Beetroot Risotto

Veggie challenge or no veggie challenge: when it comes to midweek cooking, vegetables rule the roost in our kitchen. With recipes like this richly flavoured star turn for the humble beetroot, a source of recurring culinary nightmares during my childhood but now a regular dinner time guest, who needs meat anyway?

Ingredients (for 2 as a generous main course)

• 1 pack of cooked beetroot, cut into chunks and thoroughly rinsed

• 1 medium-sized onion, very finely chopped

• 1 large clove of garlic, finely chopped

• 1 pint of vegetable or chicken stock

• A good bunch of fresh thyme (to taste), finely chopped

• Approximately 150g of Arborio (risotto) rice

• Goat's cheese (to taste)

Freshly grated parmesan cheese (optional)

Salt, black pepper (to taste)

How to make

Start by chopping the onion. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan and cook the onion on low heat until softened. Add the garlic and cook on low heat until it is lightly coloured.

In the meantime, prepare the stock in a small saucepan. Keep the stock on low heat to keep it warm.

Add the beetroot chunks and thyme to the onion and garlic and cook together on low heat for a few minutes. Pour in the risotto rice, stir thoroughly, and pour in just enough hot stock to cover the vegetables. Keep the stock boiling on low to medium heat and stir regularly. Add more hot stock whenever the previous batch has been absorbed by the rice. In approximately 15 minutes (some varieties of risotto rice take slightly longer) the rice should be soft and ready to eat.

At this point, take the risotto pot off the heat and stir in the crumbled goat's cheese. Season to taste with salt and black pepper, stir thoroughly, put a lid on the risotto pan and allow to stand for a few minutes for the flavours to develop.

Serve with freshly grated parmesan, a trickle of olive oil, a grind of black pepper and some decent bread. You won't be disappointed!    

Normal service has been resumed!

And so, the vegetable challenge has been completed. Not a morsel of meat or fish passed our lips for a full calendar month, as long as you discount chicken stock, which I insisted on using for risottos for flavour reasons. As a non-strict vegetarian, I'm sure the occasional shortcut to better-tasting food was allowed, right?

I thought I'd be relieved, overjoyed even, to be able to cook and eat whatever I wish once again. Not so. Returning to carnivore ways has been a bit underwhelming. That burger that marked our return to the meat-eating ranks resulted in an excessively full belly, the bunny bits in a much-awaited rabbit dish turned out disappointingly overcooked; only fish, by far the most craved-for non-veggie item during the month of the challenge, has turned out to be just as delicious as I remembered. This could have something to do with the unbelievably delicious - if I may say so myself - final Sunday meal I whipped up during the challenge. A combination of two recipes from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's priceless Veg Everyday book, the mixture of roasted aubergines with yogurt dressing and garam masala- and ginger-flavoured potato and spinach was such a richly flavoured, beautifully textured - yet still light - treat no slab of meat could possibly hope to compete. Apart from maybe duck legs with plum sauce.

The main reason for a slightly disappointing return to carnivorous ways, however, must be the loss of a challenge. During the veggie weeks, I had to constantly push myself to think of new ways to stretch what was a limited array of ingredients. As a result, I never repeated myself in the kitchen and, freed from the worry of poisoning someone with badly cooked once-living matter, finally whipped up the courage to experiment at the cooker. Now that I can draw from a range of trusty favourites, it all seems a bit boring: I know exactly what everything is going to taste like before I even start the preparation.

It's obvious: I need a challenge to make this cooking lark interesting. As such, I have a favour to ask. Please send me any interesting recipes you might have lurking in the kitchen drawers. They don't have to be complete how-to guides for making a dish: if anything, I'm more interested in hearing about interesting flavour combinations and unusual ways to introduce seemingly conflicting ingredients on the same plate. Red meat is pretty much permanently barred from our residence (roast pork in the winter and duck anytime notwithstanding), I have a lingering fear of mushrooms, and my better half can't eat more than miniscule amounts of tomatoes. Apart from that, I'd love to hear your ideas to help kick-start another bout of kitchen experimentation.

From the Mrs: The end of Vegetarian Month (hello size 8 jeans!)

