Vegetarian Foods Archive

I've been a long time fan of Cranks - The cookbooks  an I am a member of the  Vegetarian Society,  so you can imagine my delight when I learned that Cranks have officially been Approved by the Vegetarian Society, a UK brand as longstanding and veggie obsessed as Cranks are and to celebrate this new partnership, as well as raise awareness of vegetarianism and veganism this season, I thought I would create an old fashioned Vegetarian Hand Raised (moulded by hand) Pie made with hot water crust pastry. There have been some negativity around vegetarian classics like nut roasts, and traditional vegetarian fare in favour of fancy named grains, pretentious jazzed up salads dressed up with exotic sauces and festive green shake smoothies topped with cranberries.  I note this snobbish attitude often comes from those that are neither vegetarian or vegan, but lifestyle foodies who jump on the bandwagon of the next foodie gimmick or fashionable grain.  Please don't get m...

Ah its the last Five on Friday for 2015 and I am glad that I have found time to participate as the last few times  I had failed to join in due to work - life distractions.  We decorated our Christmas tree the first weekend of December.  The tree is adorned mostly with  foodie related ornaments (gingerbread man, beaded chilli, strawberry , grapes, measuring spoons etc.)  those gifted to me many years ago  and some wacky ones that make D smile.  If you wish you can see the  tree from a different angle here ,  Every year we try and find something new for the tree, but nothing has caught our eyes this year, but I am thankful as I have been given two new ornaments to hang from me tree this year.  The Angel swinging from the top from Mexico from my nephew and a wooden angel from Bangladesh (not shown) from a work colleague.  We seem to have loads of wrapping paper left over from last year, so we haven't purchased much this year...

If you have any carrots and parsnip left over from the festive week then I have a recipe for you, just don't make a soup with it.  I actually made this Root Vegetable Terrine on Christmas Eve for Christmas Day.   This was my only contribution to our Vegetarian Christmas Dinner plate as D took charge in the kitchen.  Over the years, cooking up Christmas dinner has become his responsibility, I am not sure when or why this happened, but I am quietly pleased as it gives me a deserved break and it always feels like a treat when he cooks for me, just does.    D is not keen on overly keen nut roasts and didn't care either way if it made an appearance on our plate, so as a compromise, I decided to Tea Time Treats ; and   Elizabeths's Kitchen for No Waste Food Challenge ; and finally Belleau Kitchen for  make a Parsnip Terrine recipe  that I have made in the past.  I introduced a few different elements to it in an attempt to make it more festi...

A few weeks back when we were all planning on our Christmas menu, a colleague at work who loves her sweet baking shared a link with me for a very easy, yet very impressive recipe that would Wow guests.  It was simple enough, spread between two sheets of ready rolled puff pastry is a sweet (chocolate and hazelnut, fruit jams) or savoury (pesto, cheese) spread, then the pastry is shaped into a tree - an edible tree that is, where the tree branches are twisted for breaking off and enjoying.  I can only describe this a bit like a Danish pastry without the sugar icing.   I loved the look of the recipe, the fun aspects as well as the ease of making it, so picked up some puff pastry with intentions of making it for unexpected visitors, but sadly we didn't have many guests over the festive period...  Then New Year came and I was given the opportunity to make it.  Even though mine did not turn out as elegant as that featured in the link below and looked more like a ...

The snow from last week has all melted away - although when I look outside the window the snow head and melted body of a snowman remains still intact in one of the neighbours front garden, an indication of how cold it is still here.   We managed to get the car started, turned around and carefully down the skiddy icy road and get into work.  I have been feeling a little seasonally under the weather, however each morning I somehow manage to drag my sorry backside out of the bed and get into work.  When I am there I wonder why I have bothered when a half the office staff have rung in sick.  I have only ever been off sick one day in the four years I have been working there.   Work has been terribly busy, but it is slowing down finally for more reasons than one. I am not so secretly looking forward to the break come Christmas and the New Year.  Our meals in the evening have been relatively quick.  We have had vegan   Puttanseca  ...

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a session through work called 'Christmas Cooking On A Budget'.   It did not go accordingly, as the Tutor who usually runs the Cooking On A Budget session had not purchased the ingredients and there seemed to have been an overspend by the organiser. I did not want to embarrass the organiser, so did not get round to asking the Tutor in private what the cost of Christmas Cooking On A Budget should have been for up to 12 people. Regardless, it made for an interesting day.  It got me to reflect on how lucky I presently am to have a home, able to buy things I want and food I want to indulge in.   However,  I share with you a  Link to a website calle d Family Lives and their article on Christmas On A Budget with some tips that may be helpful in the future if you have to Cook On A Budget. This was my vegan Christmas On A Budget plate, yet to be smothered in gravy. Roasted potatoes and parsnips. A tip that was shared...

Work has been busy with deadlines to complete, that I find myself too tired to come home and then sit in front of the computer to blog, but I have found some energy today.  Giant Santa Claus in Bristol I don't have much to share in the way of cooking at home at the moment, so today I thought I would share some festive shenanigans from work.   Here is a Christmas tree made from scratch with green paper and then decorated with mini baubles.  Even I made an effort making a gold 3D angel topper for my Christmas tree at home.  At work, colleagues decided to spruce up the workplace and do a cheap and cheerful challenge called Pimp your Pod.  Surprisingly, me and my colleagues came first with our simple cascading tinsel Christmas tree.   But fair play to the runners up with their Stranger Things Wall theme , though not everyone got it - thinking it was a ouiji board!  By the way it was more effective and impressive with the lights turned ...

So the festive holidays officially begin for me and I am glad of it.   A few years back, I remembered that Johanna's from Green Gourmet Giraffe had made a very impressive Chocolate Salami at home. I admired it and at the time.  It had not dawned on me then to make it for my husband who has a thing about chocolate, but this year I was reminded of it, when I saw some supermarkets selling Chocolate Salami as part of the Christmas range.  I should also highlight that last year, I also saw a very similar recipe, but this time it was showcased as Chocolate Haggis by Foodie Quine for Burns Night.  Anyway, this year I was determined to make a Chocolate Salami for my husband from scratch.   Here is it, I am also linking this to The Christmas Link Up hosted by Claire Justine . I must admit, although it was easy to make, parts of it were a little fiddly, especially wrapping the clingfilm around melted chocolate and then removing the clingfilm from the set choc...

I hope my readers had a good Christmas break.  I had a good one and I must confess I am pleased as I am still on my holidays, I don't go back until after the New Year.   So with some time on my hands, I thought I would share some homemade festive eats. A very simple and easy recipe for pinwheels made to look like a Christmas tree.  These are green wraps filled with hummus, strips of yellow, orange and red peppers, rocket and spring onions.   Vegan sausage roll bites in two flavours: apricot and yellow pepper; the other was beetroot and horseradish served with Smoked Paprika Ketchup. Black chickpea and sweet potato frittata bites. As well as the h omemade chocolate 'salami', I made another festive bookmarked recipe from the Green Gourmet Giraffe, this time for Gingerbread Cookies.  This was also actually an excuse to play with my box of eclectic cookie cutters.    I did also use my new Welsh Dragon cookie cutte r too, ...