Vegetarian Foods Archive

What I like about this Roasted  Balsamic Beetroot Galette with thyme is its appearance.  It looks warming, with its fiery flame red and sunset yellow colours.  This is perfect as it compliments Vegan Mofo prompt today which is  'Its cold and rainy and there's a snow drift outside your door. What are you going to make using the ingredients you have.  I usually have lots of dried beans, pulses and grains - but the one veg that shows its versatility during the autumn and wintry season is the beetroot - from cakes to  steaks . curries   to wobbly jelly. I have used two different beetroots in the galette.  A  Golden Beetroot and the traditional crimson-red .  I sliced the beetroot, then doused it generously with some good olive oil and good balsamic vinegar and allowed it to roast until it was tender.  I must emphasize the importance of good olive oil and good balsamic vinegar here, its essential as these two ingredients make the b...

I do love the versatility of the beetroot - from home-made beetroot granola to sweet homely  cakes  and bakes to vegan spreads and seitan ' steaks ' . To world-wide inspired  curries   to wobbly  jelly   and simple, but colourful robust tarts - like this one.  As you can see, I have used two different beetroots in this tart.  A  Golden Beetroot  and the  traditional crimson-red .   I sliced the beetroot, then doused it generously with some good olive oil and good balsamic vinegar and allowed it to roast until it was tender.  I must emphasize the importance of good olive oil and good balsamic vinegar here, its essential as these two ingredients make the beetroot the star of the dish, without them, although aesthetically pleasing, the flavour  would just be too earthy.  Whilst it was roasted Balsamic Beetroot slices were cooling, I got on with making the shortcust pastry, blind baked it .  T...

I know everything is in the presentation and this plate of salad would have been elevated a little more with a little more tinkering in the name of food styling; and perhaps served on a bed of greens such as rocket or watercress would have done it, but had cauliflower - the veg du jour been presented by a celebrity chef, cookery writer or so called queen of the grain and greens I am sure it would have encouraged swoons and wow's, But as it comes from a little known vegetarian food blogger it will be perceived more as the smashed brains of a zombie presented by someone watching way too many episodes of The Walking Dead ; and perhaps best served around Halloween; and to an extent I would have to agree on first glance, but I assure you its all about the veg.  No humans, animals or zombies were hurt in the making of this Salad.  And it was bloody marvellous too.  Image source AMC The white cauliflower dyed beautifully and naturally by the beetroot and balsamic v...

I've been wanting to make a Beetroot version of  Tahdig  ever since I managed to find some rosy coloured barberries.  Tahdig  is a Iranian - Iraqi - Persian Upside Down Rice cake.   I have made traditional Tahdig once before in a pot with crusty golden almost burnt topping, but that was well before I started this blog.   It is for this reason, I was confident I could adapt a Tahdig recipe with the addition of Beetroot.   I was pleased by the way the  savoury Persian style Upside Down Beetroot  Rice cake t urned out, baked in a silicon heart-shaped mould (because of Valentines week), BUT - yes there is a but, I was disappointed in the way it tasted.  My tinkered version of this Persian style Upside Down Beetroot Cakes was just about edible, it needs work.  My version dyes the rice with beetroot instead of saffron and is filled with spiced roasted aubergines and puy l entils.  The whole recipe needs a little tweaking, No...

This was supper yesterday evening.  I had the day off from work and had ideas of going into the the big city of Cardiff or further afield Bristol and treat myself to some luxury items: shoes, a dress, a raincoat ... but no  - I decided to stay at home and do some cooking. This Red Curry made can almost be described as a dry curry.  One that can be eaten with naan bread or chappati aka roti, but if you want it to be more liquid, you can stir in a can of Coconut milk, then I would suggest eating it with some Basmati rice as its a little more sloppy, but rich and tasty none-the-less, The addition of coconut milk will also make it more of a Pink Dish - in which case I may have called it  Pink Curry  with a nod towards  LGBT History Month  which is presently being acknowledged and celebrated in the UK, but no this is definitely a shade of mahogony wine red, not pink!  I've made an spectacular   Sri Lankan Beetroot Curry   in the past ...

This is a vegan take on 'Beef' Carpaccio.  The beef is replaced with floppy slithers of roasted balsamic beetroot. I know this plate looks sparse, but this is a starter - a light teaser before you are served your main meal. As well as the sharp tangy velvet slices of beetroot, on the plate you will also find fronds of green pickings from the greenhouse.  Gosh, I do wonder why I don't make more of an effort to grow salad greens, they are just so much more tastier and punchier than those you pick up from the supermarket. And capers, roughly chopped for piquancy.  Enjoy.  I am sharing this with  Healthy Vegan Fridays  hosted by the beautiful  Rock My Vegan  Socks and  V Nutrition   Roasted Balsamic Beetroot Carpaccio with Capers and Rocket Serves 4 Ingredients 400grams Plain or Balsamic roasted beetroot, thinly sliced with a mandolin Lots of Salad greens, good mixture 4 tablespoons rapeseed or good extra virgin olive ...

