Oatmeal Cookies with Raisins and Pumpkin Seeds

Healthy and delicious! When you use brown sugar, they get a more caramel-like flavour, but you can use all regular sugar if you prefer.

Ingredients:
water
½ cup raisins
¾ cup vegetable oil (or you can use butter)
1 cup brown sugar
¼ cup sugar
¼ cup cocoa
3 cups oats
1 cup flour
½ tsp baking soda
1 pinch salt
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup pumpkin seeds

Instructions:
1. Boil the water and put the raisins in it, so they plump up.
2. Mix the oil, sugars, cocoa, oats, flour, baking soda, and salt together.
3. Whisk the egg with the vanilla extract and add it to the mixture.
4. Add the raisins and some of their liquid (about ¼ to 1/3 cup, but you have to judge how moist the batter is).
5. Add the pumpkin seeds. Mix everything together.
6 . Drop by spoonfuls on a baking tray.
7. Bake for 12-15 minutes at 180 C.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

This recipe makes enough frosting for the cupcakes I posted in the last recipe. You can double it for a larger number.

You can also replace the vanilla extract with mint or almond or any other flavour and/or you can add cocoa powder to it.

Ingredients:
55 g butter
½-1 tbsp milk or cream (cream makes it richer; it also works well with soy cream)
¼ tsp vanilla extract
1 cup icing sugar

Instructions:
1. In a mixer, mix the butter, cream, and vanilla extract together until pretty smooth.
2. Add the icing sugar, about ¼ cup at a time. Mix well.
3. Taste and add more cream or vanilla if needed.
4. Frost the cupcakes (or cake) with the frosting.

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes

This recipe just makes 6 large cupcakes or a larger number of small ones. It’s easily doubled for a larger batch, but I like to make a small batch so I don’t eat them all. I’ll post a frosting recipe next.

Ingredients:
55 g butter
¼ cup cocoa
30 g chocolate
1 tbsp water
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
1 pinch salt
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ cup yogurt

Instructions:
1. Melt the butter, cocoa, chocolate, and water together over low heat, stirring the whole time.
2. Mix the sugar, flour, baking powder, and baking soda together, and then mix the dry ingredients in to the chocolate.
3. Whisk the egg and the vanilla together and then mix them and the yogurt in with the rest of the batter. Stir well.
4. Place in muffin cases. Bake at 180 C for about 15 minutes (7 minutes for mini-cupcakes).

Happy Birthday, M!

Happy birthday to the world’s greatest, most beautiful, most intelligent, kindest, most thoughtful, most talented partner.

I feel incredibly lucky to have M in my life. Among many other things, she puts up with me and allows me to try out all my culinary creations on her. She makes every day a true joy.

I love you! Happy, happy birthday!

Aubergine Quiche

I like to play around with different quiches/pies/tarts. I like how you make one large one and then have enough food for several days. Since I first wrote this recipe, we’ve stopped using dairy at home because it seems that M feels better without it. So we’ve been trying out various soy “cheeses”. I’m not keen on them all, but many work pretty well in dishes such as quiches or omelettes. Do experiment and see what you like.

Ingredients:
1 portion cornmeal pastry (see previous recipe)
1 aubergine
1 handful cherry tomatoes
50 g spinach
1 tsp parsley
oil
1 tbsp honey
100 g cheese (you can use any type – I used up leftover blue cheese and cheddar)
3 eggs
200 ml milk or cream
pepper

Instructions:
1. Roll out the dough into an oven-safe dish.
2. Wash and dice the aubergine. Wash and halve the tomatoes. Fry the aubergine, tomatoes, spinach, and parsley in oil. After a few minutes, add the honey. Fry another 10 or so minutes.
3. Crumble or chop the cheese. Mix it with the eggs and milk or cream and season with pepper.
4. Put the vegetables on the pastry. Top with the egg mixture.
5. Bake at 180 C for 30-40 minutes.

Cornmeal Pastry

When making a pie/tart/quiche, you can change the flavour of the pastry by adding cornmeal (also known as polenta). This gives it a richer taste and grainier consistency.

Ingredients:
150 g butter
¾ cup flour
½ cup cornmeal
3 tbsp water

Instructions:
1. Cube the butter and blend it with the flour and cornmeal either by hand or in a food processor. Add the water.
2. Either put the pastry in the pan/dish and then in the refrigerator or else just wrap it in cling film and then put it in the fridge. Let rest for 20 or so minutes.

