Vegetarian Foods Archive

I do love the versatility of the beetroot - from home-made beetroot granola to sweet homely  cakes  and bakes to vegan spreads and seitan ' steaks ' . To world-wide inspired  curries   to wobbly  jelly   and simple, but colourful robust tarts - like this one.  As you can see, I have used two different beetroots in this tart.  A  Golden Beetroot  and the  traditional crimson-red .   I sliced the beetroot, then doused it generously with some good olive oil and good balsamic vinegar and allowed it to roast until it was tender.  I must emphasize the importance of good olive oil and good balsamic vinegar here, its essential as these two ingredients make the beetroot the star of the dish, without them, although aesthetically pleasing, the flavour  would just be too earthy.  Whilst it was roasted Balsamic Beetroot slices were cooling, I got on with making the shortcust pastry, blind baked it .  T...

It's a a pizza kind of day.   Except this is not a pizza, its more of a tart.   I made this a few weeks back with what is a luxury fruit in our home: fresh Turkish Black Bursa Figs.   I was a little unsure when D picked these Black Bursa Figs, as we had plums falling in our garden, but he said he wanted something different fruit to eat for a change from the usual apples, bananas and oranges.  I then thought fair enough we don't eat fresh figs much, only if we go overseas to places like Turkey or Cyprus.   The figs are squat like in shape and much darker in colour, deep purple and nearly black in places. They made for a nice change, but we had way too many and they were super ripe and fragile to the touch.   I decided to make a pizza like tart.  I spread a little green basil pesto on the base, topped it with slices of figs then dotted it with some mozzarella balls (you can use a vegan alternative if you want).  Then it went into the ...

This Griddled Summer Vegetable Tart is made mostly with seasonal courgettes -  zucchini and red and yellow peppers and finished off with slithers of Manchego Cheese. This Summer Vegetable Tart is adapted a little from Cranks Fast Food by Nadine Abensur .   Cranks Fast Food is the one cookbook I have cooked pretty much everything from it.  Its a cookbook I have had with me since my University days and I still continue to fall back on it on days when I want something relatively fast to prepare and tasty to eat.   Manchego cheese is not one I use that often.  Its a specialist cheese that comes from Spain. Its a hard Spanish sheep's milk cheese.  I have seen a recipe that slices manchego cheese and pan fried in a hot pan until a little golden which I am hoping to try, but otherwise I would perhaps not go out of my way to get it again as I am uncertain how to cook with it.   The Griddled Summer Vegetable Tart itself was good to eat, but please d...