Vegetarian Foods Archive

I don't do road trips, not that I don't want to but I get travel sickness.   The closest to a road trip would be journeys to and fro Scotland to Wales; or to the other side of London, England when visiting family.  A journey that sometimes took over 8 hours depending on traffic  We always take with us bottled water, nibbles like crisps or a trail mix, but also a  flask of black coffee, vegetable wraps or pasta salad and for sweet, because there is always room for something sweet: flapjacks .    But for the prompt today I thought I would share a cake, you may find it hard to say no to this cake, its Violet and Chocolate Cake in the shape of a heart.   And remember cakes are made for sharing.  Enjoy. 

Vegan Mofo comes to an end and the last prompt is Fusion Food.  Where do I start, there are so many, but here are few fusion eats to get you thinking. -Irn Bru, Curry and Chips -Roti/Chappati Wraps -Thai Curry with Chips -'Chicken' Tikka Hoagie Roll -Dhokla Sandwich  Bombay Sandwich For those of us who live in the United Kingdom, even a cup of tea is fusion , think about it.  Anyway, I had grand plans to conclude my participation in this years Vegan Mofo with a hardcore fusion recipe; or showcasing a handful of fusion recipes featured on my blog from the past.  Then I remembered this heart-shaped  Zucchini-Courgette and Chocolate Cake with Matcha Icing that I made a couple of weeks back.  So this vegetarian would like to say Thank you to every one who came by through Vegan Mofo and left a comment, each has been appreciated.  I have bookmarked many recipes and hope to make them in the not too distant future, but I've also met some blog...

Its been a while since I've made a sweet cakey bake with lots of butter and chocolate, white chocolate to be more specific.   At one point, I couldn't remember whether I had made a  White Chocolate Blondie before, but I had  ad found it ridiculously sweet then.  I have to be in the mood for really really sweet things and this was bordering.   I took some Blondies into work and offered them to colleagues.  Some were bewildered at the existence of a white chocolate equivalent of the Dark Chocolate Brownie.  Of course they were amused.   Sadly, a few of them were not keen on the content of the dried fruit and declined my generous offer, but if you want to dive into some of these sweet bites, you can find the recipe below.  I am sharing this with Alphabakes  hosted by Caroline Makes and The More Than Occasional Baker.  The letter this month is W for White Chocolate; and We Should Cocoa devised by Tin and Thyme and hosted this ...

Let me start by saying this is not a sponsored post.  Last week, I saw Johanna's Vegemite Fudge and found myself drooling over it, suddenly wanting to make it with the our British alternative of Marmite.   I was just going to bookmark it and come back to it, but greed got the better of me, plus I had all the ingredients to hand and I was at home waiting patiently for the Boiler man to service our boiler.  So as soon as he left, I pulled out all the ingredients I needed to make these morsels of temptation in my own home. I couldn't wait to try them.  As soon as we had our dinner in the evening, I sliced them carefully and popped one in my mouth and wow.  Its unusual for sure - sweet and savoury, but we both loved umami aspect of them.   We had so much of the Chocolate Marmite Caramel Fudge that there was no way we would be able to finish them off between us.  The following day D took some into his workplace and I took some into mine the following ...

A lot more cooler today, thank goodness - but I still  didn't really want to be in the kitchen.   I made something relatively simple: I baked these Spice Herb Baked Potato wedges in the oven.  I was just going to serve them with some beans, but then changed my mind after finding some ready made veggie meatballs in the freezer.  To make my life easy, I decided to throw the vegetarian Quorn* 'meatballs' into the oven with the spice herb coated wedges.    I would normally have Sriracha and D goes for brown sauce, but  I had already planned to serve these wedges with a  Salsa, but no ordinary tomato salsa.  No these potato wedges were going to be served with Chilli Chocolate Salsa.  I was prompted to make this recipe after finding a bar of Dark Chilli chocolate, so the whole meal ended up revolving around this.  Chilli Chocolate Salsa is an acquired taste.  It was devilishly rich. This plate is further enhanced with salad...

The past month, I have been making, baking and eating some variation of Plum Cake, but this is one  of the most delicious cakes I have made in a while.  As much as D likes chocolate, he is not really a fan of chocolate flavoured things but he also adored this too. The sponge was almost fondant like, perhaps my whipping and whisking made a difference this time. I am sharing this follow the recipe here , but reduce the flour by 50grams and replace it with 50grams cocoa powder. 

I created these Parsnip White Chocolate Blondies last week during the working week, when I came home mentally exhausted and wanted some creative outlet.  I went to the kitchen and did some baking. The idea for putting parsnips in  White Chocolate Blondies came to me a little while back, when I made Parsnip , Berry and Hazelnut Crumble , Parsnip Porridge, Sweet Parsnip Pie with Edible Flowers and Parsnip Creme Brulee , but I never had time to put it into practice.   D was impatient and wanted to eat them warm, I had to smack him with the back of a wooden spoon on the hands to say be patient to let them cool down before removing from the baking tin. Truth is, wee were both impatient.  Then came the moment we had a piece each.  I marvelled at how white it was, often cakes on baking turn that rusty gold. Then I popped it into my mouth. These homemade  Parsnip White Chocolate Blondies  were not as sickly sweet as the White Chocolate Blondies I made in t...

