Vegetarian Foods Archive

Because of my South Asian features and heritage, a lot of people who don't know me stereotypically assume I just specialise in food from the Indian Sub-Continent.  And yes, although I can make a mean killer Chickpea Curry and Creamy Lentil Dal ,  I have always branched out and made other worldly vegetarian cuisines.    I don't and have never wanted to be put into an 'ethnic' box. I have always avoided tokenism at work where people have used their ethnicity to progress; or permitted employers to use their photograph in promotional materials, when in reality the organisation was doing very little in relation to workplace diversity and addressing inequality, and I am sad to say such tokenism occurs somewhat in cooking too. I refuse to play that game and be a stereotype. I have and will always continue to remain true to myself.  I am diverse person and love cooking ethnically diverse world wide cuisine.   Saying all this, I am very aware and proud of my root...

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...

This was not what I had planned to make with the aubergines that have been  nestling at the bottom of the fridge for the past week or so, but I couldn't remember the recipe I had actually planned to make with them.  Do you have days like that?!  Pick up some avocados for something specific then can't remember why and end up just making guacamole with it! It didn't matter in the end as this Harissa Aubergine, Kale and Chickpeas dish was lovely.  We had it  early this afternoon after a lovely day in Cardiff where I spent quite a bit of hard earned cash today.  I picked up a gorgeous retro dress from a stall at St Mary's Market in the High Street, (the same place I got my Angry  Persian Aunties );  and a couple of pair of shoes from one of Cardiff's many Arcades, yes you read right, a couple of shoes and I am not even a shoe person.  Honestly they are both for work.  The past three months, and I am not kidding I have been going into work...

Some of you will have noticed that in the past week or so, I have been gravitating towards Welsh recipes and Welsh things.  This is for the simple reason that next week many of us in Wales will be celebrating St David's Day , even the daffodils are coming out to celebrate, though to be honest they have been out posing by the side of the roads a month earlier. As we enjoyed the  Curried Root Vegetable Stew  a couple of weeks back, I thought I would make it again, but enhance it further with the addition of spices and leeks and make it somewhat Fusion Welsh - yes we do like our leeks here in Wales, well I do.   Even though the daffodils are confused and finding the British weather warm, some of us are still finding it, so stew-like meals have been on the menu quite a bit.     Cwtch means hug in Welsh and it a word you will hear and see a lot in Wales. And these light cloud like dumplings definitely give you a big warm welcome hug, who doesn't lov...

The theme for  Refugee Week    for 2016 is  Welcome.    Refugee Week is  a collective acknowledgement across the world to raise awareness  of the plight of refugees and asylum seekers across the world.    As my blog is a vegetarian food blog  my Simple Act  was to  Cook A Dish from Another Country  and try and raise some awareness that way among some of my readers. Kibbeh is a popular dish from the Middle East, especially in Aleppo in Syria.  It is made from bulgar wheat, meat, onions, spices and then deep fried.   It often comes in torpedo shape croquettes which I have yet to master and many variations.  In Aleppo, Syria there are many varieties including those made with vegetables.  Some of you may remember me mentioning a Middle Eastern cookbook I foun d at my local library a little while back called  Classic Vegetarian Cooking from the Middle East and North Africa (2000) by Habee...

I hope you don't mind me sharing a recent observation when I was waiting to get the bus back home from work. I start with a statement.  I think chivalry is dead or taking its very last dying breaths.  I had faith it was still alive in the older gentlemen but not now.  I waited to get my bus home and noted fellow blogger Sareta's Kitchen make and was inspired to give it my own South Asian twist - Indian, Pakistan and Bangladesh all rolled into one.  Here it is my Curried Anglo Italian Ratatouille with fenugreek and chickpeas.  Of course, I had to present it prettily, it takes a little time but its worth the effort when you want to make an impression. You could serve this with plain Basmati rice if you want, but some good crusty bread is what we had.   So how was it?  I really liked it.  If ratatouille was served to me like this I would enjoy it more. Yes we British people Love Fusion Food.  Yes - we do, really - when people think of t...

I don't know if he was just very hungry or being honest, but D complimented on how delicious this Harissa Butternut Squash Stew was, not once but twice with a Thank you Lady.   I thought it was going to one of those stews that would benefit from overnight rest in the fridge, but we had it within an hour of making it and it was most enjoyable.  The harissa and the smoked paprika offset against each other wonderfully. Be careful with the cooking of the vegetables, especially the broccoli towards the end, you do not want it really soft, but still with bite, otherwise it would be more bordering on soup than stew, which is not a bad thing, but sometimes you want texture not bambino  food. I served this Harissa Butternut Squash Stew with some Cook Once Eat Twice hosted by Searching for Spice as this was good a couple of days later too; and  with CookBlogShare hosted by Easy Peasy Foodie. Harissa  Butternut Squash Stew with Broccoli and Chickpeas Ser...