Vegetarian Friendly Recipes @Not Quite Nigella

Category Archives: Vegetarian Friendly Mains

Risotto Stuffed Tomatoes

My husband has always disliked risotto. Yes I know, let us all pick up our collective jaws off the ground together. I couldn’t believe it either. I’ve tried plying him with all different kinds but no, he steadfastly rejects it or picks at it sulkily as if I served him burnt toast. This dish however, changed his mind.

Stuffed vegetables are an impressive way of serving vegetables to the vegetable fearing children and a good way of getting hardened carnivores to try a vegetarian dish – even if it is unwittingly. I think it’s the unknown promise of what’s inside and the fact that a lot of stuffed vegetables use meat in some way. This one does not, although you could certainly add some. I don’t think this really needs any to be honest though as it stands on taste alone.

I considered fancying this up with truffle oil but decided against it, after all its appeal is that it is simple, rustic food that happens to be inexpensive and easy to cook. It can be eaten as a side dish to a meat main or by themselves. They tomatoes can be filled ahead of time and put aside so they are ideal for a dinner party. And as you’d expect try and use truss tomatoes – using a tomato without the greenery on top just doesn’t look the same.

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39 comments | May 12, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella

Red Curry Vegetable Pies

There’s something I know for certain: it’s pie season. The cooler temperature and shorter days signal to me, the need for comfort food and even thought the temperature itself hasn’t dipped that much, it’s low enough for me to yearn for the heat of the oven. I’m a different creature in Winter. During Summer it’s all about salads and water but in Winter, it’s a pastry and soup fest. And this comparatively cool Sydney evening made me hanker for some pies.

We try and eat vegetarian a few nights a week for health reasons and to reduce our reliance on meat. That’s not a sign that I am about to go full time vegetarian – I tried that once and it wasn’t for me but it feels healthier and better for the environment to do so three to four nights a week. It also lightens our grocery bill which is a nice bonus for my husband who tears his hair out at the things I like to put in my trolley.

If you’re a hardened carnivore, you could certainly add some chicken to these but I do think that they are perfect as is although by all means substitute it with whatever vegetables you have to hand – 3.5 cups will do. One thing that I never really saw any point to was making your own pastry. That is, until I found an amazing Pâte Brisée shortcrust pastry recipe. I will say that if you are not so inclined to make your own, you can use store bought but this Pâte Brisée pastry is to die for. But don’t worry I haven’t lost the entire plot, I still bought the puff pastry. That would probably signal a descent into utter madness if I were to make my own puff pastry. Feel free to call the authorities to pick me up should that ever happen.

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46 comments | May 5, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella

Healthy Beetroot Dip

I had one of those moments, you know the ones that occur every now and then when you try on your jeans – you know the ones that if you can’t fit into them, you know you have to cut down on the cakes – and they were a little too snug for comfort. I knew exactly why they were too snug, and I knew exactly what I needed to do. It was to make this dip and to snack on it instead of snacking on other less healthy options. I find that when I am peckish, especially around the witching hour of 4pm, I need something crunchy and this dip is great as it gives a nice plain cracker some pretty colour as well as a fabulous taste. It’s also pretty easy with a total of 3 (or 4) ingredients although I will say that most of the work is in the actual preparation of the beetroot.

This is a seriously great dip and I think this was helped along by two things that I bought in the Easter Show’s Best of Show Deli bag: the fabulous Pane Croccante by Brasserie Bread that I served it with from and the ambrosially creamy Country Valley Lush natural yogurt. I didn’t use any fresh herbs as I only had basil and I wasn’t sure if that would work but rest assured it is good without them. Something that I do find is that with beetroot you do get an “earthy” or “dirt” flavour but I didn’t detect any with this dip. And did I mention the jeans now fit again?

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35 comments | May 3, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella

Pumpkin Cannelloni and Bill Granger’s Feed Me Now

Getting a review copy of Bill Granger’s Feed Me Now is an exciting moment indeed. Exciting because like many Sydneysiders, I have grown up eating Bill’s hotcakes and scrambled eggs and watched him grow from a single cafe in Darlinghurst to a TV chef with an International presence and several eateries (including one in Japan). And somehow we all still look at him as the man who gave us buttery scrambled eggs and fluffy ricotta hotcakes with honeycomb butter.

