Help in the search for the UK’s Tastiest Meat-Free Dish

Linda McCartney foods are launching ‘The Search for the UK’s Tastiest Meat-Free Dish’ and they would love for you to be involved. They’re inviting people across the country to help create the next Linda McCartney meal. So get creative and show the UK that meat-free doesn’t have to mean taste-free.

Here’s how it works:

1. From the 15th of November 2010 until 28th January 2011 people can submit their meat-free dish online at www.tastiestmeatfree.co.uk

Each recipe has to meet some simple criteria:

  • The recipe should be a complete dish – preferably no salads or soups.
  • It should only contain vegetarian ingredients, like cheese and stock, and of course – no meat!
  • It has to be tasty!
  • People can also upload a photo

2. In February 2011, the judging panel will select what they consider to be the top 3 dishes, worthy of the title ‘The UK’s Tastiest Meat-Free Dish’.

3. Then, in Spring 2011, each finalist’s home town will be visited to film them making their recipe on the Kitchen Table. The mini-films will go on air in April on ITV. Each finalist will also win a Baumatic cooker worth up to £1,500.

4. ITV’s This Morning viewers will be invited to go online to vote and a winner will be chosen.

5. Each week the favourite dishes will feature on the website, Facebook and Twitter.

6. The winner’s dish will then be developed into a Linda McCartney product, with the winner themselves featured on the box. They will also win a beautiful Titchmarsh & Goodwin hand-made kitchen table, worth £4,000.

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Competition: Win a copy of Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar

vegan-cookiesI don’t make a lot of cakes or cookies or things. This is obviously  because I’m a finely tuned athlete. Ok, it’s because if I did make cakes or cookies or things, I’d eat the whole lot in one sitting like the fat pig bloater I really am.

But, if I did make a lot of cakes or cookies or things, I’d be sure to make some from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero (from the brilliant Post Punk Kitchen website and also authors of the even more brilliant Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook).

This lovely little book has over 100 recipes for cookies, bars, biscotti, brownies and more, featuring full-colour photographs throughout.

Going through this book and seeing such tempting things as

  • chocolate chip chai spice shortbread
  • espresso fudge brownies
  • carrot raisin spice chewies
  • peanut butter chocolate pillows
  • macademia ginger crunch drops

is almost making me want to keep it!

Still, I’ve decided to part with it (it’s unused so in perfect condition) and all you have to do to be in with a chance of winning it, is to leave a comment here and I’ll pull the winning name out of a hat.

Good luck!

Terms & conditions
UK entries only*
Competition closes midnight Friday 24 September 2010
The winner will be announced on this blog, so make sure to check back over the weekend after the closing date

*If you’re not in the UK but have a friend here I can post it to, to post on to you, that’s fine.  If you’re not in the UK and don’t have any friends here but want to pay the postage, that’s fine too.

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Competition: Win a copy of Vegan Brunch by Isa Chandra Moskowitz

Vegan Brunch by Isa Chandra Moskowitz
Vegan Brunch by Isa Chandra Moskowitz

If you’re vegan, or even if you’re not, you should own a copy of Veganomicon.

Now Isa Chandra Moskowitz – the bestselling author of Veganomicon and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World – has brought us a new cookbook: Vegan Brunch.

It starts with a list of pantry items, most of which are quite hard to find in the UK, e.g. vital wheat gluten (I tried to find it and failed, and ended up buying seitan mix from Veganstore), liquid smoke (which apparently is smoke from smouldering wood that has been condensed into its liquid form [no, I’m not making this up, honest] and tempeh. Also, it might be just me, but I’ve never heard of black salt (which according to Isa is pink and tastes of egg yolk and I‘m trying to decide if that‘s a good thing or not) and smoked salt (which only one recipe – tofu benny (Isa’s take on eggs Benedict) – calls for anyway).

The recipes are set out in sections. First up is the savoury section. A bit heavy on the tofu side, it starts with 11 tofu omelette recipes, followed by 20 pages of recipes containing tofu. Good news for tofu lovers then. Bad news for the other 99% of the population. Still, if tofu’s not your thing, there are plenty of other recipes to tempt you, e.g. mushroom, leek & white bean pie, chili cashew dosas with spiced apple cider chutney and buckwheat waffles with red wine tarragon mushroom gravy.

