I love vegetables.

When my mum reads that statement it will make her laugh out loud, as I've spent most of my life hating vegetables and avoiding them as much as possible.

And actually I still don't love all vegetables - stalky nobbly broccoli is clearly the devil's work. Nothing would convince me to eat smelly watery cucumber. However, if you roast me some sweet parsnips or nutty Jerusalem artichokes I'm a happy girl.

We now probably eat vegetarian meals at least three times a week, and what has made the difference has been finding amazing recipes which put vegetables at the centre of the dish and are packed with great flavours and textures.

I have a little bit of an obsession with Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi's books Plenty and Jerusalem. Though not vegetarians they create fabulous vegetables dishes that can easily be made at home.

This recipe is adapted from a recipe in Jerusalem. I've added the peashoots/ walnuts and roasted the figs rather than served them fresh, but otherwise it's a great representation of the beautiful dishes in their books.

Ingredients:

2 sweet potatoes
2 tbsp olive oil
¼ chilli flakes
20g caster sugar
40ml balsamic vinegar
4 fresh and ripe figs
125g soft goat’s cheese
Sea salt and black pepper
A few handfuls of peashoots
A handful of roughly chopped walnuts


How to make it:

1. Preheat the oven to 240C/gas 9.

2. Wash the sweet potatoes, halve them lengthways and then cut each again similarly into three long wedges. Mix with the olive oil, the chilli flakes, a teaspoon of salt and some black pepper.

3. Cut a cross into the top of each fig, take a chunk of cheese and put it inside.

4. Spread the wedges out on a baking sheet, skin-side down, nestle the figs inbetween them and cook for about 25 minutes until soft but not mushy.

5. To make a balsamic reduction, place the balsamic vinegar and sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 2–4 minutes, or until it thickens. Be sure to remove the pan from the heat when the vinegar is still runnier than honey; it will continue to thicken as it cools.

6. Stir in a drop of water before serving if it does become too thick to drizzle.

7. Put the peashoots in the bottom of each dish and sprinkle with the walnuts.

8. Arrange the sweet potatoes and figs on top.

9. Drizzle over the balsamic reduction and crumble over some extra cheese if you'd like it.

Recipe adapted from Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi
 
Snow. Everything comes to a stand still. On Friday I couldn't even get my car out of my street - I live in town centre, but no gritting meant that it was sliding about all over the place. So in the end I left it on some double yellow lines before I hit something.

The other feature of snow is panic buying food as if the apocalypse is coming. Luckily I don't need a car to get to a supermarket, just a 10 minute trudge through the snow.

To be honest, we probably could survive for some time on what we have in the house. There are some things I like to have at all times 'just in case'. These include feta, pancetta, roasted red peppers, chorizo, eggs and sweetcorn.

The last two helped create a perfect brunch before we took the dog to the park to play in the snow. I like mine quite sweet, so I added the maple syrup but you could leave that off and top with a runny poached egg instead.

Ingredients:

50g self-raising flour
1 tsp nigella seeds
2 tsp dried thyme
2 pinches ground cinnamon
½ tsp salt
A few grind of black pepper
1 whole egg plus an extra egg white
1 tbsp milk (if needed)
340g tin of sweetcorn
6 rashers of bacon
Maple syrup


How to make it:

1. Put the bacon on to grill.

2. Put the flour, nigella, thyme, cinnamon, salt and pepper in a bowl.

3. Add the egg and egg white, then whisk. Check the texture, it should be loose and smooth - if it isn't, add the milk and whisk again.

4. Add the sweetcorn and mix so that all the corn is coated.

5. Heat a few generous slugs of oil in a frying pan.

6. When it's nice and hot, take a tablespoon of the fritter mix and add to the hot pan. You should be able to get four into a pan.

7. Don't be tempted to poke it, let it cook for a few minutes so the base seals. If you take the pan off the heat and shake vigorously, they should slide about - that's the time to flip them.

8. Cook until both slides are golden and slightly crisp.

9. Take the bacon out of the grill and blot with kitchen towel to get rid of excess fat.

10. Pile the fritters into a stack, top with the bacon and drizzle liberally with maple syrup.
 
Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas food as much as the next girl - mince pies, turkey, Xmas pud, the lot. But if you're looking for a new recipe to try at this time of year it's all a bit samey - there's only so many things you can do with mincemeat.

