How to Make Healthy Vegetarian Foods Recipes

Because of my South Asian features and heritage, a lot of people who don't know me stereotypically assume I just specialise in food from the Indian Sub-Continent.  And yes, although I can make a mean killer Chickpea Curry and Creamy Lentil Dal ,  I have always branched out and made other worldly vegetarian cuisines.    I don't and have never wanted to be put into an 'ethnic' box. I have always avoided tokenism at work where people have used their ethnicity to progress; or permitted employers to use their photograph in promotional materials, when in reality the organisation was doing very little in relation to workplace diversity and addressing inequality, and I am sad to say such tokenism occurs somewhat in cooking too. I refuse to play that game and be a stereotype. I have and will always continue to remain true to myself.  I am diverse person and love cooking ethnically diverse world wide cuisine.   Saying all this, I am very aware and proud of my root...

I do love the vibrant green spiral coiled vegetable known as  Romanesco Cauliflower .  I  look forward to having it at least once a year, but when I do the question that often arises is 'What to do with it?' - without damaging its beautiful pointy cone shaped heads always baffles me in the culinary sense. First I decided to simply blanch the the florets, ready to be tossed into a salad of some sort, but once I had drained the florets and set them aside to cool and dry off,  I found myself changing my mind.  Instead I went ahead and made another galette, throwing in some black sesame seeds, not just into the galette pastry, but also the topping to contrast with the white studs of feta cheese cubes. What you cannot see, is beneath the Romanesco cauliflower and feta cheese there is also some caramelised onions, without it this galette would have been quite dry.  I am sharing this with Eat Your Greens challenge and   The Pastry Callenge ...

Welcome to October's Round Up for  'Eat Your Greens' .     This is a monthly vegetarian and vegan cooking challenge for food bloggers  to make something with a green vegetable (or fruit) each month.   The Veg Hog brings to the table some rather tasty and crunchy Broccoli Nuggets .  Its both naughty and nice.   Dom from Belleau Kitchen shares a mild and nutty Slow Cooked  Cauliflower, Carrot and Green Bean Korma .  If your feeling poorly, this is the curry to make as it will lift you up.  Janet from the Taste Space shares a Follow this link on how to participate .  I hope you will also be able to join in the # Vegetable Palette challenge too, the theme is White.  Also welcoming #FruitPalette recipes. 

I was inspired by Ruby Tandoh's  recipe in The Guardian  to make a savoury Crumble .   Its b een a while since I've made a savoury crumble.  The last I blogged about one was when I made this  Black Eyed Bean and Vegetable Crumble .  Ruby's herby topped crumble had butternut squash and spinach, mine has cauliflower and kale.   Once I've scattered the remaining crumble on top, its ready to go into the hot oven. I like how the spicy tomato juices have dyed the cauliflower florets almost a copper gold. Sorry no pictures of it coming out of the oven bubbling furiously on the sides oozing its unctuous volcanic tomato juices, but you get the gist.  I have to say, my savoury crumble reminded me more of a  Leek and Butter Bean Cassoulet  that I made years ago than a crumble, still it was good and I especially liked how silky the kale had become.    You may be interested to note that  I have also made a Sweet Cauliflow...

I know everything is in the presentation and this plate of salad would have been elevated a little more with a little more tinkering in the name of food styling; and perhaps served on a bed of greens such as rocket or watercress would have done it, but had cauliflower - the veg du jour been presented by a celebrity chef, cookery writer or so called queen of the grain and greens I am sure it would have encouraged swoons and wow's, But as it comes from a little known vegetarian food blogger it will be perceived more as the smashed brains of a zombie presented by someone watching way too many episodes of The Walking Dead ; and perhaps best served around Halloween; and to an extent I would have to agree on first glance, but I assure you its all about the veg.  No humans, animals or zombies were hurt in the making of this Salad.  And it was bloody marvellous too.  Image source AMC The white cauliflower dyed beautifully and naturally by the beetroot and balsamic v...

Did you have a good Christmas? We had a quiet one - just the two of us. I have lots to share, but I wanted to share something that I have eaten recently that is not particularly festive, but interesting none the less. Golden Glowing Turmeric is all the rage at the moment.  These days it can be found in soups, smoothies, teas, lattes, hummus, vegan cheese, Tofu scrambles and even  sweet and savoury  porridge's .  However turmeric is not a new and trendy ingredient to me,  as a person of South Asian heritage,  I have been eating and drinking turmeric all my life and have even used it as a natural face (beauty) product.  Loving its colour and its medicinal qualities  and loathing how it  can taint every thing in its way - not the Midas touch I was expecting.  A bit like the Turmeric New Potatoes yes I admit this bowl of Barley looks radioactive. I've had and made Turmeric Rice many times in my life, but wanted to ring the change...

