Vegetarian Archives - Page 9 of 12

Mushroom Soup with Grilled Wild Mushrooms and Blue Cheese Croutons

December 22, 2012 By All That I'm Eating 18 Comments

There’s plenty of inspiration around at the moment for your Brussels sprouts, turkey, leftovers and the like. The thing I find my fridge full of, at this time of year particularly is cheese. Don’t get me wrong I will happily eat it all on its own or with copious pickled onions but when you’re preparing for a week of non-stop eating it’s nice to have something light and fresh to get things going. This recipe also helps to make a small dent in the side of any cheese mountain you may be harbouring.

You will need (for 2 bowls):
1 onion, roughly chopped
Butter
300g mushrooms, any will do but I used Portobello
A few sprigs of thyme, leaves removed
400ml vegetable stock
150ml milk
Salt and pepper
Small handful wild mushrooms
1 small baguette
Blue cheese

Start by frying the onion in a small knob of butter until softened. If using Portobello mushrooms I always peel them; mostly because I immensely enjoy doing it. Chop the mushrooms and add them to the onion and cook for a few minutes until they release some of their water. Add the thyme leaves, vegetable stock and milk, cover and cook for about 10 minutes or until the mushrooms are soft. Blend the soup, season and then return to the heat to keep warm while you make the croutons. read more

An Autumn Picnic 2 of 3: Garlic Butter Mushroom Burgers

November 4, 2012 By All That I'm Eating 14 Comments

By now those picnic attendees that are left will be crying out for some sustenance and these garlic mushroom burgers really hit the spot; they are warm, juicy and full of flavour. There are several reasons why I chose to use mushrooms rather than meat: you don’t need to take an extra pan, minimum effort is required for delicious results and I think they are actually nicer! Also they sit happily on the BBQ needing barely any attention so you can get on and enjoy the picnic without having to stand and watch over them.

You will need:

4 large mushrooms Garlic butter (butter, garlic, parsley and black pepper) 4 bread rolls

I prepared the butter before I left by crushing three garlic cloves into about 50g butter and mixing it together with a few sprigs of chopped parsley and some black pepper.
Take the mushrooms and wrap them (gill side up) in some foil so they are completely covered. Put the parcel onto the edge of the BBQ, so it is not directly over the heat, and leave them to soften in their own juices for about 20 minutes. When they are soft put a little of the garlic butter onto the mushroom gills and leave the parcel open so that some of the moisture evaporates. After about five minutes toast the buns on the BBQ and put a mushroom in each bun. read more

Curried Squash Soup with Toasted Spiced Pumpkin Seeds

October 12, 2012 By All That I'm Eating 27 Comments

Squash to me is just something orange taking up precious room in my fridge. I have no desire to hack into it, scoop out the seeds and cut up the rest to make something I wish I hadn’t bothered putting the squash in to. I don’t hate them as such; I’d just rather not have anything to do with them. A squash is plain awkward and it knows it. It’s well aware I don’t want it there and it doesn’t want to be there. I’m sure it had grand visions of being made into a wonderful pie or part of a roasted vegetable medley but now it’s stuck with me and it’s going one of two ways; in the compost or in the dog. Perhaps I am being unkind. I am the only person I know who doesn’t like it. People seem to love it but it’s the texture and flavour which sets me convulsing. However, due to the ever growing list of people who have a deep affection for squash I felt like I should give it one more try. One more attempt for it to win me over before I deemed it only suitable for composting or, in a mad moment of desperation, a secret Santa present.

You will need (for two big bowls):

1 squash (I had an onion squash), chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
3 tsps curry powder
1 litre vegetable stock
1 sachet concentrated coconut milk
Handful pumpkin seeds
½ tsp each of cumin seeds, coriander seeds, mustard seeds and cardamom seeds
Oil for frying
Salt and pepper

Fry the onion in a little oil until starting to soften and then add the garlic. Fry for a minute more and then stir in the curry powder.

