We never seem to get home before 8pm these days, so I try to have an arsenal of dinners in my repertoire that are easy and quick after a long day at work and exercise. This super-easy vegetarian dinner takes
less than half an hour to cook, and despite its lack of animal protein my other half loves it.
1. Fresh ingredients! I had 3 zucchinis and 3 nice big Swiss Brown Mushrooms, but you can substitute other vegetables that you have handy/you prefer - I know my friend Andrew can't stand mushrooms, so if I was to cook this for him, I'd substitute them for eggplant. One medium red onion - I prefer these to white or brown onions; they are sweeter and less eye-watering. And garlic is a must!
2. Bring water to the boil, add a dash of olive oil, dump store-bought gnocchi into pot. Set timer for approx. 9 minutes.
3. Roughly chop onion, into the fry pan with plenty of oil. Add a dab of honey to caramelise the onions. Cook until golden.
4. I like to chop my vegies into big chunks, so that they still have some bite in the middle and don't go mushy from cooking. Brown zucchini and mushrooms. Add either tomato paste like I did here or chop up a fresh tomato.
5. Chop haloumi into smaller bits; as this is quite salty, I prefer to use the haloumi in small bits to distribute the saltiness, and also so the bits of cheese are cooked through and soft in the middle, whilst being brown and crispy on the outside. A dash of lemon on the raw haloumi prior to cooking if you wish.
6. I use this ingredient in about 90% of my cooking. Some freshly ground nutmeg. Yum. Salt and pepper to taste, and ground paprika if you like. Roughly chopped garlic is a must. I like to add this towards the end so it doesn't cook too much and leaves quite a strong garlic taste. If you're not a garlic fiend like us you should add this in at step 3 or 4.
7. Drain gnocchi, plate up. Garnish with some fresh sweet basil leaves. Done! Eat.
