I heart NY

I have been back from NYC for a few days now and have only just been able to get my head together enough to write about it.

I had written myself a list of places to eat when we got to the Big Apple but, with much sadness, I can report that neither of us had much of an appetite. I can say that I did some stand out meals:

First night - spinach and goats cheese salad at Ellen's Stardust Diner on Broadway. One of the most simple meals ever: a bowl of spinach leaves tossed in olive oil, a small amount of creamy goats cheese, a sprinkling of caramelised walnut halves and 4 thin slices of pear. Fantastic flavours, wonderfully light and nutritious. All served with entertainment too, this diner is staffed by Broadway wannabe's who sing throughout the evening as though it's an ongoing audition (well you never know who's in the audience!)

The one thing that I love about America is that you can get pizza by the slice. Being pretty much restricted to margheritas at least I am not spoilt for choice! The thinnest of thin slices are to be had in NYC, no wonder their pizza parlours are so popular.

Rogue Bar and Restaurant deserves a special mention. They are very veggie friendly and provide great service. The food was absolutely delicious (I had nachos for starter followed by their veggie burger) and their menu is sure to have something for the majority of people. Despite being a sports bar this is no dive, it's clean and airy and a delightful space to eat - but men are likely to get distracted by the many TVs showing a wide variety of sports!

Da Nico in the heart of Little Italy provides a fairly limited menu for vegetarians but I had the most delicious grilled vegetable panini ever. They have a delightful outdoor patio area which is so airy you'd hardly imagine you're in the middle of a bustling metropolis. Each meal is followed by lumps of fried doughnut dough which is sprinkled with icing sugar - very moreish!

We had to leave NYC in a bit of a rush as our flight was cancelled, such a disappointment! I'd been hoping to try out a couple more hotspots on our last day but this wasn't an option. Our final meal was a bit of a rush-and-go affair, we went to the first place we saw and were thankful that there was a vegetarian option! It was an absolute pleasure however to have our final meal at Rickshaw Dumpling Bar on Lexington Avenue. I had the vegetarian bento box - 4 edamame dumplings with white rice and a tub of Asian greens. Everything was delicious, the food was incredibly reasonably priced and the staff were friendly. I hated having to decline a loyalty card! Thank you Rickshaw!

And that's pretty much it for my NYC food adventure. Not as adventurous as I may have liked but with all of the sightseeing it was always going to be difficult to fit all of the food in (you don't know where you're going to see until you get there!) I heart you New York - I'll be back!

Communication

Hi everyone

Just wanted to say hello after a bit of an absence. To be honest I wanted to write a post a couple of weeks ago but it was going to be terribly whiny and I couldn't bring myself to send it. Unfortunately we'd had a bit of a disastrous meal when I took my mum out for Mothers Day and, seriously, all I've wanted to do ever since is complain! I really must write to that pub and tell them (life's even got in the way of a good moan!)

On the brighter side I was lucky enough to go to the Vegetarian Cookery School a couple of weeks ago and spent a day making Italian food. I love Italian food and the delicious but simple nature of the techniques and ingredients were genius. Janifer and Helen were brilliant and it was great to spend the day with them. When I got home I got straight on to eBay and managed to get an Imperia pasta maker for a great price, last weekend I made roasted butternut squash tortellini. I ended up with so much extra pasta dough that I made some tagliatelle and I had that tonight with some pesto. Fabulous!

For a simple Sunday dinner this weekend I cut an acorn squash in half, hollowed it out and filled the cavity with a vegetarian sausage mix (something I rarely use). I then roasted the squash for an hour or so until it was nice and soft.

More foodie writing soon...

Busy bees

Well there hasn't been much time to cook this week as I've been working extra hours in preparation for going on holiday. I haven't been abroad in 5 years and I am extremely excited to finally be going to New York City, something I've been dreaming of for as long as I can remember. Having done some reading it looks as though my week there should be amazing. I've been busy swotting up on the galleries, museums, architecture and, of course, the food! I can't wait to report back when I return but the next few weeks while I'm preparing and making sure everything is done so that my day job doesn't suffer will keep me fully occupied.

