One month and counting...

At the end of my first month as a vegetarian I have to say that I have not found it too difficult. I did think that Josh's sausage rolls that he made for our Australia Day party looked really yummy, but other than that I have not missed eating meat. I really appreciate people sharing recipes with me and it is fun trying new things. Keep them coming! Tara, I'm excited for the Spinach Pie recipe you have coming!

Cauliflower Soup

I know, it's another soup, but I love soup in the winter and this is so yummy! We first had this at Jeni's house and Maya loved it so much she wants it for her birthday dinner.

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Serves: 6
Josh Rating: 4 out of 5
Maya Rating: way more than 5

1 stick Butter
½ onion, finely diced
1 carrot, finely diced
1 stalk celery, finely diced
1 whole cauliflower head, roughly chopped
2 Tbs fresh or dried parsley, chopped
2 quarts chicken broth
6 Tbs All-purpose flour
2 cups milk
1 cup Half-and-half
2 - 4 tsp salt, to taste
1 cup (heaping) sour cream, room temperature

In a large soup pot or dutch oven, melt 4 tablespoons butter. Add the onion and cook for a few minutes, or until it starts to turn brown. Add the carrots and celery and cook an additional couple of minutes. Add cauliflower and parsley and stir to combine. Cover and cook over very low heat for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, pour in chicken stock or broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and allow to simmer.

In a medium saucepan, melt 4 tablespoons butter. Mix the flour with the milk and whisk to combine. Add flour-milk mixture slowly to the butter, whisking constantly. Remove from heat and stir in 1 cup half-and-half. Add mixture to the simmering soup. Allow to simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. Check seasoning and add more salt or pepper if necessary.

Just before serving, place the sour cream in a serving bowl or soup tureen. Add two to three ladles of hot soup into the tureen and stir to combine with the sour cream. Pour in remaining soup and stir.

Serve immediately.

Recipe from: The Pioneer Woman Cooks

Lentil Shepherds Pie

At first when Josh told me his rating of this I told him I was going to scrap the Josh rating system, but then I remembered that he does not like Shepherds Pie made with meat either, so I tried not to take it personally. I dropped some off for Dad and Sara's family to try too and they liked it.

Prep Time: 30 minutes + optional soaking time (see below)
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Serves: 4
Josh Rating: 0 out of 5

8 potatoes
1/4 cup milk
40 g butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 can crushed or diced tomatoes
2 cups vegetable stock
2 Tbs tomato paste
1 Tbs red wine vinegar
2/3 cup lentils
1 medium carrot, finely chopped
1 cup peas
1/3 cup parsley, coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 220 C (425 F). Boil potatoes until tender, drain. Mash in a large bowl with milk and half of butter.

Melt the remaining butter in a medium pan; cook onion and garlic, stirring, until onion softens. Add undrained tomatoes, stock, paste, red wine vinegar, lentils and carrot; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add peas and parsley, cook 5 minutes. Spoon lentil mixture into a baking dish. The lentil mixture will have a lot of liquid. Spread potatoes on top. Bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Stand pie 10 minutes before serving.

Note on lentils: when I made this I did not pre-soak or pre-boil the lentils but I was concerned that they would not be soft so I simmered the lentil mixture for longer than 15 minutes. I think this cooked too much liquid out of it and it was a little dry in the Shepherds Pie. Next time I will pre-soak or even pre-boil the lentils for 20 minutes to make sure they are soft (but not mushy) and stick to the 15 minutes simmering time to make sure the Shepherds Pie is nice and moist.

Recipe from: Women's Weekly Vegie Main Meals

Tortilla Soup

I got this recipe from Corinne and it got rave reviews from both Josh and Maya - a big plus! It can be made with or without chicken. I made everything then separated some for myself before adding the meat to Josh and Maya's.



Prep Time: 30 min

Cooking Time: 30 min

Serves: 6 - 8

Josh Rating: 5 out of 5

1 onion, finely chopped

Olive oil

4 cloves garlic, minced

6 cups chicken or vegetable broth

3 tomatoes, chopped

½ bag frozen corn

1 large chicken breast

1-2 cans black beans, drained & rinsed

1 lime or 1/4 cup lime juice (1 extra lime for garnish)

1 handful cilantro, chopped

6 corn tortillas, cut into strips (or tortilla chips)

1-2 avocados, diced

2 tsp chili powder

1 Tbs cumin

Salt and pepper

Cheddar or jack cheese, shredded

Sour cream

Sauté onion in olive oil until soft. Add garlic, chili powder, and cumin. Sauté until fragrant (a minute or two). Add chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer. Add tomatoes, corn & black beans.

