Food dilemma

[ailbhe]

We have invited guests around and decided what to feed them and sorted it all out using our usual weight-per-person guidelines (1/4lb of meat, 250g each of two veg, and 250g potato) but after turning it into shepherd's pie it looks titchy. So now we're looking around the kitchen for stretchers.

There's the shepherd's pie, with meat and potato and carrot and swede and onion (all ready tonight, just needs to be baked).

There's the squash we were going to roast, which will fill up plate space. I plan to chop it into chunks, toss it in olive oil, sprinkle it with black pepper, and stick it in the oven beside the pie.

There are more potatoes, which we can likewise roast. Everyone likes to see roasted potatoes even if they don't eat them.

There's a small amount each of green kale and red cabbage, which I can steam - would nutmeg be nice on kale? It's lovely on spinach.

I could also roast some baby onions.

And for dessert we have apple and pear clafouti; the conference pears are lovely right now. And oat-cream, or perhaps vegan custard. And hot applejuice and cinnamon to drink.

We are feeding five adults, two preschoolers, a toddler and a baby. If I have time between housework, errands, and hosting the BfN study group, I may also make a loaf or two of white bread with stuff in, but if it's not done by 3pm I won't do it.

Comments

[ai731.livejournal.com]

The other option for stretching is to make squash soup to serve as a starter. You can put in any spare veg you have as well. Steam or bake the squash (and anything else), then puree with stock and simmer for a bit. If you have some red lentils, toss them in to make it nice and 'creamy' without any milk or milk substitutes.

[ailbhe]

As it happens, we have loads of red lentils. I shall see how confident I feel. Soup would be great because we could keep it hot in the slow cooker until it was convenient to serve. I'd have to use a stock cube though, we have no real stock at the moment.

I think soup might depend on my making bread. If I do that, I will probably make soup.

[the0lady.livejournal.com]

You have lentils! Well why didn't you list them in our assets to begin with?[1]

If you don't feel up to soup, you could blanch the lentils for about 5 minutes in boiling water and then mix them in with the onions you were planning to roast for the last 20 minutes or so. Some garlic would probably also be nice. I do lentils like that in a frying pan with fried onions as gluten free side dish; but I reckon roasting is even better as it's a lot less messy!

[1] Sorry, xmas seems to be bringing me out in Princess Brides this year.

[sam-t.livejournal.com]

I think nutmeg is OK on kale but not half as good as it is with spinach. I prefer garlic, and lots of it, personally, but that might not be so guest-friendly. Paprika (maybe smoked?) and olive oil would probably be good, as chorizo works well with kale, but I'm not sure how well that would work with the shepherd's pie.