The last couple of days I've relied on food from the freezer and my parents. Mum made some cauliflower cheese and gifted me a portion for today's dinner (she reassures me that the cauliflower was big enough for several meals!) Yesterday I had one of the flans that she made for me at the weekend (a mixture of Stilton, veg and seeds contained in a spelt pastry base). Tomorrow however the boyfriend is coming round and my options are to do something really lazy like cheese on toast or something more adventurous. I have a few hours at work and some appointments to organise before I make that decision!

Eating out in London

I absolutely love trying new places to eat when I'm visiting London for a day but sometimes I find it's better for planning purposes to think ahead. For this reason I have some 'go to' places across central London where I know that I, and anyone travelling with me, will be happy to eat. This weekend my 'go to' was Tibits on Heddon Street. Heddon Street is a small pedestrian area full of eateries just off of Regents Street. What makes Tibits so different is that it's an exclusively vegetarian buffet where you help yourself to anything from the giant "food boat" and pay by the weight of your plate (plus a bread roll which comes with every plate). This may sound weird but if you apply logic when loading up your plate it's pretty easy to see if your plate will be a cheaper meal or more expensive one. As for the food itself: celery salad sits alongside beluga lentil salad, onion rings alongside Asian glass noodle salad, potato wedges alongside Moroccan spiced carrots. Such is the variety of things they offer you may not get the same thing every day and the menu changes with the seasons. The staff are friendly, even on manically busy days like yesterday, and the restaurant is clean and stylish.

In the name of research I even tried out the sticky toffee pudding and traditional cheesecake - both absolutely scrummy!

Tibits also operate a loyalty card scheme by which you get a free glass of fresh juice when you buy your 6th meal. I got my free glass yesterday!

I also took the opportunity to visit the Real Food Festival. This festival takes place on weekends behind the Royal Festival Hall on London's South Bank. I wasn't sure what to expect but what I found was a diverse range of stalls offering hot food to enjoy there and cakes, breads, cheeses and meats to take home. Riverford Organic was there selling fresh veg and promoting their veg box scheme and John Quilter the food busker was doing his thing in front of a tv camera (hopefully I'll find out when that's being broadcast). I got some baklava from an Lebanese stall as well as some gorgeous spring greens and sanguinello oranges from Riverford. I look forward to my next London trip where I hope to find some new recommendations!

Pie and cleansing

So it's been National Pie Week here in the UK. Pies have been popular for thousands of years and were designed as a way to easily contain ingredients for consumption later on. Pies and pasties have been especially popular in the UK as a way for working men (farmers, sailors) to take a meal to work with them, meat and potatos - staple foods - are simple to hold together in a pastry cake along with some gravy to eat on the go.

I rarely eat pies and pasties due to the calorie count of the pastry but I went shopping with my mum and the store was celebrating Pie Week so I gave one a go. This particular pie contained sweet potato, goats cheese, onion, spinach and garlic along with a smattering of sesame seeds over the top of the pastry. I must admit that it was utterly delicious! A one off treat admittedly but lovely for a change.

After all of the naughtiness my body needed some goodness! For tea I made a nice big plate of stir-fry veg with garlic and served it up with a small pile of rice noodles and shoyu sauce. Healthy, lovely and vegan!

Breakfast grains and Caribbean beans

This week has been one of experimentation. I've been inspired by various blogs and websites and mind-worms to get on and experiment with certain things. Some of which I'll write about in greater detail when I've gathered more information (tofu, tempeh and other protein products are the general theme!)

