Vegetarian Foods Archive

I've had a proper lazy weekend and most of all I have had a long sleep in, no dreading the alarm going off and waking up to go into work in the dark and come back home in the dark. The weekend has also allowed me to d some slow cooking and make the most of the little light there was outside for photographs, but the reality is its been a dark weekend with lingering dark clouds, drippy rain and blustery winds.  Today's hearty  lunch was Lemon-Coriander Maftoul with Roasted Harissa Rainbow Carrots.   I  picked up two bunches of rainbow carrots from a local greengrocers.  I wanted to make more of a feast of them, than just chop, grate or spiralize them for a coleslaw, so I roasted them whole in a harissa sauce and served it with  Zaytoun Palestenian Maftoul .  Maftoul is made from sun-dried bulgar wheat and hand rolled into tiny chewy balls.  The magic of maftoul is that it absorbs flavours wonderfully so I coated it in lemony coriander goodne...

For those of you who read my blog on a regular basis will have already been introduced to the new toy in my kitchen , but for those of you who have not.  Meet The Optimum ThermoCook that has made itself at home in my kitchen, shoving out of the way the fruit bowl.    Many of you know that I don't really do reviews, so many bloggers accept things and always feel they have to write positive stuff.  I have always been and continue to be very selective and review with honestly and of products that genuinely interest me; and not just for the sake of taking. This post is a Review of the Optimum ThermoCook .  The Optimum ThermoCook is made by the same people behind my Optimum 9400 Froothie Blenders. The ThermoCook  is  quite a neat looking appliance and not too intrusive.  Its boasting that it  boils, blends,  chops, heats, kneads, liquidises, mashes, purees, reheats, sautes, steams, stirs, and much much more .   I am looking forwa...

I have never had a desire to make a  Korma  at home  until I ate one a few months back and was reminded of its loveliness.  It was quite yummy a little reminisce of Thai Green Curry, which I really love.  It was made with pumpkin and green beans and made a pleasant change from rich spicy tomato based curries.   So in order to remedy having never made a korma in my home, I was finally ready to give it a go and i t was quite delicious  and despite its long list of ingredients I think this is one of the worlds most easiest recipes.   .  Although, I think I may have added way too much coconut milk as it was drowning all the vegetables, still it tasted lovely.  I think my mother in law would like it too as it was not overly spicy.   This Vegetable Korma Soup is perfect for those evening when you want to curl up in the corner of your soft and watch a movie.  I don't watch many Bollywood movies these days as I did in my childhoo...

I had plans to make a Rainbow Carrot Tart with these Rainbow Carrots for evening supper, but that idea was quickly dropped when I realised we had no bread to make sandwiches for lunch and I did not fancy pasta again, so this Barley and Lentil Salad was cobbled together with what other ingredients I had in the kitchen cupboards. I found it to be really, really nice.  There was a comforting chew from the barley, bite from the rainbow carrots that also made me feel rather cheery every time I tucked in to take a spoonful from my lunch box.  The Puy lentils just added that soft salty poppets of flavour and a final flurry of spring onions aka scallions.  I want more salads like this for winter.   Vegan Mof o theme this week is Rainbow Food and the prompt  today is Multicolour Food.   Other Rainbow Coloured Vegan Recipes  Rainbow Chard Bundles Harissa Rainbow Carrots with Maftoul Rainbow Bell Pepper Spaghetti Rainbow Vegetables with Soba Noodles ...

This Simple Roasted Beetroot and Carrot Salad was made last weekend when neither of us wanted to leave the warmth of our home. I made do with what we already had indoors: some carrots, beetroot new potatoes and red onion. As the beetroot and carrots roasted together, the beetroot infused some of its colour into the carrots almost making it look like almost like rainbow carrots.  the red onions became soft and silky and the small potatoes, golden and crisp. I finished  this Simple Roasted Beetroot and Carrot Salad off with a little drizzle of balsamic vinegar and with a gentle crumbling of soft snow feta crumbs, inspired by the snow flakes falling from the sky outside that day. I describe this as a Simple Roasted Beetroot Carrot Salad as it is hardly a recipe and mostly done by eye-balling ingredients and and to taste.  Feel free to serve it alongside some greens, in our case it was peppery rocket.  I am sharing this Carrot and Beetroot Salad to  Sou...

I have been following Olives for Dinner for a while, and Erin's originality is astounding and her generosity for sharing her recipes definitely praise worthy.   I have a number of her recipes bookmarked including her Carrot Lox  recipe.  I have been waiting for an excuse to make it.   The reason for finally making the vegan Smoked Carrot 'Salmon' came to me last week, when it was one of my good work colleagues birthday.  This colleague happens to be vegan.  One colleague who is an excellent baker had decided to make her some vegan chocolate cupcakes with Lotus Biscoffi 'butter cream'.  I had decided to have a go at making the classic Cream Cheese and Smoked 'Salmon' Bagels for her, only vegan style !   The first time I ever had smoked Salmon was by pure accident.  It was on a flight from Paris to San Francisco many, many years ago. I was assured by the flight attendant that the ready made vegetarian meal  I was having was indeed ...