Grill chicken seasoned with chili powder, garlic powder, salt, and pepper. (Or pan-fry it, but it won’t add the smokiness that the bbq does). Cut up or shred chicken and add it to the soup. Add more seasonings if needed. Add lime juice, cilantro, and avocado.

In large fry pan over medium-high heat, crisp up tortilla strips. Add salt. You may do this with oil or cooking spray. (For a shortcut, use tortilla chips instead).

Serve soup garnished with cheese, sour cream, tortilla strips, fresh cilantro, and a lime wedge.

Yoghurt Parmesan Chicken/Tofu

This was my favourite meal before becoming a vegetarian. I hadn't made it for years because there was nothing I could find for me to eat with it. Then to give Greg some more variety I just made it for him and ate the side veggies which wasn't that substantial for me.

When I learned about the tofu trick I decided to try it with this recipe and it really works. I still make chicken for Greg and do tofu slices for me. It sounds gross but it works - Greg took a bite of mine last time I made it and liked it. He ended up eating all of the chicken pieces at dinner so the next day he took one of the tofu pieces for lunch and enjoyed it. It's good with gravy.

(You can see the texture looks more like chicken than tofu)

Ingredients

2 cups crushed Ritz crackers
3 Tbs Parmesan cheese
3 tsp Season All
2 chicken breasts
1 block of tofu - cut into slices (depending on block size I get about 5 slices, 1 inch thick)
1-2 cups of plain yoghurt
1/4 melted butter

Combine cracker crumbs, Parmesan cheese and Season All. Pour yoghurt into a separate bowl and coat each piece of chicken and tofu. Then coat each piece individually in the crumb mixture. Arrange chicken and tofu in a baking dish and drizzle with melted butter. Bake in a 180C (350F)
oven for 45 minutes or until tender.

Tofu Trick

I typically can't eat much tofu because I don't love the flavour and I'm not a fan of the texture. Recently I was told about how to give tofu a more meat-like texture.

Buy firm tofu and squeeze as much liquid out of it as you can. Then put it in a zip lock bag and freeze it. Once it's frozen put it in the fridge to defrost. When it's thawed out squeeze as much liquid out of it again. Then it's ready to use. This is what I do for the Yoghurt Parmesan Chicken Recipe, which I will post soon. I know you all probably have that recipe but I've got pictures of it with tofu.

Green Pea Soup

We had this soup this week and Josh and I thought it was very yummy. Maya doesn't like peas and thought that a bowl of green slop looked pretty disgusting. She had to eat one spoonful to try it, then she had mac & cheese.

When exclaiming over how tasty this soup was, Josh suggested having a "Josh Rating" on recipes I post on my blog. I figure that since he's a dedicated meat-eater his rating would be a helpful indicator for non-vegetarians too.

I don't like mint in savory food, so I left out the mint but have included it in the recipe below.

Prep Time: 20 min + 2 hrs soaking

Cooking Time: 1 hr 40 min

Serves: 4 - 6

Josh Rating: 4 out of 5

1 1/2 cups green split peas

2 Tbs olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 stick celery, sliced

1 Tbs ground cumin

1 Tbs ground coriander

2 tsp grated fresh ginger

5 cups vegetable stock

2 cups frozen green peas

salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 Tbs chopped fresh mint

4 Tbs plain yogurt or sour cream

Soak the split peas in cold water for 2 hours. Drain. Heat oil in a large pan and add onion, celery and carrot. Cook over medium heat for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft but not browned. Stir in cumin, coriander and ginger, then cook for 1 minute.

Add split peas and stock to pan. Bring to the boil; reduce heat to low. Simmer, covered, for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Add frozen peas to pan and stir to combine. Purée soup in batches in a food processor or blender until smooth. Season with salt and pepper and then stir in mint. Serve in bowls with a swirl of yogurt or sour cream.

Recipe from:

The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook (Murdoch Books, 1996)