I've had a pack of red quinoa in the cupboard for a while now and wasn't too sure what to do with it. After the barley revolution last month I decided that quinoa for breakfast isn't too scary a thought. I boiled up the grain (2 cups water to 1 cup quinoa) with some ground nutmeg and ginger, kept the boil rolling for a few minutes until most of the water was absorbed and then removed from the heat until the rest of the water had been soaked up. This has made 4 breakfasts with the quinoa kept in the fridge and then half a cup reheated each morning and then served with nuts and fruit (in this case a mix of pistachios or walnuts, berries or banana).

Carribean beans came about because I found a jar of cook-in sauce in the cupboard that was nearing its use by date. I rarely buy sauces but this one appealed to me at the time and has been sat around for months waiting for its time to come. That happened this week. I was looking for a quick-n-easy dinner solution that would cook itself while I was exercising. I emptied 3 cans of pre-cooked beans (black-eyes beans, chickpeans and kidney beans) into a casserole dish and added some diced squash then covered it all with the Carribean 'Reggae Reggae' sauce, added an extra jar full of water and popped it in the oven for 40mins at 200 deg C. I only ate a third, which was a LOT of beans, and the rest has been frozen for future use. The sauce was really spicy and if I'd had more of an appetite it would've gone beautifully with some white rice. Photo to follow...

Looking for restaurant suggestions....

I'm going to be visiting New York City soon and am looking for vegetariant restaurants to visit while I'm there. If anyone has any suggestions I'd be happy to hear them. I'll be reviewing everywhere I go on my return!

Thanks x

Cake (and cleansing)....

Today was a happy day!

On the first Saturday of the month from March thru December the team from Honeybuns, a wheat and gluten free bakery, open their Bee Shack cafe to the public for light lunches and cake. Despite not being far away from where I live I haven't been able to visit previously due to lack of transportation so once I got that side of my life sorted I was enthusiastic about the first Bee Shack day of 2012! The weather was lovely as we headed out of Somerset and into the neighbouring county of Dorset, along winding country roads. Once there we opted for the 'Tapas for two' - a sundried tomato, red onion and cheddar tart between two and a selection of local cheeses, houmous, olives, pickled cucumber and honey roasted nuts. The tart was utterly delicious, as were the accompanying nibbles. Being at Honeybuns it would be rude to skip dessert and it was a choice between a warm chocolaty 'Heathcliffe Brownie' or a lemony 'Snowy Hills' with cream. I went for the lighter lemon option and it was divine!

Given the opportunity to stock up on cakes for home I bought some triple chocolate Tinkers and a tray of Heathcliffe brownies for freezing. Their cakes and tarts are for sale via their website if you're unable to make it to the Bee Shack. I have tried about 95% of their range over the last couple of years and can recommend everything!!!!

Having somewhat over indugled at lunchtime my body was craving a light dinner so I opted for a salad wrap. I grabbed a couple of handfuls of rocket and placed these in the middle of a tortilla, added half a diced pepper and then warmed some sundried tomatos and pesto before adding this to the top of the pile. Wrap the wrap and enjoy the taste! To follow this I had a bowl of mango wedges and an orange to top up my vitamins.

Down Mexico way....

It is true that I love Mexican food and this has been even more the case since I went to the Mexican cooking day at the Vegetarian Cookery School in Bath. This course is only held once per year, when the chillis are perfectly in season. In southern England we are lucky to have a number of chilli growers who can supply plants and seeds as well as sauces, chutneys and a variety of other products enhanced with this wonderful spice. It was amazing to be surrounded by such variety and colour of chilli and I think most of us were surprised that there were so many to choose from. My new favourite chilli became the habanero, it looks good and has a fantastic amount of heat!

Today I enjoyed a big bowl of sopa de maize and for dinner I had a tortilla wrap filled with frijoles negro (black beans) and creme fraiche along with a side salad of rocket and some grated cheddar. The sopa de maize and frijoles negro are completely vegan too so they're suitable for anyone who avoids dairy - winner!

