Become Pro Vegetarian Chef

I have been following Olives for Dinner for a while, and Erin's originality is astounding and her generosity for sharing her recipes definitely praise worthy.   I have a number of her recipes bookmarked including her Carrot Lox  recipe.  I have been waiting for an excuse to make it.   The reason for finally making the vegan Smoked Carrot 'Salmon' came to me last week, when it was one of my good work colleagues birthday.  This colleague happens to be vegan.  One colleague who is an excellent baker had decided to make her some vegan chocolate cupcakes with Lotus Biscoffi 'butter cream'.  I had decided to have a go at making the classic Cream Cheese and Smoked 'Salmon' Bagels for her, only vegan style !   The first time I ever had smoked Salmon was by pure accident.  It was on a flight from Paris to San Francisco many, many years ago. I was assured by the flight attendant that the ready made vegetarian meal  I was having was indeed ...

I do miss growing my own Black Kale .  It was only when I started growing my own that I learned Black Kale had so many interesting names.  Dinosaur Kale, Palm Tree Kale, Palm Tree Cabbage, Black Cabbage, Cavolo Nero , Tuscan Kale translated Toscana di Nero. I was hoping to sow some more seeds this weekend, but the weather forecast halted our gardening plans once again. I have the sniffles and did not particularly want to be out in the garden being hit left right and centre by the gusty winds that was furiously rattling the greenhouse threatening to damage it further and the drip dripping of rain falling in every direction. So instead, I stayed indoors and pottered about in the kitchen,something I have to admit I have not done much of this week.   I made some Pot Pies with Black Kale that I picked up from the supermarket.  Its actually quite nice to find Black Kale in supermarkets now, a few years back, kale crisps and kale smoothies made it a food trend. ...

Its been a busy month for me with work mostly.   I have to admit I haven't had much energy or enthusiasm for cooking when I got home.  In fact, t wice last  week we have had Chilli and Potato Pierogi, not homemade but from a  packet.  I have mad e pierogi in the past and would love to have a go at making them again. Today though, I got home and had a little energy to cook.  I made a relatively quick Smoky Black Kale and Mushroom Stew.  Many of the ingredients in this were left over from the Black Kale and Chickpeas Pot Pie I made over the weekend.  I think this  Smoky Black Kale and Mushroom Stew i s one of those dishes best enjoyed a day or two later, as it was just okay.  Smoky Black Kale and Mushroom Stew Serves 2 - 3 Ingredients 2 tablespoons olive oil 200grams mushrooms, sliced 2 clove garlic, crushed Sprig of fresh thyme 1/4  teaspoon chipotle flakes 1 x 400grams tinned tomatoes, crushed 100grams black k...

Some of you may remember last month I made a Beetroot Rose Rice Pudding , my husband loudly asserted  You can make that again !  Well I have been looking for a reason to make  a variation of it again and it came with the   Wendy at A Day In The Life on a Farm . The movie chosen this month is  The Martian .   I had not watched it, so we picked it up when we were in Bath, Somerset for the day.  I watched it that evening.   The Martian is about an astronaut  Mark Watney (played by Matt Damon) a Botanist who is accidentally presumed to be dead and is left by his crew on Mars.  When he wakes up, he realises he is all alone and has to survive.  He embarks on a journey, a journey of survival where he attempts to grow potato crops on a land where nothing grows, biding time for his colleagues to come and rescue him.   Here is a trailer to the movie if you have not watched it.   The most obvious food reference was of cour...

I have so many bookmarked banana recipes, but when it comes to finding them - Can I find them, of course not, then I find  myself making another Banana Bread. This time with the addition of dessicated Coconut and Coconut Sugar and guess what it happens to be vegan too.  D thought the bread looked dry and suggested that he may want put some jam or sunflower spread on it,  but I had to disagree with him. I thought it was plenty moist and to prove my point even further, I took some into work for some colleagues to try and they sided with me, but he wasn't haven't any of it - we agreed to differ.  I think the coconut sugar gave the banana bread a caramel colouring as it looks like it is made with wholemeal flour.  I assure you it is not, the coconut sugar also imparted a little caramel flavour, or maybe I was just imagining that.  This Banana and Coconut Bread is adapted from a recipe by  the original recipe here.    I made some little tw...

I harvested some rainbow chard from the garden plot at the weekend.   I decided to make something I consider to be easy fare, a vegetarian and vegan black bean chili with the addition of rainbow chard.   This Black Bean Chili was surprisingly quite nice with the addition of effectively what are just greens, albeit colourful rainbow chard greens.   The black comes from the beans known as turtle beans.  Normally, I prefer chili a day or two later when the flavours have matured.  But this time, we ate it the same day as it was made and a day later and it was good to eat.   I am sharing a bowl of this Black Bean Rainbow Chard Chili with  Cook Once Eat Twice   hosted by Searching For Spice. and finally CookBlogShare hosted by Hijacked by Twins. Other Black Bean Chili recipes you will find on my blog Cook Once Eat Twice   hosted by Searching For Spice. and finally Beetroot Black Bean Chili Cook Once Eat Twice   hosted by Searchi...

Over the weekend, I was going  through my larder, well its not really a larder I pretend it is.  Its just space under the stairs where I store excess things mostly from the kitchen as space in the kitchen comes at a premium, so things like my Kitchenaid Food Processor and Kitchen Aid Artisan Mixer (both Birthday presents from D many years back) live under the stairs.  As I was fumbling about I came across the box that contained loads of homemade jars of preserves, jams and chutneys that I made last year including a Marrow Curd.   I decided to approach the jar of Marrow Curd in the way I would approach Lemon Curd, so this cake is really a Lemon Pistachio cake with the lemon curd substituted with homemade marrow curd. I guess you  can make this Marrow Curd Pistachio Cake with other fancy pants curds like blackberry curd,  strawberry curd ,   clementine curd ,   banana curd   and many others  - experiment, but then make sure you m...

The weather was fantastic over the weekend and like many people with gardens or allotment plots, I was out working in mine.  Between the two of us, we got loads done including a lot of weeding including dandelions . The potatoes have gone in.  I have sowed many seeds.  The seeds I sowed two weeks ago have germinated, tomatoes, courgettes, chard, broad beans and some have not.  I will up-date my Sowing The Seeds page to let you know what I am attempting to grow this year, bu t today, I am sharing my dinner plate of v egan meatballs on a bed of wilted dandelion leaves.  I was inspired by a recipe for Fried Dandelion Greens with Lemon and Garlic Potatoes I saw in Street Vegan by Adam Sobel .  My food presentation is not good, a little corny I think but the finished dish was delicious.  The meatballs were zinging and the spicy herby coating infuse the crispy brown exterior of the veggie meatballs.  The sauteed dandelion greens were not at all bi...