Become Pro Vegetarian Chef

I made this Drunken Spicy Red Wine Spaghetti on Friday evening, so we could drink the rest the remaining bottle that evening.  The red wine in question this time came from Marks & Spencers Shiraz Six Hats which is suitable for vegans and vegetarians, its also Fair Trade.  We only drink once a week, either on a Friday or Saturday so it has be a good one.  Its also our acknowledgement that the weekend has started and thank goodness for it after a long week in work.  Vegan Mof o theme this week is Rainbow Food and the prompt  today is Monochrome: One Colour Food and wallah here is a bowl of Drunken Spicy Red Wine Spaghetti . So how would you describe this colour? Blush, cardinal, amaranth or just simply red wine. My husband D, absolutely loved this Drunken Spicy Red Wine Spaghetti and said it made for a delicious change from our vegetarian version of The Red Lady   Putttanesca and The Angry  Arrabiata  that we so often have.  I did ...

I had plans to make a Rainbow Carrot Tart with these Rainbow Carrots for evening supper, but that idea was quickly dropped when I realised we had no bread to make sandwiches for lunch and I did not fancy pasta again, so this Barley and Lentil Salad was cobbled together with what other ingredients I had in the kitchen cupboards. I found it to be really, really nice.  There was a comforting chew from the barley, bite from the rainbow carrots that also made me feel rather cheery every time I tucked in to take a spoonful from my lunch box.  The Puy lentils just added that soft salty poppets of flavour and a final flurry of spring onions aka scallions.  I want more salads like this for winter.   Vegan Mof o theme this week is Rainbow Food and the prompt  today is Multicolour Food.   Other Rainbow Coloured Vegan Recipes  Rainbow Chard Bundles Harissa Rainbow Carrots with Maftoul Rainbow Bell Pepper Spaghetti Rainbow Vegetables with Soba Noodles ...

This is  not a cake 'cake' with a sponge, and its not a cheesecake though on first glance that is how it appears. This is a Butternut, Mango and Orange Marigold Layer Cake,  which I have also pretentiously dubbed as Sunrise Cake. The bottom is an almond crust, the middle Mango and butternut Squash filling is infused with Mango sweetness and then the topping finished off with a zingy zesty orange  jelly made with  agar agar  and then finished off with a light scattering of dried marigold flower petals - all depicting colours of the Sunrise.  I was impressed with myself, though I have to admit the rice paper butterflies actually look a little out of place, here or maybe dare I say it tacky - I did like the scattering of the dried marigold petals. This is not a very sweet cake, needs a squirt of (soya) cream to cut the richness of the butternut mango filling and the sharp twang from the orange topping.  Its also a very big cake, you can slice i...

I made these plum fruit leather bats for Halloween with   Our Best Bites   Natasha's Kitchen  Plum Fruit Leather   the plums that were literally falling from the tree in my garden .   I have so many garden to kitchen cookbooks and many have recipes for fruit leather, but never got round to making it at home despite having so many recipes bookmarked.  I am embarrassed to admit, its only because fruit leather began popping up on blogosphere that got me finally motivated.  I   couldn't find my black cat cookie cutter as that is what I really wanted to do with the plum fruit leather, but I guess I could do that for next year now, so instead we have some of Batmans back up - Nocturnal Bats.  I've rolled some plum fruit leather too for effect. My regular readers will that my first attempt at making fruit leather was a bit of a fail, but I managed to save the pulped plums for other recipes including   Our Best Bites   ...

These  Fishless Japanese Sea Vegetable and Nori Cakes would make a fantastic light starter  I think these Fishless Sea Vegetable Cakes look marvellous without the panko coating that its a shame it has to be cover the colourful seaweed shades of greens.    This is my submission to # EatYourGreens  food challenge .  Please do join in with you Green Vegan Mofo blog  post,  the rules are here. Before I give you the recipe, I want a little bit of a rant.  Yesterday was not the day we had planned.  All our good plans went pear shaped.  We were on our way to Bristol to celebrate and have a little fun with my nephews, but the icy weather played havoc with our car that we had to turn back home and go to the garage.  It cost us £300.00.  Happy Birthday. There was no point in grumbling but I was very mift and wished we had never left the house in the first place.  All the signs with the weather were warning us to stay in...