Tasty snack

Today has been a fairly non-eventful day in terms of cooking. Doing the early morning dash to work, packed-lunch thing means that from 6am-6pm Monday-Friday I'm nowhere near the kitchen. Breakfast was, however, a delicious mix of fruit (blueberries) with barley and yoghurt along with some pistachios. Lunch was a grab-from-the-freezer homemade soup (in this case, spicy parsnip) and some crackers n fruit. Soup is my favourite lunch and yes, I even indulge in the summer despite the strange looks that I get from colleagues when I'm enjoying this traditionally cold weather treat!


I wasn't in the mood for much when I got home from work as I was running late and planning to do some yoga - this plan got scuppered when I was reminded of the David Hockney documentary being shown on BBC2! I did manage to defrost one of the sweet potato burgers I'd made last week and served it up with some shallow-friend halloumi shavings, sun dried tomatoes and a side-dish of rocket. Fairly simple and low-brow but utterly delish!

No cooking at all for me tomorrow as I'll be out - going straight to the cinema to see "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" after work. Looking forward to some light-hearted comedy and a brilliantly talented cast (just hope the film is as good as the trailer!)

Cook-fest Sunday

This week saw the annual feast-ival that is Shrove Tuesday. Even people without any religious belief go crazy at this time of year because they simply MUST have pancakes! As I had a dinner date I missed out on the celebrations but made up for it today. This pancake (laced with vanilla) was served with blueberries and syrup - delicious!

My parents came to lunch and Sundays with them equals a traditional British roast dinner with potatoes, veg and gravy. Mum and I are both veggies and I always try to make something that she wouldn't make herself or expect. The inspiration for today came from here. I used half of the basic recipe minus the egg, half the breadcrumbs, and instead of using a loaf tin I pressed the mix into greased muffin moulds to make 'puddings'. The lentils created a nice crisp shell with a lovely gooey inside, the overall feel was surprisingly light and, well, puddingy. I'll be sure to make this again but I'll probably experiment a bit with herbs and spices to see how much this can be changed-up. With sides of roasted potato and roasted cauliflower, carrot and sauteed leek this dinner really was a hit.

Tagines

Today I was lucky enough to have a friend visit for lunch, I love cooking for her because she is so open-minded and happy to eat vegetarian food. I took this as the perfect opportunity to make a tagine - one of my favourite dishes as it's so healthy, easy to make and full of flavour.

The great thing about tagines is that most of the effort is made simply preparing the vegetables and then you can pretty much leave them to do their thing. This one, like the majority of dishes, has sauteed onions as the starter ingredient to which is added spices (turmeric, cumin, paprika, cinnamon stick and bay leaf) and chopped garlic. After that the recipes are fairly flexible, I like this one which has sweet potato, butternut squash and carrot. Covered with stock this is left on the hob until the vegetables are tender, the key is to make the pieces fairly small - (preferably bite-sized) so they don't take too long to cook. Softer vegetables (aubergine and courgette) and fruits (dates, apricots or raisins) can be added towards the end of the cooking time as they will only take a few minutes. For a bit of extra heat a deseeded, halved chilli can be added to the cooking water but removed before serving. Authentic ingredients that can be added are preserved lemon (halved and with the insides removed) and pomegranate molasses - these can be bought in some supermarkets or speciality stores.

To accompany this I cooked up some giant couscous grains but fluffy regular couscous is just perfect to accompany any tagine.

Wholesome and tasty

Then first accomplishment of the day was to finish what I'd started on Monday night. In the end the planned sausages became burger patties as the mix was definitely more of a burger consistency. I was surprised by how well these turned out I must admit. Here is the recipe:

400g sweet potato, diced
1 medium carrot, diced
50g halloumi, grated
1/2 leek, finely sliced
1 egg
1/2 tbsp dried parsley
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
seasoning
flour to coat
olive oil

Method: boil, drain and mash both the sweet potato and carrot. Fry the leek until golden. Mix all ingredients together except the flour (although if the mix looks wet flour can be added to thicken it). Chill for 30mins. Shape into patties and coat with flour, shallow fry in olive oil.