This Upside Down Sicilian Blood Orange Chocolate Cake  is my second  Sicilian Blood Orange  recipe.  This cake, like the gluten free Blood Orange Almond Cake was also very  delicious and I say that with a bit of surprise.   Why?  Well for those of you who know me now, will know that I don't really do sweet cakes, and I don't go gaga  or doolally tap for chocolate either.  I am drawn more towards savoury eats and treats, but my man, my husband has a very sweet tooth - be it for cakes or chocolate.  He likes them both but not always together. This cake was wonderfully moist on the first day.  A couple of days later the chocolate sponge had got a bit cold and stiff, but it was still very good.  I think it is best served at room temperature too.   I especially loved the Blood Orange topping and the orange caramelised and became both sticky and chewy.  We enjoyed the cake without cream, but it could benefit with ...

Chocolate Beetroot Brownies were all the rage and quite popular four - five years ago.   In fact hidden vegetables in cakes, vegetables in desserts, vegetables in pudding  and vegetables in sweets because quite trendy.   Chefs, experimental home cooks and food bloggers started throwing in different vegetables and then it was made out to be 'oh my goodness this is so original and a new concept and discovery', when in fact the idea of putting vegetables in cakes, desserts and puddings had been around many, many years.  People have been eating carrot cake, parsnip cake and sweet potato pies for years , but hey we food bloggers  and I do not exclude myself from this like to some times think we created something unique when we throw in a cauliflower, a bit of spinach or even beetroot, when its actually quite an old idea.  One thing you can guarantee someone, somewhere has already done it, not everything appears on websites.  Many of these delicious hidden...

I have a number of food bloggers recipes bookmarked , as well as those from cookbooks. I have been making an attempt to cook them, not just drool over them and admire them. Today's bookmarked recipe comes from I am hosting MLLA this month, so please join in if you can .   I have a thing for fudge at the moment, vegetarian fudge , vegan fudge and raw fudg e.  I only made one change to Lisa's No Bake Cocoa and Peanut Butter recipe.  I substituted the coconut butter for edible cocoa butter as I did not have any coconut butter at the time since then I have found some coconut butter and keep it for for future recipe experiments.   The Cocoa and Peanut Butter Fudge flavour  somewhat reminded me a  little of my raw chocolate  that I made a few years ago, but unlike those these were not an acquired taste and quite enjoyable.  These  were much better in both flavour and consistency was a little fudgy and a little truffle like.  Sayi...

Even though I have my own tasty moreish chocolate Brownie recipe, I do like to experiment with other flavours, including fruit and vegetables, as well as try other peoples recipes in my home.  This Black Treacle Chocolate Brownie comes courtesy of Ruby Tandoh from her new cookbook   Flavour.     It was after having made her Banana Thyme Cake with Lemon Glaze that I decided to give her Cocoa Brownies a go.  My interest was  peaked further when I saw the addition of Black Treacle and also the fact that I have a jar of  Black Treacle  to crack open.  Black Treacle is a dark syrup, some of you may also know it as Blackstrap Molasses. This is unmistakeably a Black Treacle brownie, the pronounced but pleasant burnt caramel flavour  is there.  Good with cream or ice-cream.    You can find Ruby Tandoh's recipe for  Black Treacle Cocoa Brownies here  on her website and also here on The Guardian Food and Drin...

I am not joking when I write that I have made cocoa and chocolate brownies (minus the fruit topping) at least four times this month.   Three times in one week, that I had to go out and get more fairtrade cocoa brownies.   First lot of brownies were for us, second for family, third time for friends and more recently for  some work colleagues. One of my cute nieces and she is rather cute describes these as lush, and I have to concur, these were lush and proper squidgy.  She was even more delighted that her brownies were not topped with fruit, unlike these that are topped with luscious, fat juicy tayberries.     I do like tayberries, but don't come across them that often.  In fact the last time I had a Karaka Blackberry . These  tayberries  come from a little place called the Fruit Machine, though it does sell vegetables too.   Fellow blogger who likes to call herself Matron at  Down on The Allotment  describ...

One of my nephews has been calling me my little courgette because of my moss green rain coat, its term of endearment and affection, but its also a cheeky little request to make him  a Courgette Cake , I promised to when courgettes were in season and indeed they are now.  Courgette brownies are not new and nor are courgette cakes, they have been around a while - in fact throwing vegetables in sweet recipes including cakes, biscuits and rice pudding is not a new idea at all, even if some people think and convince themselves and those around them that they were the first to introduce the social media generation to this idea. Sadly I think its the same people who fall for fake news, which also is not new.  The world is indeed shrinking and everything according to them can be answered by google.  One of my lecturers at Glasgow University, now a Professor Greg Philo  teachings impacted and completely changed the way I viewed the mass media a.  I still have ...