Since I mentioned veggie mince in the last post, I thought I'd put up a few quick tips on using fake mince. Veggie meat substitutes are actually pretty good these days, it's just a case of knowing how to use them and how not to use them.
Where veggie mince is concerned, my top tips would be:
1. For some reason, I find it makes much better chilli than it does bolognese. It is quite hard to get veggie mince bolognese anywhere approximating the richness of proper bolognese, whereas I actually find fake mince chilli just as nice as beef chilli.
2. It's a good idea to add a teaspoon or two of Marmite and some tomato puree when you add the mince, or maybe even some red wine - just something to give it a bit of body or it can seem bland and wimpy.
3. It takes remarkably little time to cook, so you can just add it to your sauce right at the end - but I find it's nicer if you add it at a slightly earlier stage to let it cook in and absorb the flavours. It doesn't seem to like being cooked for *ages*, though.
4. My favourite brand used to be one called just "Vege Mince", but I can never find it these days so I use Quorn Mince, which is definitely better than it used to be.
Part of the reason this occurs to me is because I made veggie mince chilli at the weekend with jacket potatoes and it was good veggie comfort food. Anyway, my chilli recipe is:
1. Chop an onion and some garlic; fry it for a few minutes in some oil.
2. Add a tin of tomatoes and a tin of kidney beans, together with around 2 tsp cumin, 2 tsp coriander, 2 tsp paprika, chilli powder to taste, salt and pepper, and maybe a shake of mixed herbs and a shake of cinnamon.
3. Leave it to simmer for 20 minutes or so, then tip in a bag of veggie mince. You might need to add a bit of water for the mince to cook in, but I didn't find this necessary last time I did it.
4. Add a good teaspoon of Marmite and a great big squeeze of tomato puree - taste it and add more seasonings if it seems at all bland.
5. Cook it for a further 10 minutes or so and serve. Like most chillis it often improves the next day.
I'd normally opt for this veggie chilli with rice or jacket potatoes (mmm). Mark also makes a mean bean chilli with no fake meat content at all, which personally I think is yummier if you're doing wraps/burritos. Maybe I'll prod him into posting the recipe some time.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Lentil & spinach lasagne
Mmm, lasagne. This is one veggie lasagne I like and made for dinner today - I've also made it for non-veggie friends and they seemed to like it.
My other favourite veggie lasagnes are roast butternut squash & goats cheese and mediterranean vegetables (ie ratatouille). If you really want though, you can make a passable fake beef lasagne with veggie mince.
WHAT WE ATE
This is where my tendency to not measure things becomes unhelpful, but roughly I used:
1 medium onion
3 cloves garlic
1 small grated carrot
200g red lentils
1 tin tomatoes
squeeze tomato puree
dried herbs (thyme, basil, bayleaves)
1 200g bag of spinach
two big flat mushrooms
1 pint milk
half a block of mature cheddar
3 tbsp flour
a big knob of butter/marg
a smidge of grated nutmeg
WHAT WE DID
1. Fry off the chopped onion and garlic in oil for a few minutes, add the grated carrot and give it a few more minutes.
2. Add the tinned tomatoes, the lentils, and one-and-a-half of the empty tin's full of cold water.
3. Bring to the boil, add the herbs and tomato puree and some salt & pepper, then turn it down and leave to simmer for at least half an hour (give it a stir every so often so the lentils don't stick to the pan).
4. While it's cooking, chop the mushrooms, wash the spinach and fry them both in a little oil for a few minutes. You might need to add the spinach in batches if there's too much to fit in the pan, but don't cook it for too long or it'll go rubbery and gross. Set it aside off the heat.
5. When the lentil bolognese is nearly done, make the cheese sauce (see post on cauliflower macaroni cheese if you're not sure how).
6. Assemble the lasagne - I normally smear a bit of cheese sauce on the bottom to stop it sticking, and then go in the order: pasta, cheese sauce, lentil bolognese, spinach & mushroom. Finishing obviously with a nice thick layer of cheese sauce and some extra grated cheese on top.
