Pot Luck

A couple of weeks ago I went to my very first Pot Luck picnic. It was lovely. The weather was great, I met some new people and the food was fantastic!

My contributions were "Hedgehogs", an old family recipe that is kind of like a little potato rosti, and a beany pasta salad. Both of these recipes are perfect for a BBQ, picnic, or a party (maybe not a fancy party in terms or the hedgehogs).

I'll start with the salad first.

Sooo much vegan goodness!

Even the locals liked it ;)

Beany Pasta Salad.

Ingredients:

• 1 tin of mixed beans (or any legumes of your choice) drained and rinsed
• 350-500g of pasta your choice of pasta,  (I used 500g, but next time I'll only use 350-400g)
• 1 tin or 3 fresh chopped tomatoes (I prefer to use fresh for this recipe)
• 1 red onion (optional, and not used this time)
• 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 C chopped basil leaves
• 200g (or more) of baby spinach leaves
  

Method:

1. In a large pot Boil enough salted water to cook a whole bag of pasta. Whilst water is boiling/pasta is cooking do everything else. When ready drain pasta and pop it back in the pot, set aside off heat. Cover with lid until ready to use.
   
2. Whilst the pasta is doing its thing chop tomatoes and onions, if using them, drain and rinse the legumes, wash and spin the spinach leaves.
   
3. Heat a little olive oil in a pan and gently sweat down the garlic, and onion if using, and basil leaves.
   
4. Add beans and tomatoes to just heat up a little bit and to get some of the garlic, basil and onion flavours. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
   
5. Once the beany mix and pasta are both ready combine the two gently, being careful not to mash the beans or tear the pasta. Drizzle the pasta with a little extra olive oil.
   
6. Add the spinach last minute, just before serving or walking out the door, so as to prevent it from wilting too much.

The salad is lovely warm or cold and great to take for work/school lunches also.

Hedgehogs

Ingredients: 

• 4 large potatoes
• 1 brown onion
• Replacement for 3 eggs, I use Orgran's No Egg
• 1 C frozen corn
• Plain white flour to mix (this could be substituted for a GF flour)
• Oil for frying, enough to submerge the Hedgehogs in
  

Method:

1. In your food processor or by hand, grate the potatoes (peeled or not is your choice) and the onion. If you don't have a food processor grating onions sucks big ones, so I recommend slicing fairly thinly instead. If you are doing it by hand use a large bowl, if doing it in the food processor make sure your chopping blade is not in there.
   
2. Heat your oil, either in the deep fryer or on the stove, keep an eye on it!
   
3. Mix in the No Egg and frozen corn kernels.
   
4. Mix in enough flour to bring everything together. Start with about 1/4 C at a time. How much you will need depends on how wet your potatoes are. You could squeeze the liquid out of them just after gating, but I have never worried about that. Don't mix in too much as you will probably need to add more to soak up the moisture from the mixture as you are cooking as the corn will start to defrost.
   
5. Now get your hands into it. Scoop out handfuls, if you have big hand make the little handfuls, mold them together by gently, but firmly squeezing them until formed.
   
6. Place in your hot oil and cook until golden brown. I don't have a deep fryer so I just cooked them on the stove. I found about 2 minutes on each side (I flip them over) worked fairly well, but the first batch took longer, despite the oil being hot *shrugs shoulders*
   
7. Drain on paper towel and enjoy! 
   

These are great hot or cold, sprinkle with salt, squirt on some tomato sauce, whack 'me between two slice of "buttered" bread and totally eat the shit out of them!! These are also frickin' awesome as a hangover food, vegan, greasy, amazeballs, hangover food. They are also great to eat with beer. They just friggin' rock no matter what your doing!!