Some of you may remember last month I made a Beetroot Rose Rice Pudding , my husband loudly asserted  You can make that again !  Well I have been looking for a reason to make  a variation of it again and it came with the   Wendy at A Day In The Life on a Farm . The movie chosen this month is  The Martian .   I had not watched it, so we picked it up when we were in Bath, Somerset for the day.  I watched it that evening.   The Martian is about an astronaut  Mark Watney (played by Matt Damon) a Botanist who is accidentally presumed to be dead and is left by his crew on Mars.  When he wakes up, he realises he is all alone and has to survive.  He embarks on a journey, a journey of survival where he attempts to grow potato crops on a land where nothing grows, biding time for his colleagues to come and rescue him.   Here is a trailer to the movie if you have not watched it.   The most obvious food reference was of cour...

I made this Turnip, Kale and White Bean Stew about a couple of months back , when we picked up some seasonal baby turnips from a farmers market. To be truthful, I wasn't terribly inspired and didn't know exactly what to do with the turnips so I took the easy option and adapted a stew recipe that I make on and off where you can adapt the vegetables.   It wasn't the most memorable meal of my life and not one I will rave about on my blog either, but it made for a change; and sometimes those recipes where you can throw the vegetables in the pot and allow it to simmer away slowly, are sometimes the most appealing. I am sharing this recipe with   Baking Queen Slow Cooked Challenge.  Turnip, Kale and White Beans Stew Serves 4 - 6 Ingredients 4 tablespoons olive oil 1 onion, finely sliced 2  red chillies, pierced 2 teaspoons ground cumin 2 teaspoons ground coriander 2 tablespoon tomato paste 1 x 400grams tin of tomatoes, roughly chopped 6 baby turnips, p...

I am slowly going through some of my bookmarked recipes and starting to tick them off. Today, I share with you this Raw Vegan Carrot Cake with Cashew Cream .  This Raw Vegan Carrot Cake comes from Lorraine Pascale. I have to be honest, I don't really do celebrity chefs, so when I first saw Lorraine Pascale  on British TV.  the first thought that came to me was, here we go again another model turned celebrity chef, but her approach was really different from all those domestic goddess wannabees. Lorraine Pascale gained popularity without the gimmicks.  She really did win me over on her first cookery show and her down to earth honest approach, I have also come to have a much deeper respect for her as a person too.   Anyway, this Raw Vegan Carrot Cake was the first that I had bookmarked from her  Eating Well Made Easy from Lorraine Pascale.  T he only change I have made to the recipe was the use of hazelnut, the original recipe uses walnuts and I ...

This  Black Beans and  Carrot 'Pumpkin' Soup  is my second homemade soup this month, which definitely is a sign that the big winter coats, comfy hats and scarves need to come out from back of the wardrobes.   I would not mind the cold so much, its the wet drizzly weather that brings me down, especially when getting the bus to and fro work, and not all bus stops have bus shelters. I had seen somewhere on blogosphere that someone had cut the carrots into pumpkin shapes, so I decided to have a go especially with Halloween just round the corner. It is essentially a Black Bean soup with carrots.  You can blend the black beans or keep it chunky, its up to you.   I am sharing this with   Kahakai Kitchen .   Other Pumpkin shaped things on my blog Autumnal Scones Uchiki Kuri Squash Broccoli Pie Golden Apple Squash Pancakes Black Beans and Carrot 'Pumpkin' Soup   Serves 6 - 8 Ingredients 250grams Black Beans, soaked o...

Chili is so easy to knock up for a crowd. And here is my Halloween offering for a crowd.  In the past I have stuffed peppers and cut out silly faces in them.  This time for a bit of fun I thought I would have some bobbing up from the chili.  I added them to the pot with the black beans and they cooked slowly on top mostly from the steam. These yellow peppers staring out at me like masks brought a childish smile to my face.  The Chili itself was lovely, of course it was.  We love Chili for its versatility, especially during working weekdays when its easy to serve with some rice.  Halloween  Black Bean Chili   Serves 4 - 6 as an accompaniment Ingredients 250grams Black Beans, soaked overnight 4 tablespoons vegetable oil 3 medium onions, finely sliced 4 cloves garlic, crushed 1 celery stalk, thinly sliced 2 fresh red chillies, sliced 1 tablespoon ground cumin 2 teaspoon dried oregano 1 teaspoon ground coriander 1/2 teaspoon dried...

A few weeks ago I went on a fungi forage, except it wasn't a fungi forage - 'why would you want to eat them?' exclaimed the fungi expert when he heard one of the participants (not me) ask her friend 'are these edible?'.   The reason I am talking about mushrooms is because my  Bourguignon here looks a bit like an autumnal forest ground - mushrooms, green grassy colours from the long needle shaped leaves from rosemary herb, leaves in the form of bay leaf and lots of autumnal colours, but here everything is edible - I wonder what Alice in Wonderland would think?! I think this dish is best made on a day like today wh en it's awfully dreadful, damp and dreich outside in Cymru aka Wales.  I am so glad its the weekend and I don't have to be in work or anywhere else today and can stay in the comfort of my home.  I am glad of it actually as its been a rather busy week at work too.   As well as a medley of mushrooms, I had also picked up some rainbow carrots...