decided to do stuffed pitta breads inspired by the tortilla pizzas and quesadillas that I like to make. These make a lovely snack or light meal, especially if served with the tomato sauce and a salad.

Cherry tomato stuffed pitta breads

Cooking time: 40-50 minutes (probably only about 10-15 minutes of work, the rest is just waiting for things to bake / cook)
Dietary info: vegan (if you use vegan cheese), vegetarian (if you use vegetarian cheese)
Serves: 3

• 300g cherry or mini vine tomatoes, cut in half
• 1 medium onion, diced
• ½ tsp ground black pepper
• 1 heaped tsp dried oregano
• 6 pitta breads (I use wholemeal pittas)
• Grated cheese (optional), about 15-25g per pitta depending on how much you like cheese (use a vegan cheese to make these vegan / dairy free) – I used cheddar

Tomato sauce (optional)

• 600 ml passata
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 tsp oregano
• ½ tsp black pepper
• Dash of lemon to taste

1. Cook the diced onion in a splash of water until starting to soften (about 8-10 minutes)
2. Mix the onion, tomatoes, black pepper and oregano together in an ovenproof dish with about 5mm of water at the bottom and put in the oven at 160C fan and bake for 30-45 minutes until they are soft and starting to have a slightly caramelised taste
3. If you are making the sauce, put all of the ingredients apart from the lemon in a non stick saucepan and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the onion is very soft and the flavours have all come together (about 20-30 minutes). You can cover the pan or add more water if it is getting too thick
4. Season the sauce to taste with lemon juice (and salt if you want)
5. Toast the pitta breads until they are just starting to puff up to make them easier to slice open (I use the lowest setting on my toaster)
6. Fill the pitta breads with the tomato and onion mixture and cheese (if using) and put on a baking tray or in an ovenproof dish and bake at 160C fan for about 10 minutes until the cheese is melted but the pitta breads are not too dry. Putting them together in an oven proof dish with the opened side up will keep the pittas softer, but putting them flat on a tray will keep the filling more evenly spread out
7. Serve the pitta breads with a fresh salad and the tomato sauce

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A few tips to prep ahead:

• Make the tomato and onion mixture and keep in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 2 days
• Make the sauce and keep in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 4 days
• On the night toast, stuff and bake the pitta breads, heat through sauce in a saucepan or the microwave until hot all the way through (3-5 minutes) and serve

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Some tasty little twists…

• The sauce recipe here makes much more sauce than you need for this dish. A few options for the leftover sauce:
  • Freeze to make this dish easier to make another time
  • Use as a pasta sauce – you could add in some sliced peppers, mushrooms or diced aubergine, serve with grated (dairy or non-dairy) cheese or even add in some cooked, shredded chicken if you don’t want to make a vegetarian version
  • Spread over tortillas then cover in your choice of vegetables (e.g. sliced peppers, halved cherry tomatoes, mushrooms etc.) and/or meat or meat alternatives and sprinkle some dairy or non-dairy cheese on top before baking on a baking tray for 12-15 minutes at 160C fan to make homemade tortilla pizzas (see my recipes for tortillas three ways for pizzas, questadillas and bake)
• Vary the pitta filling to suit your preferences:
  • Add peppers, mushrooms or aubergine to the roast vegetables
  • Try different cheeses – feta would give them a more Greek feel, or mozzarella would make them more like pizza
  • Try different seasoning e.g. basil or mixed herbs rather than the oregano, paprika or chilli rather than pepper

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Baby bites…

• This recipe is already low in salt (apart from the cheese), so just don’t add any salt to your baby’s portion
• The middle of the pittas, especially the cheese and inside the tomatoes can get very hot so be sure that it is cool enough all the way through before feeding to your baby
• This is best served as finger food for babies who are ready for that
  • If your baby likes their food quite soft then only very lightly toast and bake their pitta (you can even place it under another pitta to stop it getting too crispy)
  • If they find the tomato skins hard then you can puree the filling for them and just spread it in the pitta breads
• For further guidance on feeding a baby see my baby bites page

