talkmagic.co.uk

Has anyone tried asking for the veggie option on airplane flights? The usual 'Chicken or Beef' left me with only one choice and they usually run out of chicken before reaching me back in the cheap seats. On two occasions in the US I asked for the veggie option when booking but what arrived was some sort of thick pancake with indescribable 'stuff'' inside - allegedly Mexican cuisine so I was told – and totally inedible. Best option I ever got was in a US internal flight where ‘Bistro Bags ‘were handed out as we boarded and there was a veggie option there. It was a huge cheese bun with plenty of salad and a rather nice Danish pastry. The labels assured everyone that they were suitable for vegetarians. The carnivore option was ham and looked equally scrummy.

Incidentally, in many parts of Africa Chicken is classed as a vegetable so be careful if you seek non-meat dishes there!

I worked at a resort once where the chef (a complete bitch who put no love in her food) offered pork as the vegetarian option, because it was white meat! Then, on Christmas Eve she cooked a big bucket of Brussels sprouts and Bockwurst sausages, which was to last us through to Stephan's Day. That bucket was both the vegetarian and carnivore option.

Needless to say she was not hired the following year; the boss was a vegetarian.

Quinoa, with roasted cashew nuts, roasted butternut squash, lightly dry - fried Halloumi cheese (gotta love that squeeky texture) (and obviously loads of garlic, spices that you like, pumpkin seeds, olive oil and a lightly fried onion in there). Serve with steamed broccoli.
Super tasty and super healthy plus there is zinc in the cashew nuts, and that is good for the sex drive...
Oh and wine - lots of vegetarian wine (seems weird but many wines are not veggie as animal rennet is often used - seek one out (look for the V symbol on the back) and she'll be super impressed).

This is a belter

Summer Veg Lasagne

* A bunch of spring onions
* ½ a 30g tin of anchovies in oil (optional)
* 6 cloves of garlic
* 700g asparagus
* 500g frozen peas
* 300g frozen broad beans
* Large bunch of fresh mint
* 300ml single cream
* 1 lemon
* 300ml vegetable stock
* 500g cottage cheese
* 2 packets of fresh lasagne sheets (12 sheets total)
* Parmesan cheese
* Fresh thyme (or a pinch of dried thyme)

1. Half fill and boil the kettle.
2. Pour the oil from the anchovies into a saucepan and place on a medium heat. Finely slice the spring onions and half of the anchovies and then add them to the saucepan.
3. Crush the six cloves of garlic into the pan and fry for a few minutes ensuring that the garlic doesn’t burn.
4. Trim the pointed tips off the asparagus and put aside, then trim the woody ends from the other side and discard Finely slice the stems of the asparagus into 1.5cm pieces before adding to the pan with a splash of water from the kettle.
5. After five minutes, add the peas and broad beans along with a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir well.
6. Pick and chop up the mint leaves then add them to the saucepan along with the cream. Grate in the zest of half a lemon.
7. After a few minutes, use a potato masher to mash some of the filling to create texture. Cover with the vegetable stock and bring to the boil before adding 250g of cottage cheese.
8. Give everything a good stir and cook for a few more minutes.
9. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
10. Take the vegetables off the heat and spoon around one quarter of the mixture into a 30cm x 35cm deep dish. Top with a lasagne sheet and a generous grating of parmesan cheese.
11. Repeat the layers of vegetable and lasagne sheets until you have used all of the filling and then top with a final sheet.
12. Mix the remaining 250g of cottage cheese with a splash of boiled water and then spread over the lasagne.
13. Drizzle olive oil over the asparagus tips then place onto the lasagne. Sprinkle over the thyme along with another good grating of parmesan and a final drizzle of olive oil.
14. Bake in the oven for around 15 minutes until the topping has browned.

Tommy Magic wrote:Quinoa, with roasted cashew nuts, roasted butternut squash, lightly dry - fried Halloumi cheese (gotta love that squeeky texture) (and obviously loads of garlic, spices that you like, pumpkin seeds, olive oil and a lightly fried onion in there).

Serve that in the scooped out half of the squash and I'd definitely forego the roasted beasties at least until the main course. Sounds delish Tommy.

Vegetable Curries and Stews are cheap, filling and tasty.

Morrison's do a stew pack for less than a quid which has two onions, a parsnip, a swede and a few carrots.

Chop and dice it all, par boil then throw it in a huge pot with some veg stock and let it stew for a while. Serve with fresh bread. Simple and amazing - and I say that as a committed carnivore

Add dumplings and veggie sausages to the above and you have one of my favourites! Make sure to get the veggie dumpling mix though!

Chris, talk to me on FB sometime. I do the majority of the cooking in our house and I'm married to a veggie.

I love vegetarians, but I can never eat a whole one.

stardust wrote:Add dumplings and veggie sausages to the above and you have one of my favourites! Make sure to get the veggie dumpling mix though!

I haven't checked lately but aren't veggie sausages very high in salt content? I seem to recall some bad publicity about them, possibly in the Linda McCartney range.....

Depends entirely on which ones you get. You can make your own out of nuts and mushrooms and stuff that don't have a drop of salt in. Or used textured soya proteins. Theres a massive range to choose from.

I don't really have enough salt in my diet as it is so it's not something I worry about too much.

I thoroughly agree that be it veggie or not, home-made is best !

I'm hungry now after reading this!

off to raid the fridge....................

Jean Eugene Roberts wrote:It was more the casual hostility and schoolyard 'anti-veggie' humor from other posts. None of them botherd me but a few caused me to roll my eyes.

I hope my carrot post didnt upset anyone
I didnt mean to be hostile towards veggies (I would explain what it meant but I have literrally no idea For some unknown reason I keep writing strange things without thinking).

I do apologise

There's nothing anti-veggie about a carrot.