The Recipes - Vegetable Broth and then Hash

With this recipe my father used to make Broth a lot and this is his own recipe. He also made dumplings - so I adapted them with vegetable suet and this is the result. It's a simple dish with celery, leek, carrots, swede, savoy cabbage, fresh and dried thyme, vegetable stock cubes, a dessert spoon of cornflour and some ground black pepper. This is a great and warming one pot Winter dish both vegan and vegetarian. For an even better taste add 18-20g of the fresh thyme to this recipe along with the dried.
On day two he would make up some mashed potatoes with a little milk, butter and black pepper, and then fry up some mash with a couple of ladles of broth mix, on a low to medium heat until the liquid reduced. Then serve it as it was with either a squirt of brown sauce in it or a squirt of tomato ketchup! I am in the brown sauce camp myself as was my father but it's entirely up to you.....

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The Recipes - Garlic Dip

This recipe came from a friend of mine who's parents used to run a restaurant. He gave me the basics  which is mayonnaise, black pepper and crushed garlic. Try it first with two dessert spoons of mayonnaise, one small crushed garlic clove and some ground black pepper. For a hint of garlic use more mayonnaise then adjust to taste. I like it best served with carrot and celery batons.

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The Recipes - Spicy Carrot, Coriander and Celery Soup

Part of this recipe came about when mum was making a recipe from a book. At the time I had some herbs chopped up and frozen in bags. Part of the books' recipe used Parsley in it and mum and her friend mistakenly used the frozen Coriander, luckily they dropped some of it on the floor or it would have been too spicy to eat. I liked the Coriander taste though in the soup and played about with the quantity so that it didn't overshadow the vegetables.With a little tinkering with the quantities of the other ingredients too this is what we ended up with. Hope you like it too.

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The Recipes - Indian Style Mushroom and Red Pepper Curry

This recipe came from one that was given to me at a party. I converted it and made it vegetarian with mushrooms and red pepper and  used fresh ginger and garlic and lots of Coriander. It tastes very much like a Rogan Josh as it's got fresh tomatoes in it. This is lovely served with Chapattis and a small salad of shredded Iceberg lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, and onion. Squeeze a dash of fresh lemon juice on the salad just before serving. If you have it with rice be sure to use Basmati rice as the taste is far superior to plain rice.

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The Recipes - Tomato, mixed peppers and courgette bake with Parmesan style topping

I got the idea for this off an old recipe that used red peppers and tomatoes - I tried it with mixed peppers, small courgettes, lashings of garlic butter, vine-ripened tomatoes and a Italian grated hard fat vegetarian cheese that resembled Parmesan but was much tastier! This recipe is surprisingly easy and quick to make too - even for beginners. Update - Use about half to three quarters of each pepper though not a full one for a better taste.
I like to serve this with chips. If you make a chip butty (sandwich) on white bread with butter, and then mop up the juices it's delicious!! You can serve it with new potatoes if you like though instead.

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The Recipes - Fresh Spinach Soup

This is a really easy to make and very tasty soup - with just sunflower oil, onion, potato, vegetable stock, pepper, cornflour and spinach in it. Ideally use the spinach the first day you buy it. Some packs are pre-washed, some are not, so always check the labels.
It is also one of the first soups I made, and it is a great hit at dinner parties as everybody who has tried it loves it. All good soups start with a similar base, usually potato, onion, and sunflower oil or butter. Don't use vegetable oil, sunflower oil is far superior both in taste and texture. My daughter at the age of five said this was her favourite soup, and it still is even now.

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The Recipes - Chilli Cheese on Toast

I made this recipe to suit a friend who liked spicy food. I just threw a couple of thinly sliced green chillis that I had left over in the fridge on top of the cheese, and then put on the tomatoes, and then put it back under the grill. Be sure to butter it first as it's much more tasty this way. It was such a success it has been a staple lunch in our house for quite a while now. It has also been done on toasties which is equally delicious. Do try this one as a topping on the Hovis Granary bread too as Pete our cameraman likes it ...

Here is the recipe