In more of an effort to make use of my cookbooks from my Vegetarian Library, today we have Mildred's The Cookbook.   I  was fortunate to win Mildred's The Cookbook last year.   I've made a few recipes from it including  the most delicious vegan  Brownies with Peanut Butter   and a smoky  Lapsang Chestnut Mushroom Strogonoff .   This time I wanted  to try something with piquancy.  I decided on the Cauliflower and Green Olive Tagine.  I like olives, it wasn't always this way and to satisfy D it had his favourite white vegetable.   Although the Tagine was filling and full of different textures from the cauliflower, carrots and chickpeas, we both felt the sauce lacked depth.  Why? This recipe does not have onions, but is substituted with celery sticks.   I do understand the need for such recipes.  When I did a bit of freelance vegetarian cooking, one of my customers had an allergy to alliums: the onion famil...

I have never had a desire to make a  Korma  at home  until I ate one a few months back and was reminded of its loveliness.  It was quite yummy a little reminisce of Thai Green Curry, which I really love.  It was made with pumpkin and green beans and made a pleasant change from rich spicy tomato based curries.   So in order to remedy having never made a korma in my home, I was finally ready to give it a go and i t was quite delicious  and despite its long list of ingredients I think this is one of the worlds most easiest recipes.   .  Although, I think I may have added way too much coconut milk as it was drowning all the vegetables, still it tasted lovely.  I think my mother in law would like it too as it was not overly spicy.   This Vegetable Korma Soup is perfect for those evening when you want to curl up in the corner of your soft and watch a movie.  I don't watch many Bollywood movies these days as I did in my childhoo...

Happy Valentines dear readers.   I've made Persian Kuku  many times before, for those of you unfamiliar with it - Bake of the Week ;  Belleau Kitchen for  click on this link to learn more .    Kuku's are a Persian omelette and what I present to you is not exactly one - though it did start of originally as a Kuku .  I should have made it in a wide frying pan, but I wanted to get all fancy for Valentines day and made it in a silicone heart shaped mould.   This Persian Kuku puffed up like a aerated blow up bed, then settled down quite calmly.  Once it was unmoulded, the top was a blanket of beetroot red.   It looked fabulous and sliced wonderfully.   I have to say it tasted pretty marvellous too.  D loved it as it contained two of his favourite vegetables - beetroot and cauliflower.  I'd almost describe it as   a cross between Spanish Tortilla and Frittata , but its neither - so I call it a big fat Persian ...

I do feel my calling is to work in a big community kitchen with people from diverse, cultural and ethnic backgrounds.  I even dream one day if I win the lottery big time to start a community canteen where people from all backgrounds can come together, share and eat food and mostly talk with each other to break down preconceived ideas and challenge misinformation disseminated often by cheap paper tabloids.  I would not want it to be one of those places, where people come along, a bit like so-called 'Diversity days' 'eat the food from different countries, dance to the music, have their hands painted in henna', then go back to their homes continuing to still carry those prejudices.  I've seen that way to many times and always avoid it as tokenism.  Anyway, today (and the rest of this week) is not about me.  This week I give my blog space freely over to Refugee Week  in the hope that it will raise some awareness of refugees and asylum seekers across the world f...

All week,  except for Friday much to do with the EU Referendum I have been trying to raise some awareness of Refugee Week  through  Cooking A Dish from Another Country   .  Refugee Week  in the United Kingdom is an event that promotes positive encounters between asylum seekers and refugees and members of the receiving communities, as well as raising awareness. The theme for Refugee Week  2016 was  Welcome.     Today I will share another Middle Eastern dish called Maqluba .  . Over the years, I've seen various versions of Maqlub.   Maqluba is a Palestinian dish popular throughout the Middle East.   Once the dish is cooked, the cooking pot is turned   upside down and removed to reveal  the edible crown beneath.   I have no doubt that Maqluba takes centre stage on the table at Middle Eastern family feasts, especially now when many Muslims across the world are taking part in the holy time in the ...

Cauliflower 'Couscous' or Cauliflower 'Rice' seems all the rage right now, but it appeared on humble blog in 2009 thanks to the vegetarian chef and cookbook author Rose Elliot.  But even then the real credit goes to one of the worlds famous chefs Ferran Adria and The Food at El Bulli Gourmet Restaurant.     Early this year, I  was chatting to a fellow blogger, and we both mused how some food bloggers are acting that its their creation l ike  baking  a jacket potato, putting vegetables into cakes or making vegan ice-cream from frozen bananas,  never acknowledging or crediting origins or inspiration.  After all most recipes originate from somewhere, we all  - even I do it - put our twist on it, adapt it, enhance it, increase this ingredient, decrease that ingredient and so forth,   but its not often original.    Well Ferran Adria created and introduced foodies and popularized what we now call Cauliflow...