Keep frying for a few minutes to allow the spices to warm up and coat the onion.

Add the squash, give it all a final mix and then add the stock and coconut milk.

Leave the squash to soften for 20-30 minutes before blending. Check the seasoning and keep it warm until you’re ready to serve.

Take your spices, adding or removing any that you deem fit and add them to a dry frying pan with the pumpkin seeds. read more

Greek Style Baked Spaghetti and Feta

October 5, 2012 By All That I'm Eating 25 Comments

When I was on holiday I endevoured to try as many new Greek foods as possible. I stopped at sampling some of the more unusual (lamb’s brains in intestine) but immensely enjoyed the baked goods and baklava. One of the things I tried and absolutely loved was tomato baked spaghetti with feta; Italian Greek fusion maybe. Either way after a day at the beach, and a carafe of very easy to drink red wine, this meal was exactly what I needed.

Foraging in Greece would be an amazingly acidulated affair; lemons, limes, olives, figs and pomegranates were dripping from the roadsides. I loved the fresh herbs that were used in all of the hot food I had and that no matter where you went bread and dessert were obligatory and free of charge. I had a great time and I can’t wait to try and recreate some of the great flavours I tried while I was over there. Here is my interpretation of one of my favourite dishes.

You will need (for two):
Olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 fat clove garlic, chopped
400g cherry tomatoes
Small handful of basil and parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper
170g spaghetti
200g feta read more

Peas, Broad Beans and Feta with Roasted Tomato and Chilli Sauce

August 22, 2012 By All That I'm Eating 24 Comments

This is almost the meal that changed my life: broad beans and feta. Until a few years ago I considered any food that wasn’t plain boiled pasta disgusting. I was completely disinterested in anything that wasn’t beige and flavourless. I went to University and had to start fending for myself so a few more exciting things crept into my culinary repertoire; a little melted butter on my pasta for example. I know, exotic.

I suppose I was what you would call a late flavour bloomer; I think my olfactorary centre and taste buds started to develop with my wisdom teeth. Indeed not only had I grown some physical wisdom I also had some previous culinary knowledge on which to build, and now, more teeth to eat things with. I have always cooked; biscuits with my Granny, cakes and pastry with my Mum and barbeques with my Dad but it wasn’t until 2008 that I really started to experiment.

At University you become extremely good at procrastination. One of my favourite time wasters was trawling the internet looking for cookbooks. For someone who found flavour offensive I had a pretty large collection of cookery books; I found great pleasure in cooking for others things that I wouldn’t touch with a bargepole. I came across a particular cookery book that sounded pretty good to me; it was over 500 pages long which is a lot of bedtime reading. I ordered it.
What I didn’t know when I ordered it was that it was a book about vegetables; pages and pages of green, red, orange and purple things which were all alien to me but they were organised alphabetically so I liked that. There was one particular recipe that caught my eye, mostly because it seemed cheap. It was green beans with roasted tomatoes. I made it and the textures and flavours were like nothing I’d ever had; the beans were still slightly crunchy and squeaked when you chewed them, the tomatoes were sweet but also acidic. I probably ate more beans at that moment that I had ever eaten cumulatively in my life before. read more

Heritage Tomato and Mozzarella Salad with Basil Dressing

August 14, 2012 By All That I'm Eating 27 Comments

Heritage Tomato and Mozzarella Salad - close up

Wonderful, glorious, British tomatoes are what summer is all about as far as I’m concerned. In the month of August if there isn’t a tomato in the house then there’s something wrong. Big ones, small ones and funny shaped ones it doesn’t matter I love them all. I have grown my own this year and am waiting for them to ripen at the moment but I was very lucky to have got my hands on some more unusual varieties.

When you are faced with such a selection of colours and shapes of tomatoes some can be quite astonishing. I was convinced that some fool had put a few large chillies into the crate and I decided to ignore them, until, on closer inspection they turned out indeed to be tomatoes. It was surprisingly nice to rummage through the crate of tomatoes not knowing what you might come across next and there’s only one way to make the most of them.