7. Oven it at about 180 degrees celsius for 30-40 minutes.
8. Yum.
My other favourite veggie lasagnes are roast butternut squash & goats cheese and mediterranean vegetables (ie ratatouille). If you really want though, you can make a passable fake beef lasagne with veggie mince.
WHAT WE ATE
This is where my tendency to not measure things becomes unhelpful, but roughly I used:
1 medium onion
3 cloves garlic
1 small grated carrot
200g red lentils
1 tin tomatoes
squeeze tomato puree
dried herbs (thyme, basil, bayleaves)
1 200g bag of spinach
two big flat mushrooms
1 pint milk
half a block of mature cheddar
3 tbsp flour
a big knob of butter/marg
a smidge of grated nutmeg
WHAT WE DID
1. Fry off the chopped onion and garlic in oil for a few minutes, add the grated carrot and give it a few more minutes.
2. Add the tinned tomatoes, the lentils, and one-and-a-half of the empty tin's full of cold water.
3. Bring to the boil, add the herbs and tomato puree and some salt & pepper, then turn it down and leave to simmer for at least half an hour (give it a stir every so often so the lentils don't stick to the pan).
4. While it's cooking, chop the mushrooms, wash the spinach and fry them both in a little oil for a few minutes. You might need to add the spinach in batches if there's too much to fit in the pan, but don't cook it for too long or it'll go rubbery and gross. Set it aside off the heat.
5. When the lentil bolognese is nearly done, make the cheese sauce (see post on cauliflower macaroni cheese if you're not sure how).
6. Assemble the lasagne - I normally smear a bit of cheese sauce on the bottom to stop it sticking, and then go in the order: pasta, cheese sauce, lentil bolognese, spinach & mushroom. Finishing obviously with a nice thick layer of cheese sauce and some extra grated cheese on top.
7. Oven it at about 180 degrees celsius for 30-40 minutes.
8. Yum.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Stuffed roast squash
Oh go on then, as I'm here, another quick one.
This was a road-test for the veggie option at our upcoming Christmas dinner with friends. It's adapted from a recipe I saw in a magazine. It was very festive and yummy. I'm tagging it as vegan although the version we ate wasn't, because the adapted version I make next time probably will be. It'll make sense when you've read it.
WHAT WE ATE
Roast squash stuffed with mushrooms, apples and cashew nuts, with roast potatoes and broccoli on the side. Here it is:
WHAT WE DID
You want one of those round-ish squashes that is sort of like a mini-pumpkin, except usually more colourful. Not sure a butternut squash would quite work in this context. One squash per person makes a fairly filling meal.
1. Slice the top off the squash and scoop the seeds and blurghy bits out the middle. Stick it in a roasting tray.
2. Slice a couple of handfuls of mushrooms, chop a small onion or leek, and chop an apple into chunks (I wedged them and then halved the wedges to make sure they'd fit into the top of the squash). Fry them in oil for 5 minutes or so, and add the cashews (no need to chop them or anything).
3. At this point I basically added a bit of a white sauce - ie, I added a spoon or two of plain flour, then added some milk a bit at a time (not very much, you don't want it too saucy or it all oozes out of the squash), and some seasoning and mixed herbs. However, I'm thinking it would actually be nicer with a white wine sauce, so next time I'm going to replace the milk with white wine, and give it a bit longer on the hob for some of the alcohol to evaporate off. This would make it vegan, assuming I suppose that you are either using vegan wine or aren't that fussy.
4. Spoon the mixture into the squash and replace the squash lid. Pop the whole thing in the oven for an hour on about 180C.
I've probably made this sound more complicated than it is, it is actually dead, dead easy - prep time around 15-20 minutes. And obviously you could stuff the squash with basically anything you like. This recipe really appeals to me as a way to make squash easy: I love squash, but am usually too lazy to use it, as anything that involves peeling or chopping it usually results in frustration and chopped fingers. The beauty of this is that you can just bung the whole thing in the oven and then scoop the flesh out as you eat. It looks great on the plate too.