Salmon and Prawn Stew

This is another easy dish that you can use when cooking for those who eat fish and/or seafood. Other fish and types of seafood can be used, so play around with this.

Ingredients:
rice
water
olive oil
2 tsp parsley
about 200 g prawns
about 300 g salmon
3-5 tomatoes
1 stock cube
½ cup water
½ - ¾ cup cream or soy cream
black pepper
smoked paprika

Instructions:
1. Rinse the rice and boil it in the water for about 15 minutes.
2. Warm the olive oil in a sauce pan and add the parsley. If the prawns are frozen, add them to the pan now too.
3. Chop the salmon into small cubes and remove the skin. Wash and chop the tomatoes. Add the salmon and the tomatoes to the pan and if the prawns are fresh, put them in now too.
4. Add the stock cube and water and cream.
5. Cook, covered, over medium heat for about 10 minutes.
6. Season with pepper and paprika and serve over rice.

Rhubarb and Blackberry Crumble

As I write this, rhubarb is still in season. As it will be posted, however, that’s not really the case. But if you thought ahead, you might have frozen some excess rhubarb, or you can get some from the grocery store. A crumble will warm you up on a cold night.

Ingredients:
400 g rhubarb
¼ cup sugar (or more if needed)
1 container blackberries (about 150 g)
70 g butter, plus extra for the dish
1½ cup flour (or 1 cup flour and ½ cup oats)
6 tbsp sugar (I used soft brown, but demerera or castor or some combination thereof will work too)
1 tsp vanilla
cream or ice cream, to serve with it

Instructions:
1. Wash and slice the rhubarb. Toss it in the ¼ cup sugar.
2. Lightly butter an oven-safe dish. Put the rhubarb in it. Wash the blackberries and add them on top.
3. Dice the butter and mix it with the flour (or flour and oats), sugar, and vanilla. Put the crumble topping on the fruit.
4. Bake at 180 C for 25-35 minutes, until golden brown.
5. Serve with cream or ice cream.

Vegetarian Quote

For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love. --Pythagoras

Green Stir-Fry

Green Stir-Fry

This can be endlessly varied, depending on what sort of veg or spices you have on hand. It’s fast for weekdays.

Ingredients:
1 leek
½ green garlic
1 courgette
½ cabbage
1 handful cherry tomatoes
oil
spice (curry paste, miso paste, soy sauce, sweet-and-sour sauce, etc)
noodles (I like rice noodles)

Instructions:
1. Wash the vegetables and dice them.
2. Stir-fry them in the oil and add the spice of your choice. Mix well.
3. When it is all nearly cooked, add in the noodles. Stir-fry for a couple more minutes, then serve.

Dark Chocolate Pudding

This is pudding in American sense, not the British one, which means it is a creamy dish not unlike custard. You can use this recipe with milk chocolate instead of dark chocolate and you can freeze it to make ice cream, too.

Ingredients:
¼ cup sugar (I used brown)
3 tbsp corn flour
3 tbsp cocoa powder
1 pinch salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup double cream
2 cups milk
200 g dark chocolate

Instructions:
1. Mix all the ingredients but the dark chocolate in a sauce pan. Warm over low heat, stirring often, until well-blended.
2. Chop the dark chocolate and add it to the pan. Continue cooking and stirring until the chocolate has melted.
3. Place the mixture in a bowl in the fridge and leave to cool a few hours.
4. Serve with berries and/or cream.

Earl Gray-Poached Salmon

Yes, another fish recipe. Well, sometimes it can’t be helped; such are the compromises we must make. This is a fun, flavourful way to make fish – you poach it in tea. Served with vegetables, it’s a light meal.

Ingredients:
3 cups boiling water
2 Earl Gray tea bags (or other tea sort)
½ lemon
2 salmon fillets

Instructions:
1. Put the water in a saucepan and add the tea bags. Let steep for 5-10 minutes.
2. Wash the ½ lemon and slice it thinly. Add the slices to the tea.
3. Keep the skin on the salmon fillets but scrape any scales off it.
4. Remove the tea bags and add the salmon to the tea. Poach over low heat for about 10 minutes.