Pancakes and waffles take up a lot of room in the sweet section, including the odd sounding chocolate beer waffles and the gorgeous looking lemon cashew-stuffed crepes with whole berry sauce.

In the sides section there are a few sausage recipes and a recipe that caught my eye was the potato spinach squares.

Next up is the bread basket section, with a selection of baked goods such as muffins, cakes, bagels, rolls and scones (including a very tasty looking tomato & rosemary scone recipe).

Towards the end is the messy stuff; toppings, e.g. cashew sour cream and smoked almond gravy.

Finally, at the end is the drinks section, including pink grapefruit mimosas, so you can drink champagne in the morning, safe in the knowledge that everyone knows this is a socially acceptable thing to do and does not mean you are a raging alcoholic who drinks as soon as they get up.

Paperback, 240 pages, colour photographs throughout.

**Win a copy of Vegan Brunch**

Vegan Brunch is out on 4 June 2009. To get your hands on a copy before then, please leave a comment and I’ll pick a name out of a hat (a pink straw one to be precise) and will send one lucky winner a copy in the post.

Competition ends Friday 22 May 2009.  UK entries only please.

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Competition: Win “The Seasoned Vegetarian” by Simon Rimmer

The Seasoned Vegetarian by Simon Rimmer
The Seasoned Vegetarian by Simon Rimmer

It may be vegetable box delivery Thursday but today I have something far more interesting to blog about, oh yes.  Today it’s Planet-Veggie-is-feeling-generous-today day although strictly speaking that should be Mitchell-Beazley-is-feeling-generous-today day as my new favourite publisher has given me three copies of The Seasoned Vegetarian by Simon Rimmer to give away on this here blog.  Hurrah.

When the books arrive I have a look through and am getting hungrier browsing the recipes for small platefuls and large platefuls and spicy platefuls and brunch and soup and salads and add ons and puddings and things that sound confusing like turmeric roulade with harissa stew and things that don’t sound confusing like veggie carbonara, and the peppered mushroom and stilton pie is accompanied by a photo that is forcing me to make it for dinner one day next week and I wonder what the theme of the competition should be and I think aha, I know, I’ll have a competition where people have to name five famous vegetarian guests they’d have round for dinner and why and then I think I can’t think of any famous vegetarians except for Paul McCartney and I don’t want to invite him round for dinner in case he starts singing The Frog Song or something and so I find a list of famous vegetarians and I start scanning it and thinking na, he won’t be on here, he probably isn’t veggie and then fuck, there he is: JUDE LAW IS VEGETARIAN!!! Maybe there is a god after all and then I think oh but he’s divorced and I’m not really into divorced men and then I think oh he’s got kids and I’m not really into kids and then I think hang on, didn’t he cheat on Sienna Miller? and I think maybe I should just stick with The Meat Eater after all as he’s not divorced, hasn’t got any kids and probably won’t cheat on me with Sienna Miller and then I think well, I’ll still invite Jude along as eye candy, I just won’t sleep with him even if he begs me and I look down the list for a chef so they can do the cooking and blimey, there’s only one famous vegetarian chef/cookery writer and that’s Rose Elliot and I don’t want Rose Elliot to do the cooking as I bought one of her vegan cookbooks once and everything I made out of it was crap so I’ll have to do my own cooking and I think I’ll invite Jodie Marsh so there’s someone more Essex than me there but she’d better not get off with Jude as I might change my mind after a few drinks and I’m going to invite Hazel O’Connor as Breaking Glass is one of my favourite films and I can embarrass her by playing the soundtrack which I still have on tape and I’m going to invite Boy George as I bet he’s really funny and bitchy and he’ll probably get on well with Jodie Marsh  as she’s probably the only person in the world to wear more make up than he does and I’m going to invite Damon Albarn as we can get drunk and slag off Oasis and that’s my five dinner guests and now you have to tell me yours.

My five famous vegetarian dinner guests
Jude Law
Jodie Marsh
Hazel O’Connor
Boy George
Damon Albarn

Competition rules
List your five guests and reasons as a comment (list of famous vegetarians here)
Your five guests don’t have to be different to mine and they can be dead or alive
More than one entry is allowed
UK entries only please
End date 28 February 2009

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