Christmas Menu of Wild Rice Stuffed Squash, Cider Braised Red Cabbage & Gluten and Dairy Free Bread Sauce

I know it is a bit late in the day but I thought I would finally get around to posting about our Christmas dinner dishes. This is more of a theoretical exercise as we are going to my other half's family on Christmas day. So here is my virtual Christmas day menu.  Below are links to recipes I would use followed by my recipes for wild rice stuffing for the squash, braised red cabbage and bread sauce.

Maple Glazed Turkey for the meat eaters

Stuffed Squash for the veggies or Parsnip, Cranberry & Chestnut Loaf

Wild Rice Stuffing

Roasted Root Vegetables

Roasted Green Beans with Lemon & Garlic

Cider Braised Red Cabbage

Gravy, Cranberry Sauce & Bread Sauce 

Followed by 

Christmas Pudding & Brandy Butter

Quite a bit of it could be made in advance and reheated on the day for an easy relaxed Christmas morning in the kitchen. The day before I would make the wild rice stuffing up until the point where you put it in the oven, I would also make the red cabbage to be reheated in a crockpot or in a pan the next day. I would also steep the milk with the onion, bay leaves and cloves overnight. A family tradition is to all help to peel and cut up our root vegetables the night before which are then left in cold water overnight until needed the next day. Yes you will lose some of the water soluble vitamins but for one day does it really matter? If you do all this the hopefully, apart from the turkey cooking in the oven, everything else can be done in the hour leading up to serving.

 Merry Christmas everybody!

Tapas Party Menu

After we spent an enjoyable week in Spain last month I really wanted to have a go at making my own homemade tapas and what better way to eat tapas than with friends. Over the holiday period with numerous parties and entertaining then why not try something different and throw a tapas party instead of the normal canapes or as alternative to christmas dinner. Below is my Tapas Menu (click on the links to go to the recipes) which has the benefit that most of the dishes can be prepared in advance leaving you free to mingle with your guests and glug some sangria.

• Bread with Olive Oil & Balsamic Vinegar
• Olives, Toasted Almonds & Cubed Almodovar Cheese
• Platter of Serrano Ham & Chorizo
• Manchego with Tomatoes and Olive Oil
• Garlic Mushrooms
• Spinach & Chickpeas in Tomato Sauce
• Spanish Tortilla
• Patatas Bravas
• Patatas Alioli
• Garlic Prawns & Chorizo (I followed this recipe but added a good squeeze of lemon at the end)
• Pork Meatballs in Tomato Sauce
• Merguez Sausages (from our wonderful local sausage shop)
• Red Wine Sangria with Nectarines
• Dairy-free Egg Custard with Caramel Bananas
• Pine Nut & Almond Cookies

Garlic Mushrooms, Spinach & Chickpeas and Manchego Cheese Tapas

Here are three quick and easy vegetarian tapas dishes. The first is garlic mushrooms or 'Champinones al ajillo', the second is a spinach and chickpeas dish in tomato sauce, in Spanish 'Garbanzos con Espinacas'  and the third is manchego with tomatoes and olive oil which I guess is Spain's most well known cheese. These dishes can be made ahead of time and then reheated as required.

Pan Veggity

Pan Haggerty is a classic north of England dish, a rich layered potato, onion and cheese gratin style dish that is cooked on the top of the stove rather than in the oven. The potatoes and onion absorb the stock and become wonderfully rich and tasty. It is amazing how such simple ingredients come together to make a great dish. This version of the dish came about following a glut of veggies from my mum and dad's allotment. It has a variety of root vegetables and some runner beans which all help towards your 5 a day. It is great sprinkled with some cheese, particularly a strong cheddar or goats cheese or, for any meat eaters, crispy bacon but to be honest I mostly make it vegan and dairy free to fully appreciate all the different vegetable tastes. This can be the main attraction in a meal or used as an all in one side dish. 

Egg and Avocado Salad

Once again I find myself apologising for a extended absence from blogging. I have been feeling rather ill for the last couple of weeks after a bout of stomach flu. It has been a real eye opener to have no appetite and no desire to eat or cook anything. Thank goodness for potato waffles, ginger snaps and litres of ginger beer. Thankfully, I am feeling almost back to normal and can now look at and think about food. I am looking forward to sharing among other things some gluten and dairy free desserts including a Christmas pudding ready for stir up Sunday, a cordial for mulled wine and some interesting veggie dishes that make good use of winter varieties. However, to start November off here is salad recipe that is perfect for a light lunch of supper.

I was a late comer to the joys of avocados. I really couldn't understand what all the fuss was about until I tried this dish for the first time. I only ate it to be polite but after that first bite it wasn't difficult to eat everything on my plate. I have only tweaked this recipe a little bit but credit is due to my boyfriend's mum. I like to serve this salad with crusty bread or toast but you could use it like you would any egg salad. Once over my initial dislike for avocados I realised what a versatile fruit it is suited to both sweet and savoury. I love it in a salad of cucumber, tomato, onion, lime and cilantro or mashed with garlic, basil, lemon and black pepper for a quick pasta sauce and as a dessert you cannot beat mashed avocado with a spoonful of dark brown or muscavado sugar mixed in.

Pea Sauce for Pasta or Gnocchi

With the weather turning and the nights drawing in I fancied something bright green, fresh tasting and spring like to keep the feeling of summer going just a little bit longer. So I came up with this pea puree to use as a sauce for pasta or gnocchi or even as a vegetable side dish. It is so quick and simple that is has become one of my quick go to supper dishes.  Plus I almost always have all the ingredients to hand.