Husband was off to his Christmas party, so I wanted to find something interesting to make that would taste great but not take too much effort, as there was likely to be some naughty puppy behaviour to contend with.

This certainly hit the spot. I've recently been mesmerised by Yotam Ottolenghi's Mediterranean series. It's impossible not to be engaged by his passion for flavours and the dishes don't rely on time consuming techniques - the ingredients speak for themselves.

I've tweaked it a bit, mainly as I didn't have fresh herbs but I also used roast peppers from a jar to cut down the cooking time. It's quite a simple recipe but the flavours are beautifully intense.

This dish is traditionally for breakfast but I'd be more than happy to have it any time of day. Maybe twice.

Ingredients:

1 tsp cumin seeds
Oil
1 large onion sliced
100g chorizo cut into small pieces
4 large roast peppers cut into 2cm strips
1 tsp muscovado sugar
2 bay leaves
2 tsp thyme
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tin chopped tomatoes
½ tsp saffron threads

A pinch cayenne pepper
Up to 250ml water
6 free-range eggs
salt and black pepper

How to make it:

1. In a very large pan dry-roast the cumin seeds on a high heat for 2 minutes.

2. Add the oil, chorizo and onions and sauté for 5 minutes.

3. Add the peppers, sugar and herbs and continue cooking on a high heat for a few minutes.

4. Add the tomatoes, garlic, saffron, cayenne and some salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to low and cook for 15 minutes. During the cooking, keep adding water so that the mix has a passata consistency.

5. Taste and adjust the seasoning. It should be potent and flavoursome.

6. Remove the bay leaves, then divide the pepper mix between 2 deep frying pans, each large enough to take a generous individual portion.

7. Place them on a medium heat to warm up, then make three gaps in the pepper mix in each pan and carefully break an egg into each gap.

8. Sprinkle with salt and cover the pans with lids. Cook on a very(!) gentle heat for 10-12 minutes, or until the eggs are just set. Sprinkle with extra parsley and serve.

Recipe from Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi

 
There are lots of things I think it's worth making from scratch - I'd never dream of using a pre-made curry paste for example. But the whole reason to make something from scratch is that it tastes better than you can buy ready made.

By that rule, there are definitely some things it's not worth faffing about with because the end result doesn't warrant the effort. On that list I include croissants, samosas, doughnuts - and pastry.

I can make pastry but it really doesn't seem worth it when ready made is so damn good.

Ingredients:
Pack of 6 fat sausages
1 large red onion, cut into thin wedges
1 red eating apple, thinly sliced
A small handful of sage leaves
4 tsp rapeseed oil
Pack ready-rolled puff pastry
2 tbsp wholegrain mustard


How to make it:

1. Heat the oven to 200C/gas 6.

2. Cut the sausages into large chunks with a sharp pair of scissors.

3. Put the onion, apple and sage into a bowl, drizzle over the oil and toss well.

4. Unroll the pastry directly onto a large, flat baking sheet. With a sharp knife, score a border inside the pastry, about a thumbwidth from the edge.

5. Spread the mustard over the pastry, keeping within the border, then scatter over the sausage chunks and onion mix.

6. Season to taste, then bake for 20 mins, until the sausage is cooked through, the onion and apple are starting to turn golden and the pastry edges are well puffed.

Recipe thanks to Good Food.
 
Picture
What to have for Saturday lunch is a constant trial in our house.


It always needs a trip to the shops and just trying to decide what to have is too much thinking for a weekend - something delicious but not too filling.  Something fresh but not too time consuming to make. I've made the mistake before  of thinking 'mmm corn beef hash' then finding myself cooking for eternity and  surrounded by washing up. 

Not today though, Dave made us delicious bruschetta.
 
 
How to make it:

1. Take two baking sheets, line one with greaseproof paper and lay thin rashers  of pancetta on it. Cover with another layer of greaseproof and put another baking sheet on top to keep it pressed down.

2. Put in a pre-heated oven at 180 C or gas mark 4 for 10 mins, then remove and let it cool slightly as it will crisp as it cools.

3. Slice some bread and toast lightly on both sides.

4.Toss some rocket and watercress with a drizzle of balsamic and a splash of
lemon juice.

5.Rub the toast with garlic and drizzle with a little oil (optional).

6.Tear some fresh buffalo mozzarella and place on the bread. 

Layer liberally with the leaves and place the strips of bacon on the top.




Recipe thanks to my clever husband.