This recipe again started out in a book. I doubled up the mushroom quantity, reduced slightly the stock quantity using Oxo vegetable stock, and added some cornflour. This is my daughter's favourite soup so we have to have it at least once a week! It also makes a good Christmas meal soup. Always make sure the celery stick goes limp before you take it out though, and always use the freshest ,white mushrooms. Button or closed cup will do. Semi skimmed is the best milk for this so that it is not too rich. Out come the crusty rolls....
This recipe again started out as a basic one in a book. By using more stock, and using the Oxo vegetable stock, taking away the milk, and using Chantenay carrots, this soup took on a really nice taste. You can use any carrots, but always make sure they are fresh, crisp and bright orange for this recipe. Carrots also are one of the cheapest vegetables that you can buy, so this soup is an all rounder for budget cooking and taste! Crusty roll anyone?
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. It doesn't work half as well with the other commercial minces I don't think. Further on in the blog you will see how you can use this Bolognese sauce in other meals too, but for now
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.
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.
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
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!