Another long working week and I am so glad its Friday. Let the weekend begin.   I made this vegan Beetroot and Soy Lambless Curry last week with one of the beetroots that was bestowed upon me by a friend of a friend who has an allotment.  I made Beetroot Chutney with one of it and the other, I made this Pakistani Beetroot Curry. I've had beetroot in a curry before,  Sri Lankan Beetroot Curry and Red Onion, Red Cabbage and Beetroot Curry In some South Asians home cooking beetroot with lamb known as Chukhandar Gosht  is quite popular, I have to admit it was not smoothing I grew up eating, but when I saw the recipe a few years back on blogosphere, I bookmarked to make a vegetarian version of it with faux meat.  Well here it is, the 'lamb' is replaced with vegamigo  Soy Schnetzel  which I used for my Ethiopian Tibs recipe.  I have found  Soy Schnetzel  so much nicer than supermarket brand faux soy pieces. The curry is a t...

This Winter Beetroot Potato Horseradish Gratin is perhaps something best served around Halloween when loud bold colours seem more acceptable on the dinner plate, though I must add orange is the real colour of Halloween, not Gothic blood wine colours.   This a dish that was made from scratch, from peeling and cooking the beetroot (which were from my own garden plot) to making the sauce, the only shortcut I used was horseradish sauce from a jar.  I have seen fresh horseradish root in the city of Cardiff, but its very expensive and I would only want a tablespoon or two, not the whole root - so its from a jar, no shame in that.   You could make this grating completely with beetroot, but I thought it might be too overpowering and alternated it with sliced potatoes.  This recipe is vegetarian, but it can easily be made vegan. I served the Beetroot Potato Horseradish Gratin enjoyed it with Cauldron Lincolnshire sausages which I prefer to the other supermar...

I  harvested some beetroot from my garden a few weeks back and made a few recipes with it such as Beetroot Gratin , Beetroot Horseradish Pasta Salad, Beetroot, Beetroot Chutney,  Soy 'Lamb' Curry , and  Beetroot Chocolate Cake .    And this gorgeous Beetroot Heart Shaped Quiche with Feta and chives. I made this Love Beetoot Heart Quiche totally from scratch.  F rom peeling and cooking the beetroot to cutting them into dainty hearts, to making the  shortcrust pasty which is dyed with beetroot powder, but you would not know it as once it was baked, it lost that magnificent colour.   Even though the beetroot hearts drowned in the eggy creamy mixture, it was a lovely quiche.  I just wish I had taken a photograph of it sliced to show you the mosaic effect on the inside, but I didn't. Oh another reason I made the beetroot heart shaped, it also our  wedding anniversary  today, we don't really do anything celebratory - but...

This Beetroot Barley Goats Cheese Salad is an autumnal salad because of the hearty barley and the colours that remind me of the drying leaves on the trees.   Its perfect for taking into lunch as it won't leak liked those tossed in heavy salad dressing The goats cheese is optional, but I think it works as it makes a nice contrast to the earthy beetroot.  Of course you could use a dairy free alternative like Gary which is actually made from coconuts and is very popular in the UK right now.  I have to admit I have not tried Gary yet as every time I go to seek it out it is sold out.  This Beetroot Barley Goats Cheese Salad is not much of a recipe as I eye-balled most of the ingredients: cooked barley, cooked beetroot including its juices, a little balsamic vinegar an extra virgin oil for dressing, salt and pepper and then topped with rocket and goats cheese.  Quite simple really. I am sharing the Autumn Leaves photograph with  Kahakai Kitchen . ...

I am such a moody person, I don't have one late night snack I go to, its depends how I feel. These days late night snacking for me can be nacho and dip or hummus with pitta chips or simply Marmite on toast , but there are night when it can also popcorn in all its many flavours Turmeric Garam Masala and chilli, Wasabi Popcorn,  B lack Pepper and Salt Popcorn,  Rosemary and Chilli Popcorn ,  Sumac Popcorn   and more recently Beetroot and horseradish.  This is popcorn for grown ups.  I don't really do sweet popcorn and find it a bit sickly, though recently whilst looking at a bottle of ginger syrup in my kitchen cupboards, I got thinking about making some gingerbread popcorn for Christmas festivities. I've picked up some beetroot powder, tomato powder, lemon powder, spinach powder, horseradish powder and a number of others and have been thinking of ways to use them in my sweet and savoury baking and cooking.   I have used it in shortcrust past...

This Beetroot, Horseradish Pasta Salad was made in a hurry a few weeks back over the weekend. I took inspiration from what was in my fridge: cooked beetroot and green beans and kitchen cupboards: horseradish powder and dried pasta a nd lunch was on the table in less than 30 minutes. The amount of horseradish you put in is subjective, put in as much or as little as you want.  I made the horseradish myself with some horseradish powder that I picked from Glastonbury earlier on in the month.  But if you use ready made, albeit a vegan brand make sure you get good horseradish - nothing disappoints than a tame horseradish in your mouth when your expecting a boom! We had some Beetroot Horseradish Pasta Salad left over, so I took some into work and shared it with a colleague who comes from Slovakia where they do like their beetroot.  By the way this is the same work colleague who gave me some beetroots from her allotment plot a little while back and I made a vegan Beetro...