The book with a picture of the smiling Granger on the cover is a attractive looking tome indeed and lushly styled in that rustic home style with colour saturated pictures, longingly pretty produce and fantastic crockery and wares. It’s slightly less “Sydney” looking i.e. less beachy and waterfront looking which probably speaks to his new international status. It’s split up into nine sections, each to cover each possible circumstance from “Rise & Shine ” i.e. breakfast – what he is most well known for – to “Dinner Dash” i.e. fast dinner meals to the clever “Freeze Me” with soups, stews, pies and pastas and “Friends Over” which features a main and 2 sides for each menu and the timely “On A Shoestring” which speaks to the GFC that currently affects the world.

Beef Pot Pie

In the same way that Nigella Express speaks to time poor people, Feed Me Now also speaks to them in a slightly gentler and less ferociously fast pace. Here there aren’t a lot of tinned shortcuts – the emphasis is still on freshly cooked foods made from scratch, but as Bill is known for his simple, tasty home cooking, this continues in that vein. There’s certainly nothing like Spun Toffee or Pressed Duck in here – the most difficult looking and impressive looking thing is the Tiramisu Ice Cream Cake.

To some, and probably the ones that like to spin toffee, they may find that the recipes err on the side of simple (for example the avocado, prawn and fennel open sandwich) and for accomplished cooks, they will probably seek inspiration in other more complicated books but even for some like me that cooks a lot, there are some fabulous sounding ideas where he puts a twist on the regular version e.g. quesadillas with black beans and green tomato salsa or apple fruit cake and a lot of “Why didn’t I think of that?” moments.

Tiramisu Ice Cream Cake

My favourite chapter of any cookbook is the dessert one and here it’s called “Sweet Dreams”. It is a relatively short chapter but the silky caramel custard with cinnamon begs to be made (although there is no picture of this) as well as the Tiramisu Ice Cream cake which has the added bonus of being frightfully easy to do.

As for the usual test of how appealing a cookbook is, i.e. the number of post it flags stuck onto recipe pages, I counted at least 10 in mine from the Japanese fried chicken, spiced chicken dumpling soup, roast chicken curry, sticky five spice ribs to many more.

The first recipe that caught my eye was the Pumpkin Cannelloni, because I just happen to love pumpkin and I know my husband adores cannelloni. It’s delicious and fairly easy to put together. When I make this again (and I will) I would add feta to balance out the sweetness of the pumpkin as it can come across as a little too sweet without it. I would also sprinkle some water over the pasta before adding the bechamel just to ensure that the pasta becomes suitably tender as there is no tomato sauce baked onto the pasta. It is delicious though and 2-3 cannelloni tubes with a side salad can easily become a weeknight dinner over the course for a several days if there are just the two of you.

And for Bill Granger fans, stay tuned! I have a surprise for you coming up soon

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39 comments | May 1, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella

Experiment: Shiitake Mushroom Bacon aka Vegan Bacon

My friend Kathy has awesome search powers. She flies through the internet scouring out things like a googling superhero and often brings me interesting things to cook/try. One of the things that she showed me was Shiitake Mushroom Bacon, where you transform the humble and healthy to taste like the delicious but let’s face it unhealthy bacon. I’ve spoken often of my love for bacon. It is what stands between me and vegetarianism and other religions, not that I’m particularly interested in joining any other groups. Another friend Carbon Debit has spoken of the Bacon made out of beef that she has tried in Jordan where the Muslim religion forbids the eating of pork products. I defy anyone to resist the smell of cooking bacon. But of course for vegetarians they must.

I was curious to try it because it sounded like such a crazy idea that it might just work. I sliced the mushrooms and soaked them for 10 minutes while the oven was preheating. I left the smaller stalks on as I thought that this would be fine as they were less than a centimetre long and popped the drained mushrooms in the oven for 8 minutes. When I took them out, ignoring the fact that they were hot I eagerly tried one. The firs thing that hit me was the smokey flavour followed by the saltiness.

Too thick with stalk on the left, better thickness and crisped up on the right

Was it bacon? Perhaps not exactly but it wasn’t too bad. It’s like the Jessica Seinfeld Spinach and Carrot brownies, it’s pretty good but if you’re a diehard fan expecting the real thing you may be a tad disappointed. The thinner cut pieces got crispier and therefore more bacon like than the rest, certainly the ones with the small stalk end didn’t crisp up enough and just tasted like shiitake mushrooms with soy so I would suggest removing the stalk and cutting each piece about 3-4mms thick so that all of the pieces crisp up nicely. Also I found that after a while they lost their crispness and once they did, they transformed to salty Shiitakes again. I’d also suggest marinating them for a shorter amount of time as the saltiness is quite strong and the mushrooms act like sponges. As for a name? Perhaps I Can’t Believe It’s Not Bacon -of course advertised by Fabio.