Be a ginger ninja.Tasty Carrot & Ginger soup

Well time was tight, another busy evening and not much time for doing anything. That’s just how i found myself yesterday evening. It can be so temping to just pop down to the chip shop or dial up a pizza and dinner is sorted in an instant. Easy eh! Or maybe there are other options. Charlotte said “lets look in the freezer and see what we have in there” good call. After a minute we found a soup tucked away at the back. Ideal! Carrot & Ginger soup a real treat.

We made this soup a couple of months ago and froze the some of the leftovers and what a treat to find it was.  

A simple but tasty treat, the ginger lightly spices the soup, creating a wonderfully warm dish.

Carrot & Ginger Soup

Serves 4                Prep time 10 mins          Cook time 20 mins

 Ingredients

• 2tsp olive oil
• 1 onion peeled & chopped
• 1 garlic clove peeled and crushed
• ¼ tsp ground ginger
• 450g carrots peeled & chopped
• 1 litre Vegetable stock
• 2.5 cm piece of root ginger peeled and finely grated
• Salt & freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Gently cook the onion and garlic for 3-4 mins
2. Stir in the ground ginger and cook for one minute to release the flavour
3. Add the chopped carrots, then stir in the stock and fresh ginger. Simmer for 15 minutes
4. Remove from the heat and allow to cool, blend until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in the lemon juice

Absolutely delicious served up with crusty bread.

One year a Vegetarian

Well, today makes it one whole year since I decided that I would become a vegetarian. For those unfamiliar with my story my partner Charlotte became a vegetarian some 25 years ago at a young age. I was different; I had eaten meat all my life until our paths crossed in 2010.

We moved in together back in 2011 and almost immediately my meat consumption dropped overnight. It was nothing to do with her preaching vegetarianism at me, as far as she was concerned if I was going to eat meat that was my choice and she accepted me as I was. From my point of view I didn’t think it was necessary to cook separate meals; I would eat whatever Charlotte ate, and that’s what we did at home. It was an easy choice for me because the food Charlotte prepared was absolutely delicious. When we ate out on occasions I would venture into the meat dishes on the menu but this was becoming rarer as time went on.

Eventually the penny finally dropped.  Why was I still bothering to eat meat? The food I was eating at home was all vegetarian and was by far tastier than meat dishes.  I was also feeling a whole lot better for my reduced meat intake so, one year ago, I made the decision: “no more meat”.

Has it been hard? No not at all.  What is there not to like about vegetarian eating? It’s tasty, healthy and nutritious food.  Charlotte has inspired me and given me the confidence to experiment more in the kitchen.  Now I enjoy discovering new recipes and sharing them through this blog. I can honestly say that I don’t miss the meat in the slightest.  I only wish I’d embraced a vegetarian diet sooner in life.

You won’t get in a stew over this stew

Split pea stew with Ethiopian spices

I have found that the Times newspaper often has some great vegetarian recipes.  Last weekend, I made this lovely stew with Ethiopian spices.  It takes a little time, but please don’t be put off.  It tastes delicious.  I halved the recipe and it made enough for 4.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

250g yellow split peas, rinsed and thoroughly drained

2tbsp olive oil

20g butter

3 onions, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves

1tbsp grated ginger

1tsp cardamom seeds, crushed

1tsp turmeric

Salt and ground black pepper

250g spinach, cooked, drained and chopped

Handful torn basil leaves

Method

1). Simmer the split peas in a saucepan with 600ml of water for about 50 minutes, until they are tender and beginning to break up.

2). Meanwhile, heat the oil and butter in a frying pan, and fry the onion over a gentle heat until translucent and sweet smelling

3). Add the garlic and ginger and continue to cook for another 5 minutes, taking care they don’t burn.  Stir in the cardamom and turmeric and cook for another 1-2 minutes. 

4). Drain peas, reserving any water, stir into onions and spices.  Season and cook for another 20-30 minutes. 

5). Stir in spinach and basil and serve.

I served the stew with some onion seed flatbreads from a recipe I’d also found in the Times.  Here it is:

Makes 8 flatbreads

Ingredients

250g plain flour

1tsp salt

2tbsp olive oil

150ml warm water

1tbsp black onion seeds

Method

1). Form ingredients into dough with hands.

2). Knead on floured surface until smooth.

3). Roll into sausage and cut into 8.  Roll balls into thin discs.

4). Cook in hot, dry frying pan for 2 minutes each side until charred.

Unlike the stew, I didn’t halve the quantity here.  We ate the left over flatbreads with houmous.

I’d recommend searching for flatbread recipes online.  I can’t believe how much ready-made flatbreads cost – it’s so much cheaper making them yourself.  And so simple too.  If you haven’t got onion seeds, then you could experiment with other store-cupboard herbs and spices, for example, paprika or parsley.

