Minted pea and feta cakes
We went to our local market, on Friday, and bought locally grown peas in the pod. Absolutely lovely to eat straight from the pod, but also time to dig out some pea recipes…
450g potatoes
100g feta cheese, crumbled
100g cooked peas
4 tablespoons chopped mint
2 medium eggs, beaten
oil
black pepper/salt to taste
Blanch the potatoes in their skins for 6-8 minutes until slightly softened. Drain them and when cool grate them into a bowl (you may wish to peel them before grating, if you can’t get organic potatoes, or you don’t like the skin – but remember it is a source of fibre).
Add the feta, peas, mint, eggs and the seasoning and mix together, well.
Heat some oil in a pan and take desertspoonfuls of the mixture and add them to the pan, flattening each into a cake.
Cook for 3-4 minutes, or until golden, before turning and cooking for a futher 2 minutes. Dab them onto kitchen paper to get rid of any excess oil.
Serve with a salad.
Aubergine and Halloumi Parcels
We love Halloumi (and we don’t care who knows) although I have to say it is not easy to source where we live in France. It is a strange cheese that is only nice (in our opinion) cooked.
1 Aubergine
6 tablespoons olive oil
1 garlic glove, crushed
2 tomatoes, sliced
250g halloumi cheese, cut into 8 slices
Fresh basil
smoked paprika
25g grated hard cheese of your choice
Put your grill on high. Slice the aubergine lengthways into 10 thin slices. You don’t need the two outer ends, so save them for another dish.
Put the other slices on a wire rack and sprinkle with salt and leave for 20 minutes, before rincing the salt off and pat-drying with a clean tea towel.
In a bowl mix together the oil, garlic and other seasoning. Brush mixture over both sides of the auburgine. Grill for 4 minutes on each side (they should be golden in colour and soft in texture).
Sandwich the halloumi and a basil leaf between two slices of tomato and place on one end of an aubergine slice, wrapping it up and securing with a cocktail stick. You can make 8 of these parcels.
Sprinkle the cheese over the parcels and grill for a further 4 minutes, serve hot with a lovely mixed salad, homemade bread and a glass of rose wine. YUM
Asparagus and leek Risotto
This one is a specialty of Mr Humpbuckle. Serve with garlic bread (preferably homemade wholemeal, bread cut thickly with garlic butter – or vegan alternative – smeared all over and done under the grill until golden brown)
The key to this is to add liquid a little and often and to stir constantly. This is a great dish to serve as a main course (4 people) or as a starter (6-8)
1litre of vegetable stock
200mls white wine (use more stock, if you don’t wish to use wine)
2 tbsp olive oil
200g cooked asparagus (when in season, use fresh and cook it in boiling water for 5-8 minutes. You can use the water as a base for the vegetable stock, just add some bouillon powder, or a vegetable stock cube)
1 medium leeks
1 large onion, chopped
2 crushed garlic cloves
2 tbsp fresh chives
1 tbsp mixed herbs
black pepper
Heat oil in a pan and add the onions and leeks and cook gently until soft (not brown), stir in the garlic and rice and cook for a further 3 minutes.
P0ur in the wine and cook (stirring constantly) until the wine has been absorbed into the rice, then add the stock (200ml at a time), stirring all the time, and only adding more stock when it has been absorbed into the rice.
Before the final addition of stock add the asparagus and mixed herbs and cook for a further 3 minutes before removing from the heat and adding the chives, and a generous amount of black pepper. Serve immediately
Quinoa
We only discovered this little gem a couple of days ago (although I have to admit we have had it in our larder for some time, having bought it on a wim, but then we convinced ourselves we wouldn’t like it).
It has the look of couscous about it, but contained within is a wealth of nutrients and flavour. You cook it in water (we flavoured ours with vegetable stock, beetroot juice and rehydrated sundried tomatoes) for 12 minutes, or so. The volume doubles in size and the resulting quinoa is soft, slightly crunchy, with a nutty taste. Delicious.
What is Quinoa?
Quinoa is a seed (although is often thought of a grain) of a leafy green plan, valued by the Inca’s thousands of years ago (potatoes and grains took over when western “civilisation” destroyed the Inca’s quinoa fields). It’s value has only recently been rediscovered, and nutritional analysis shows what an amazing little food it is.
Nutritional benefits
Not only is quinoa packed with minerals such as magnisium, calcium, manganese, and iron it also has a high level of protein.
This makes it an ideal food for vegetarians and vegans.
Spicy Bean Burger
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 medium mushrooms, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, grated
400g kidney beans (cooked, out of a tin is fine!)
150g cooked brown lentils
2 cloves garlic, crushed
black pepper
level teaspoon mixed herbs
level teaspoon sweet paprika
level teaspoon vegetable bouillon powder
100g sweetcorn
tablespoon gram flour
1-2 teaspoons harissa
100g breadcrumbs
Fry onions until soft, on a medium heat. Add carrots and garlic and cook for a further 1 minute. Turn off heat
In a food processor put lentils, kidney beans, freshly ground pepper and harissa and herbs and gram flour. Process the mixture, but not too much – you want to ensure you still have chunks of beans.