This was a road-test for the veggie option at our upcoming Christmas dinner with friends. It's adapted from a recipe I saw in a magazine. It was very festive and yummy. I'm tagging it as vegan although the version we ate wasn't, because the adapted version I make next time probably will be. It'll make sense when you've read it.
WHAT WE ATE
Roast squash stuffed with mushrooms, apples and cashew nuts, with roast potatoes and broccoli on the side. Here it is:
WHAT WE DID
You want one of those round-ish squashes that is sort of like a mini-pumpkin, except usually more colourful. Not sure a butternut squash would quite work in this context. One squash per person makes a fairly filling meal.
1. Slice the top off the squash and scoop the seeds and blurghy bits out the middle. Stick it in a roasting tray.
2. Slice a couple of handfuls of mushrooms, chop a small onion or leek, and chop an apple into chunks (I wedged them and then halved the wedges to make sure they'd fit into the top of the squash). Fry them in oil for 5 minutes or so, and add the cashews (no need to chop them or anything).
3. At this point I basically added a bit of a white sauce - ie, I added a spoon or two of plain flour, then added some milk a bit at a time (not very much, you don't want it too saucy or it all oozes out of the squash), and some seasoning and mixed herbs. However, I'm thinking it would actually be nicer with a white wine sauce, so next time I'm going to replace the milk with white wine, and give it a bit longer on the hob for some of the alcohol to evaporate off. This would make it vegan, assuming I suppose that you are either using vegan wine or aren't that fussy.
4. Spoon the mixture into the squash and replace the squash lid. Pop the whole thing in the oven for an hour on about 180C.
I've probably made this sound more complicated than it is, it is actually dead, dead easy - prep time around 15-20 minutes. And obviously you could stuff the squash with basically anything you like. This recipe really appeals to me as a way to make squash easy: I love squash, but am usually too lazy to use it, as anything that involves peeling or chopping it usually results in frustration and chopped fingers. The beauty of this is that you can just bung the whole thing in the oven and then scoop the flesh out as you eat. It looks great on the plate too.
Cauliflower macaroni cheese
Well, predictions that we would be too busy/lazy to update this blog proved accurate. But there's always new years resolutions...
In the meantime, thought I would share a small revelation I had today. I bought some cauliflower from the farmers' market, and my thought process went something like this:
1. Cauliflower cheese is nice.
2. But it's not quite a meal.
3. If only cauliflower cheese could be somehow more... carby.
4. Macaroni cheese is nice.
5. Maybe we should have cauliflower cheese and macaroni cheese AT THE SAME TIME!
6. How come nobody ever does this?
So, I made it, and lo, it was pretty tasty. It's probably pretty self explanatory and I don't wish to patronise, but for completeness:
WHAT I USED
One cauliflower; three small leeks; the macaroni i had left in the packet (around 150g, maybe?); some peas; a decent-sized block of mature cheddar, maybe around 5cm by 10cm; a pint of milk; 2 tbsp flour, a knob of butter, nutmeg, thyme, salt, pepper
WHAT I DID
1. Cut the cauliflower into florets and boiled for around 5 mins. Chopped the leeks but didn't pre-cook them.
2. Meanwhile, made the cheese sauce: melt the butter, stir in the flour, add the milk a little at a time with lots and lots of whisking to get rid of lumps; keep whisking/stirring over the heat for 5 mins or until it thickens, shaking in some frozen peas a few minutes before the end; take off the heat and grate in most of the cheese. (I added a bit of grated nutmeg, a decent shake of dried thyme and some salt/pepper as well.)
3. Drained the cauliflower and left it standing in the colander while I did the macaroni in the same saucepan (hooray for less washing up)
4. Mixed the pasta, cauliflower and leeks in a big shallow oven-proof dish, then poured the cheese sauce on top.
5. Sprinkled some extra grated cheese on top and baked at around 200C for 15-20 mins.
Mark and I have both been a bit ill today and I can confirm that this makes excellent comfort food. Also prep time was probably less than half an hour. Seriously, why have I never seen anyone combine these two things before? You know it makes sense.
