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 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

 

How to make Parsnip Soup (Vegan friendly)

 Parsnips on their own are quite a sweet flavoured vegetable when cooked. They aren't my favourite root vegetable but mum likes them! Here we added celery, carrot, potato, onion and Oxo vegetable stock to balance out the flavours. If you like parsnips this recipe is for you. If you have lots left over from Christmas dinner this is for you. Parsnips are packed with Vitamin C, and folic acid, which is a B vitamin and is mainly responsible for human growth and development, so its good for mums to be too. Parsnips are in season over winter so are at their best flavours and prices too. Serve with crusty bread as per!!

Here is the Recipe

How to make Oven Roast Vegetables with Basil, Garlic and Olive Oil (Vegan friendly)

 To make the best roast vegetables you need plenty of garlic to balance out the flavours, and a good addition of ground black pepper. Here we have used five good sized cloves of garlic crushed. Always use red onion for the sweeter taste, aubergine which is traditionally bitter to taste, roasts really well with the olive oil too and makes it taste delicious. Courgette tastes good this way, and so do all the coloured bell peppers. Topped with the torn Basil leaves at the end tastes just divine.  I would stick with this veg combination, don't use sweet potato or anything else here.  We usually serve this with either pasta or mash, chips, new potatoes, or even just on its own as a larger portion. There is never any left over!! Healthwise garlic is anti-bacterial, anti-septic, anti-viral, a blood thinner and good for skin complaints, phew. Coupled with the other vegetables makes for a really tasty and super healthy meal.

Here is the Recipe

   

How to make Sultana Scones

 If you have never done any baking before this recipe is for you. It's really easy and tastes good too. With plain flour, sultanas, butter, baking powder, pinch of salt and semi skimmed milk. Just over 20 mins baking time and they are ready. These taste so good warm too, when they are still cooling down and the butter just melts into them then, when you butter them. You can put jam on them as well if you have a sweet tooth! Or you could stick some thick cream and jam into them for "Tea and Scones!!" Always store them in an airtight container afterwards to keep them fresh and moist.

Here is the Recipe

How to make Lemony Lentil Soup (Vegan friendly)

 Here is a simple red lentil soup with lemon and this is a really tasty soup! Easy to make too - with just red lentils, celery, onion, oxo vegetable stock, carrots and half a lemon. This is another thick Winter soup perfect to serve in a cup too. Red lentils are high in protein and fibre to keep you regular! Carrots are  good for the eyes with it's Vitamin A, and Celery is anti-inflammatory for arthritic conditions, and also flushes out toxins, and is good for digestion. Thick soups like this keep you feeling fuller  for longer too. Grab the crusty rolls...

Here is the Recipe

How to make Lemon toffee.

 This is an old fashioned recipe for crunchy lemon toffee. The kind that breaks your teeth! It's quite simple to make, and tasty. Using just granulated sugar, soft brown sugar, butter, and half of a lemon the juice and the rind. You need greaseproof paper (which you can buy in the baking isle of the supermarkets), and this is to stop your layers of it from sticking together. Then just put it in an airtight plastic tub and eat as desired...

Here is the Recipe

How to make a One Pot Kale and Vegetable Broth (Vegan friendly)

 Broths - really great in Winter, warming comfort food. This one is made with Kale. Kale boasts three times as much Vitamin C than Spinach. It is also chock full of anti-oxidants. That teamed with the fresh thyme which is anti-viral, anti-bacterial and antiseptic should keep the winter colds away. Also containing celery, carrot, leek, swede and Oxo vegetable stock, this is a one pot powerhouse of nutrients. Serve it in a dish, serve it with mash, or fry up a portion with some mash and a little squirt of brown sauce - or ketchup depending on which you like best, for a day after meal. You can if you want, stick in some veg suet dumplings, the recipe for which is on the Vegetable Broth recipe further on this channel! 

Here is the Recipe

How to make Stilton Stuffed Mushrooms With A Hint Of Red Wine

 You know it is coming Christmas when the Stilton comes out, and any left over sits well on cream crackers afterwards - for me anyway! You have got to use the freshest breakfast (large) mushrooms for this recipe. You can make your own breadcrumbs or you can buy them, up to you. This is a very simple yet delicious recipe, using just stilton, mushrooms, butter, garlic, onion and wholemeal bread and a little red wine. If you find stilton cheese a little strong you could probably use blue cheese instead. You can serve these with a side salad as a main meal, or with chips and carrots say, or you can serve one as a starter with a small side salad. Mushrooms are fat free and low calorie too, for the health conscious out there!!

Here is the Recipe 

How to make a Butternut and Lentil Thick Soup/Broth (Vegan friendly)

 This is another quite simple recipe on how to make butternut squash edible as our cameraman says! Butternut squash does need a spice added to it, as on it's own it can be quite bland. Here we have added ground coriander, onion, lentils, celery, and oxo vegetable stock. This makes for a really thick winter soup as you can see on the image. Butternut squash comes into season late in the year. It's also packed with vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants. The high beta carotene content, because of it's orange colour, makes it good for your eyes too. Because it is a very firm vegetable it is full of potassium which also makes it good for healthy hearts. This would be good served in a cup too in winter, with a chunk of crusty buttered bread to dip in. 

