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. ...

I made this recipe a couple of weeks ago when I was looking for inspiration to use up the last of my courgettes.   Apparently, the descriptive 'Calabacitas' is often used in Mexican restaurants to describe a vegetarian filling that usually contains squash, corn and spices.   The recipe suggested serving this as a Taco filling, but I am not into taco's that much - Burrito being my first choice, always, but this time round I fancied a bit of crunch and decided to make some Tortilla baskets. The calabacitas was utterly gorgeous, not just the colour: gold, green and cream, but also to eat, the sweetness from the sweetcorn, the buttery butter beans, the zing from the lime.  For me though, it was both the coriander and jalapenos that elevated the courgettes to a thing of sheer culinary delight.  I served my portion of Calabacitas in a tortilla basket.  The crunch was amazing.  D insisted on having his burrito style with soured cream, grated cheese an...

I am back from my holidays and I thoroughly enjoyed my time there, but like all holidays it comes to an end.  I have lots of photographs to share, but that will have to wait till later in the week.   Today I share with you this Chipotle Chilli Sweetcorn Soup. This soup may look a tad simple on the visual side, but the bold flavours totally blew me away. Sweetness and bite from the sweetcorn, punch and fragrance from the coriander, there was also smokiness from the chipotle chile and a distinct fresh tarragon like flavour from the epazote, a little aniseed like.   Had I not rediscovered my No Croutons Required  hosted this month by  Lisa's Kitchen.  and Jac at  Tinned Tomatoes.   Chipotle Chilli Sweetcorn Soup Serves 4 Ingredients 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 onion, finely sliced 2 garlic cloves, crushed 1/2 teaspoon dried epazote leaves or 1 sprig or tarragon 1/4 teaspoon allspice 1 teaspoon chile chipotle powder 400g...

I was inspired to make these after I saw a fellow blogger make a vegetarian version of Shepherds Pie Jacket Potatoes with perhaps the most perfect piped mashed potato swirl topping I've ever seen.  She admitted the idea wasn't original and it was because there were a lack of vegetarian versions of Jacket Potatoes stuffed with  vegetarian Shepherdesss Pie filling, so she created her own.  I decided to do something similar, this time with Sweet Potatoes.  I was pretentiously going to call these Super Loaded Sweet Potato Jackets - Rasta Jackets because of the Credit Crunch Munch  hosted this month by  Travels for Taste  and often co-hosted by  Fuss Free Flavours  and  Fab Food For All .   By the way, if you like the sound of these, then you must also check out Rastafari colours : Red (from the pepper) is for blood, green (from the coriander) is for the earth and gold (from the sweet potato and sweetcorn) is for the sun, but I was...

One of the aims of  Refugee Week  is to promote positive encounters between asylum seekers and refugees and members of the receiving communities, as well as raising awareness.    The theme for Refugee Week for 2016 is  Welcome.    As my blog is a vegetarian food blog  my Simple Act  is to  Cook A Dish from Another Country  and try and raise some awareness that way among some of my readers. Today I will share a vegetarian Zimbabwean Butternut Squash recipe.   But before I share the recipe, I would like to shine a little light on Zimbabwe.  Since 2000, the scale of state violence, the political instability and economic deprivation  in Zimbabwe has seen the UK receive refugees from there.  A refugee is someone whose asylum application has been successful and who is allowed to stay in another country having proved they would face persecution in their homeland. Zimbabwe's human rights record under Robert Mugab...

The courgettes are dwindling, but that does not mean that I don't have many courgette recipes to share, I do still have some like this cheap and cheerful courgette, corn and mint filling.  Cheap because the ingredients are affordable and abundant this time of the year, and cheerful simply because of the carnival colours.   If you don't want to use fresh sweetcorn scraped from the cob,  you can use tinned or frozen.  Oh the mint is from my garden too.  This filling was used two ways, stuffed into a tortilla wrap and secondly, in a pasty, but I can also see it good stirred through some grains for salad and even pasta dish. Courgette, Corn and Mint 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 onion, finely sliced 2 cloves garlic, crushed 2 red chillies, minced 70ggg courgettes, cut into small cubes 2 tablespoons fresh mint, minced Juice 1/2 lemon Salt and pepper to taste Crumbled feta to serve Method In a wide pan, heat the onion then saute the onion until soft,...

I made this Creole style Yellow Split Pea,  Red Pepper and Sweetcorn Soup last month, but I am seriously wishing that I was tucking into it this evening. It is getting proper cold now. This golden Yellow Split Pea and Sweetcorn Soup is enhanced with red pepper and a good dash of creole spice blend and fresh thyme from the garden.  I am sharing this with   Kahakai Kitchen .  Creole Yellow Split Pea,  Red Pepper and Sweetcorn Soup Serves 4 Ingredients 250grams yellow (or green )split peas, soaked overnight and rinsed well until water is clear 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 large onion,s finely sliced 2 teaspoons garlic salt or 2 cloves garlic and 1 teaspoon sea salt 1 tablespoon Creole or Cajun Spice Blend ( Learn about the difference her e)  Optional: 1 teaspoon dried thyme or oregano 1 litre of vegetable stock 1 red pepper, cored and sliced into very small cubes 250grams sweetcorn, fresh, frozen or from tin, rinsed Salt and black pepp...

I am quite pleased with myself today.  I feel like between the two of us, we have accomplished something. We got up and spent all morning in the garden allotment plot while the summer sun was out for Springtime.  D tied back the unruly climbing and trailing rose stems.  He also transferred some of the herbs into bigger plots. I cleared a plot today and whilst I was weeding, I found myself  actually enjoying the weeding, removing the woven weeds from the soil was quite therapeutic.  My body will ache in a couple of days, but that's its way of saying - exercise more.  I will share progress later in the week as we intend to spend some more time in the garden allotment plot either later today or tomorrow (providing the heavy rain stays away). I was also quite pleased  to have some left over salad in the fridge (a bit like this one) as I did not want to make something having spent hours in the garden toiling.   This particular Coriander Po...