I have to confess that during Vegetarian Month there were times when I almost fell off the vegetable wagon. Most days it was easy to sit down in front of a colourful display of vegetables, a giant aubergine or a steaming plate of root vegetable curry. I enjoyed it, but the real test came when I attended my monthly dinner club called The Intellectual Dinner Club. Just three days away from completing a whole month without meat I visited 'Discovery Bay' in Huddersfield, a delicious Caribbean restaurant which makes my two favourite Caribbean dishes to perfection: Rum Pork and Salt Fish with Ackee. I didn't know what to do, the temptation was too difficult to resist and was made even harder when Janne gave me permission to have a 'veggie night off'. But as I sat down and began to peruse the menu I realised that actually I didn't want to do it, I was happy being vegetarian; I had come this far and I wasn't about to give up now for a slab of pork. Instead I ordered two vegetable dishes, which turned out to be fantastic! The vegetarian menu was actually great and as my friends tucked into huge pieces of meat I felt completely satisfied with my plate of steamed Caribbean vegetable curry, I had no idea what kind of vegetables I was eating but the flavours were fantastic. I had done it...I made it to the end of the month, meat free and feeling rather good about myself.

But now here's the bit I'm sure you want to know more than anything...what did I get out of it? Well...firstly I got a size 8 pair of jeans out of it! Seriously! I managed to lose 1 stone in weight and now my bottom actually fits into a size 8. I couldn't believe it. I felt a lot healthier towards the end, the first two weeks I craved meat like a crazy woman but then that subsided and I started to crave asparagus and parsnips...honestly! I really, really enjoyed it...Janne got even more creative in the kitchen and cooked up some amazing dishes . Thanks to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, one of my last vegetarian meals was so good I made it last most of the evening, I wanted to take my time and savour every mouthful and capture every flavour because it was so incredibly delicious. Our food shopping bill was cut by about twenty-five percent, which I still think is amazing. What I thought would be just a month of eating plates of vegetables actually turned out to be an incredible journey and I've loved every minute of it. One of the things that kept me on the project was watching Diners, Drive-ins and Dives (or Triple D!) a cheesy (very meaty) American show I discovered on the Food Network. The meat and the sheer size of the portions made me feel like I could never look at a slab of meat ever again, it was disgusting and made me feel healthy and glad that I was eating so many vegetables...the sight of a vegetable or a rogue lettuce leaf on this programme would make it a rare and rather special episode.

So what's the outcome? The day I finished I rewarded myself with a giant chicken burger, chips, barbecue sauce and onion rings (a la Triple D.) I didn't feel guilty, it didn't feel wrong and I certainly won't be turning vegetarian but what it has taught me is that I definitely want to eat more vegetarian food. I won't be eating red meat again but then I never did really anyway.  Instead I'll be eating more fish, veggies and occasionally chicken. At the burger place it was the veggie burgers that I had my eye on the most, they sounded far more flavoursome and interesting than just a plain old chicken burger. After that I ate meat every day until the following Monday when I cooked (yes I cooked) vegetable kebab skewers and do you know what...they were delicious and just what I needed. Maybe I'll be able to wear those size 8 jeans for a little while longer.

“And so, the end is near…” – Meat Free Challenge, week 4

Four weeks in, and I’m getting very near to the finish line – at the other side of which, a sizzling hamburger can already be glimpsed like a mirage promising meaty times ahead.

Or maybe not. You see, I’m really not that desperate to return to the old carnivore ways. Granted, I’ll be glad to have the choice to munch on meat or fish again if I so wish. But I think I’ll be doing a lot less of that in the future. The veggie month has widened my food horizons and challenged many previously steadfastly held assumptions, most prominently the notion that to classify as a "proper" meal, a plateful of food needs to have something that was recently breathing as its centrepiece.

Here are a few other things I’ve learnt during the last four weeks…

1)   Meat doesn’t make a meal. It can be difficult to think of veggies as the star attraction of a robust meal. How exactly are you going to replace, say, a steak or a pork chop with a carrot? But with a bit of imagination and experimentation (of which more later), it’s easy to come up with purely veggie alternatives that taste just as good – if not better.

2)   Non-meat diet suits a greedy person. A vegetable diet allows you to stuff your face in a more comprehensive fashion than a diet rich in meat products – which is a bit of a dream come true for someone as irreparably greedy as I am. Take a recent trip to the excellent Corner Café in Leeds (which really should be visited by anyone even vaguely interested in Indian food). I indulged in a feast that, under normal circumstances, would have resulted in such a robust bout of belly-fullness I would have had to roll out the restaurant’s door. By erasing meat from the plate, I wound up full to the brim, but comfortably so.

