my food: the vegetarian edition

I made a concious effort to make more meat-free dishes over the past few days. Here's a look back at the week that was, vegetarian style.

Earth Burgers

Source

I'm a big fan of Quinoa. Huge. I still don't know why I don't make it more - it's as easy to cook as rice but so much more nutritious. I think that's all about to change now that we've tasted the wonder that is the Earth Burger. I didn't think I was going to be able to sell Rob on the idea of a meat-free burger, so I accidentally forgot to mention that small detail until said burger was en route to mouth. Success! It was a hit. I served these as the recipe suggests, topped with avocado, tomato and caramelised onion - Rob's in a wholegrain bun (baby steps, people) and mine in a lettuce cup. Seriously, try it.

Rice and Vegetable Pilaf

If nothing else, Autumn helps me find me slow-cooking mojo. This meatless Monday was going to need something special to warm me up seeing as though our heater still hasn't made its way out of storage (Let that be a gentle reminder Rob). One thing that is always at the back of my mind when cooking a vegetarian dish is how to make sure it is going to Fill Us Up. The answer? Never underestimate the power of fibre. And by that, I mean lots and lots of veggies.

As it was also the day before our Fruit and Vege delivery, I just used up whatever was making a dent at the bottom of the crisper drawer - in this case it was mushrooms, capsicum and celery. Add some rice (always brown rice), some flavour in the form of home-made stock and let it do its thing for a few hours in the oven. It was delicious, if I do say so myself.

Pumpkin soup

So Rob dislikes pumpkin but loves pumpkin soup. Weird. (Do you see what I'm working with here people?!) Making a huge batch on a Sunday solves our lunch issues for (most of) the week, and I love knowing that we are all getting a midday veggie hit.

I don't get too fancy: I steam a kilo or two of butternut pumpkin until tender but not falling apart (or roast if you have the time so it caramelises in the oven - drool), fry an onion and a couple of crushed garlic cloves in organic ghee and put it all in a blender in batches. Then I transfer it all back to the saucepan and reheat with some water, a generous amount of cream, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Too easy.

All in all, I was rather satisfied with this week's efforts.