The Pub Grub Vegetarian Introduction.

Hello and welcome to The Pub Vegetarian blog.

I created the YouTube The Pub Grub Vegetarian channel in October of 2016 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY_wqopSKDs0fuXHuxcgddw  to introduce new vegetarians, and non-vegetarians to how tasty this type of home cooked food can be. Perhaps I should have called it The Pub Grub Vegetarian/Vegan as quite a large proportion of the meals are suitable for vegans too!

Many of the meals featured are suitable for students, and low budgets, as most of the ingredients in them occur time and time again so ideally nothing is wasted. They are low in salt and sugar too.

As my father was an excellent cook it gave me a good idea of how tasty meals could be. The right spice here and there, the right amount of black pepper - I don't usually use white, after being introduced to ground black pepper some time ago, by a kindly dinner lady.

Each new recipe can take a while to create, I usually end up with two to four final samples, and then have a taste test to see which is the best. With the Meat free Meat Pie my daughter Lia who was five years old then chose the best, and I did tend to agree with her!

Barring work commitments and school holidays the recipes will continue, and each time I create a new one I will feature it.

We will also be reviewing the recipes, showing how they can be adapted, and have been since, and what you can serve them with if you wish.

We are also in the process of hand imputing subtitles on all our YouTube videos for the benefit of both our viewers and readers  who are hearing impaired - and also for our global friends so that they can translate them into their own language if they wish!  This is a laborious process and does take time, so do bear with us, and we have started with the oldest and most popular videos first .

I am also producing a collection of The Pub Grub Vegetarian books featuring many of the recipes from the YouTube channel at 99p each to download. It saves me having scraps of paper with them written on lying about all over the house! Paige

How to make simple Crusty bread rolls.

 Having never made bread before I decided to try out a few recipes. Some recipes had olive oil in - that was a disaster! So I decided to just stick to the basics of white strong bread flour, water, yeast and salt. The water has to be lukewarm here, as too hot will kill the yeast, and too cold won't activate it.... I divided the dough up equally so that the rolls all cook evenly and then set them off in the oven. The secret to knowing when these are cooked is to tap them on the bottom of the roll and if they sound hollow it is cooked all the way through. If it doesn't sound hollow then put them back in for another 5 minutes or so and repeat!! You can then check one by tearing into it. These are really good - so good that my daughter, when she was setting off for school, went into the bag of them and took one out each morning and ate it on the way to school!! Simple recipe...

Here is the Recipe 

How to make a Greek style feta salad sandwich and a Greek style feta salad and black olive wrap.

 This is a great way to use up any left over Feta cheese from the Spicy pasta recipe as well. This cheese goes so well with the red onion, cherry tomato, butterhead lettuce and sliced cucumber. It has got to be red onion here. Then you could also make the wrap with lettuce, sliced cucumber, chopped cherry tomatoes, red onion, black olives and the Feta cheese. Because wraps are dry, unlike the sandwich which contains butter, you could add a dash of olive oil here too, or, add some yogurt and cucumber dressing like Raita to it which tastes delicious too. How healthy is that! You can also put this in wholemeal pitta bread in the same way....

Here is the Recipe

How to make a Simple Greek Salad - Just drizzle on the Olive oil or make the dressing featured!

 Who doesn't enjoy a Greek salad in Summer. It has got to contain Feta or Greek salad cheese, red onion and black olives though! Also in this recipe we have added mixed salad leaf, cherry tomatoes, cucumber and crusty bread rolls to serve. Drizzle on the olive oil and voila! You can serve it has a main, or as a side salad in a large clear bowl with a big spoon, for guests to take as much as they want. There is always someone who will take more than their fare share of the black olives though!! Feta cheese is not as processed I don't think because it is made with sheep, or sheep and goat's milk instead of cow's milk. With all the mixed salad ingredients in this, coupled with the crusty, ideally wholemeal bread rolls, this makes for a very healthy yet very tasty meal! 

Here is the Recipe

How to make Real Dairy Chocolate Ice Cream

 Having never made ice cream before we though we give it a try. This is made with just milk, whipping cream, dark brown soft sugar, eggs, vanilla extract and a dark chocolate bar which has to be at least 70% cocoa content, or more.( Dark chocolate of this type is very good for you on it's own and can help reduce blood pressure by the way.) You also need an egg separator to easily separate the egg yolk from the white. If you want one you can get one here This is a three stage process, where you chill it twice for an hour after adding various ingredients, and then the third time it goes into the freezer, is the last time until it is ready to eat. This really was delicious and well worth the effort! 

Here is the Recipe

How to make Easy Courgette Fritters

This is one of the simplest recipes you can make. Just egg, courgette, onion, and plain flour, and teamed with a sweet chilli dip these are delicious. I am not a courgette fan but made like this these are really tasty. You can make fritters out of anything, but you need a dip to go with them. You could try potato and onion, or apple and onion. Courgettes can grow up to a metre in length but are harvested while young. Packed with vitamin A and C and many other nutrients, although courgette is classed as a vegetable botanically it is a fruit, and this vegetable is also known as Zucchini, in other parts of the world. 

Here is the recipe

  

How to make a Spinach Pie with Sun Dried Tomatoes and Feta Cheese

 Spinach and feta pie is a traditional Greek style dish. The feta cheese being made with sheep's milk or sheep and goat's milk combined. This is a simple pie containing just spinach, feta, sun dried tomatoes in oil, eggs and filo pastry - which is wafer thin sheets of pastry that break up easily when baked. Spinach is full of nitrates which make the blood flow easier. Its also contains Vitamin A, minerals and anti-oxidants. Sun dried tomatoes contain amongst other things lycopene, which is another powerful anti-oxidant good for eyes, heart health, sunburn, cell damage - you name it! We usually serve a portion of this on a salad, or with mash, new potatoes or chips and any other veg. If you have never tried filo pastry before, it literally melts in the mouth. 

Here is the Recipe