Week 12 - Black Bean and Quinoa Burger

Everyone loves a veggie burger, some may dispute they aren't as good as meat burger........ but they still love veggie burgers.

These burgers were pretty easy to make and tasted great, although I did rely on buying a bread roll and yam fries in the supermarket so I only really made a small proportion of this meal!

My only complaint, and this is the same with all home-made burgers, is they were difficult to keep together, both in the pan and the bread roll.  The recipe is here if you want to rock out with some veggie burgers.

The plate looks sparse, but this was a feast!

Rating
Taste - 15/20
Cost - 4/10
Difficulty - 6/10
Prep Time - 5/10 
Overall 60%

Week 11 - Tofu Thai Curry

I am sad to report that I don't really have a recipe for this weeks meal!  I just bought a jar of Thai Green Curry paste and followed the instructions on the jar (substituting Tofu for chicken).  

What I have found is a recipe for Thai Green Curry paste which sounds immense, I think I'll be giving that a go at some point this year.

The point of this blog; I thought worth mentioning was how to cook Tofu.  As a Tofu novice, I assumed you just throw Tofu in your dish and eat it.  I've tried that, and it was not good.  Infact, it was bad.  So bad that it almost put me off Tofu completely.  What the Tofu packaging doesn't tell you is how to get it tasting good; so here are my top tips for any fellow novice veggies:

How to Cook with Tofu

Tofu out of the packet does not taste good.  Fact.  It is curd made from mashed soybeans so that makes sense.  There are two simple steps to making Tofu taste delicious.

1 Press the Tofu
Tofu is saturated with water, it is packed in water when you buy it.... to keep it fresh I assume.  Anyway, to make room for flavours in the Tofu you need to remove that water and this is why you press it.   I have found cutting it into slices, placing it in kitchen towel and placing a heavy object on it for an hour does the trick, but I am by no means an expert.

2 Marinate the Tofu

Now you have pressed your Tofu, you need to get some flavour in their.  The best way to do this is to marinate it, give the Tofu time to absorb the flavours you are feeding it.  Just avoid oil in your marinate as that doesn't work so well with water based Tofu!

Cook it properly and it's OK!

Rating

Taste - 12/20
Cost - 6/10
Difficulty - 6/10
Prep Time - 4/10 
Overall 56%

Week 10 - Porotos Granados

Porotos Granados is a Chilean Squash and Bean Stew.  Recipe here

If I'm honest I'm struggling to think of much to say about this dish.  That's not to say it's bad, I just didn't think it had anything to it that another stew wouldn't have had.  It was served with mashed potatos, but I think rice would have been a better suited accompanyment.

So in short; a simple anonymous stew.  Unlikely to make you any new friends, but certainly not going to lose you any (unless they were expecting meat).

A Table Cloth Did Not Improve the Look of This Dish

Rating

Taste - 9/20
Cost - 7/10
Difficulty - 7/10
Prep Time - 7/10 
Overall 60%

Week 9: Ratattouille

My photography will improve, I promise!  So far pics have been taken with my phone, but I will be making the transition to a proper camera shortly (in truth, I have made the switch but I have a backlog of recipes with rubbish pictures to use up!)

So Ratattouille, not just a great film, it's also a recipe!  Whilst the Ratattouille (I have to check how to spell it everytime I write it) was lovely, I did struggle to think of a nice way to serve it.  I went with cous cous as you can see in the picture which seemed to work, but somehow just Ratattouille on it's own didn't seem like a meal.

It was also a lot of work, so if I was to do it again I might be tempted to double up the recipe and put the other half in the freezer for another day.

Recipe here.

It tasted better than the photo looks, which would not be difficult.

Rating

Taste - 14/20
Cost - 5/10
Difficulty - 5/10
Prep Time - 5/10 
Overall 58%

Week 8: Spinach Tomato and Feta Pies

You may not think to look at me, but I love a good pie.  Bristol, my hometown is kind of famous for Pieminister Pies, so it only seemed right to have a bash at a Pieminister recipe.  

The Pieminister cookbook is a fantastic source of pie recipes........but not so much for the vegetarian!  The recipe I made was Mr & Mrs Hunt's Wedding Pies.  I have searched the internet high and low and been unable to find this recipe published anywhere, but this one is pretty close to the mark.

The best thing about these pies was taking them into work the next day, they smelt delicious and filled my office with their wonderful aroma in seconds!

Sadly they are a labour of love to make, so will no doubt slip down the meal chart because of that.

No meat for the guests at Mr and Mrs Hunt's wedding!

Rating
Taste - 16/20
Cost - 4/10
Difficulty - 3/10
Prep Time - 3/10 
Overall 52%

Week 7: Root Vegetable Frittata

I have to be honest, the Root Vegetable Frittata was not a hit with my taste buds.  I like Root Vegetables and I like eggs, but something about the combination of the two didn't work for me.  That's not to say it wasn't nice, just not to my taste.  It's a shame as this dish was easy and it looked fantastic, which was mainly due to the beets.

You can find the recipe here if you aren't convinced by my review!

The most colourful meal of 2014!

Rating
Taste - 8/20
Cost - 6/10
Difficulty - 8/10
Prep Time - 4/10 
Overall 52%

Week 6: Marakesh Stew

So it's a Moroccan Veg Stew, simple.

It was delicious, but as a reformed meat eater, I have to admit to missing the lamb normally associated with my Moroccan dishes (sorry).  

I have to mention, it made a gorgeous lunch the following day!

That said, full of Moroccan taste (i.e. cumin) and loveliness.  Recipe here

It's a fork not a silver pronged vegetable

Rating
Taste - 11/20
Cost - 7/10
Difficulty - 5/10
Prep Time - 5/10 
Overall 56%