3)   Veggies are a tight person’s dream. Due to a wide variety of the misery and trouble life can chuck in your path, things have been a bit tough recently on the money-front. Even so, I’m reluctant to start scaling down on quality food, even when my bank balance is yelling for an energetic shopping bout at the nearest branch of any frozen foods retailer. As such, figuring out that replacing meat and fish with veggie purchases results in – roughly speaking – a 25% decrease in the shopping bill has been greeted with considerable whoops of joy.

4)   Veggie diet inspires experimentation and innovation. I’d like to think I’ve picked up basic cooking skills during the time I’ve been interested in slaving in the kitchen. Even so, I can’t handle a bit of meat without some vague worries of poisoning myself or, even worse, anyone else partaking with poorly cooked bits of once-living matter. Here’s the thing: you’d have to really put yourself out to make people ill with vegetables: if they’re not crawling with maggots, they’re good to eat. As such, I’ve been able to throw cookbooks to the side and figure things out for myself for the first time during the last few weeks. Apart from a few midweek staples, nothing has been cooked the same way twice. A few things have even been completely made up. This is new territory for me - and I'm enjoying it.

Root Vegetable Curry

Here's a - if I may say so myself - delicious practical example of figuring things out for myself and experimenting in the kitchen. I'd spotted a recipe for a Thai-style curry starring root vegetables in a magazine. However, I didn't much fancy the recipes selection of veggies, cooking methods or some of the flavours. Normally, that's where my interest in the recipe would have ended. With the increased confidence offered by vegetarian cooking (remember, you have to work VERY hard to poison anyone with veggie cooking), I picked the few bits I liked and made up the rest. The outcome, although definitely not the prettiest of dishes I've ever whipped up, proved the wisdom of an open-minded approach.

Ingredients (enough for a meal for two)

For the curry paste

• 1 small onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 - 2 red chillies (to taste)
• 2- 3 tbs of soy sauce (to taste)
• 1 tbs of toasted sesame oil
• 2 sticks of lemongrass (or 3 tsp of lemongrass paste)
• A thumb-size piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
• A small bunch of fresh coriander, stalks included

For the curry

• 1 large or 2 small sweet potatoes
• 1 small butternut squash
• 1 tin (400ml) coconut milk
• A bunch of fresh coriander, roughly chopped
• Salt, black pepper (to taste)

Start by making your curry paste. Put all the ingredients into a food processor and blend until you have a smooth paste. It might look a bit disgusting - but the flavour will be anything but!

Set the paste aside. Peel your veggies and cut into bite-size chunks. Wash and set aside.

Heat a few tablespoons of vegetable oil in a large pan. Once the oil is hot, spoon in the curry paste. Cook on moderate heat for approximate five minutes, stirring frequently and making sure the paste doesn't stick to the bottom.

Tip your peeled and chopped vegetables into the pan. Cook for a few minutes whilst stirring, until the vegetables and paste are mixed fully. Pour in a tin of coconut milk and bring to the boil. Simmer on low heat until the vegetables are cooked through - this will take approximately 20 minutes. Just before the curry is ready, stir in half of your fresh coriander. Season to taste, and serve with the remaining coriander sprinkled on top with boiled basmati rice.

Meat-free Month: week three

Three weeks into the meat-free month, and not eating meat has stopped being a challenge. In many ways, sticking to vegetables has become the done thing at ours; no longer an oddity or a departure from the norm but an accepted part of the normal routine.

Not that the week has been entirely free of challenges. When nipping out for a pizza before meeting a friend, I noticed a combination of my favourite toppings on the menu; a bit of a rarity in a take-away joint. The temptation to plunge for the full salt-feast of anchovy, capers and olives (instead of a sweet tooth, I guess I was born with a savoury tooth) was considerable. I mean, eating a few anchovies isn't exactly like tucking into a sizzling side of beef, is it? But I gathered my resolve and ordered the pizza without the fishy bits - although I suspect my request to leave out the anchovies was delivered in a barely audible sigh loaded with longing for a bit of heavily salted sea life. At a work event, I was faced with a heaving no-cost buffet table starring delicacies from all corners of the world. Most of the many items on the table contained meat or fish, so I had no choice but to drag myself away from the heavily loaded tables and venture back to the office to munch on my distinctly unexciting packed lunch - veggie pasta leftovers. Earlier in the week I found out - much to my surprise - that beers aren't entirely vegetarian-proof due to the presence of an animal-derived ingredient which is most definitely not listed on those labels that boast of the brew comprising of nothing but pure water, hops and barley. But since I'm much less a devoted vegetarian than a tourist opting for a month-long break in the meatless country, I'm not going to let this little problem deprive me of my workout routine at what's referred to as the half-a-kilo (or pint glass) gym back home in Finland. There have been signs that I could well be cut out for more extended bouts of meat-free existence. Although I still have to keep well away of the fish counter when doing the food shop, less I give in to the temptation to sample the tastiest specimens that seas, rivers and lakes can boast of, I don't crave meat at all. In fact, I had a dream the other night where I was presented with a juicy chicken kebab, but couldn't stomach it due to the treat's unpleasant texture. Now, if only they'd been able to offer me a tasty vegetarian option...

