Vegetaran Week | Part One

I always like to set challenges for myself, for example, I set my self the 100 days of no junk food challenge, my summer blogging task and this week I set myself the challenge of going vegetarian. I have many friends who don't eat meat and I always wondered what it was like. For a while I've been thinking of cutting out meat from my diet for my own reasons but thought it would be to difficult and too much of a hassle for my family and lifestyle. 

My parents were happy for me to have this "trial" week as long as I prepared the meals. Now, I already helped out with shopping, meal planning and preparing so this wasn't too big of a deal for me. I managed to find 6 reasonably easy recipes for me to prepare for my family that were vegetarian and today I'll be shar
ing three of them with you. 

 Mushroom and Leek Quiche

Ingredients:

 1 shortcrust pastry sheet

10g butter

1 leek, chopped

1tbsp olive oil

150g button mushrooms, chopped

3 eggs

200ml of single cream

1 pinch of ground nutmeg

100g grated Gruyere cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

Set your oven to 180C and line a pie dish with your pastry. 

Melt the butter in one frying pan and add the leek, cook for 5 minutes. In another pan, heat the oil and add the mushrooms, also cook for 5 mins.

Meanwhile, mix the egg, single cream and nutmeg, mix for a few minutes in a bowl. Then add the grated cheese and seasoning and mix again. Add an even layer of the leek and mushrooms into the pastry lined dish and pour over the cream, cheese and egg mixture. Cook in the oven for about 30 mins.

Chickpeas, tomato and spinach curry

Ingredients ( serves 4):

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

3cm piece of ginger, grated

6 ripe tomatoes

2tsp oil

1tsp ground cumin

2tsp ground coriander

1tsp turmeric

pinch of chilli flakes

1tsp marmite

4tbsp red lentils

7tbsp coconut cream

1 head of broccoli broken into small florets

400g chickpeas

100g spinach

1 lemon, halved

1 tbsp of both sesame seeds and chopped cashews

In a food processor (I used a Nutribullet) blend the onion, garlic, ginger and tomatoes into a puree. 

Heat the oil in a large pan and add the spices, fry for a few seconds, then add the puree and marmite. Simmer for 2 mins then add the lentils and coconut cream, cook until the lentils are tender.

Then add the broccoli and leave for 4 mins. Drain the chickpeas and add along with the spinach and squeeze over the lemon. Swirl though the cashew and sesame seeds.

I served mine with brown rice.

Squash and Puy lentil salad

Ingredients (serves 4):

1kg squash, thickly diced

1tbsp olive oil

1 garlic clove, crushed

2tsp of thyme leaves

1tbsp balsamic vinegar

1tsp wholegrain mustard

2 400g of Puy lentils in water

1/2 red onion sliced

100g spinach

150g cherry tomatoes, halved

40g Cheshire cheese

1 tbsp pumpkin seeds

Preheat the oven to 180C. Toss the squash in half of the olive oil, the garlic, thyme and seasoning. Roast in the oven for 25mins. Mix the balsamic vinegar, wholegrain mustard, remaining olive oil and 1tbsp of water. Drain the lentils and toss with the dressing, red onion, spinach and cherry tomatoes.

Divide the salad between your serving plates and top with the squash. Can be served warm or cool. Sprinkle over the cheese and pumpkin seeds.

Ta'dah! These were the first evening meals of my vegetarian week and my family and I loved them.
If you want to know what else I ate, look for the second part of this post which should be up on Friday.

Francesca Rose x