Midweek Quickie; Cheezy Broccoli & Red Pepper Spud Cakes

I've been trying to make a stash of my own convenience foods lately and keeping them in the freezer for when I'm feeling a bit lazy, which in winter is honestly about 89% of the time. I am a big fan of packet oven stuff, but I crave it a lot and given that I am fairly skilled in the kitchen, I tend to end up self-loathing a bit for choosing Linda McCartney over cooking for myself, so I figured the best way to combat this is to be the ready meal provider I want to see in the world and stock my freezer full of homemade not so junk foods.

It started with sausages and burgers, and they were great. I made a big batch of both which probably did about 8 meals each. It works out so much cheaper this way, and I also get a wider variety of flavour combinations open up to me too - who'd have known?! The only downside is that I can never get sausages to be the same texture as Linda's, I think I might need to invest in some veggie casings, as I make a great sausage meat but the damn stuff won't stay in a log form without being wrapped in pastry! Oh, woe! No one likes having to have sausage rolls! What a nightmare.

Anyway, Sainsbury's recently released a spring onion and cheddar-style crispbake thing that everyone in gluten free vegan circles has been raving about. I love that we have more options available to us blooming awkward gluten free vegans, and I tried them and they were actually alright, but let's be honest, we can all do a bit better. Plus at £2 for 2, when you know you've got the ingredients at home already and you could probably make say 8 for a similar cost? I can't justify that every time I want one two, because that's daily. Minimum. I personally think my own ones also have a much better flavour, and depending on which veggies and vegan cheeze you use they can have any delightful combo you as an individual want; blue cheeze would be stonking in these bad boys and I see some soy mince and onion ones with gravy in my very near future.

So, yeah, these were entirely made up of stuff I already had laying about and I didn't buy in anything new to make them and I think that's the important bit. In fact, I was pleased to have finally found a use for the half a bag of breadcrumbs I had leftover from the banging aubergine katsu curry I made the other week.

Well, I should shut up and get on with the recipe, as I don't have many photos to balance this post out. I wasn't going to write it up, but I had a few requests from people, so here is my lazy girl secret to after school dinners. Use what you have and stuff it in some spuds like this:

Cheezy Broccoli & Red Pepper Spud Cakes

makes about 8 cakes

5 medium potatoes, chopped
1 tbsp vegan margerine
splash of dairy free milk (I used this one)
up to 1 cup of gluten free flour (I used gram flour)
1.2 red pepper, finely diced
1/4 head of broccoli, finely chopped
1/2 red onion, finely diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1-2 tbsp of vegan cream cheeze (I used this one)
1 handful of grated vegan cheeze (I used this one)
salt & pepper
1/2 packet of gluten free breadcrumbs (I used this one)
splash of oil

1. Preheat your oven to 180.
2. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and gently sling in your spuds. Cook for 15 minutes or until mashable. Drain and remove from heat.
3. Whilst your spuds are boiling, gently soften your onion, red pepper and garlic in a saucepan with a little oil. Once soft, add your broccoli. when it's all cooked, take off the heat and mix through the grated cheee and then stir in the cream cheeze. Set aside.
4. Mash your cooked and cooled spuds with the margerine, milk and some salt and pepper. Once mashed, stir through your flour a little at a time until the potatoes firm up and are easier to handle. You will be using your hands, to handle them. This is why it's important they aren't still at that freshly boiled level of hotness.
5. Using a measure - I like to use a half cup scoop - scoop out some potato mixture, make a ball, flatten it and make well in the centre. Dollop a tablespoon of cheezy veg mix into the middle of the well, then cover over with the sides and adding a little more potato mixture if necessary. 
6. Roll the stuffed spud in the breadcrumbs and place on a greased baking tray.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 until all of the mixture has been used up.
8. Put your potato cakes in the oven for 22 minutes, or until the breadcrumbs are crisp and golden, turning once halfway through.
9. Serve with chips and salad for the easiest dinner EVER.
10. Be transported to being 9 again when you used to live off Finder's Crispy Pancakes.
11. Be super thankful that you know exactly what went into this and that it is most definitely not a Finders Crispy Pancake.
12. Dear god, the stuff that was acceptable in the early 90s.
13. Oh yeah, you can obviously freeze any stuffed spuds you aren't ready to eat yet. Just do the oven bit when you want them.
14. Told you this was easy!
15. There's even real veg in there too.