Moroccan Chickpea & Aubergine soup

Moroccan Chickpea & Aubergine soup

A frugal soup that is very warming and utterly delicious. A great soup in the autumn and winter.

Ingredients

• 2tbsp cold pressed rapeseed oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic finely chopped
• 1 large mild red chilli, finely diced

• Spices
• ½ tsp turmeric:
• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon:
• 1 tsp ground cumin;
• 1 tsp Paprika;
• ¼ tsp ground white pepper.

• 1 Aubergine cut into rounds then 1cm dice
• 5-6 sun dried tomatoes, finely sliced
• 1x400g tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1x400g tin of chickpeas
• 500ml vegetable stock
• Large handful of chopped coriander, stalks and all
• A handful of mint leaves, picked from the stalks and shredded
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Cooking method

1. In a saucepan, heat the oil and then add the onions and garlic and cook over a medium heat for 6-7 minutes stirring occasionally until golden and softened

2. Add the diced chilli and then the spice mix, stir well until combined.

3. Chop the aubergine and add into the spiced oil, turn around well in the pan until coated with the spices.

4. Add in the sun dried tomatoes, tinned tomatoes, chickpeas and vegetable stock. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes

5.  Finally check the seasoning, add salt and pepper if required, add the fresh herbs and serve

Todays famous vegetarian birthday

Ke$ha

Born 1^st March 1987

American singer, rapper, and songwriter Kesha Rose Sebert was born in Los Angeles, California on March 1, 1987.

Her breakthrough came in early 2009 after appearing on rapper Flo Rida's number-one single, "Right Round", although she was uncredited. Her debut album, Animal, and her first extended play, Cannibal, were released in 2010. Kesha's music and image propelled her to immediate commercial success, with Animal debuting as the number-one album in the United States. She also achieved two number-one singles, "Tik Tok" and "We R Who We R", and a string of top ten hits from the album and its re-release.

 Kesha has gone on to work with and write for many artists including Britney Spears, Iggy Pop, Nicki Minaj and Alice Cooper

Kesha was named rights group Humane Society of the United States's first global ambassador for animal rights, for which she is expected to bring attention to such practices as cosmetics testing on animals and shark finning. She also appeared alongside rock singer Iggy Pop in a campaign for PETA, protesting the clubbing of baby seals in Canada and later wrote on behalf of the organization to fast food chain McDonald's over the conditions of their slaughterhouses.

In February 2012, VH1 placed Kesha in the 57th spot of the Top 100 Greatest Women in Music. Kesha is a vegetarian and an ordained minister, having been ordained online. She has performed legal commitment ceremonies for gay couples as well.

Happy Birthday Ke$ha 28 Today

Sweets for my sweet

It’s the end of a busy month again, I hope you have enjoyed the recipes I have given you through February. We started off the month with Baba Ghanoush which is such a tasty dip We also made mushroom bhajee and balsamic mushrooms along with roasted pepper soup and lets not forget the tasty chickpea and sweet potato curry. All tasty and all pretty easy things to make. So to finish off the month then you deserve a little treat. 

Sweets eh! We all know we shouldn't but we all love them don’t we. So when I say fudge what do you think of? Is it the late 60s American heavy metal band that did a rendition of the Supremes “Keep me hanging on”, or is it the lovely creamy fudge that you bought in Woolworths when you were young. Or maybe it’s the fudge you get from a farm or gift shop. We all love fudge and Vanilla Fudge is one of my favourites.

My mum used to make it for me when I was young so I thought it was time to have a go again myself. Vanilla fudge it was to be, you can’t go wrong with that I thought so it was a quick search online to find a recipe that suited and lo and behold good old Nigella delivered a great recipe. So here is Nigella’s recipe for Vanilla Fudge with condensed milk.

Vanilla Fudge 

 Ingredients 

• 250 grams soft butter
• 1 x 397 grams can condensed milk
• 175 ml milk
• 2 tablespoons golden syrup
• 800 grams granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla  

Method

1. Fill a small bowl or jug with ice cold water and put near the stove. Grease a tin of approx. 30 x 20cm / 12 x 8 inch or 25cm / 10 inch square, or use a throwaway foil tin, as I have in the picture.
2. Put all the ingredients, apart from the vanilla, into a large, heavy bottomed pan and bring to the boil, stirring constantly.
3. Boil for 12-20 minutes, still stirring all the time, until the mixture is golden and, when a bit is dropped into the water, it turns solid but still squidgy, i.e., till soft-ball stage (see intro). How long this takes depends on how ferociously it bubbles as well as on the properties and dimensions of the pan. This is hot work!
4. When the fudge is at soft-ball stage, very carefully remove the pan from the stove and stir in the vanilla.
5. Preferably using an electric whisk beat for about five minutes, by which time the fudge will have thickened to the texture of stiff peanut butter - this is quite steamy and strenuous - and pour and push into the prepared tin. Smooth the top as well as you can.

