Leek Soup

This was a very simple recipe for a chilly day, delicious with fresh bread.

Ingredients:

2 leeks

oil

1 stock cube

2-3 small potatoes or 1 medium one

water

milk or cream (I used rice milk)

black pepper

mint

Instructions:

1. Wash and chop the leeks. Fry them lightly in the oil and crumble in the stock cube.

2. Wash and slice the potatoes and add them to the pan.

3. Add water and cook for 20-30 minutes (until the potatoes are tender).

4. Blend with a hand blender and add milk or cream to taste. Season with black pepper and mint to taste.

Vegetable Stew

This was a hearty meal, especially served with the dumplings and bread I posted in the last two posts. You can easily vary the amounts and the vegetables.

Ingredients:

oil

5 shallots

1 tbsp honey

2 tbsp tomato puree

1 vegetable stock cube

1 pinch rosemary

2 tbsp flour

3 parsnips

4 carrots

½-1 sweet potato

4-8 little new potatoes or 2-3 medium potatoes

1 apple

water

½ cup orange juice

Instructions:

1. Heat the oil in a large oven-safe casserole.

2. Dice the shallots and sauté them for a few minutes over low heat.

3. Add the honey, tomato puree, stock cube, rosemary, and flour, and cook for a couple of minutes.

4. Peel and dice all the vegetables and the apple. You can choose how large to leave the pieces. Small pieces cook more quickly but large ones might look nicer to you.

5. Add the vegetables to the pan and cover with water and orange juice.

6. Roast in the oven, covered, at 180 C for about an hour.

7. Stir, add the dumplings (if using them), and cook for another 20-30 minutes.

Dumplings

I saw a recipe in <a href=" http://www.vegetarianliving.co.uk/themagazine.php?issue=18">Vegetarian Living magazine</a> for root vegetable pot roast with parsley dumplings and since M’s mum gave us her Le Creuset stoneware, I thought I’d make a variation on the dish in the stoneware for when she came over for lunch.

These dumplings can be varied with any herb or spice (or none) and can be used in most soups or stews.

Ingredients:

6 tbsp vegetarian suet (about 50 g)

1½ cups flour (125 g)

1 tsp baking powder

2-4 tbsp fresh herbs

5-8 tbsp cold water

Instructions:

1. Mix the suet, flour, and baking powder together.

2. Wash and chop the herbs and add them to the mixture.

3. Add enough cold water so the mixture gets pliable. Roll it into little balls.

4. Put the dumplings into the soup or stew and cook, covered, for about 20-30 minutes.

Almost White Bread

I don’t really like white bread that much, but M and M’s mum prefer it so when we had her mum over for lunch, I thought I should make a white loaf. But to make it a bit healthier, I added some brown flour too. I couldn’t go fully white! But if you prefer white, use all white flour instead. We let it prove twice, but once is enough.

Ingredients:

5 cups flour (about 500 g) (I used 3 cups of white bread flour and 2 cups of brown bread flour)

2 tsp yeast

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp honey

4 tbsp oil (I used 3 tbsp sunflower and 1 tbsp olive to add a slight tang to it)

1 cup warm water (about 225 ml)

Instructions:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together, then add in the honey, oil, and water. Mix with a bread hook in a stand mixer or else knead on a floured surface. We mixed it in the mixer and then M kneaded it too.

2. Leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour.

3. Knead again and either prove a second time or bake.

4. Bake for about 20-25 minutes at 200 C.

Eating for Health

I’ve been a vegetarian for over a dozen years now and for some time before that I only ate chicken and fish. My family thought – and still thinks – that it’s “weird” and “unhealthy” to be a vegetarian. They often make comments about what I eat (or don’t eat) and tell me it’s impossible for me to be healthy as a vegetarian.

Actually, however, I have fibromyalgia, so the situation for me is different than it is for my nay-saying relatives. The fibro was extremely bad during my undergraduate years. Doctors put me on so many medications that I felt spacey and drugged out for much of the time. There are months that I can scarcely remember.