In the meantime, thought I would share a small revelation I had today. I bought some cauliflower from the farmers' market, and my thought process went something like this:
1. Cauliflower cheese is nice.
2. But it's not quite a meal.
3. If only cauliflower cheese could be somehow more... carby.
4. Macaroni cheese is nice.
5. Maybe we should have cauliflower cheese and macaroni cheese AT THE SAME TIME!
6. How come nobody ever does this?
So, I made it, and lo, it was pretty tasty. It's probably pretty self explanatory and I don't wish to patronise, but for completeness:
WHAT I USED
One cauliflower; three small leeks; the macaroni i had left in the packet (around 150g, maybe?); some peas; a decent-sized block of mature cheddar, maybe around 5cm by 10cm; a pint of milk; 2 tbsp flour, a knob of butter, nutmeg, thyme, salt, pepper
WHAT I DID
1. Cut the cauliflower into florets and boiled for around 5 mins. Chopped the leeks but didn't pre-cook them.
2. Meanwhile, made the cheese sauce: melt the butter, stir in the flour, add the milk a little at a time with lots and lots of whisking to get rid of lumps; keep whisking/stirring over the heat for 5 mins or until it thickens, shaking in some frozen peas a few minutes before the end; take off the heat and grate in most of the cheese. (I added a bit of grated nutmeg, a decent shake of dried thyme and some salt/pepper as well.)
3. Drained the cauliflower and left it standing in the colander while I did the macaroni in the same saucepan (hooray for less washing up)
4. Mixed the pasta, cauliflower and leeks in a big shallow oven-proof dish, then poured the cheese sauce on top.
5. Sprinkled some extra grated cheese on top and baked at around 200C for 15-20 mins.
Mark and I have both been a bit ill today and I can confirm that this makes excellent comfort food. Also prep time was probably less than half an hour. Seriously, why have I never seen anyone combine these two things before? You know it makes sense.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Corn on the cob
Haven't updated this for a while, I know - we've been out/away/poorly quite a bit since creating it.
Today's dinner was hardly a culinary masterpiece but it gives me a chance to enthuse about our local farmers' market, and about farmers' markets in general - not only a way more fun and fulfilling shopping experience, but also make it ludicrously easy to make a tasty vegetarian meal without really even trying. The lady on the veg stall today told me that the corn we were buying had been picked this morning, and dammit you could taste that fact. And the little cardboard sign on the potatoes was not telling a lie when it said they were 'excellent roasted'.
WHAT WE ATE
- Corn on the cob (boiled for 6-8 mins then slathered with margarine, yum)
- Skin-on roast potatoes (little ones - cut into small-ish cubes, then sprinkled with mixed herbs, salt and pepper once in the roasting tray)
- Runner beans (sliced cross-ways and boiled for maybe 5 mins)
Grand total prep time probably about 10-15 minutes, total cost for two people around £2. And by god it was good.
A TEDIOUS NOTE
Being the tedious person that I am, I decided to test my theory that farmers' markets are almost always cheaper than supermarkets, so that I could feel smug about the bargains I got.
So. Today at the farmers' market I spent an unusually hefty £18 (which may or may not have been accurate, since they took the dangerous step of letting me add it up myself as I went along), for which I got:
Two punnets of plums, one of blackberries and one of blueberries; six eating apples and four cooking apples; two ears of corn; five white onions, one red onion, one bulb of garlic; one aubergine; one green pepper; one broccoli, one punnet of fresh peas, a bunch of runner beans; four tomatoes; one-and-a-half kilos of potatoes; six free-range eggs.
Here it is, in all its glory:
According to the Sainsbury's website (I did try Tesco, but it wouldn't let me unless I faffed about getting a Clubcard), this would have cost me £24.11 to buy there. Well, almost - I had to substitute blackcurrants for the blackberries, since apparently Sainsbury's aren't selling blackberries, despite the fact that they are falling off a bramble bush near you as I type. Tch.
Um, yeah. Farmers' markets! Yay!
