Vegetarian Foods Archive

I made this Green and Yellow Summer Vegetable Minestrone a couple of weeks back with homegrown golden yellow courgette and runner beans, though I have to admit the sweetcorn and peas both at the height of the season have come from the freezer.  I know shame on me, call myself a seasonal cook.  Anyway, this Minestrone was fresh and tasty. The courgettes had crunch, the runner beans imparted that faint beany flavour, the peas and sweetcorn were sweet and the broth light and fragrant from both fresh basil and min. But there is a but.... I was not convinced by the addition of rice, so maybe next time I would replace the rice by stirring in some baby pasta, but that is no criticism to the dish itself, it tasted alright and if presented wit it again, I would happily eat it especially on a breezy day like today.   I am sharing this post with Deb at Souper (Soup, Salad and Sammies) Sundays   and  Lisa's Kitchen.  and Jac at  Tinned Tomatoes. ...

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 do struggle to  know what to do with runner beans in the culinary sense, but I do like growing them in my garden. So with the prompt being 'use all seasonal produce',  I was excited as it gave me the opportunity to use  some of the runner beans  as well as some of the cherry tomatoes tumbling from the greenhouse.  Oh I must not forget the last of the purple french beans too, that turn green on cooking.    I made a recipe called Harissa Runner Beans that I saw in the cookbook  Veggiestan . The only thing that I did differently was use Blodyn Aur  Lemon Infused Rapeseed Oil, hence the Lemon Harissa Runner Beans.   The recipe reminded me of a lot of Sri Lankan  Ceylonese Runner Beans  that I made many years ago, as well as some  cooked in paprika. We had these simply with Jacket Potatoes.  I have also made some Green Chilli or Verdi Chilli to sound more interesting with runner beans and green beans, but I will s...

I made this Courgette, Runner Bean and Cherry Tomato Curry  last month with the last harvest from my garden of courgettes, runner beans and cherry tomatoes.  My blog already boasts lots of original vegetarian and vegan Welsh recipes and fusion dishes too, so I am interpreting 'close to home' which is  Vegan Mof o prompt today as things that I have grown from seed.    Now how close to home is that?! From garden plot to plate.   Runner beans, courgettes from the garden plot and cherry tomatoes from the greenhouse. I have to admit some of the runner beans were a bit on the stringy side, but mostly succulent and tender with bite.  The real star of the dish were the cherry tomatoes, that I stirred into the curry in the last 10 minutes for them just to soften and burst. It was a relatively dry curry and could work well stuffed either in a roti, chappati or even a tortilla wrap.   Now all I have in the garden are herbs, some cherry tomatoe...

I have had a lazy weekend.  I have had a lie in which for me is often around 7.30am, then I was up.  I spent a few hours in the back garden, weeding and harvesting and D mowed the front garden. Then I spent a couple of hours in the kitchen - baking but part of it wondering what to do with the purple beans and runner beans harvested from the garden plot.  I  think I may have mentioned before that I do struggle to know what to do with runner beans.   Runner beans are often served as a side, and this Runner Bean Salad can also side but can hold its own too; and if you want to make it more substantial stir in some cous cous. This Runner Bean Salad is made with thinly sliced red onion, black olives and and seasoned olive oil and white wine vinegar dressing, oh yes and runner beans, that have been cooked until they are al dente.  I am sharing this simple  Runner Bean Salad  with   Kahakai Kitchen .