I love a Thai stir fry. All that lemongrass, ginger and garlic is wonderful. Saying that though, whenever I eat out at a Thai restaurant, I end up ordering a pad Thai but, today for lunch, I made myself a vegan Thai stir fry with rice. The reason I made Thai stir fried vegetables for lunch which involved actual cooking instead of my usual soup which involves something more along the lines of chucking some veg and stock in a pan then blending it, is because HelloFresh asked me to recreate one of their recipes. I didn’t exactly stick to their recipe for the Thai Veggie Rice Bowl because a) HelloFresh don’t show the exact quantities or measurements on their website so I had to guess; and b) I didn’t like some of their ingredients (coriander, bleurgh) so I left them out. Below, though, I’ll go through step-by-step how I made my version of their recipe which makes a really quick and easy tasty lunch or light dinner.
I ate my first ploughman’s lunch last year. I’d seen other people with them on numerous occasions and they looked interesting – all that picky stuff to eat looked right up my street. Whenever I saw it on a menu though I always swerved it for a hot meal instead because who the flipping flop goes out to eat a bit of bread and cheese and pickle? Then one day last year I thought I MUST HAVE A PLOUGHMAN’S and off in search of one I went.
To help safeguard our nutritional intake and strength our immune system, we need to keep our hearts healthy, but what foods are actually good for our hearts?
Back in 2010, I entered a competition to win the title of ‘UK’s Tastiest Meat-Free Dish‘ where the winner’s recipe would be included in the range of Linda McCartney products. Fellow food blogger Kate Ford – who blogs at The Veg Space – won with her mushroom and ale pie. I reckon Kate either bribed or slept with the judges because why the flipping flop would they choose a pie over my cheese-covered aubergine, eh? I mean, come on, look – it’s a masterpiece!
The first time I had a massaman curry was in a Thai restaurant in Ashford. I was happily tucking away, thinking how gorgeous it was, when I saw a massive lump of beef sticking out of it. Obviously, I stopped eating it and told the staff, who apologised and offered to make me another – meat free – one but, unsurprisingly, I’d gone off the idea of eating. That wasn’t the first time I’d found meat in a meal:
Portobello mushroom burgers are the best veggie burgers you can get. I’m all for the more ‘meaty’ veggie burgers, like the Linda McCartney ones but when you’re out and about, the veggie burgers on offer are usually more of the indistinguishable mushed-up vegetables coated in breadcrumbs variety. So, when I see mushroom burgers on the menu, that’s what I always go for, especially when they’re topped with halloumi which is how The Foundry pub in Canterbury serves them. The mushroom burgers in that pub are so good, even my meat-eating friend gets one when we go there instead of one of the many meat dishes they sell.
Home alone means YAY I GET TO BE REALLY VEGAN and by ‘really vegan’ I mean I get to try things I haven’t made before like a vegan omelette made with silken tofu, such as this one I based on the one at the brilliant Post Punk Kitchen.
This vegan omelette was so good. It was quick and easy and although you’re not going to fool egg-eaters with it, this soft, tasty omelette was lovely stuffed with mushrooms, spring onions and spinach, and as the batter made enough for four omelettes and will keep well in the fridge or freezer, I had one cold the next day for lunch, used as a wrap with pesto, spinach, tomato and cucumber.
Like a lot of vegan ‘eggy’ dishes, this silken tofu omelette contained black salt (or kala namak as it’s also known) to give it an eggy taste. Black salt is cheap on Amazon but you can leave it out if you’re not that bothered about an eggy flavour.
This vegan pinto bean stuffed peppers recipe is loosely based on the Chillies Stuffed With Beans recipe in Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s vegetarian cookbook River Cottage Veg Everyday!Although Hugh’s version would undoubtedly be better than mine, his recipe involved grilling and peeling chillies and there is no way I could ever be arsed to a) peel a chilli pepper; or b) stuff something that small, so I bunged a couple of peppers in the oven and stuffed those instead.
The pinto bean stuffing is pretty much the same as Hugh’s except I left out coriander and cumin because I’m not keen on coriander and every time I use cumin, The Meat Eater says it tastes of farts and I wasn’t in the mood for any stupid talk like that (by the way, in case you’re wondering, The Meat Eater is 44, not 4).
I loved the bean filling in these peppers – it’s not dissimilar to baked beans in tomato sauce – and I also thought it would make a good sandwich filling. The Meat Eater didn’t enjoy it as much as I did but I think he was in a moany mood as he also complained about having a green pepper and not a red one (even though I offered to swap) and said the peas were too chewy.