The second accomplishment was a large pan of sopa de maize (sweetcorn soup). I attended a Mexican themed supperclub at the Vegetarian Cookery School in the autumn and this was one of my favourite dishes. Low-fat and tasty this recipe has only been published via the VegCS Facebook and Twitter feeds. I served a portion of this piping hot garnished with a small amount of cream and coriander as well as a side portion of homemade corn tortilla chips. Without the cream this is entirely wheat free and vegan.

Research day

Today I've been busy collecting recipes to try and also looking through the hundreds that I've already got stored on my computer to 'try later'. Unfortunately I ran out of time while making dinner so I'll have to finish that dish tomorrow or Wednesday (it needed some chilling time so it will be chilling for a while!) If that works I'll be posting the recipe here on Wednesday evening when I have more time.

Until then - happy eating!

Halva Heaven and Barley revisited

Well a breakfast jazz-up is exactly what's been achieved this weekend.


The second attempt at something new came from Sumayya (aka Pukka Paki). She and Monica had made some semolina halva and compote, again I was fascinated. My first, and last, experience of halva was of it in its cake form back in 2003. At the time I was lodging with a vegan who occasionally binged on chicken and chocolate, yep she really was a "vegan"! I wasn't sure of it at the time so that's where my experimentation ended. Over the years my tastes have developed and when I saw this breakfast-version I decided to give it a go. The recipe can be found on Sumayya's blog (link above) and is incredibly easy and ridiculously delicious. I love cardamom probably more in sweet dishes than savoury ones so this was ideal for me. I upped the cardamom and vanilla a little and went on the lower end of the sugar scale. There is still plenty of last years rhubarb in my freezer so that made a perfect compote with some fresh ginger and star anise. Sprinkled with ground almonds this is an utterly delightful breakfast.

That was yesterday. As I was out for lunch there was no experimentation with my home cooking but I had a bean chilli with rice and tortilla chips. I was glad of the warming spices on such a cold day.


Todays breakfast was a revisit to the delights of barley. If you're going to bother cooking this grain at all it's best to do more than you need - that length of cooking time needs to be worth it! Thankfully it's great for a myriad of uses such as salads, risotto, stuffed vegetables and now breakfast! This mornings delight:

barley
yoghurt
blueberries
chopped walnuts

Roast dinner with my parents followed later (7 vegetables along with roasted potatoes and a butternut squash & nut roast courtesy of mum). I must be full of vitamins!

Exotic extravagance

In total contrast to yesterdays dinner this one became a labour of love and took quite some time to prepare. My boyfriend and I were meant to be going out to a new Indian restaurant but unfortunately he's come down with a bad case of 'man flu'. Naturally I was disappointed but decided to cook myself an Indian-inspired meal anyway.

Intrigued by Monica Shaw's article on savoury pancakes I was particularly interested in the recipe for besan cheela. I didn't have any ground coriander or ajowan but I did pop in some asofateda in its place.

Looking for something to go with these I reached for my 'Green Seasons' cookbook by Rachel Demuth. I'd been meaning to make the !Indian spiced chickpeas for a while so I cooked up a batch, luckily I had all of the ingredients to hand. Knowing that I was going for an Indian theme I'd picked up a mango when I went shopping earlier and made some of Janifer's fresh mango chutney as well as some khadi (spiced yoghurt dip) - recipes for both of these also in 'Green Seasons'.

An awful lot of effort for a dinner for one but everything complimented each other and my initial disappointment at being home alone disappeared. The meal was rounded off with a slice of wheat-free, gluten-free, cake that I made this afternoon along with a very large cup of tea

Barley for breakfast?

