Vegetarian Foods Archive

You will find many variations of vegetarian and v egan Shepherds Pie here, but I've never featured a Cottage Pie on my blog, not sure why as I have made them many times - perhaps its because it doesn't really look that pretty to photograph. So what is the difference between a Shepherds Pie and a Cottage Pie.  Traditionally a Shepherd Pie made with minced lamb and Cottage Pie with chunks of beef, but for vegetarians and vegans this is often substituted with minced mushrooms or a mock meat substitute.  Here is my version of a vegetarian Cottage Pie made with the addition of Welsh leeks which give it a little sweetness and topped with seaweed - Welsh Laverbread mash.  I was prompted to make a Welsh version of Cottage pie when I saw a Scottish twist on a Cottage Pie.  I am sure you will find a Irish version and with respect, we all know there is no shortage of English variations of the humble Cottage Pie. For those of you who read my blog will know that...

The past few weeks or so, I have made a few Persian inspired dishes inspired mostly by Iranian   food bloggers, rather than from the spate of mainstream Middle Eastern cookbooks published recently in the UK.  It started as a means  to find inspirational ways of using my spices such as Advieh , Baharat , Sumac, Za'ata r and ingredients such as Maftoul and Freekeh, but like any curious cook I have been lured and enticed by other recipes.   When I saw an Iranian style Koresh tweeted by The Persian Fusion,   I just knew I had to make a vegetarian variation of it.  Something about it had me salivating.   Koresht/Khoresht/Ghalyeh  are stews or curries in Persian cooking.  They should not be compared to South Asian curries popular in the Western world.  Persian stews and curries are  quite mild.   I substituted the chicken breasts with Quorn 'chicken' fillets and adjusted the spices to taste and the tomato sauce acc...

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...

Drum roll please.... Here are some awesome homemade vegan Corn Dogs. I had seen vegan corn dogs a couple of years back on a fellow bloggers blog and was mighty curious about them. I had thought it was literally sweetcorn deep fried in batter, then told it was a hot dog sausage covered in golden corn batter and then deep fried.  Very popular in parts of America.  I have been waiting for an excuse to make them and a little while back when I had a full house of guests the opportunity to make these vegan Corn Dogs were presented to me.  had not int I do have have a deep fat fryer, I do but i don't cook in it often to merit it taking up valuable space in the kitchen.  So made these vegan corn dogs in a deep wide pan, three at a time .  My guests all stood around me and watched me in amazement as I made these vegan corn dogs and took pictures.    These pictures belong to them, as my hands were busy.   Vegan Corn Dog drowning in  yel...

I made a  Plum and Chickpea Curry last year but did not get round to sharing it at the time, so with it being the Plum season in the UK I thought I would make it again and share my vegetarian vegan version of 'Lamb' and Plum Curry.   This 'Lamb' and Plum Curry is a real recipe adapted from Camellia Panjabi 50 Great Curries of India.    I used vegan soy pieces* that I picked up from a Polish shop, they were not that great, but for the vegetarians the Quorn fillets will also work.  If you don't want to use the mock meat substitute, then just double up on the chickpeas.   If you can't quite get you head round it, think of the plums as zingy purple tomatoes - the plums in a way replace the tomatoes in this dish; and for those of you who have had either Red or Green Tomato curry, then this will not sound that strange. It was actually quite nice, sharp and sweet. Here are    13 Vegetarian and/ or Vegan Meat Free Fruit Curry Recipes . Plu...

For us, the 1st of December signals the beginning of Christmas in our home and thoughts towards giving, as well as receiving and remembering those no longer with us. The 1st of December   is also the day that we drag the Christmas tree from the attic and decorate it.  I have still to pick out something new for the tree this year, but here are a selection of foodie related things from past years.  We have various nuts to crack from the shells, but the reason I share these walnuts are for comparison.  My mother harvested the large ones with my sister in law last month at a park not far from where she lives, the smaller ones are supermarket brand.  Do you not think the difference in size is amazing?   I do.   This is not a sponsored blog post Last month, my oldest nephew  the one that used to come up and visit me when I lived in Scotland, gave me some edible gifts.    Five jars of Stokes  Relishes and Chutneys....

I actually started writing this blog post when it was day four of snow.  It was when we had the  extraordinary weather starting with a blast of cold from Siberia which was dubbed as 'The Beast from the East' then followed quickly by blizzards, strong winds, drifting snow and a storm.  This was then followed by a rare phenomenon of freezing rain.    The snow outside our front door was just over 3 foot high. I think this may be the worse I have seen it in my adult life and made more difficult because we live in the valleys.    Then we saw more snow this weekend which left us stuck at home as the roads were treacherous to drive on.  And apparently  that is not the end, as I have heard that Easter weekend welcomes a a cold Arctic blast from Scandinavia. I cannot wait for Spring to properly start.  All I can say is Thank goodness for having dried goods and some stuff in our little freezer.   This is not a sponsored blog post ...