Vegetarian meals

 

In my opinion, the test of a great restaurant is its vegetarian section on its menu, followed by its dessert section!  Mostly these lack imagination and are dull and uninspiring!  I often feel for people who prefer vegetarian - in fact, Paddy and I will often eat vegetarian at home, and, having grown up on a farm where meat played an important role in our diet, I have found it a wonderful and exciting journey coming up with vegetarian menu ideas!

Last Friday I was preparing another meal at Blackheath Lodge and one of my guests asked for vegetarian.  So I came up with this idea and she loved it!

Phyllo basket
I used three layers of phyllo pastry, brushed each layer with melted butter, and sprinkled each layer with finely grated pecorino before placing it in a ovenproof dish the size of my desired basket.  This I baked at 180°C until golden brown.

Filling my basket
Well, here the options are limitless, but I used: creamed organic spinach from my garden, Italian vine tomatoes, roasted, baby carrots, roasted, steamed asparagus spears, roasted peppers, feta cheese, and brussels sprouts that I cut in half and fried with onion in a pan until al dente - the onion added a wonderful flavour.  I arranged all of this inside my basket, grated more pecorino on top, added a sprig of chervil and served.  There was a wonderful variety, and the inside was juicy and gooey (the feta cheese had melted).  

She loved it!  And John (who is a carnivore) actually said that it looked and smelled so good that, if there had been another portion, he would have opted for that!

"Easy vegetarian recipe ideas" from "Sophia Lindop"

 

Comments

[nina]

My family will love this, thanks for sharing!