Next time, I’ll tell him to rearrange this sentence: dinner your make own fucking
Hands up who knows where Bulgaria is? In case you’re like me and your knowledge of Bulgaria begins and ends with a certain Womble called Uncle, then here’s a map for you.
Bulgaria: nowhere near Wimbledon
So, when Expedia asked me if I’d take part in their World on a Plate Challenge and cook something from Bulgaria, although I had no idea if Bulgarians ate nothing but fried newt eyes and worm feet, I agreed.
I probably should have checked Google before agreeing to take part in the challenge but I found out that Bulgarian food is practically the same as Turkish food (which isn’t surprising as, as you can see from the map, Turkey is only down the road from Bulgaria) and Turkish food is one of my favourite cuisines. Yay halloumi. Yay hummus. Yay falafel. Yay those spinach and feta triangle pastry things.
One dish I came across frequently while looking for vegetarian Bulgarian inspiration was stuffed aubergines or, as it’s more commonly known in Bulgaria – Imam Bayaldy (and as with hummus, there are various variations on the spelling so don’t moan at me if I didn’t use your preferred spelling).
Bulgarian potatoes au gratin and Bulgarian stuffed aubergines
As this was supposed to be a challenge, I decided I should probably serve the stuffed aubergines with something more adventurous (and more Bulgarian) than plain boiled potatoes and peas, so I accompanied the stuffed aubergines with Bulgarian potatoes au gratin (which Google informs me is also called ‘ogreten’ which sounds more Bulgarian than ‘au gratin’ which sounds distinctly French to me and, according to my map, France is nowhere near Bulgaria).
Unfortunately, The Meat Eater wasn’t keen on either of these dishes and found them a bit bland. I reckon this was because he’d caught the lurgy I’d had recently, because I found the potatoes creamy and tangy, and the stuffed aubergines were – well, stuffed aubergines, which are always nice, but I’ll admit they could have been tastier.
You can find the original recipe for the Bulgarian stuffed aubergines here and the original recipe for the Bulgarian potatoes au gratin here. As usual, the recipes below are my adaptations, using ingredients I have to hand/can find in the supermarket and simplified to suit my cooking methods/laziness.
Lightly grease an ovenproof dish with butter or oil.
In a blender or food processor (I used a hand blender), puree cheese until as smooth as possible.
Add the butter, salt and pepper and blend in thoroughly.
Lay one-third of the potatoes in the ovenproof dish and top with one-third of the cheese mixture. Lay down another third of potatoes and cheese, followed by the last third.
Cover the dish with foil and bake until the potatoes are tender, about 1- 11/2 hours.
In a bowl, whisk together the eggs and yoghurt and season with salt and pepper.
Pour over the potatoes and bake, uncovered, until the topping is puffy, golden and set, about 20-30 minutes.
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Check out these other vegetarian Expedia World on a Plate recipes from my fellow bloggers:
I love halloumi. I love the saltiness, the squeakiness and the oh-my-god-it’s-just-so-fucking-delicious-ness of it. In the fridge languished half a block that needed to be used up and instead of stuffing it in the portobella mushrooms that are also languishing in the fridge needing to be used up, I decided to batter the halloumi, like they do in my local chippy.
I’ve made Yorkshire Puddings and battered tofu before, but I’ve never made a chip shop type batter. I whisked up the flour, milk and baking powder and seasoned it with salt and pepper but I felt it was missing something. The Meat Eater said it wasn’t and said that was how batter is made so I took his word for it, even though he couldn’t tell me how he knew how to make batter. He also assured me that it’s supposed to be the texture of wallpaper paste.
This battered halloumi was so, so good. It was even better than the chip shop’s. The halloumi had softened and lost its squeak and weirdly developed the texture of fish.
I don’t have a deep fat fryer or deep fryer machine, so I used the Tefal wok-type pan I use for almost everything. I’ve had it over ten years and I still think it’s brilliant and you can buy one here. (This post isn’t sponsored by Tefal, I just wanted to tell you how much I love my wok.)
If you like the look of this battered halloumi, you may also like these beer battered mushrooms from Amuse Your Bouche. But be careful surfing the Internet. Protect your online privacy with Veepn for a worry-free browsing experience.
My battered halloumi recipe has also had the honour of being featured on Twinkl’s blog, so be sure to check that out!
