Become Pro Vegetarian Chef

We don't do Halloween in our home, but with the weather turning all miserable and cold in the last week, I have been making hearty dishes like potato gratin.  Potato gratin has been on the menu a few times and this time I just could not resist adorning this vegan Potato Gratin with some creepy black olive spiders I know I am childish, but there is a kid in all of us - right?!  I was actually inspired to top the gratin with the spiders from a recipe I had seen last year  (see here) where bread is topped with flavoured cream cheese and topped of with black olive spiders, it had obviously impressed me as I had it lodged in the back of my head to try. I am sharing this recipe with  Healthy Vegan Fridays  hosted by  Rock My Vegan  Socks and  V Nutrition . Other Halloween Recipes to inspire you. Those that are vegan are marked with a v, otherwise everything is suitable for vegetarians.   Bloody Massacred Beetroot Men Pies   v...

I have had a lazy weekend.  I have had a lie in which for me is often around 7.30am, then I was up.  I spent a few hours in the back garden, weeding and harvesting and D mowed the front garden. Then I spent a couple of hours in the kitchen - baking but part of it wondering what to do with the purple beans and runner beans harvested from the garden plot.  I  think I may have mentioned before that I do struggle to know what to do with runner beans.   Runner beans are often served as a side, and this Runner Bean Salad can also side but can hold its own too; and if you want to make it more substantial stir in some cous cous. This Runner Bean Salad is made with thinly sliced red onion, black olives and and seasoned olive oil and white wine vinegar dressing, oh yes and runner beans, that have been cooked until they are al dente.  I am sharing this simple  Runner Bean Salad  with   Kahakai Kitchen .  

I thought I had shared all my marrow recipes last month, but must have missed this somehow, saying that though I do still have one marrow remaining in the vegetable basket. I made this   Roasted Marrow Potato Salad with Black Olives a couple of weeks back around the same time I made the Marrow Lemon Conserve . This R oasted Marrow Potato Salad with Black Olives   wasn't anything special, but it made for a change from the typical pasta salads that I make for work.  It was also a good way to use up some left over potatoes and my marrow aka summer squash harvest from the garden.  The dressing was simple, an oil vinaigrette made with Azada Lemon oil. I am sharing this with   Kahakai Kitchen ; and  with  Eat Your Greens.    Roasted Marrow Potato Salad with Black Olives 500grams new potatoes, cooked and sliced in half - set aside 1 medium marrow, cut in half longways, scoop out the seeds, then sliced into 1/2 cm. 2 tablespoons ...

I lose track when exactly I made this Roasted Butternut Squash, Fennel Orzo Salad, but it was around the time I made   Beetroot Orzo Pasta and Green Bean Salad for work.  This was made in the same week as I had cooked way too much orzo. For those of you who may be unfamiliar wither Orzo, Orzo is Italian and translates as barley from which it was originally made.  These days, orzo is made from hard wheat semolina.  For people like me, orzo often means rice-shaped pasta.  Talking of orzo translating as barley, a few months ago when we went to Swansea VegFest , we went into the city of Swansea and stopped at an Italian eatery for a light snack.   I had a popular Italian drink known as Caffe d'orzo, an Italian caffeine free Barley drink often drunk as a coffee substitute.   It is an acquired taste and made for an interesting change from real coffee.  Anyway, this    Roasted Butternut Squash, Fennel Orzo Salad  ...

This Black Tapenade Cherry Tomato Pasta Salad is perhaps one of the laziest pasta salad recipes I have ever made - other than cooking the pasta, the rest was a breeze.  I had made the black olive tapenade a few days back to go with the homemade sourdough bread. So was looking for other ways to use it up. So I ended up cooking some penne pasta. I threw in a good handful of red and golden yellow cherry tomatoes and lunch for work was made. It was both bitter and salty for the black olives, it was sweet from the tomatoes.  It was good enough for a simple lunch.  For the black olive tapenade , follow this link for the recipe . The rest is easy. Cook pasta according to instructions. Drain and set aside, then stir in tapenade to taste to coat the pasta. Then add in chopped cherry tomatoes, sliced spring onions and season to taste. I am sharing this simple Black Tapenade Cherry Tomato Pasta Salad with Kahakai Kitchen . I don't always get to join in, but i...