going veggie at home

A while back, Mitch and I decided to stop cooking meat at the flat - apart from fish as I love fish a lot (perhaps the title of this post should've been going 'semi-veggie at home'...). I just thought I'd share some of the recipes we've discovered and adapted over the last couple of months, you'll have to forgive me for my extremely poor attempts at food photography, it really is a skill that I clearly do not possess.

★ Shrimp Pad Thai - It is actually heaven in a bowl (this image does not do it justice). I've made it about 5 times since stumbling across it and every time it's bloody amazing. I don't use brussell sprouts as I detest them but I've found that greens or regular cabbage works swell.

★ Veggie Burgers - I love a good meaty burger so was a little skeptical about a veggie one but this recipe is delish. I ommitted the egg and just used more salsa to combine the mixture which worked a treat. I also added waaaay more chilli powder (and some other spices) than the recipe suggested to give it a bit of a kick. Further proof of their tastiness: I fed these to a v.ardent meat eater and he loved them!

★ Tofu - I'd never cooked it before and for some reason it didn't come out that well for me. It took FOREVER to fry and although it made a perfectly acceptable veggie alternative to the king prawns in the pad thai above, I prefer the prawns. However, I've not given up just yet. I'm going to try again with tofu and this recipe seems like a good candidate.

★ Mushroom and Leek pie - adapted from the chicken and mushroom pie recipe I made back in feb. It's a winner both ways but I prefer it with the leeks. Chicken does seem to be the meat I miss the least as it's fairly easy to substitute. (Although, Mitch's jerk chicken is absolutely fabulous and I do miss that. A hell of a lot. If you have a veggie alternative to jerk chicken I'd love to have it! Can you have jerk fish?)

★ Lemon and caper pasta salad - this is a perfect summer recipe. Unbelievably quick to make, very few ingredients (most of which you probably already have in the cupboard) AND it's so easy a child could make it. Blindfolded*.

*blindfold not recommended as there are sharp knives and hotwater involved.

★ Fajitas - Following on from the 'not missing chicken' thing, veggie fajitas are the bomb. Kidney beans, peppers, onions, spices, guacamole, tomatoes, salsa, nachos - why on earth did I ever need to add chicken to it? I don't have an actual recipe for this as it pretty much consists of me cooking onions and peppers with paprika, chilli fakes, pepper and a cajun mix, heating up the beans and then bunging them both in a wrap with all the other aforementioned ingredients. Idiot proof and YUM.

I'll share some more of our veggie (and fishy) favourites soon - hopefully with some half decent pictures. In the meantime you can peruse more fabulous recipes on my food based pinterest board.