Falafels

The real challenge this far into the meat-free month has been to find fresh, tasty new vegetarian dishes to try out. After all, that's the whole point (well, one of the points, at least) of the challenge: to keep well away from the tried and tested, the routine and the humdrum. But with work becoming increasingly hectic and things at home getting more and more complicated, it's been impossible not to resort to sticking to a few meal time staples during the week: not that inspired or exciting, but necessary when energy and time are limited. That's what makes rolling out some more spectacular items during the weekend all the more important. I'd tried this recipe for what I like to call chick pea kebabs once before, but the addition of extra spices and herbs made this take on the Middle Eastern classic truly brilliant (if I may say so myself).

Ingredients

Falafels (enough for a large meal for two)

• 200g dried chick peas, soaked overnight in cold water
• Small bunch of fresh coriander
• Small bunch of fresh parsley
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 red chilli, finely chopped
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp sumac (optional)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• Salt, black pepper

Pickle salad

• 1/2 red cabbage, finely sliced
• 1 large carrot, grated
• Handful of gherkins, finely sliced
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Good glug of olive oil
• Salt, black pepper

Harissa dressing

• A small tub of natural yogurt
• 1 - 2 tsp (to taste) harissa paste
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• Sprinkling of ground cumin

To serve

• Warm flatbreads of pittas
• Lemon wedges
• Sliced pickled chillies

How to make

Soak the chick peas overnight in a roomy bowl, making sure they are fully covered in cold water, with enough room for the peas to expand and still remain fully covered in water.

Place the drained, uncooked chick peas in a food processor and blend together with the onion and garlic until you have a rough paste. Add other falafel ingredients and blend until you have a relatively smooth paste. Place in a fridge and allow the flavours to develop for at least an hour.

Whilst the falafel dough is in the fridge, make your pickle salad by blending all the ingredients in a bowl. Make the dressing by mixing the ingredients together thoroughly in a small bowl.

To make falafel, take the dough out of a fridge. Heat the oven to 200c/gas mark 6. Rub a little bit of oil on your hands and shape the dough into balls the size of meat balls. Place on a baking tray covered with lightly oiled grease proof paper, making sure there's room between the falafels, as they will expand in the oven. Place in the oven and cook for 20 - 25 minutes, until golden brown on the outside.

Serve with pitta or flatbreads, pickle salad, yogurt dressing and, if you're looking for a really substantial meal, home-made potatoes wedges (hint: cook these in sunflower oil for extra tastiness). You won't miss meat...not one bit.

       

Meat Free Week 2 and it's Eurovision!

The first meatless week was undeniably difficult, filled with moments of weakness, internal debates about justifiable excuses to resort to munching on meat and the odd outbreak of canine slobbering when I was faced with the hypnotic smells emerging from a slab of meat sizzling on a grill. But now, 14 days into the veggie challenge, I think I've cracked it: I no longer hanker for meat products in the same compulsive style that a lovesick individual would long for the object of their affections.

Don't get me wrong: I still get cravings for food things. Being irredeemably greedy, I probably always will. The difference is that I've started to hunger for good wholesome vegetable fare. I want to keep eating those excellent bean burgers over and over again. I keep my head buried in various sources of interesting - i.e. no boring grey mush or unappetising meat substitutes of strange origin on the premises - veggie recipes, hoping to luck upon the next massively tasty, pleasantly textured treat. I've finally got my stomach to appreciate that although it's Sunday, it's not necessarily a crime to serve up a plateful of vegetables. During the current heat wave, I've passed people barbecuing things that would usually make me salivate without a second glance. I even appeared to experience a bit of an odour hallucination. When I was out running on Tuesday, my nostrils clocked an unmistakable whiff of grilling despite their being no cooking utensils in sight. What exactly did I smell? Griddled asparagus. Maybe I could actually get used to this meat-free existence.