I've been following Monica Shaw's Twitter feed for the last few days and was pleasantly surprised when she Tweeted a breakfast which included barley. I must admit that my week day breakfasts are pretty dull affairs as they're generally grabbed on the way out of the door or eaten at the office so this gave me a queue to jazz things up.

Here it is, the barley breakfast platter:

pearl barley (cooked and cooled)
yoghurt (in this case Yeo Valley organic limited edition passionfruit flavour)
chopped banana
cashews
prunes

So many textures on one little plate! The flavours go really well together and the basic components of barley, fruit and nuts are infinitely interchangeable. I've also seen an idea of wild rice for breakfast which I may give a go another time.

Pretty simple

I couldn't be bothered making much of an effort this evening because I was heading out to my yoga class and got sidetracked making soup to freeze-down for lunches. In the end I made this simple tomato sauce which I served over spelt penne. The sauce was, basically:

olive oil
finely chopped shallots
chopped garlic
1 chopped sundried tomato
passata
oregano
seasoning

This, served over pasta and topped with a little grated cheddar.

Tomorrows crunchy lunch

It's very rare that I make a meal this close to 'rabbit food'. I really fancied making some houmous for tomorrow so I took some chickpeas and whizzed up a job lot:

1 tin chickpeas (garbanzo) - drained and rinsed
1tsp tahini paste
1tsp lemon juice
1 clove garlic - crushed
1/2tbsp extra virgin olive oil

All of the above in a food processor, just add water til it gets to the right consistency. Served with raw red pepper and carrot sticks. Delish!

Roasted veg with lentils and halloumi

Pretty much what is says on the tin:

Carrots and parsnip cut into chunky strips - slow roasted without oil
Puy lentils - boiled in stock for 25mins
2 slices of halloumi cheese - fried in olive oil

Stacked on a place and served with love

Celeriac velouté - sexy soup for the soul

I'd never considered making celeriac soup before this winter. I'd grown up with boiled celeriac and that was it. A trip to Demuths vegetarian restaurant in Bath was all it took for me to class this is as the best thing to do with celeriac. Not having made a velouté before I've adapted this recipe from another one online, I don't think it's a bad attempt at what the wonderful people at Demuths have made.

It tastes and sounds like a rich and sinful dish but the celeriac velouté is only (roughly) 180 calories per portion! Unbelievable ! Surprisingly simple to make too, definitely top of my favourites list. Sure it won't be winning any prizes for being low fat - far from it - but as an occasional winter treat no harm can come to you with a dish of warming velouté.

Here's the recipe:

Serves 4
400grams celeriac, diced into small cubes
50g shallots (or one medium onion), finely chopped
750ml vegetable stock (if using a cube ensure it doesn't have small pieces of veg in it)
30grams butter
1tbsp olive oil
3tbsp double cream (if liked)

Put the butter, oil and onion into a pan over a low heat and sauté the onions until translucent. Add the celeriac and cook until soft. This can take some time - so worth it! When the celeriac is soft add the boiling hot stock and cook for a further 10minutes. At this point it looks like greasy water but it's about to improve drastically!

Turn off the heat and put all of the contents of the pan into a blender. Ensure there are no bits left in the pan - wipe it clean if you need to. Whizz the mixture to within an inch of its life - you don't want any lumpy bits! Pour the mixture back into the pan (preferably through a sieve to ensure the lump-free texture we want here). Reheat the mixture. Stir in the cream now if you feel the need and serving up the whole lot or, if freezing, stir a spoon of cream into each bowlful when served.

I decided to do away with the cream today and topped the dish with rosemary and chopped cashews.

What vegetarians eat

I previously had a blog called 'The Healthy Vegetarian' but I was struggling a bit and didn't know which angle to take. Having just joined Pinterest I stumbled upon a thread where people were discussing vegetarianism. As an off-shoot from this I thought I'd create a new blog with some ideas and examples of what vegetarians do actually eat!

Perhaps some people will find this inspirational and I'd love to hear from anyone who tries my ideas or has any ideas for things to try!