Easy Vegetarian Spaghetti with Garlic Bread

This is a very satisfying meal for me, makes me think of home. And for some reason it is the one dinner with which I have to have a tall glass of cold skim milk. Normally I don't drink plain milk.
This is an easy vegetarian spaghetti sauce, so here are the easy ingredients. Adjust to your tastes

onion

bell peppers

zucchini (here in the UK they're called courgettes, don't ask me why)

garlic

tomato sauce

pasta of some sort--spaghetti here--it is, after all, a spaghetti sauce

dried chili pepper flakes

fresh basil

Start by chopping all the veg. Throw them in a pot with some olive oil. Start with the onions and zucchini to soften them first. Once they're half-way cooked, throw in some garlic along with the dried chili pepper flakes, salt and pepper.
Once they're about halfway cooked, throw in the peppers and cook for only a few minutes so that they keep crisp.

Pour in the tomato sauce and stir it up. Then cover with the lid slightly ajar and simmer until everything else is ready.
Get the water boiling and put the pasta on.
Now make the garlic bread using the above ingredients.

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp roast garlic puree

salt

fresh basil or any other herb

Mix the butter and garlic up together.
Add the herbs and salt.
Mix it all up and prepare to smooth on to bread.
I'm using plain old sandwich bread.
I toast the bread on the first side under the broiler (called a grill here, in Her Majesty's realms). Spread the butter on the other side of the toast.
Put the garlic bread, butter side up under the broiler until it's not brown but sort of toasted. This is so as not to burn the garlic.
The sauce should be a bit thickened.
At this point I like to throw in a bit of fresh basil.
Plate it up! Some people like parmesan over the top. I don't. That's just me.

Pepper and Halloumi Bake

This is one of my favourite quick recipes. It's adapted from Nigella Express and it's even better than Nigella's--sorry.

Basically it's a hot salad of sweet bell peppers and chopped halloumi with some spices and herbs, eaten picked up with pita bread, tortilla strips or some other bread. It's fast, adaptable between vegetarian and meat-containing, and leftovers warm up well. Once again, most importantly, it's delicious and very satisfying.

Start with bell peppers of course. Three large ones works in good proportion to a 250gm block of halloumi. The seasonings are garlic, salt and pepper, and some chili oil which I've made up, but a couple spoonfuls of olive oil and a couple of teaspoons of dried chili flakes also does the job. Adjust seasonings as you desire. Just remember that the halloumi is really salty and doesn't need too much more salt. Often I don't even bother with salt. I don't know why I put it in the picture. DON'T, however, skimp on the fresh ground black pepper. I love black pepper. I also love a fresh green hit with some fresh basil. My basil plant is thriving like you would not believe so I apply basil liberally, and at the very end. Step one: chop up those red peppers into a dice. You can chop them bigger, just make them convenient to scoop up onto a piece of bread.
Put them into a large zip lock bag. This just makes coating them with oil easier.
Chop up the halloumi into similarly sized chunks. Steal some halloumi to eat plain--it's a bit like cheese curds, squeeky and salty.
Throw that into the bag, along with a bit of fresh chopped garlic (here, my garlic puree--I told you, I put it in everything), the chili oil (or olive oil and dried chili pepper flakes), and tons of black pepper. A more course grind works well here. I like biting down on a sudden hot hit of pepper.
Shake that stuff up to coat in the oil and seasonings.
Tip it out onto a baking sheet. It goes in a 350F oven for 10 minutes. Told you this was fast.
Meanwhile I like to prepare the basil by making a chiffonade. Just lay all the basil leaves in a pile and roll the whole pile up really tight.
Look at my pink fingernails. They look pretty rad next to the green.
Then slice the leaves into a narrow chiffonade. Fluff the chiffonade to separate the little strings.
This time we ate the peppers and halloumi with a fresh baguette, sliced up and spread with some butter.
When it's baked, the peppers will be softened but still a bit crisp. The halloumi will take on a SLIGHTLY brown colour but hopefully will not be burnt because that doesn't taste good.
And finally sprinkle the basil on top. Scoop up a bit onto your bread, or scoop with the bread and pop that goodness into your mouth. It's really good.

Meat adaptation: sometimes when I feel I want the protein or when I have it around, I separate the baking into two sheet pans, and sprinkle some chopped up chorizo into one. It adds a whole other thing, being spicy and garlicky itself, but also delightfully meaty. Alternately, lay some pepperoni on your bread as you scoop up the peppers. Frankly, it's a rare recipe where it's actually equally good both ways.