Then one doctor suggested I try cutting meat out completely. I’d long considered vegetarianism for ethical reasons, but it was simply too difficult in my family, because of a strict father who would not have permitted me to eat something different for dinner than he ate. But then I had permission – even encouragement – from a doctor. My father was not going to argue with a doctor.

Okay, the doctor also suggested I cut out bread. I tried that but it was hard to give up, so that didn’t last.

The vegetarianism did last, though. I found that I definitely had less muscle pain with a vegetarian diet. I was able to do the ethical thing and also take care of my health. I went off all medications (except the occasional over-the-counter pain-reliever), I slept better (still not brilliantly, I must admit), and the pain was nowhere near as bad.

I still had to deal with complaints and derision from my family (who sometimes take pleasure in taunting me by showing me the big steaks they are eating and/or making animal noises while they chow down on lamb chops or pork roasts), but I moved away from my hometown and was able to take complete control over my diet.

Mentally and physically, vegetarianism has been very healthy for me indeed.

Red Rice and Lentils

This sounds plain, but the flavours work together well and this has a sweet finish. You can, af always, add other herbs, spices, or vegetables.

Ingredients:

olive oil

2 shallots

2 tsp honey

1 stock cube

¾ cup red rice

water

¾ cup puy lentils

2-4 tsp tomato puree

watercress

mint

Instructions:

1. Warm the oil in a saucepan.

2. Dice the shallots and add them and the honey to the pan. Fry lightly for a few minutes.

3. Add the stock cube and rice and mix everything for a moment or two.

4. Add the water (about twice as much as the rice) and simmer for about 10 minutes.

5. Add the lentils and more water. Cook for another 25-30 minutes, checking for the tenderness of the lentils.

6. Stir in the tomato puree, watercress, and mint.

Raw Fruit Cake

This is another recipe I learned at the raw food workshop, but as usual I changed it. I made it in a heart-shaped silicone mould (which we lined with plastic wrap, for ease of removing and cleaning) and it was very nice for a luncheon with M’s mum, although I think she might have thought it was a bit too hearty. We liked it, though.

You can of course also add liquor, such as whisky.

Ingredients:

700-900 g dried fruit (depending on how large you want your cake) – you can use dates, apricots, prunes, raisins, figs, sultanas, currants, or any other such item. I used apricots, raisins, dates, and prunes.

1 lemon

½ cup orange juice (you can also add or use instead any other fruit juice; I had pear juice left from the previous recipe – the pear cake – so I added that as well)

2-4 tsp cinnamon

1-2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp vanilla

100 g ground almonds

whole or flakes almonds

Instructions:

1. Chop the fruit and put it in a large bowl. Add the zest and juice from the lemon, the orange juice, any other juice, and the spices. Leave to marinate for a few hours.

2. Chop some of the fruit finely in a food processor, adding in some ground almonds. Add more almonds and fruit, a bit at a time, and keep chopping until smooth. If you want, reserve some whole fruit.

3. Put the fruit and almond mixture into a tin (add the whole fruit if you kept some). Decorate with the almonds or incorporate them into the mixture.

4. Leave to set in the fridge for some hours (or, if you must, bake it for a little while at low heat).

Pear Cake

Some time ago, I discovered <a href="http://bravetart.com">BraveTart</a>, a fantastic dessert blog. This is the first dish I’ve made from it, but I’ve changed it from a <a href="http://bravetart.com/recipes/PearLayerCake">layer cake</a> to just a regular cake and I’ve adapted it to our tastes.

Ingredients:

about 550 g firm pears (about 3 pears)

2 eggs

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 pinch salt

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp ginger

1½ cups sugar (200 g)

½ cup vegetable oil (about 115 g)

1¾ cups flour (about 170 g)

Instructions:

1. Peel and grate the pears, then squeeze out most of the juice. Save the juice.

2. Whisk the eggs, baking powder, baking soda, salt, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, and sugar together.

3. Pour in the oil, still whisking.

4. Add the flour and the shredded pears. Mix.

5. Pour the batter into a greased tin. Bake at 200 C for 20-25 minutes.

6. You can pour some of the pear juice over the cake as a sort of topping, or heat it with sugar or honey into a sort of syrup, and then pour it over the cake.