Tunisian Carrot Salad

From Gourmet Vegetarian, Jane Price, Murdoch Books, 2007.

I always enjoy meals with the flavours of the Middle East.

I peeled and sliced three carrots and put them in a pot of salted water to bring them to the boil and cook them until they were just done. They were drained.

Meanwhile a dressing was made of a garlic clove crushed in a mortar and pestle with a little salt, a little ground cumin and a few grindings of black pepper. This paste was mixed with a ¼ teaspoon harissa, a touch of red wine vinegar and some olive oil. After tasting to see that it worked well it was poured over the carrots.

About a tablespoon of chopped parsley was added together with 6 black kalamata olives. At serving time a boiled egg was sliced into quarters and added to the dish.

A pleasing salad.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔ 

Fried Chickpeas

From Gourmet Vegetarian, Jane Price, Murdoch Books, 2007.

I was soaking some chickpeas for a recipe so decided to put in a few extra and try to make these nibbles.

After the chickpeas had soaked overnight they were deep fried for 3 minutes, taken out and placed for a minute or two on kitchen paper to drain. The oil was then reheated and the chickpeas went back in for another 3 minutes. They were then drained and sprinkled with a mixture of paprika, cayenne and salt.

Oddly some turned out crisp while others were soft. I had fried them in two batches so perhaps one of the batches was not cooked long enough.

As a nibble they went all right though weren’t really extra special. I don’t think I’ll go to the trouble of making them again.

Taste: ✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Warm Lentil and Rice Salad

From Gourmet Vegetarian, Jane Price, Murdoch Books, 2007.

I am not overly excited about heavy salads, ones made with pasta or rice. These somehow don’t really feel like salads. For me, a salad is something quite light that accompanies heavier meals. A salad that is filling and heavier does not truly do the complementary job that I feel is its role. That said, sometimes a rice salad can be just right as an accompaniment for some meals.

I have not cooked over much from Gourmet Vegetarian but the lentil and rice salad looked—at least from the photograph—as if it might be just right for what I wanted. And as it was a warm salad it would just be like serving rice with a meal.

Both the rice and the lentils had to be cooked separately. While this was happening some red onion and garlic were slowly fried in olive oil and butter. The rice was ready sometime before the lentils so the onions had a little longer time to cook which enabled them to be wonderfully soft and sweet.

Into the onion and garlic went ground coriander, cumin, paprika and cinnamon to cook for a few minutes.

The lentils were ready by now so they were mixed with the rice, and the onion and spice mix was stirred in. Seasonings were added, together with chopped spring onions.

The salad was served warm without a dressing.

Lentils and rice always go together really well and with the added onions and spices this was quite flavoursome. For my taste I think I would have preferred that there was a vinegary or lemony dressing to go with this to add a little more bite.

Taste: ✔✔✔ 

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔

Bondas

Bondas

from Gourmet Vegetarian, Jane Price, Murdoch Books, 2007.

When I read the instructions for these I thought that there was no way a batter was going to hold onto the potato balls. I was totally wrong.

The potato is diced and cooked then mixed, without mashing, into a spicy mixture: mustard seeds, curry leaves, ginger, turmeric, coriander and lemon juice. This is formed into balls and they are dipped in the batter and fried.

It’s a wonderful batter of three flours: besan, self-raising and rice. Chilli powder and turmeric are added plus water. It has a great texture and holds onto the potato balls when they are fried.

I loved these. The batter had a slight crunch and the potato was nicely spiced. Great when warm, but they also were quite good when cold the next day.

The book’s subtitle is ‘The vegetarian recipes you must have’. While I would not agree on a couple of other items I have made from the book, I would have to agree on this one.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔ 

Spiced Carrot and Feta Gnocchi

Spiced Carrot and Feta Gnocchi

from Gourmet Vegetarian, Jane Price, Murdoch, 2007

I’ve never been able to understand why vegetarian food has a bad rap. Lately I tuned in to Master Chef and was stunned to hear one of the presenters say that if the contestants didn’t catch a fish they’d have to cook a vegetarian meal. It was all expressed as though this was a punishment.  At another time when watching My Kitchen Rules the presenter expressed amazement that a contestant was able to present a vegetarian meal which was tasty. These presenters are supposedly tops chefs. I can’t understand why they choose to present a whole vibrant cuisine in such a negative way.

Gourmet Vegetarian expresses the opposite view from these particular chefs and includes a range of recipes from cuisines all over the world.

The Spiced Carrot and Feta Gnocchi was easy enough to make: cook the carrots, puree them with feta and form them into gnocchi shapes. It was all a little fiddly though with the mixture softer than the usual gnocchi and tending to stick to the hands that had to be constantly floured. Consequently my efforts tended to be larger than I would normally expect gnocchi to be. 

And was it worth the effort? The gnocchi itself was pleasant to eat. The sauce was a failure for me. I just couldn’t get it to thicken. In fact, the longer I cooked it, the thinner it seemed to become. Should I make it again, I would make a different sauce.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔

Individual Pot Pies and an Avocado, Quinoa & Broad Bean Salad

Individual Pot Pies

from Gourmet Vegetarian. Jane Price, Murdoch, 2007.

This cookbook looked to have a large range of inviting recipes. I chose to make these pot pies.

There are basically three separate parts: steam the vegetables, make the sauce, fix the puff pastry. Each section was quite easy. The result was a quite acceptable pie.

It was a bit on the difficult side to eat. Cutting through the puff pastry was not that easily accomplished. It would, I think, have been much better with a short pastry.

Taste: ✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔

Avocado, Quinoa and Broad Bean Salad

from Plenty, Yotam Ottolenghi, Ebury Press, 2010.

This is a handsome book with a title that doesn't give much away but the inside looks extremely promising. While I was not terribly taken with this recipe there's lots more to try and I look forward to getting into them soon.

The author, incidentally, is not a vegetarian but does enjoy meals with good strong flavours. He runs his own successful restaurants.

I do like broad beans but I totally dislike having to skin the beans even though the result looks a wonderful green.

I’m a little undecided about quinoa. It may be extraordinarily good for you but I’ve yet to find it an eating experience I would seek out.

Avocado is always great

.

To find a recipe with all of these ingredients in it persuaded me to give it a go. After the drudge of broad bean peeling, and the pre-cooking of the quinoa, putting it all together was a breeze.

The salad also included radishes and rocket and a flavoursome dressing.

The final result was different and edible but not that exciting. It didn’t even give that feeling that you were a fraction healthier from the experience.

Taste: ✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