How to make Vegetarian Quorn Spaghetti Bolognese.

A friend suggested this recipe to me, and I tried it. Then I changed the mushrooms, removed the salt, topped up the garlic, and Voila! It was the first time that I had made Spaghetti Bolognese at home. It's tasty and you can feed a crowd with it. A one pot meal. Sometimes I grate a little vegetarian hard cheese, (parmesan style) over it, if I make it for guests, and this has been a staple in our house for years. This Spaghetti Bolognese works well with the Quorn because it has a mince style texture. For those who don't want egg - as Quorn contains egg white, both Asda and Sainsbury's plant based mince works well too but always remember to fry it for 5 mins first before you add it to the pan, like with the Quorn. Don't worry to if you haven't got any garlic powder in, just use two good sized garlic cloves instead of one - just as good!  The image picture featured doesn't do this meal justice, as it really does taste delicious. Further on in the blog you will see how you can use this Bolognese sauce in other meals too, but for now

Here is the recipe

How to make Cauliflower and Broccoli Soup (Vegan friendly)

This recipe started out in a book again, shallots were used and a small carrot, so i changed it to a brown onion, a larger carrot, and Oxo Vegetable stock and got a really nice taste! You need to use the freshest broccoli and cauliflower though. I find it easier using in a ready made twin pack but always check the quality. The carrots here again provide the sweet taste to it. We sometimes have this one at Christmas too as it was my late brother's favourite, and he also insisted on it being served in a mug not a dish. There is always one! Grab the crusty bread rolls.

Here is the recipe

How to make a Sweet potato chilli with celery, chestnut mushrooms and tabasco. (Vegan Friendly)

This recipe started as a recipe in a newspaper. There was a large amount of tabasco sauce  in it and no liquid, so when i made it it was unpalatable, but i saw the potential. Adding more mushrooms, drastically reducing the tabasco sauce content, and adding vegetable stock and more mushrooms. The resulting effect was really tasty. Guests always ask for more whenever i make this - so if you haven't tried it yet, definitely do at some stage. Don't be put off with the sweet potato, because in this recipe it tastes nothing like it does normally! Be careful with the tabasco sauce though and use a small teaspoon not a regular sized one!! And don't forget to shake up your tabasco sauce bottle before you use it. We serve this chilli with either basmati rice, chips or fresh salad.

Here is the recipe

How to make Perfect Irish Coffee with Irish Whisky, Demerara Sugar, Instant Coffee and Squirty Cream

 Christmas isn't complete without Irish coffee, and you have to use proper Irish whisky as it has a mellow taste unlike Scottish. We used Nescafe because it's the best. I don't drink anything else! We also used squirty cream but you can use real cream if you want to as that's the correct way to do it! The squirty cream worked well though here too. These were served in Irish coffee style glasses too. Available here

Here is the recipe

 

A Complete Menu For a Very Vegetarian Christmas.

Everyone needs a good full menu idea for a very vegetarian Christmas so we thought it would be a good idea to do this, and as anyone can say their food is good we invited a couple of avid meat eaters to sample our offerings and give their verdicts - aren't we brave! Obviously we started off with a small drink of sherry....then

For the starters we decided on melon balls or fresh fruit in orange juice.

For the soups we chose the Fresh Tomato soup or the Winter Warmer soup.

For main we chose Roast Stuffed Peppers with a fresh salad or Red Pepper and Mushroom Rogan Josh with basmati rice and Chapattis  

For the sweet we chose Old School Chocolate Pudding with Mint Custard, or shop bought Panettone. If you haven't tried Panettone please do it's very good! 

To finish we ended up with an Irish Coffee. 

You can of course choose any soup that you want and do a traditional roast dinner with the Quorn or other slices. We did try the Quorn roast which we cooked in the oven first and (this was nice) and used onion gravy to cover.

The girls Sharon and Reena were lovely, and they gave their honest verdicts, and it does sound like they were very  pleasantly surprised! 

Here is the video of it.

How to lay out a Vegetarian Burger with mayo, relish, tomato, onion, cucumber and lettuce

 Making a burger in a bun needs to be layered out right. First you cut in half and toast slightly your bun. We like the large white baps ones. Then butter it slightly on both sides, then add lettuce, usually iceberg, and then cucumber sliced, then tomato sliced, here you can add a small dollop of mayonnaise if you like it,  then your burger and then finally your slice of onion and your relish. Red onion is also good on this. We also found a good vegan mayo called OMV burger mayo in a jar. You could just use this if you don't want to top it off with burger relish. Though i do like the tomato and onion one for relish. A good side plate of chips is always an option too! For the burgers we do like the Linda McCartney mozzarella, or plain quarter pounders. Birds eye also do a good vegetable burger with sweetcorn, carrot etc inside it too.