       6. Put in the fridge to cool, but don't keep it there for more than 2 hours, or it will set too                    hard, then remove and using a sharp knife, cut into squares.

 

 

Todays famous vegetarian birthday - John Harvey Kellogg

John Harvey Kellogg

Born February 26^th 1852

John Harvey Kellogg, M.D. was an American medical doctor in Battle Creek, Michigan, who ran a sanitarium using holistic methods, with a particular focus on nutrition, enemas and exercise. Kellogg was an advocate of vegetarianism and is best known for the invention of the breakfast cereal known as corn flakes with his brother, Will Keith Kellogg

John Harvey Kellogg was born in Tyrone, Michigan on February 26, 1852 to John Preston Kellogg (1806–1881) and Ann Janette Stanley (1824–1893). Kellogg lived with two sisters during childhood. By 1860, the family had moved to Battle Creek, Michigan, where his father established a factory making brooms. John later worked as a printer's devil in a Battle Creek publishing house.

Kellogg attended the Battle Creek public schools, going on to attended the Michigan State Normal School (which from 1959 became Eastern Michigan University), and finally, New York University School of Medicine. He graduated in 1875 with a medical degree. He married Ella Ervilla Eaton on February 22, 1879. They did not have any biological children, but were foster parents to 42 children, legally adopting eight of them, before Ella died in 1920. The adopted children include Agnes Grace, Elizabeth, John William, Ivaline Maud, Paul Alfred, Robert Mofatt, Newell Carey, and Harriett Eleanor.

Kellogg died on December 14, 1943 in Battle Creek, Michigan. He was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, in Battle Creek, Michigan. Among others buried there are his parents, his brother W.K. Kellogg, his brother's wife, James White, Ellen G. White, C. W. Post, Uriah Smith, and Sojourner Truth.

John Kellogg and his brother Will Keith Kellogg started the Sanitas Food Company to produce their whole grain cereals around 1897, a time when the standard breakfast for the wealthy was eggs and meat, while the poor ate porridge, farina, gruel, and other boiled grains. John and Will later argued over the recipe for the cereals (Will wanted to add sugar to the flakes). So, in 1906, Will started his own company, the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company, which eventually became the Kellogg Company, triggering a decades-long feud. John then formed the Battle Creek Food Company to develop and market soy products.

A patient of John's, C. W. Post, would eventually start his own dry cereal company, Post Cereals, selling a rival brand of corn flakes. Dr. Kellogg later would claim that Charles Post stole the formula for corn flakes from his safe in the Sanatorium office.

He was a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. As an advocate of sexual abstinence, Kellogg devoted large amounts of his educational and medical work to discouraging sexual activity on the basis of dangers both scientifically understood at the time as in sexually transmissible diseases and those taught by the Seventh-day Adventist Church

Kellogg was outspoken on his beliefs on race and segregation, though he himself raised several black foster children. In 1906, together with Irving Fisher and Charles Davenport, Kellogg founded the Race Betterment Foundation, which became a major center of the new eugenics movement in America. Kellogg was in favor of racial segregation and believed that immigrants and non-whites would damage the gene pool.

Tom Coraghessan Boyle's 1993 comic novel The Road to Wellville is a fictionalized story about Kellogg and his sanatorium.

A film version of the book, directed by Alan Parker, was released in 1994. It starred Anthony Hopkins as Kellogg.

Charging on the go

Silver Window Solar Charger

From: XD Design

Are you looking for a way to charge on the move? well the guys down at the Ethical Superstore might just have found the answer.
This window charger from XD design is perfect for people on the go, it can be stuck to any window, allowing you to charge your phone or MP3 player at home, in the car, on a train or even a plane! You can make sure it is always facing the sun and with a 1400mAh rechargeable lithium battery it can store power you’ll never be caught out. Features a USB output and mini-USB input, also includes a mini USB cable.

•    Charge via solar power or mains electricity using USB.
•    1400mAh rechargeable lithium battery.
•    Collecting capacity per solar panel 5,5V/130mA
•    Battery output capacity is 5V/max. 500mA.
•    Removable silicone ring to attach to windows.

Please note phone cable is not provided.
Dimensions: 11 x 11 x 1.8cm 

Available now in a range of colours  from The Ethical Superstore - www.ethicalsuperstore.com