Veggie, steady, go...

I’ve neglected the foodie aspect of the blog recently, although I certainly haven’t given up on my plan to move Project 333 into the kitchen, in particular the campervan kitchen. When OH decided recently that he would like to adopt an at-home vegetarian diet a few changes were required to the thirty-three item larder list. When I first wrote about our eating habits I described them as ‘virtually vegetarian’ as we did eat fish and free-range chicken, plus the occasional pack of lardons to liven up a pasta carbonara. France has not really embraced vegetarianism and it is very difficult to dine out, especially in this area where there are more cows than people. So, whilst we may be considered ‘lazy vegetarians’ by some we have decided that at least we will be meat-free at home and in the campervan. In fact, it proved to be extremely easy on a recent trip to Germany and Denmark where I stocked up on soya mince and veggie sausages.

It’s been about fifteen years since I completed my Vegetarian Cookery Diploma at the Vegetarian Society in the UK. I’d kept a few core recipes in my repertoire so it was just a question of resurrecting and updating these, plus adding a few new ingredients to the larder list. Although it’s a bit of a cheat, I’ve expanded ‘pinenuts’ to become a ‘nut box’ containing a variety of pinenuts, cashews, and flaked almonds, as nuts are such an important source of protein. The only two other non-veggie items were the tinned anchovies and salmon – these I’ve swapped for a tin of flageolet beans and tinned spinach. Another cheat, I’ve combined salt and pepper into one ‘seasoning’ entry and added a dried fruit box containing dried apricots, raisins, sultanas and cranberries.

 

My first new recipe was a slight variation on the BBC Good Food magazine’s Moroccan mushrooms with couscous click here if you want the proper version, which I found after a few tweaks could be made using virtually 100% store cupboard ingredients. [I used garlic instead of onion and everything was tinned].