Wearing the flag for Finland...even though we
didn't make the final, gutted!

The only spot of hesitation took place last night at the annual Eurovision party held by our friends. The idea is simple: to counter the frankly terrifying music and hysterically OTT stage shows, which seem to whizz through the equivalent of the entire Europe's monthly electricity consumption during one 3.5 hour blast of bright lights and pyrotechnics worthy of a hair metal video, with good food and plenty of drink. This year's theme - fittingly enough - was food from different parts of Europe. Unlike the country's contribution to the evening's music, the Spanish representative to the otherwise overwhelmingly green buffet table proved hard to resist, chorizo being one of my very favourite meaty items. But thanks to my newly found steely willpower and dedication to a veggie diet, I passed the tempting bowl of chorizo with ease and grace. Although if I could eat with my eyes, there wouldn't have been a slice left for anyone else...

Potato Salad

Predictably enough, when invited to whip up European fare for the Eurovision party that's become an annual tradition, we decided to opt for Finnish food stuffs. It seemed necessary: with Finland booted out of the final (probably a good thing, considering the toe-curling awfulness of previous years' entries), it was the only way to ensure a drop of home during the evening's proceedings. The success rate of our offerings proved variable. Although delicious, the traditional Karelian pies (rye-and-rice pastries) whipped up by the Mrs (a bona fide honorary Finn after this baking feat), served with artery-clogging slabs of egg butter, proved just a bit too foreign for some, leaving me to mop up most of the eggy mess, my reward being a persistent bellyache. This potato salad, however, was a hit. Granted, potato salad isn't an exclusively Finnish dish, but as this is based on my mum's recipe, it always makes me think of home.

Ingredients (enough for a big bowl)

• 750g of small potatoes (such as salad potatoes or the super-tasty Jersey Royals)
• A generous bunch of dill (finely chopped, to taste)
• 3-4 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
• 2 tbsp white wine vinegar (red wine vinegar will work, too)
• 1 heaped tbsp Dijon mustard
• A good pinch of ground white pepper
• Salt, black pepper (to taste)     

How to make

This salad really couldn't be any easier if it cooked and assembled itself! Start by boiling your potatoes in lightly salted water. Keep an eye on the taters - you want them to be cooked through, but still firm enough to not turn into mush when you cut into them. Once the potatoes are cooked, cool them under cold water and set aside to dry for a few minutes.

Once the potatoes are cool enough to handle, chop them into bite-size chunks. Place these into a roomy bowl and add other ingredients. Mix everything together thoroughly and serve! If you want to add a bit of extra flavour and crunch, finely chopped red or spring onion or roughly chopped gherkins work well with the salad, but it really is best to keep this one as simple as possible and let the potatoes hog the spotlight.      

From the Mrs: Karelian Pies and Egg Butter

I know...sounds foreign doesn't it?  I first encountered the Karelian Pie at Janne's Uncle's house...he sat me down and presented me with a range of strange looking food and then the whole family watched the shy British girl as she timidly took her first bites of Finnish food. Luckily this is one of my favourite activities when travelling and my love for food means that I'm quite willing to try anything, although I draw the line at rotten fish, which I'm told is a bit of a smelly delicacy in Scandinavia.

The Karelian Pie topped with egg butter was the most foreign looking thing on the table, but I found once I got stuck in it's actually really nice and over the years I'm always happy to see a nice, warm Karelian Pie on the menu. However,  when Janne presented me with the recipe and asked me to have a go at making them I have to admit I was slightly worried. Surprisingly these are really easy to make, although I would recommend serving them warm as they become a bit tough and chewy when cold. Having accomplished this I'm told that I'm "now a proper Finnish Wife!"

Ingredients

Rice Filling

·         340g of short grain pudding rice or all-purpose white rice

·         500ml of water

·         500ml of milk

·         1 tsp of salt

·         1tbsp of butter

Dough

·         250g of rye flour

·         55g of plain flour

·         1tsp salt

·         200ml of water

·         2tbsp of melted butter

Egg Butter

·         8 hard boiled eggs

·         150g of salted butter

Preheat oven to 200c/400f/gas mark 6

Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper

Add the water to a pan and throw in the rice. Bring to the boil and then turn down the heat and allow to cook until all of the water has absorbed. Stir occasionally.

Next add the milk and bring to the boil, reduce the heat and allow to simmer stirring occasionally until the rice is cooked. When the milk has absorbed stir in the butter and season with a bit of salt.

