Become Pro Vegetarian Chef

I know everything is in the presentation and this plate of salad would have been elevated a little more with a little more tinkering in the name of food styling; and perhaps served on a bed of greens such as rocket or watercress would have done it, but had cauliflower - the veg du jour been presented by a celebrity chef, cookery writer or so called queen of the grain and greens I am sure it would have encouraged swoons and wow's, But as it comes from a little known vegetarian food blogger it will be perceived more as the smashed brains of a zombie presented by someone watching way too many episodes of The Walking Dead ; and perhaps best served around Halloween; and to an extent I would have to agree on first glance, but I assure you its all about the veg.  No humans, animals or zombies were hurt in the making of this Salad.  And it was bloody marvellous too.  Image source AMC The white cauliflower dyed beautifully and naturally by the beetroot and balsamic v...

I didn't fancy Harvest Monday  is hosted by Dave over  Our Happy Acres  ;  making a cake or muffins with the strawberries coming from my garden and then I remembered strawberry spinach salads.   Well its been Harvest Monday  is hosted by Dave over  Our Happy Acres  ;   over 10 years I have been reading about Strawberry Spinach Salad in cookbooks, hearing about it from foodie friends and seeing it  on blogosphere, yet never tried it until the the weekend and since Saturday we have had it three times.  yes three times including today. Of course, I had to make some of my own tweaks to the recipe that I eye-balled, the asparagus for a start. A while back my sister in law had gifted me with a bottle of strawberry vinaigrette, its really easy to make at home, but nicer to be given one - makes a quick and easy recipe even easier.  If you don't have either, you can easily substitute it with sherry vinegar or white wine v...

I hope your having a good weekend.  We went to Hay on Wye for the day today and got back an hour or so ago, so I won't stay blogging much tonight as I want to make the most of the warm bright evening.   Instead I leave you with this  this cold pasta salad that I made last month.  I made  it around the same time as the v egan summer sushi .  I had some vegetables left over from the vegan Sushi and chopped it up, along with some tomatoes and fresh mint from the garden and  made this very simple cold Pasta Salad.  I know its nothing special, but it made for a good and filling lunch for work and it was a good way to use up left over vegetables.  I am sharing this with a Kitchen Clearout hosted by Madhouse Family Reviews.

This is a vegan take on 'Beef' Carpaccio.  The beef is replaced with floppy slithers of roasted balsamic beetroot. I know this plate looks sparse, but this is a starter - a light teaser before you are served your main meal. As well as the sharp tangy velvet slices of beetroot, on the plate you will also find fronds of green pickings from the greenhouse.  Gosh, I do wonder why I don't make more of an effort to grow salad greens, they are just so much more tastier and punchier than those you pick up from the supermarket. And capers, roughly chopped for piquancy.  Enjoy.  I am sharing this with  Healthy Vegan Fridays  hosted by the beautiful  Rock My Vegan  Socks and  V Nutrition   Roasted Balsamic Beetroot Carpaccio with Capers and Rocket Serves 4 Ingredients 400grams Plain or Balsamic roasted beetroot, thinly sliced with a mandolin Lots of Salad greens, good mixture 4 tablespoons rapeseed or good extra virgin olive ...

The next few weeks my blog will at least twice a week feature a recipe made with courgettes aka the summer zucchini.   The reason, its in season - but mostly I have so much of it coming from the garden.  I've made a few courgette recipes, so will share them later, but today its Turmeric Lemon and Courgette Orzo.  Its not much of a recipe, as I eye-balled everything.  I began with 250grams orzo pasta and 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric to the rolling boiling water.   The ochre yellow turmeric dyes the rice shaped orzo pasta whilst cooking.   The yellow courgettes are quartered and then sauteed in olive oil and minced garlic, I decided to continue with the yellow theme.  And added in some diced yellow pepper and sweetcorn from a tin and seasoned with salt and pepper to taste.    The final touch was drizzling over some good oil, I used  Welsh Blodynn Aur Rapeseed Oil,  but a good extra virgin olive oil would be fine too. ...

Work has been ridiculously busy that when I get home, I just want to crash out on the soft and when the alarm goes off in the early hours of the morning, I really just want to stick my head under the pillow and ignore it, so I am thankful it is the weekend. Coming in tired from work has also seen me spend little time in the kitchen, hence the lack of home-made food blog post recently.  I did however manage to make a big bowl of pasta salad with the golden courgettes and cherry tomatoes that I picked on Monday from the garden plot.   Here is a small bowl full with the smallest courgettes ever....how cute.  I must say I am sad to see the courgettes go, even though they are not the most flavoursome of vegetables, I do love growing them.  I made this Pasta Salad with the later summer vegetables from the garden.  It was made in advance for our working lunch, enough for two working days. This is not much of a recipe and much was done to the eye and to tas...

This Beetroot Barley Goats Cheese Salad is an autumnal salad because of the hearty barley and the colours that remind me of the drying leaves on the trees.   Its perfect for taking into lunch as it won't leak liked those tossed in heavy salad dressing The goats cheese is optional, but I think it works as it makes a nice contrast to the earthy beetroot.  Of course you could use a dairy free alternative like Gary which is actually made from coconuts and is very popular in the UK right now.  I have to admit I have not tried Gary yet as every time I go to seek it out it is sold out.  This Beetroot Barley Goats Cheese Salad is not much of a recipe as I eye-balled most of the ingredients: cooked barley, cooked beetroot including its juices, a little balsamic vinegar an extra virgin oil for dressing, salt and pepper and then topped with rocket and goats cheese.  Quite simple really. I am sharing the Autumn Leaves photograph with  Kahakai Kitchen . ...

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 ...

I have to throw my hands up and admit that I have somewhat lost my blogging groove.  At the same time I have also found myself uninspired in the kitchen, I am not begrudging this at all, in fact I am a little thankful for it as it has allowed me to both cook those bookmarked recipes as well as peruse cookbooks from my burgeoning bookshelf,  to which I have to confess I have added some more cookbooks.  For those of you who read my blog, will know that I went to the  But My Family Would Never Eat Vegan . I had considered last year to put them both on my Christmas wish list, but then for some reason decided  not to as I had other vegan and vegetarian cookbooks that I wanted more, but then when I saw both of them at the Vegfest.   I was finally swayed  to get the cookbook as my blogger friend Johanna who cooks much like I do at home, was making recipes on her blog and commenting, even fellow blogger Faye Veganopoulous was recommending it.  Both Fa...

I made this Oriental Mustard Greens Potato Salad a couple of weeks ago when  I harvested some Mustard Greens from the greenhouse. The Oriental Mustard Salad green leaves were hot and spicy.  I do enjoy growing my own salad greens as I rarely find anything as tasty from the supermarkets, the closest to good salad leaves have been from farmers markets. This Potato Salad with Asparagus also made for a simple and delicious meal.   If you don't want to use new potatoes, then perhaps make something similar with gnocchi. I am sharing the  Sweet Potato Rosemary Scones  with  Utterly Scrummy  for  One Potato, Two Potato  challenge .