Lentil pie with parsnip mash

Happy Valentine’s day! Even though we don’t usually make a big deal of Valentine’s day I usually try to cook something a bit romantically themed as an acknowledgement of the day. It is probably an indication of where we are in life right now that this year all the food I have been cooking is aimed at pleasing our daughter rather than making a romantic gesture. However, I don’t take this as a sign that we are being completely devoid of romance. We love our time together as a family (which is lucky as the lockdown restrictions don’t give us many other options) and our dinner time all together is a highlight of the day. By making food that our daughter enjoys we give ourselves a much better chance of having a relaxed, quality time together where my husband and I have time to talk and connect properly rather than focusing on coaxing her to eat and stopping her pushing her food off her highchair tray. She is a girl who loves her carbs so a nice big plate of mashed parsnip and potato is right up her street and she adores carrots and courgettes so we don’t have to put any effort in to get her to eat her vegetables with this dish. It is also a pie, albeit a pretty healthy one, which always pleases my husband so we have contented faces all around. To add a little extra sprinkle of love to the day, our daughter has recently started saying “I love you mummy/daddy” while giving us a cuddle which more than makes up for the lack of expensive candlelit dinners.

Lentil pie with parsnip mash

Cooking time: 30 minutes preparation, 20 minutes baking
Dietary info: vegan, gluten free
Serves: 3-4

• 200g potato, scrubbed and sliced (also peeled if you prefer a smoother mash)
• 550-600g parsnips, scrubbed and sliced (also peeled if you prefer a smoother mash)
• ½ tsp pepper

Lentil filling

• 100g puy lentils
• 200g carrots, peeled and chopped
• 300g courgettes, cut in half then sliced to give semicircles
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 200ml water
• 1 tsp cornflour
• Zest of 1 lemon
• ½ tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp dried thyme

1. Rinse the lentils and cook according the packet instructions (usually cover in fresh water, bring to the boil then simmer for 15-25 minutes until soft)
2. Put the onion in a non-stick saucepan with a splash of water and cook until the onion is starting to soften (about 5 minutes)
3. Add the carrots, courgettes, cornflour, pepper, thyme and lemon zest to the onion
4. Cook over a medium heat, stirring, for 1-2 minutes until the cornflour evenly coats the vegetables then add the water
5. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook until the vegetables are tender (10-15 minutes) then stir in the lentils
6. Steam the potatoes and parsnips until they are soft (about 10-15 minutes) then add the pepper and mash or blend to a smoothish consistency, adding a bit of plant based milk if it is too stiff (or dairy milk if you don’t want to make this dairy free / vegan)
7. Put the lentil and vegetable mixture in an ovenproof dish, reserving any excess juice
8. Cover the lentils and vegetables with the mash and bake at 160C fan for about 20 minutes until the top is golden brown and starting to get a little crispy
9. Serve with some steamed vegetables or a salad and any excess juice as a gravy

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A few tips to prep ahead:

• You can make the lentil filling and keep for up to 3 days in a sealed container in the fridge
• On the night make the mash, assemble, bake and serve (heating up any reserved juice until hot all the way through to serve on the side)

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Some tasty little twists and extras…

• The version above is low salt as I was making this for my daughter, but you can season both the filling and mash to taste with salt, or add ¼ – ½ a crumbled stock cube to the filling when you add the water
• You can replace the parsnip mash with plain mash, sweet potato mash or carrot mash (see my recipe for carrot mash from my mustard pork with mash and leeks blog) for variety
• You could even make this look a bit more Valentine’s-esq by adding 1 small beetroot, peeled and steamed until soft, to the mash to give it a pinker colour and decorate it by drawing a heart shape on top with a fork
• Try different types of lentils e.g. green or red, instead of the puy lentils for different effects. Red lentils will have a much mushier texture than the puy lentils
• Vary the vegetables in the filling to suit your preferences, replacing some or all of the carrots and courgette with other vegetables such as mushrooms, peas, beetroot, shredded greens or cabbage, or sliced leeks

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Baby bites…

• This recipe is low salt so no need to adapt to make it suitable for babies
• The mash is pretty smooth so suitable for babies at almost all stages of weaning, but you can blend it to extra smooth and add some of your baby’s normal milk to make it more liquid if your baby prefers that (or is at a very early stage of weaning)
• You can puree or chop the filling, or just serve as it is depending on your baby’s preferences and stage of weaning
• For further guidance on feeding a baby please see my baby bites page