Combine all of the flour and salt and stir in the cold water. Mix together to make a dough and knead until all of the ingredients have bound together and the dough is even. Roll the dough into a log shape and cut into 20 even pieces. Roll each piece of dough into a ball on a floured surface, flatten with your hand and set aside.

Next ensure your work surface is floured and roll each flattened piece of dough into an oval shape about 6 inches long and wide. Try and roll the dough as thinly as possible. Fill each oval with the rice mixture (about two tablespoons)and spread evenly. Leaving about 2 inches of dough around the sides. Fold the dough inwards over the rice and pinch the dough together with your fingers.

Place each pie on the lined baking tray and brush with a little melted butter. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-15minutes, remove from oven and brush with more melted butter, return to the oven for a further 5 minutes if the pies aren't already golden brown.

Allow to cool slightly before serving.

 To make the egg butter, whip the softened butter and mash the eggs. Mix the two together and season if required. Allow to cool in the fridge and then spread on top of the slightly cooled Karelian Pies.

Meat-free Month: Week 1

The decision to give up meat for a month isn't hard to make. Actually sticking to the pledge and keeping away from poultry, meat and fish isn't that tricky either: most of the time, I'd much rather munch on veggies and fruit anyway.

What makes the challenge difficult is knowing that you simply can't, say, whip up a sausage sandwich should you happen to fancy one at some point. It reminds me of quitting smoking (although obviously I've not given up an illness-spewing, addictive poison this time around...unless we're talking about the more intensively processed end of the meat industry). Back when I was quitting, I was quite happy not to smoke, but the awareness that this newfound state of smoke-free being was for keeps made me crave a cigarette like never before. It's a bit like a child whipping up a tantrum when they can't have their own way: you always want what you know you can't have the most.

The small everyday trials don't help. On my first lunchtime sandwich run since the start of the meatless month, I ended up standing next to a huge slab of roast pork (and all the trimmings) moments after finding out the cafe had ran out of ingredients for anything even borderline appetising from the limited veggie menu. I could swear the piece of meat was winking at me temptingly while I waited for my dull egg mayo sandwich, assembled simultaneously to a colleague's mouth-watering high quality ham salad. The local shops seemed suddenly keen to offer all of my favourite meat and fish things at ridiculously low prices when I popped in for the oh-so-green ingredients for yet another stir fry. I started to fear being offered a meaty meal when visiting a friend's house, staging an internal debate about whether it was worse to turn down hospitality (how rude!) or take a momentary break from the veggie drive (so spineless!).  Gradually I began to understand why dogs risk breaking their necks to sniff in every particle of a passing meaty fragrance: the smell of meat cooking is hypnotic in a way that, say, the mild odours emerging from a freshly chopped carrot can never hope to be.

Some things have helped keep us on the straight and narrow. We've wasted hours glued to such Food Network classics as 'Diners, Drive-INS and Dives' and 'Heat Seekers', both of which specialise in vegetable-dodging culinary nightmares served in ludicrously generous XXL, fat-dripping portions. An eyeful of, say, a greasy chilli burger the size of a small child served with a lorry-load of fries makes that boring salad look pretty appealing. Yesterday I was breathing in the plain meaty smells of the stew my mother-in-law was whipping up for a spice-and flavour-averse elderly relative. It was a bona fide meat feast, and I was VERY happy to keep well away from the gray and brown mess simmering in the pot. 

Most importantly, we've been able to eat well all week despite - or is that because of? - sticking to vegetables. Mexican bean burgers with homemade salsa and a spinach curry that substitutes the off-limits chicken with, well, more spinach made sticking to veggies seem like a treat as opposed to a chore, but the real star of the week has been asparagus. As long as there are such fine greens around, who needs meat?      

Brilliant bean burgers with pepper salsa and yogurt sauce

Beans. I know what you're thinking. Boring. Wind-inducing. Flavourless, right? Well, wrong, actually. The biggest discovery this week has been this amazing - if I may say so myself - recipe for veggie burgers, combined from a variety of sources into one big bundle of bean-heavy goodness. I can honestly say I prefer the flavours of these bean concoctions to our usual weekend staple, turkey burgers: tastier, with a more pleasant texture (not to mention ridiculously cheap), and also less fatty and less filling, meaning I can munch on more without feeling like a balloon that has been inflated well past the point of optimal fullness afterwards.  Which is kind of the point of the meat-free challenge: breaking free from the automatic assumption that to eat well, it's necessary to involve meat.