Today's dinner was hardly a culinary masterpiece but it gives me a chance to enthuse about our local farmers' market, and about farmers' markets in general - not only a way more fun and fulfilling shopping experience, but also make it ludicrously easy to make a tasty vegetarian meal without really even trying. The lady on the veg stall today told me that the corn we were buying had been picked this morning, and dammit you could taste that fact. And the little cardboard sign on the potatoes was not telling a lie when it said they were 'excellent roasted'.
WHAT WE ATE
- Corn on the cob (boiled for 6-8 mins then slathered with margarine, yum)
- Skin-on roast potatoes (little ones - cut into small-ish cubes, then sprinkled with mixed herbs, salt and pepper once in the roasting tray)
- Runner beans (sliced cross-ways and boiled for maybe 5 mins)
Grand total prep time probably about 10-15 minutes, total cost for two people around £2. And by god it was good.
A TEDIOUS NOTE
Being the tedious person that I am, I decided to test my theory that farmers' markets are almost always cheaper than supermarkets, so that I could feel smug about the bargains I got.
So. Today at the farmers' market I spent an unusually hefty £18 (which may or may not have been accurate, since they took the dangerous step of letting me add it up myself as I went along), for which I got:
Two punnets of plums, one of blackberries and one of blueberries; six eating apples and four cooking apples; two ears of corn; five white onions, one red onion, one bulb of garlic; one aubergine; one green pepper; one broccoli, one punnet of fresh peas, a bunch of runner beans; four tomatoes; one-and-a-half kilos of potatoes; six free-range eggs.
Here it is, in all its glory:
According to the Sainsbury's website (I did try Tesco, but it wouldn't let me unless I faffed about getting a Clubcard), this would have cost me £24.11 to buy there. Well, almost - I had to substitute blackcurrants for the blackberries, since apparently Sainsbury's aren't selling blackberries, despite the fact that they are falling off a bramble bush near you as I type. Tch.
Um, yeah. Farmers' markets! Yay!
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Chickpea and Aubergine Tagine
I won't lie: the credit for this goes almost entirely to Mark. The honey and cinnamon was my idea though.
WHAT WE USED
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
spices to taste (we used about 1tsp each of cumin, coriander, cinnamon and turmeric, plus a pinch of chilli powder)
1 small aubergine, cubed
1 tin chickpeas
1 tin tomatoes
a handful of dried apricots, chopped into chunks
a squeeze of honey
WHAT WE DID
1. Fry off the onion and garlic in some vegetable/olive oil with the spices, till the onions are soft (about 5-10 mins).
2. Empty the tins of tomatoes and chickpeas into a second saucepan (including the chickpea water), and add the onion mix. Simmer it over a low heat.
3. Add some more oil to the first pan (the one that had the onions in) and use it to fry the aubergine till it's soft (around 15 mins). There should be some spice residue in the pan, making the aubergine yummy.
4. Tip the aubergine into the chickpea stew, give it a stir and leave it to simmer for basically as long as can be bothered.
5. Add the apricots and honey (we did this when it was nearly ready, but you could add it along with the aubergine to minimise faff).
WHAT WE ATE IT WITH
Cous cous (measured by volume, about 80ml each, soaked in about 250ml hot vegetable stock for 5 mins in a bowl with a lid over it)
Salad (mixed leaves and fresh chopped tomatoes; I made a quick dressing from mustard, oil & vinegar)
THINGS TO NOTE
Mark is a way more patient cook than me. I'd have just bunged the onions, garlic and aubergine all in together, fried them for about 5-10 minutes and then added the chickpeas/tomatoes/other stuff, thus saving time and washing up (but compromising a bit on yumminess). Either way, the actual prep time for the tagine shouldn't be more than about half an hour.
Edit: Mark is also way more picky than me. He points out that I have tagged this recipe as vegan even though it contains a squeeze of honey, and honey is technically not vegan. I could write a lengthy essay about why honey is not very relevant to the reasons I try to eat vegan (and the fact that most of my vegan friends seem to agree, and also treat it as acceptable), but obviously technically speaking I did, in fact, lie. This blog should probably come with a health warning that my definition of vegan is pretty, um, fluid. I will generally tag stuff as vegan if it has trace amounts of non-vegan stuff that you could easily omit if you were really that bothered.