Add the mixture from the frying pan and stir in (don’t process it any further).
Shape the mixture into burger shapes (should get 6 good size burgers) and coat in breadcrumbs.
In 2 tablespoons sunflower oil fry the burgers for 2 minutes either side, or until golden brown.
Serve with homemade chunky chips and (to make you feel better about yourself) a salad garnish.
Vegetarianandveganfrance.com & 3placedesarbres.com. Vegetarian & Vegan recipes from the kitchen of a vegetarian chambres d’hotes in the heart of France
Un-baked beans
Living in France, it has been difficult to get hold of baked beans (unless you pay through the nose, or buy the French version, which are just not the same). This recipe is great because you can make them cheaply and you can adjust them to your taste…
1 medium onion (finely chopped)
1 carton of passata
2 teaspoons of vegetable bouillon powder (or a large vegetable stock cube)
½ teaspoon smoked paprika
½ teaspoon hot paprika
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
3-4 teaspoons brown sugar
Splash of soy sauce
splash tabasco
2x800g tins of haricot blancs
1 teaspoon herbs de provence
2 crushed garlic cloves
salt and pepper
tablespoon of potato flour, or potato flakes (instant mash!)
Fry onions until soft (not brown) add garlic, fry for further minute then add passata and other ingredients (apart from beans and potato flour).
Simmer gently to reduce. Taste and adjust seasoning. Blend sauce with hand blender, off the heat, then add beans (without rinsing) and warm through. Add potato flour and stir in, to really thicken up sauce.
Eat on toast. Yum.
Click here to see the trailer for “Simply Raw” an independant documentary following 6 people with diabetes who appear to reverse their diabetes through changing their diet to raw vegan.
I am not convinced the raw food diet is for everyone (I know plenty of people who have a problem keeping weight on, and need the calories that foods such as rice and potatoes offer, for example. I am also unconvinced as to why it has to be all or nothing, why not increase your raw food intake, but still eat things that are cooked?), but clearly some people find it necessary to completely and radically change their lifestyle.
Many people do not include any fresh vegetables in their diet. Just switching to a healthy vegetarian or vegan diet (and the elimination of alcohol and sugar) would also have a radical effect on diabetes.
Still, it is an interesting trailer and highlights the importance of diet and health.
Lentil Roast
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 Medium Carrot, grated
100ml white wine
½ tin chopped tomatoes
½ teaspoon mixed herbs
200g rinsed orange lentils
4 mushrooms (fresh, finely chopped or dried, crumbled)
salt and pepper
½ teaspoon veg bouillon powder
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon chickpea flour
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon corriander
½ teaspoon hot paprika
125g tofu (crumbled)
½ teaspoon marmite
1 teaspoon origano
2 teaspoons nutritional yeast flakes
water as necessary
Fry onion in olive oil adding garlic as onion begins to soften. Fry for further 1 minute before adding carrot. Cook gently until carrot goes lighter in colour.
Add everything else
Simmer gently for 15 minutes until lentils are cooked, adding water if necessary. It should resemble a thick paste.
Spoon mixture into muffin-style moulds (we use silicone, as you don’t need to line, or grease it). You should be able to get 8-10 roasts.
Put into a preheated oven (180 degrees C) for 20-25 minutes, middle shelf. Make sure they don’t cook too quickly.
Serve with lovely roast potatoes, and vegetables.
Humpbuckle Hint: these freeze really well, so when we make a batch we stick the remaining roasts in the freezer and then get them out when needed. Once defrosted they only take 10-15 mins to warm through in the oven.
Spanichopitta
1 Large onion, chopped
3 Large cloves garlic, chopped
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 knob of butter
500g frozen spinach
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
1/2 a teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon mint
120g grated cheese
120g feta cheese
4 beaten eggs
100ml Fresh cream
1 packet filo pastry
Defrost the spinach. Heat butter and oil in a medium pan, on a medium heat.
Fry the onion until translucent. Add spinach and cook until the water is absorbed. Add salt, cinnamon, pepper, parsley, mint, and cook for 3 minutes.
Allow to cool and add eggs, cheeses and cream. Put oven on to 180 degrees C
Line a baking tin with 4 pieces of filo pastry, brushing each with a little oil. Add the mixture to the pastry and spread it out.
Turn in the edges of the pastry onto the spinach mixture.
Cover with 5 or 6 more sheets of pastry, tucking in, and brushing sheets with oil to help stick them down, and keep moist.
Sprinkle with a little cold water and cook for 40-50 minutes.
Article and recipe on French Vegetarian Bed and Breakfast, published in local newspaper
Check out Creuse News, a paper for British, and English speaking, people who live, visit, or are interested in the lovely department of La Creuse (23) of France.
April’s issue has an article by Bruce from 3 Place des Arbres, about their experience of joining the comité des fêtes (you can also read it here), and a recipe from Andrea for Vegetable Paella, a fabulous vegan adaptation of the famous Spanish dish (you can also find the recipe here).
Creuse News is available online, and is distributed for free throughout La Creuse, for more information visit their website
Vegetarian and Vegan France 