Braised Fennel With White Wine & Pinenuts

I am relishing having all my cook books back. We kept them all in storage whilst we were in Singapore but now that I have got them all in the kitchen I am loving flicking through them and rediscovering old favourites. Even though I use the blogosphere and internet resources as inspiration for new recipes there is something reassuring about a good solid hardback cookbook to flick through. 

This recipe is one of those I have rediscovered since coming back to the UK. While I enjoy the fresh zingy taste of raw fennel this recipe is the one that made me fall in love with fennel. The flavour of the fennel  is mellow and sweet and the fennel bulb absorbs the wine to create a delicate & soft texture. I like to eat this as a vegetarian dish over brown rice but it also makes a great side dish with  roast chicken, lamb or pork or with fish. The original recipe I used from the Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook added a 1/4 cup of Parmesan at the end and butter instead of olive oil but I have made this dish dairy free and vegan and added pinenuts instead and it still tastes yummy. Feel free to substitute the cheese and butter back in if you prefer. 

Parsnip and Apple Slaw

I can honestly say that I didn't think that I liked coleslaw until my mum made homemade coleslaw when we first bought a food processor. Homemade coleslaw really tastes so much better than the insipid and soggy vegetables swamped in mayo that you often get in stores. If you have a food processor it really is so easy and quick to make coleslaw and you can vary the flavor any way you like really. Some of my favorite versions include thinnly sliced kohl rabi instead of cabbage, using lots of carrots and adding a good dash of curry powder in the mayo or how about chopped jalapeno peppers, fresh cilantro and a squeeze lime for a spicy version. I often make a big batch to take to a bbq or picnic and I have never had to take any home with me afterwards. You can use a vegan mayo for this recipe if you require it to be dairy or egg free and as not much mayo is needed for this recipe it makes little different to the texture or flavor of this coleslaw.

Breakfast Polenta

The name says it all really. I had been enjoying fried hash potatoes with eggs for brunch over the last week, as I rarely feel like eating as soon as I get up and have taken to combining two meals in one. On Sunday morning though, I found we were out of potatoes plus I rarely have bread in the house so toast was off the menu. But whilst I was rummaging around in the cupboard I came across some polenta that I had left over from the orange & cardamon cake I made a while back. Hence this breakfast polenta recipe came about. For something that happened accidentally this dish is a keeper. I am planning on adding some spinach next time and serving it with some asparagus and a runny poached egg- yum! I will also have to give a sweet version a try, may be with honey, almond and apricot.

Zesty Courgette, Edamame and Spinach Salad

Ok, so I am still on my legumes are great rant. This one uses fresh soyabeans, edamame as a different way of eating pulses. Beans don't always have to be dried and require lots of soaking this dish shows that they can be fresh and light. This salad can be a side dish or jazzed up with steamed chicken or fish or grilled halloumi to make a light lunch or supper.

Tasty Italian Style Beans

It is National Vegetarian Week in the UK (23rd -29th May) and I this got me thinking about recipes that epitomise a healthy and balanced vegetarian diet. I have been vegetarian for 18 years now (wow writing that makes me feel old!) and I am healthy and thoroughly enjoy the food options I eat and very rarely feel that I am missing out. When I first became veggie I was what I would class as an unhealthy vegetarian. I ate exactly what I used to eat except that I substituted real meat with fake meat e.g quorn, fake bacon and textured vegetable protein products. Now, I am not against these products at all, they are tasty, convenient and help ease some vegetarians and vegans into their chosen dietary regimes. In fact, I have had a few mock meat meals in Singapore that have been outstanding in terms of the effort that has gone into making these dishes look like the real thing (I mean who needs their fake prawn to have the exact colouring and pattern of a real prawn!). However, for me personally, my diet improved dramatically when I stopped trying to make my meals like those that I had had as a carnivore and started  using vegetables, beans and lentils as the starting point for dishes. After all, all heavily processed foods should really only feature ocassionally in our diet and fake meats are no exception. What's more lentils and beans are generally low GI, low in fat and a good source of dietary fibre, protein and vitamins and minerals.  Pulses are, for me, an important part of any diet but particularly a vegetarian diet and deserve to be used more and loved a lot. I will be trying to convert everyone to loving lentils and beans with my next few recipes. Have I won you over yet?

If you are not convinced about beans or lentils yet, here is a very easy and tasty recipe to hopefully get you into this wonderful and very useful food group. It is basically a grown up version of baked beans. It can also be used as a canape or appetiser spread on thin toasts or blitzed in the blender to make a tasty dip to serve with veggie crudites. 

Wasabi Potato & Egg Salad

Wasabi seems to be one of those love it or hate it ingredients. I love it with sushi, on wasabi peas or my favourite, spread thinly on a grilled/toasted cheese sandwich. I love a mustard kick and horseradish sauce fizzy nose and wasabi to me is just the Japanese version of these yummy condiments. However, I cannot think of horseradish without my mind wandering to the episode of Jackass in Japan where they snort a line of wasabi. Waaahh, it makes my nose want to bleed just thinking about it. 

Anyway back to the post. Make this as an alternative to your normal egg and potato salad, it is perfect for the bbq, with a slice of quiche or with marinated teriyaki salmon.You could also make this more substantial with the addition of bacon or cubed ripe avocado. If you are making this for coeliacs then check your wasabi paste is not bulked out with flour and is actually gluten free.