Mustard pork with mash and leeks

As you have probably guessed if you’ve read a few of my blogs, my cooking currently centres primarily around my daughter as she is the least diplomatic person that I feed. There is no eating something just to be polite, if she isn’t happy the food will just get ignored or pushed away in disgust. This week in particular I’ve tried to give her lots of her favourite things as it was her birthday. Luckily, even though we made two birthday cakes for her (one for the actual day, one for her virtual party), her absolute favourite things mainly tend to be savoury so it is quite easy to indulge her without getting her hyped up on sweet things. At the moment these favourite foods include pasta, noodles and gnocchi (there were actually tears when she saw a packet of uncooked gnocchi because she couldn’t eat them straight away), all of which tend to be shoveled in with more speed and enthusiasm than elegance. Another favourite is any kind of pie either topped with pastry or some kind of mash. I recently made a mash topped pie where I added some carrots to the mashed potato for variety and as this went down well I wanted to think of other ways to serve this new popular mash to her. I decided to pair it with pork as she also seems very keen on meat at the moment, and added some mustard lemon leeks, although these were mainly for my husband and my benefit as she has put leeks into the same category as cabbage and lettuce i.e. only fit for consumption by goats or mummy and daddy. 

Party birthday cake

Mustard pork with mash and leeks

Cooking time: 45-55 minutes
Dietary info: dairy free, gluten free (see the tasty twists for a vegan version)
Serves: 3-4

• 500g pork fillet
• 1 tsp mustard powder

Mash

• 550g potatoes, sliced (and peeled if you want a smoother mash)
• 200g carrots, peeled and sliced

Mustard lemon leeks

• 300g leeks, finely sliced
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp mustard powder

1. Rub 1 tsp mustard powder into the pork fillet and place in an ovenproof dish
2. Bake in the oven at 180C fan for about 40-50 minutes until the meat is cooked all the way through and the juices run clear. Cover the dish with foil if the meat starts to brown too quickly or dry out
3. Steam the potatoes and carrots until soft (around 10 minutes) then mash or puree to a smooth-ish texture (a few bits in it is still fine unless you like it super smooth)
   • If the mash is a bit thick you can loosen it with a bit of water or milk (plant based milk alternatives if you want to make this dairy free
   • You can season with salt and pepper to taste if you like
4. Put the leeks and 1 tsp mustard powder in a saucepan with a splash of water to stop them sticking and cook, covered and stirring occasionally, until they are soft (around 10 minutes)
5. Stir the lemon juice into the leeks
6. Serve the pork cut into thick slices with the mash and leeks

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A few tips to prep ahead:

• Wash and slice the leeks and keep in a sealed container or bag in the fridge for up to 3 days
• Prepare the carrots and keep in a sealed container or bag in the fridge for up to 3 days
• The potatoes are best prepared on the night but if you are going to be very short on time you can make the mash the day before, keep in a sealed container in the fridge until you need it and then heat until hot all the way through in a saucepan or the microwave, or the oven if you like it a bit crispy on the outside, before serving (about 4-6 minutes in a saucepan or the microwave, 15 minutes in the oven)
• On the night cook the pork and leeks, and make the mash (if you haven’t already done so) and serve

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Some tasty little twists…

• This mash makes a great topping for any pie that would usually be topped with plain mashed potatoes (e.g. shepherds pie, cottage pie etc.), as well as a nice accompaniment in a situation where you might have mashed potato
• To make a vegan version, replace the pork with 400g cooked (about 200g dried) beans, chickpeas or lentils cooked with onions and mustard:
  • Dice one medium onion and cook in a splash of water until soft
  • Stir in the cooked beans, chickpeas or lentils along with 1 tsp English mustard or mustard powder, 1 tsp cornflour and enough water or vegetable stock (make sure it is vegan) to come about halfway up the bean mixture and cook until the liquid has started to thicken (about 6-10 minutes)
  • Season with lemon juice to taste and serve with the leeks and mash

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Baby bites…

• Omit salt from your baby’s portion (if you are seasoning the mash with salt and pepper for yourself), and use water or a very low salt stock if cooking the vegan version
• The mash is already very soft so easy for most babies to eat. If your baby is in the early stages of weaning you can make the mash more liquid with a bit of whatever milk they usually drink to help them
• Chop or puree the leek and pork to suit your baby’s preferences and stage of weaning
• For further guidance on feeding a baby see my baby bites page