These little cute pumpkins may be perfect to adorn any kitchen table or mantle piece, but come to slice them and they are quite resistant little things.  These mini pumpkins known as munchkin pumpkins were very hard to slice, but I persevered and then scooped out the seeds for the garden birds. The hollowed out mini pumpkins serve as fantastic bowls that you can take straight to the table, no washing up to do either, something that my husband appreciates as he does most of the dishes in our home. You can stuff mini pumpkins with all manner of things, such as the vegan Spanish style chorizo, chickpeas and kale that I made.  It was very nice too.  One of my favourite long term food blogger extraordinaire and Queen and inspirational kick starter behind UKs  Underground Supper Club scene  Ms Marmite Lover aka Kerstin Rodgers has some wonderful suggestion on  How to use squash and pumpkins . Vegan Mof o prompt is Autumn Fall Traditions.  I tend to ...

It been an extremely busy week at work, so my blog post this evening will be short.  My evening dinner today is Pizza, don't diss me - its homemade pizza!  Check out my Instagram for the photograph, I promise you it will be very different from other pizzas you've seen. Right now though, I am sharing a fusion snack of Aloo Tikki Bagel .  I am constantly amazed at how much i eat is accidentally vegan.  Aloo Tikki is a South Asian snack made from spicy oniony mashed potatoes ( aloo ) that is shaped into cutlets or burger shapes, then coated in a spicy blend of chickpea batter and deep fried.  It important to eat it whilst it is still hot as that is when it is at its most deliciousness.   You can eat the Aloo Tikki as you wish, we and I mean my siblings would often stuff it in roti aka chappati slathered in tomato sauce, it had to be a red sauce to temper the spices, then rolled up like burrito and munched on.  These days I tend to either stuff it in...

This Beetroot, Horseradish Pasta Salad was made in a hurry a few weeks back over the weekend. I took inspiration from what was in my fridge: cooked beetroot and green beans and kitchen cupboards: horseradish powder and dried pasta a nd lunch was on the table in less than 30 minutes. The amount of horseradish you put in is subjective, put in as much or as little as you want.  I made the horseradish myself with some horseradish powder that I picked from Glastonbury earlier on in the month.  But if you use ready made, albeit a vegan brand make sure you get good horseradish - nothing disappoints than a tame horseradish in your mouth when your expecting a boom! We had some Beetroot Horseradish Pasta Salad left over, so I took some into work and shared it with a colleague who comes from Slovakia where they do like their beetroot.  By the way this is the same work colleague who gave me some beetroots from her allotment plot a little while back and I made a vegan Beetro...

Once upon a time, I used to snug my nose  if someone gave me a pot of homemade jam.  I don't know where that snobbery came from, certainly not from my parents.  I think it was partly to do with peer pressure and the rise of supermarkets and consumerism.  I also took for granted the domestic goddess that was my mother snubbing homemade stuff for brand names that became the desirables, b ut then something happened in my mid 20s.  It made me think, I mean s eriously think and re-evaluate what was important to me and since I have always preferred homemade.  This was further enhanced by my own vegetable growing antics at the allotment.  Also I now try my utmost to support indie craft stallholders and snatch the opportunity when I am offered a jar of homemade jar of jam; homemade anything in fact gets me excited - Yes I am easily pleased these days.   Unlike previous years, I've not been the most organised this year with foodie gifts for family and fr...

Happy 1st of December, let the countdown to Christmas begin! But first let me share with you November's contributions for #Eat Your Greens.   We have 10 Fantastic vegetarian and vegan recipes, all very different and all inspiring.   Firstly we have a Cabbage, Apple and Cashew Nut Salad with a Peanu t Dressing from Helen who blogs over at Roast Chicken and A Country Walk.  This is a Asian style Salad that is perfect for nippy days.  Helen writes the sweetness of the apples balances the bitterness from the cabbage and the peanuts and cashew nuts temper the warmth and sourness from the lime and chilli.   Then we have  Lisa from Lisa's Kitchen brought to the November table a Sweet Potato, Chickpeas and Spinach Curry .  This is a  deeply creamy curry blanketing sweet earthy vegetables which also include garden peas and spinach, enhanced further with buttery plump chickpeas.   Next  Choclette who blogs over at Tin an...