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...

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!

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!

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.

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!