Ingredients (enough for 2 huge burgers and a big pot of salsa)

For the burgers

• 1 400g tin of kidney beans, drained and washed
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 red chilli, finely chopped
• A small bunch of coriander, stalks and leafs finely chopped
• 1 egg
• 50g of breadcrumbs
• 1/3 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/3 tsp ground cinnamon
• Salt, black pepper
• 2 burger buns

For the salsa

• 1 small red pepper
• 1 small yellow pepper
• 1/4 red onion
• 1/4 cucumber
• A good glug of olive oil
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 - 2 red chillies (to taste. Fans of hot food may want to add 1/2 tsp of dried chilli flakes)
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp paprika
• Salt, black pepper
• For the yogurt sauce
• 1 small pot of natural yogurt
• A small bunch of fresh coriander, finely chopped
• Juice of 1/2 lime
• Sprinkling of ground cumin
• Salt, black pepper

How to make

Start by roughly mashing your drained and washed beans in a large bowl with a potato masher. Add your other ingredients and mix together well. Shape the resulting 'dough' into two large burger-shaped patties and place on a baking tray or a plate to rest. A tip: rub a thin layer of olive oil on your hands to avoid excessive stickiness.

While the burgers rest, make your salsa. This couldn't be any easier. Simple chuck all the ingredients into a blender and mix together until you have a rough salsa consistency. If the results are too runny for your liking (the water in the cucumber can make things a bit sloppy), strain the salsa with a finely meshed colander.

Make the yogurt sauce by mixing all the ingredients in a bowl and whisking well.

Heat a griddle pan to medium heat. Rub some olive oil on both sides of your burgers and fry for approximately 5 minutes per side, until nice and golden.

Serve on burger buns, the insides of which have been briefly seared on the griddle pan for extra crunch. Pour some salsa on the burger, top with a bit of fresh green salad, spoon over a bit of yogurt sauce and enjoy. I promise the results will make you forget that daft old song about beans being the magical fruit/the more you eat, the more you...well, you know the rest!

Asparagus and Potato Frittata

This amazingly tasty egg-and-veg dish was inspired by a recipe I spotted in a magazine. However, those instructions focused on peas which, with all due respect, are one of those rare vegetables that would make me groan with disappointment when spotted on a plate and, under the current circumstances, might just make the nearest piece of meat glow with an irresistible juiciness. Enter asparagus, however, and the results were pure enough to convert the staunchest of meat feasters. A word of advice: don't hurry with this one. The longer you allow those onions to cook, the sweeter the results.

Ingredients (enough to serve four)

• 1 large onion, halved and cut into thin slices
• 500g small potatoes, boiled until softened and cut into slices after boiling
• A medium-sized bunch of asparagus, boiled for approximately three minutes
• A good bunch of fresh thyme or mint
• 6 eggs
• 50 - 100g goat's cheese  
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Olive oil
• A knob of butter

How to make

Start by boiling your potatoes. You'll want them to be soft but not too soft - basically you're looking for potatoes that will hold together when you slice then after cooking. They will cook through on the pan later so don't worry about occasional harder bits. Allow the potatoes to cool after cooking. Once cool enough to handle, cut into relatively thin slices.

Slice the onion. Heat approximately one tablespoon of olive oil on a large frying pan and cook the onions on low heat until softened and golden. Add the potatoes, thyme (or mint), a good sprinkling of black pepper and another of salt, mix everything together and cook on medium heat until the potatoes are slightly browned all around. Keep stirring things on the pan to ensure your veggies end up nice and golden all around.

While the potatoes and onions are cooking, prepare your asparagus. Cut off the woody ends of the stalks. Snap off the tips and place in colander. Cut the remaining stalks in half. Wash and place in a pan of boiling water and cook for approximately 3 minutes. You want the asparagus to be softened but not fully cooked.

Add a knob of butter to the pan. Tip in your parboiled asparagus. Move everything on the pan and cook for approximately 5 minutes. In the meantime, break the eggs into a bowl and whisk until the egg whites and yolks are mixed together. Add to the pan, ensuring that the vegetables and eggs are mixed properly and the egg is spread evenly on the pan. Heat your grill to medium heat. Cook for approximately 10 minutes on low to medium heat, until you can tell the frittata has become solid on the bottom. Sprinkle in the goat's cheese. Place under the grill for approximately 5 minutes to cook the remaining runny bits on the top. Serve with a fresh salad and a few slices of a nice bread. 