Here is the Recipe

 

How to make a Leek and Cheddar cheese Pie

 Another simple recipe this, just leeks, mature or extra mature cheddar, butter, ready made pastry and ground black pepper. I know though that leeks can be a bit fiddly to cut up and remove all the grit. You can cheat though if you wish and buy the same weight in ready prepared ones, but always buy them on the day and use as quickly as possible for the best taste! Leeks are part of the onion family and therefore have the same benefits health wise. They are low in calories but high in vitamins and minerals. Serve this with mash and beans or veg, or in summer serve a portion with a side salad! 

Here is the Recipe

How to make a Vegetarian Roast Christmas Dinner

 This is the sort of main Christmas meal we eat very year. We usually do our brussels sprouts and carrots in the pressure cooker - marvellous device which doesn't steam up your kitchen and cooks quickly. The roast potatoes we usually buy and cook in the oven. You have got to have sage and onion stuffing with it of course. For the gravy, we have used Bisto onion gravy in the glass jar, but we have also recently used red onion gravy granules in a clear jar from either Sainsburys or Asda. These are just as tasty and also come in a lot cheaper than Bisto's one! We have varied our slices of either, beef style, chicken style, turkey and stuffing style. The Quorn roast which comes in a block turned out to be very tasty too, and you can slice off as much as you want, and then if there is any left, use for sandwiches later. Quorn do both vegan and vegetarian slices now which both taste just as good. You don't need to wait until Christmas to eat this meal either as the slices are available all year round. Brussels sprouts contain more vitamin c than oranges by the way too - who would have thought it!

Here is the Recipe

How to make crispy Macaroni Cheese

 Who doesn't like Macaroni cheese? apart from our cameraman! With this recipe it's always good to crisp up some cheese in the oven first as featured, and mix it in, this gives it an extra crunch. You can use penne pasta or macaroni pasta instead it's up to you. My daughter likes the penne one. Worcester sauce can contain anchovies, so always check the labels for the vegetarian ones. Simple comfort food. Serve it with beans, or a portion in a dish with a side salad. The Worcester sauce also features in the Shepherds pie by the way as the bottle once opened is only good for a month.

Here is the Recipe

 

How to make Chocolate Pudding In Own Sauce

 This is a very easy Chocolate pudding with it's own sauce inside, so it is very moist and doesn't need any sauce! Because this recipe is made with olive oil it is very light and doesn't lie heavy on your stomach when it's eaten, and it is healthier. Also when you consume chocolate your brain releases dopamine, the feel good hormone, but it doesn't mean you can eat it all in one go though, otherwise you won't feel so good! You can use 3oz of butter instead of olive oil if you wish - it's just as good but not quite as light! When this chocolate pudding leaves the oven it looks just like a mud pie, but don't judge that book by it's cover - this tastes divine...Always use good quality dark chocolate usually found on the baking isle. Who doesn't like Chocolate!

Here is the Recipe

 

How to make Leek Soup (Vegan friendly)

 This is such a simple soup to make with just leeks, water, Oxo vegetable stock, cornflour or plain flour, black pepper and butter or sunflower oil for vegan version. They both taste as good either way though. Leeks are not only full of vitamin A but of Zeaxanthin too which means they are good for your eyes and help prevent cataracts too. These guys are part of the onion family, so no need for onion here. Crusty rolls at the ready...

Here is the Recipe

 

How to Make Festive Savoury Nut Roast Balls with Cranberry Sauce-Vegan friendly use non-dairy butter

I had never made a nut roast before so thought I should and would try it. All the basic recipes I saw had brown rice or egg or cheese and soy sauce, breadcrumbs etc but I wanted to keep it simple and for vegans too so I just threw some things together and this was the result. I always make a small portion first and then if it's good make a bigger one. They are so good and the cranberry sauce just makes them - I didn't want them served with gravy as it takes away the taste. When you try the mixture in the pan you will see why we ate a lot of it before it went in the oven! The chestnut mushrooms worked beautifully and for not much ingredients these should be street food at Christmas! The cranberry sauce was only 55p from Asda as we had to nip out and find some mid-cook but that was good too. You can use this recipe as a starter or with a main meal, it's up to you.

A viewer asked could she do this in a bun tin to make a large one to slice? My reply was : "Not sure, as with the balls they were crispy slightly all round which is what I was after. With the balls guests can take as many as they want ( (and we didn't have a loaf tin ha). You could try it as all the ingredients are pretty much cooked anyway but once you have done the balls you won't look back they are so easy". If any of you guys do make a loaf of it do let me know how it goes!! Nuts also contain vitamin E which is a great anti-oxidant, and also a preservative - so if you want to preserve those youthful good looks, it won't do any harm adding a few nuts to your diet weekly!!

Here is the Recipe