WHAT WE USED
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
spices to taste (we used about 1tsp each of cumin, coriander, cinnamon and turmeric, plus a pinch of chilli powder)
1 small aubergine, cubed
1 tin chickpeas
1 tin tomatoes
a handful of dried apricots, chopped into chunks
a squeeze of honey
WHAT WE DID
1. Fry off the onion and garlic in some vegetable/olive oil with the spices, till the onions are soft (about 5-10 mins).
2. Empty the tins of tomatoes and chickpeas into a second saucepan (including the chickpea water), and add the onion mix. Simmer it over a low heat.
3. Add some more oil to the first pan (the one that had the onions in) and use it to fry the aubergine till it's soft (around 15 mins). There should be some spice residue in the pan, making the aubergine yummy.
4. Tip the aubergine into the chickpea stew, give it a stir and leave it to simmer for basically as long as can be bothered.
5. Add the apricots and honey (we did this when it was nearly ready, but you could add it along with the aubergine to minimise faff).
WHAT WE ATE IT WITH
Cous cous (measured by volume, about 80ml each, soaked in about 250ml hot vegetable stock for 5 mins in a bowl with a lid over it)
Salad (mixed leaves and fresh chopped tomatoes; I made a quick dressing from mustard, oil & vinegar)
THINGS TO NOTE
Mark is a way more patient cook than me. I'd have just bunged the onions, garlic and aubergine all in together, fried them for about 5-10 minutes and then added the chickpeas/tomatoes/other stuff, thus saving time and washing up (but compromising a bit on yumminess). Either way, the actual prep time for the tagine shouldn't be more than about half an hour.
Edit: Mark is also way more picky than me. He points out that I have tagged this recipe as vegan even though it contains a squeeze of honey, and honey is technically not vegan. I could write a lengthy essay about why honey is not very relevant to the reasons I try to eat vegan (and the fact that most of my vegan friends seem to agree, and also treat it as acceptable), but obviously technically speaking I did, in fact, lie. This blog should probably come with a health warning that my definition of vegan is pretty, um, fluid. I will generally tag stuff as vegan if it has trace amounts of non-vegan stuff that you could easily omit if you were really that bothered.
It's another blog!
So. Mark and I, while not actually vegetarian, try and eat as little meat as possible, and when cooking at home tend to make almost exclusively vegetarian (or occasionally pescatarian) food. We like to think that we eat pretty damn well.
Recently, a few friends of mine have been talking about how they feel they should eat less meat, and have said something along the lines of "I just don't know what vegetarians eat every day!"
After a particularly tasty meal tonight, it occurred to me that it might be Useful and Nice if we started blogging some of our meals. We pretty much make most of our dishes up, so none of the recipes are copyrighted; we spend relatively little on food; and although it's true we do enjoy cooking, we rarely spend hours slaving over a hot stove (and we both have full-time jobs).
So this blog is basically for those who'd like to eat more vegetarian food but are seeking a bit of inspiration. I'm hoping it'll come in handy for our friends and family, but if anyone else happens to stop by while surfing the interwebs, so much the better.
Of course, it's possible we will fail entirely to find the time in our oh-so-busy schedules to actually maintain this blog, but you never know...
Recently, a few friends of mine have been talking about how they feel they should eat less meat, and have said something along the lines of "I just don't know what vegetarians eat every day!"
After a particularly tasty meal tonight, it occurred to me that it might be Useful and Nice if we started blogging some of our meals. We pretty much make most of our dishes up, so none of the recipes are copyrighted; we spend relatively little on food; and although it's true we do enjoy cooking, we rarely spend hours slaving over a hot stove (and we both have full-time jobs).
So this blog is basically for those who'd like to eat more vegetarian food but are seeking a bit of inspiration. I'm hoping it'll come in handy for our friends and family, but if anyone else happens to stop by while surfing the interwebs, so much the better.
Of course, it's possible we will fail entirely to find the time in our oh-so-busy schedules to actually maintain this blog, but you never know...
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