San Francisco

Over the summer, I was in San Francisco for work and I was thrilled to be in such a veggie-friendly and queer-friendly place. I was really spoiled for choice – at least on the food front I was; I certainly wasn’t looking for any other women when I’ve got the best at home.

Every restaurant I went into had a few vegetarian options on the menu, and not just the usual Portobello mushroom burger or stuffed red pepper (I must point out that I didn’t go to any steakhouses or anything like that, so I have no idea if they offer vegetarian options or not). There were also quite a few restaurants that were only vegetarian or even vegan. One I wanted to get to but didn’t have a chance to was called Greens. A woman on the plane was raving about it and I was sad that I never got there.

Golden Era was a vegetarian Chinese restaurant and my friend and I loved it. I often have trouble in Chinese restaurants because they seem to use pork products in a lot of dishes (don’t get me started on my trip to China, where I mostly ate white rice and cabbage), so this was a real treat. I loved not having to ask if any meat was used in the dishes.

We also went to Herbivore and it was so good that we want back another day. I especially loved the carrot cake. The atmosphere was relaxed and casual, which was nice too.

The gourmet treat of the trip was dinner at Millennium, an upscale vegan restaurant. I was with a friend who claims to hate lentils but he gobbled up the delicious lentil spread served with the bread. He also loved the cornmeal cake he had for dessert, though he claimed not to like polenta (which is made from the same thing). I found the food to be thoughtful and flavourful and it was wonderful to sit in a fancy restaurant and enjoy all the things that come with classy eating and to know that all the dishes were cruelty-free.

But while the eating was generally good (don’t remind me of the meal I had at the garlic restaurant, which made me feel sick and stinky for days), other aspects of the trip were less pleasing. The gay neighbourhood, the Castro, had loads of gay men, but I saw few women. The gay bookshops were out of business (though other bookstores have gay shelves). The work event I went to was dreadful. Food makes up for a lot, though, so I definitely recommend San Francisco as a vegetarian destination.

My Cousin Chad’s Pasta

When I was last in my hometown, one of my two lovely cousins cooked a couple of vegetarian dishes. Let me point out that no one else in my family is a vegetarian and that my cousin is just 21. I think that will emphasise to you just how kind it was that he went to all the effort for me.

One night while everyone else was dispersed, Chad made me pesto pasta. It was so nice to sit with him and chat and eat food that he’d cooked especially for me. I immediately requested the recipe for the blog. And if you need any work done on websites, do use Chad’s excellent services.

Thanks for being such a great cousin, Chad!

Ingredients:
1 box of farfalle pasta (about 450 g)
water
1 clove garlic
1 tsp butter
1 jar traditional pesto (about 180 g)
1 jar sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil (about 240 g)
parmesan, to taste
crushed red pepper flakes, to taste

Instructions:
1. Boil the pasta in the water. This will take about 12 minutes. Strain the pasta, then put it back in the sauce pan.
2. Mince the garlic and add it, the butter, and the pesto to the pasta. Chop the tomatoes and add them.
3. Season with parmesan and red pepper flakes to taste. Stir everything together.

Squash Couscous

This was a simple weeknight meal that was healthy and full of flavour. The tomatoes might seem a bit odd, but I had tomatoes to use, so I added them. It worked fine, but you can leave them out too.

Ingredients:
1 butternut squash
oil
1 courgette
1 tsp sugar
2 tomatoes
200 g couscous
water
¼ cup raisins
handful of pine nuts (about 30 g)
2 tbsp crème fraiche or yogurt, optional
salt
black pepper

Instructions:
1. Wash the butternut squash and coat it lightly with oil. Roast it in the oven at 200 C for about an hour, until the skin has browned. Leave aside to cool.
2. Wash and dice the courgette. Fry it in oil over low heat for about 8-10 minutes. Add the sugar so it caramelises.
3. Meanwhile, peel and de-seed the squash. Dice it into small pieces and add to the pan.
4. Wash and slice the tomatoes and add them as well. Continue to stir-fry.
5. Put the couscous in a pot. Boil the water and add it to the couscous. Leave it to stand, covered, for about 5 minutes.
6. Add the raisins and pine nuts to the squash.
7. For a more creamy couscous, add the crème fraiche or yogurt to pot and mix in well.
8. Season the squash with salt and black pepper to taste.
9. Serve the squash over the couscous.