You will need (for two):
A selection of tomatoes (don’t refrigerate them)
1 ball mozzarella
Small handful basil
4-5tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper read more

Broccoli Cheese – Tenderstem in 10 challenge

July 22, 2012 By All That I'm Eating 25 Comments

With all the miserable weather it seemed positively autumnal but it’s not the time for stews, long bakes and comfort food. You may have seen my broccoli pesto post last week; it was a good dinner, marvellous in fact, but I was left with another pack of broccoli. Another meal in under 10 minutes using less than 10 ingredients needed to be devised for the Tenderstem challenge.

I wanted to make something recognisable and filling, healthy and indulgent and of course quick and simple. After much head scratching I was almost at the point of deciding that I was ridiculous and almost opted for a broccoli sandwich when I changed my mind. Thank goodness I did; imagine how soggy a broccoli sandwich would be, no amount of condiments could cheer that up.

And so to dinner. Broccoli cheese doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as cauliflower cheese but it has all the flavour.
You will need: read more

Broccoli, Walnut and Blue Cheese Pesto – Tenderstem in 10 challenge

July 12, 2012 By All That I'm Eating 23 Comments

Broccoli is a brilliant vegetable but occasionally I find myself at a loss for what to do with it. It’s great with spices, superb with salty soy and oyster sauce and phenomenal with blankets of cheese. So when the kind people from Tenderstem asked if I was interested in taking part in their challenge I gladly accepted; a chance to really think outside the box.
The challenge was to make a meal using the Tenderstem broccoli using less than 10 ingredients in less than 10 minutes. I felt like a Ready Steady Cook contestant. I received a lovely parcel which contained the broccoli as well as a kitchen timer to keep me on track! read more

Wet Garlic Pizza Bread and Tiger Tomato Salad

July 8, 2012 By All That I'm Eating 23 Comments

It’s a good job I’ve no aspirations to become a vampire. Garlic seems to divide opinion; you either can’t get enough of it or can’t stand it. I love it. There are of course many meals where it serves the purpose of adding to the background flavour rather than dominating the meal but a life without garlic, for me, would be a very miserable one indeed.

A few juicy stems of wet garlic arrived in my vegetable box. I knew they would be pretty powerful and pungent and it seemed only right to make garlic bread. However, garlic bread alone does not a meal make and fortunately I had some brilliant tiger tomatoes that I picked up from the farmers’ market. I’m not sure how clearly you can see the tomatoes but they are glorious; vibrant red flesh, green seeds and dark green striped skin.

You will need, a light lunch for two:

For the dough: 500g strong white flour, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, 7g sachet yeast, 300ml warm water
3 wet garlic bulbs
Small handful fresh parsley
Tomatoes, spme very ripe and tasty ones
6-8 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 tbsp white wine vinegar
A few fresh basil leaves
Salt and pepper

Start by making the dough. I confess that since the acquisition of my food mixer, making bread dough is simple and carefree. Put all of the ingredients into the bowl, turn the dough hook on and come back 10 minutes later to perfectly kneaded dough. Lazy? Perhaps. Easy? Definitely. Leave the dough in the bowl, cover the top and leave until doubled in size; an hour or so. read more

Beetroot, Walnut, Goat’s Cheese and Orzo Pasta ‘Salad’ with Dill Dressing

June 23, 2012 By All That I'm Eating 30 Comments

We are coming to the end of last year’s stored beetroot and can look forward to some fresh summer beetroot soon. I haven’t planted beetroot this year as I decided I would grow peas, beans, more beans, tomatoes and courgettes only. Not to worry though as last year’s beetroot are still popping up in my vegetable box and down at the local market. I’ve called this a ‘salad’ because it sort of falls in the salad category with the beetroot, walnuts and dressing but at the same time it is a pasta dish; a very luminously coloured pasta dish at that. read more