No meat for a month!



As anyone who's been following this blog may have figured out by now, I like vegetables. Fruit, too. In fact, diet-wise, I'd quite happily swap places with any animal that feeds mainly on pineapple, should such a creature exist.  I wouldn't complain too much if I had to munch on meals consisting entirely of members of the cabbage family either, provided they had been treated with sufficient care, as opposed to having been boiled to the edge of disintegration and beyond.

Even so, giving up meat for four whole weeks sounds quite scary. We're not just talking about red meat - in fact, that would mean practically zero changes to the usual cooking habits. For the next month, poultry and fish will also be barred from the kitchen. It's a project we've been talking about for months now, inspired in part by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's excellent book and TV series centred on a similar challenge. Plain logic also contributed to the idea: since we already follow a vegetable-based diet between Monday and Thursday, how hard can it be to give up on meat altogether for a limited amount of time? Not very hard at all, we figured, but now as the date is fast approaching - the challenge starts on Monday May 14 - I feel a slight twinge of nerves. Will we end up subsisting on various unappetising Quorn products? How long until bacon is ruled to be a vegetarian food item? Will the flavour of vegetables dull into a mush if there is nothing else on the menu, leading to a return to our grisly past feeding habits? On a more positive angle, how much of a difference will not chewing on meat make to how we feel and the cost of the weekly shop?

Stocking up on beef before the meat drought!

We'll soon find out. Find out how the challenge progresses (or not) right here. As for now, I'm off to prepare for a veggie month by loading up on meat-rich dishes...beef for lunch, chicken for dinner. Sounds about right.

Vegetable Variety Show stir fry

This flexible stir-fry is an excellent way to get a few portions of your five-a-day on one tasty plate. It's also brilliant for making use of leftover vegetables: basically any greens - and even evil old mushrooms (despite recent signs of a truce, me and mushrooms remain involved in a longstanding feud) - will fit in just fine. Flavour-wise, that list of ingredients might sound a bit plain, but it's surprisingly rich in flavour...sometimes too much so, when I've been too generous with the ginger...whilst not being too tangy to scare of spice sceptics. In fact, this is one dish that my usually spice/exotic flavours-averse mother-in-law  really, really likes, which is recommendation enough.

I sometimes substitute the broccoli with white cabbage, which works just as well...As mentioned earlier, almost any (i.e. no sprouts) vegetable will work with this one! Even better, after the inevitable work-intensive chopping, this dish basically cooks itself.

Ingredients (makes plenty for two)

• Dried medium or thick egg noodles (use one 'nest' of noodles per diner)
• Soy sauce - to taste
• A thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, finely chopped
• 1 large clove of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 large carrot, cut into thin slices
• 1 broccoli, cut into chunks and parboiled for 2-3 minutes
• Half a bag of beanshoots
• 1-2 tablespoons of vegetable or groundnut oil.
• Optional:
• 1 - 2 fresh red chillies, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon of toasted sesame oil        

How to make

The important thing is to have all your ingredients ready before you fire up the wok pan or large frying pan.

So, start by chopping your vegetables, onion, garlic and ginger, not forgetting to parboil the broccoli for just a minute or a few if you're using it. Set aside. Boil your noodles by following the instructions on the packet - usually, four minutes is enough and with thinner noodles it could take even less time. Make sure you don't have to reach too far for the soy sauce and sesame oil (if using).

Once all your ingredients are ready to be stir fried, heat up the oil in the pan. Start by stir frying the onion for a few minutes, until lightly brown. Next, throw in the sliced carrots, ginger and garlic and fry for a few minutes. It's important to keep the vegetables moving on the pan - you don't want to burn anything, but the pan needs to be reasonably hot for the stir frying to work properly. Next, add your main vegetable - broccoli or cabbage - and the soy sauce (and sesame oil is using). Fry for a few minutes, moving the veggies constantly on the pan, until the broccoli or cabbage has softened slightly (you can tell this is working when the vegetables shrink a bit). Throw in the beanshoots and fry for two minutes, followed by the boiled and drained noodles. Add more soy sauce if you want to, plus a generous sprinkling of black pepper. Mix everything together, turn off the heat and serve immediately - this dish has a bad habit of going cold relatively quickly so avoid delays in dishing up. It may well look a bit unappetising - basically a brown mess with some green and orange bits peeping out - but that flavour...anything but dull! Who needs meat, eh?