Vegetarian Foods Archive

I feel like I should be sharing things given to me for Christmas, but I only had a handful of food related stuff that found there way into the kitchen. My Czech colleague at work gave me some home baked cookies steeped in her cultural heritage. She made these cookies with her son.  This is the same colleague that made me Daisy Honey a little while back.  She told me what each one was, but I cannot remember them except that I loved the gingerbread boot, its nothing like the crisp crunchy Gingerbread biscuits we have in the UK, these were soft and nougaty.  She did say, there was no ginger in it but mixed spice.  I also loved the hand rolled Rum and coconut balls, we've only just finished them off. Next Lucifers Biscuits from Fortnum and Mason - so posh!  My mother-in- law won them at a raffle and gave them to me because she was not keen on the chilli and ginger. We have started on them recently, the chilli gets you! I like them.  For Christmas, ...

If you have any carrots and parsnip left over from the festive week then I have a recipe for you, just don't make a soup with it.  I actually made this Root Vegetable Terrine on Christmas Eve for Christmas Day.   This was my only contribution to our Vegetarian Christmas Dinner plate as D took charge in the kitchen.  Over the years, cooking up Christmas dinner has become his responsibility, I am not sure when or why this happened, but I am quietly pleased as it gives me a deserved break and it always feels like a treat when he cooks for me, just does.    D is not keen on overly keen nut roasts and didn't care either way if it made an appearance on our plate, so as a compromise, I decided to Tea Time Treats ; and   Elizabeths's Kitchen for No Waste Food Challenge ; and finally Belleau Kitchen for  make a Parsnip Terrine recipe  that I have made in the past.  I introduced a few different elements to it in an attempt to make it more festi...

In more of an effort to make use of my cookbooks from my Vegetarian Library, today we have Mildred's The Cookbook.   I  was fortunate to win Mildred's The Cookbook last year.   I've made a few recipes from it including  the most delicious vegan  Brownies with Peanut Butter   and a smoky  Lapsang Chestnut Mushroom Strogonoff .   This time I wanted  to try something with piquancy.  I decided on the Cauliflower and Green Olive Tagine.  I like olives, it wasn't always this way and to satisfy D it had his favourite white vegetable.   Although the Tagine was filling and full of different textures from the cauliflower, carrots and chickpeas, we both felt the sauce lacked depth.  Why? This recipe does not have onions, but is substituted with celery sticks.   I do understand the need for such recipes.  When I did a bit of freelance vegetarian cooking, one of my customers had an allergy to alliums: the onion famil...

We tend to enjoy soup at the weekend.  There was once a time when I would make it on a Sunday for us to enjoy during the working week, but the reality was when we come home from a long day at work, we really want to tuck into something more substantial than slurp from a bowl. D has a tendency to pick up tomatoes from the grocers even out of season.  He knows they cannot ever be compared to homegrown, but he likes to have them as an option for his home-made sandwiches or cherry tomatoes for salads.   These tomatoes had not been used for either and to the touch were beginning to soften here and there.  After enjoying the Seven Spice Butter Bean Stew I was inspired to make a soup of them with the addition of butter beans.  As you can imagine, the tomatoes were not the tastiest, so I decided to a little balsamic vinegar for sharp flavour, this was a good move as it made for a good soup. I am sharing this with Farmers Girl  Kitchen and Baking Queen 74 ...

Some of you may remember that last Summer, I went to the National Botanic of Wales.  I promised to share some pictures from the Fungi Mushroom , but never did.  I had forgotten about it until recently when I made a recipe with mushrooms.   So here goes.  Let me me warn you though there will be an intermission, interrupted with a mushroom recipe and then we continue onto some of  the Fungi Exhibits. I absolutely loved the collection of hand stitched textile exhibits, all showcasing a mushroom and each one unique and carefully crafted.  Blackening Waxcap If you click on the image, you will see a number of others.  Each one different, exquisite and stunning in its own way.  Fungi Saviour of the Planet- the Mycosphere ! Okay here comes the recipe: Kale Covered Barley with Green Mushrooms.  Some of you will know that ba rley is being used in place of rice in risotto style dishes.   The first time I ever came across...

I have never had a desire to make a  Korma  at home  until I ate one a few months back and was reminded of its loveliness.  It was quite yummy a little reminisce of Thai Green Curry, which I really love.  It was made with pumpkin and green beans and made a pleasant change from rich spicy tomato based curries.   So in order to remedy having never made a korma in my home, I was finally ready to give it a go and i t was quite delicious  and despite its long list of ingredients I think this is one of the worlds most easiest recipes.   .  Although, I think I may have added way too much coconut milk as it was drowning all the vegetables, still it tasted lovely.  I think my mother in law would like it too as it was not overly spicy.   This Vegetable Korma Soup is perfect for those evening when you want to curl up in the corner of your soft and watch a movie.  I don't watch many Bollywood movies these days as I did in my childhoo...

A few weeks back when we were all planning on our Christmas menu, a colleague at work who loves her sweet baking shared a link with me for a very easy, yet very impressive recipe that would Wow guests.  It was simple enough, spread between two sheets of ready rolled puff pastry is a sweet (chocolate and hazelnut, fruit jams) or savoury (pesto, cheese) spread, then the pastry is shaped into a tree - an edible tree that is, where the tree branches are twisted for breaking off and enjoying.  I can only describe this a bit like a Danish pastry without the sugar icing.   I loved the look of the recipe, the fun aspects as well as the ease of making it, so picked up some puff pastry with intentions of making it for unexpected visitors, but sadly we didn't have many guests over the festive period...  Then New Year came and I was given the opportunity to make it.  Even though mine did not turn out as elegant as that featured in the link below and looked more like a ...