Here is the recipe

Melon Ball, or Fresh Fruit in Fresh Orange Juice Starters

 It's always good when entertaining friends to have attractive and tasty, yet light starters. These two tick all the boxes! The first one, melon balls is done with a melon ball implement. You can get hold of one here  We chose three different coloured melons for visual effect which works well here. Then we presented them in Tulip wine glasses (available here). For added pizazz we later added a sprig of fresh mint on top which we always have growing in our garden! We served these here with flavoured Marks and Spencer's yogurt, in little dip holders so that guests could take as much as they wanted. 

The second starter features fresh fruit of various sorts, in fresh orange juice. Some of our older end viewers remember making a version of this sort in Domestic Science at school years ago! We chose strawberries cut up, green grapes, red and/or black grapes and blueberries for this and then simply poured some chilled fresh orange juice (not concentrated and not too much) in the bottom, of the dish just before serving. Here we like to do things in style...

Here is the recipe

Fresh Tomato Soup with celery, carrot, onion, veg stock and cornflour. (Vegan friendly)

Well, who doesn't like fresh tomato soup? Especially in winter. The problem is though tomatoes are out of season then, so its best to make this soup in summer when they are always ripe and freshly available. If you do choose to make this soup in winter, Christmas say like we do,  always source the supermarkets' reddest and juiciest tomatoes you can find. The carrot content in this recipe replaces sugar as they provide the sweet flavour to it. If you want it more sweet shall we say, like a certain very popular supermarket brand, just add a little extra carrot than specified. But be careful!! And always serve this with a nice crusty bread roll.....

Here is the recipe

Roasted stuffed peppers with aubergine, coriander, tomatoes and goat's cheese.

This recipe started out as basic one from a book. I tinkered with the ingredients, lost the breadcrumbs and decided to brush the peppers with olive oil, because when they are roasted in the oven in this way the taste is amazing! The peppers look better served in a little dish at the side of whatever you are having with them. You can serve them with fresh salad, or new potatoes and veg, or roast potatoes and veg - any way you want. 

Here is the recipe

 

Microwaveable Old School Chocolate Pudding with a Mint Custard.

 Well who doesn't love a chocolate pudding. Microwaveable as well, so it's fast and easy. Maybe too easy ha! The chocolate pudding we had to mess about with the water content to get it just right. So we had to try many samples.....that's our excuse anyway. Then there was the mint custard. Although my daughter who was five at the time and didn't like mint, would say mint was the worst thing that she had ever tasted! So we have to do a custard version just for her. Oh well more for us...i could have made it a pink colour but she would still know. Kids have amazing sensory perception. There never seems to be any of this particular chocolate pudding  left over for the next day either? Oh and it's good with custard too, and cream, and.....you choose.

Here is the recipe

Tzatziki

This is a real cooling, refreshing dish. You can even use fresh garlic instead of dried in it if you wish. Don't forget to put it in the fridge as soon as you have made it so it is properly chilled. The first time I tried out this dip was on my mum and her friend when i bought some onion bhajis. Her friend frank said he didn't like cucumber. Fast forward to the end of the meal and mum's friend picks up the bowl and said "Can I finish this off?" So I let him - even though I also had my eye on finishing it off too! This goes really well with the onion bhajis on the YouTube channel even though it is a traditional Greek dish!

Here is the recipe

Cauliflower Cheese.

You  can't beat a good cauliflower cheese. You need to use the whitest and freshest cauliflower though! My daughter didn't want too much mustard in it so this is why we ended up using just half a teaspoon. To be honest this gives  a more subtle taste. We usually have this with mashed potatoes, steamed carrots or cabbage. You can even use little portions of it on your main Christmas dinner.

Here is the recipe

Spinach and Edam bake

 This recipe was one that I tested out from a book. I then added more spinach, messed about with the ingredients and got a much nicer taste. If you want a runnier bake and to put them in small separate dishes, don't drain the spinach as in the video and you will end up with little creamier bakes. We sometimes have this with just a salad or you can have it with new potatoes and veg of your choice! 

Here is the recipe.