Ideas from Bishop Steven

Our youngest daughter became a vegetarian when she was a teenager some six years ago and that led us as a family to explore the delights of vegetarian food on a regular basis.  

Most of our recipe ideas are from books or websites rather than original (and Sarah has taken most of them with her).  But here are a few ideas which you can track down through your own research.  

Soups: ideal for weekend lunches and especially at this time of year.  The family favourites are butternut squash or parsnip and apple or leek and potato.  

Roast vegetable stews.  These are my favourite vegetarian meals.  Basically, you roast a big tray of interesting root vegetables in the oven for about 20 mins and then stew then gently in a casserole dish and add some beans or pearl barley or perhaps a cheese topping.  I tend to cook very big batches and freeze smaller portions.  We normally serve them with a baked potato.  

Lasagne:  there are excellent vegetarian recipes for a bolognese type sauce with red lentils which forms an excellent filling for a vegetarian lasagne:  just as tasty as the meat versions.  

Special occasions.  We faced the problem some years ago of what to cook the vegetarian in the family for Christmas dinner.  Thankfully Delia Smith has come to the rescue.  Her Parsnip Roulade recipe is absolutely superb but is I think the most demanding thing I cook all year.  There are about five different stages but it always turns out really well.

 

(If you want to cook the Parsnip Roulade you can find the recipe here 

Tearfund Rice and Beans Challenge

Tearfund's One Voice prayer week runs from 26th February to 4th March.  Christians around the globe are uniting to pray for the workd, seeing  prayer as a powerful tool to challenge injustice and combat poverty.
As part of this week, Tearfund are inviting supporters to join in with the Rice and Beans Challenge.  If you are finding the Diocesan Lent Challenge a bit tame, the Rice and Beans Challenge could be the one for you!
Put simply the Rice and Beans Challenge is a chance to catch a glimpse of what life must be like for those who only have access to the most basic foodstuffs by choosing to restrict you diet for 5 days.  The suggested menu for the 5 days is very simple

Breakfast  - 1/2 cup of oats, one cup of water made into porridge

Lunch and Dinner - each meal   1oz dried beans (equivalent to  2 1/2 oz cooked beans)
                                                  1 1/4 oz dried rice ( equivalent to  3 3/14 oz cooked rice)

You can add about one heaped tablespoon of vegetables to your meal as well.

Find out more here

Christ Church ladies fellowship group cooked a vegetarian meal together

Cheryl Mercer sent this:

In response to the Diocese Lent Challenge the Ladies' Fellowship Group got together on the Tuesday of half-term to prepare and cook a vegetarian meal.  It was great fun working together in the kitchen and at the same time offering up what we were doing to God.  When the table was set (with an extra place to signify welcoming Christ who comes in the guise of the stranger or unexpected visitor), we lit the candles and gave thanks for and prayed for our families. 

When the food was on the table we used this prayer:-

Bless, O Lord, this food we are about to eat,

and we pray You, O God, that it may be good for our body and soul,

and if there is any poor creature hungry or thirsty walking the road,

may God send them in to us

so that we can share the food with them,

just as Christ shares His gifts with all of us.

Not long after we had finished eating my son arrived home with a friend unexpectedly to stay for the night and so the leftover food quickly disappeared!

So if you would like to try cooking a vegetarian Shepherds Pie here is our recipe.

Invite some family and friends and you will need:

For the topping:

finely chopped leeks

a generous quantity of grated cheese

many lovely potatoes that enjoy being mashed

For the pie bit:

canned green lentils (about two tins should do)

chunky chopped carrots and mushrooms

more finely chopped leeks

about a pint or so of good quality vegetable stock

Prepare potatoes and cook (preferably steam them).

In a frying pan cook leeks for a few minutes until they look slightly brown.  Save some for the topping.  Put the rest in a large pan and add stock, carrots, mushrooms and lentils and cook until everything tastes wonderful - about 25 minutes I think.

When the potatoes are cooked mash them with remaining leeks.  Put main mixture in a large ovenproof dish, top with the leek and potato mash, and cover with grated cheese.  Pop in an oven 180C – 200C for about 10 minutes.  The cheese goes all melty and slightly browned and the whole thing smells wonderful.

Sarah Goss's Nut Roast Recipe

 Sarah Goss emailed us the recipe that she and her family ate for Christmas Dinner last year. Sarah wrote:

"I would just like to say what a great lent challenge I think you have this year.  I am myself a vegan and am always trying to encourage my meat eating friends to trying being vegetarian  / vegan for a day a week (and maybe progress from there).  I think its a really important issue for a whole number of reasons, some of which you have mentioned. "

 This is a really delicious recipe for a nut roast.  It can be a great replacement for meat on a roast dinner.  (I originally got this recipe from www.veg-world.com)

 

Ingredients

• Oil for frying
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 - 6 medium mushrooms, sliced
• 1 tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 1¼ cups (10 fl oz, 300 ml) vegetable stock (or water)
• 1½ cups (6 oz, 175 g) finely chopped nuts
• 3 cups (6 oz, 175 g) breadcrumbs
• 1 tbsp. soy sauce
• ½ tsp. dried herbs
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Oven: Pre-heat to 375F, 190C.

Stew the onion in the oil for about five minutes or until soft. Add the garlic and mushrooms. Cook for a few more minutes.

Sprinkle the flour on top. Stir well. Add the stock or water, stirring all the time. Bring the mixture to the boil, and simmer slowly for two or three minutes. Stir in the nuts, breadcrumbs, soy sauce, herbs and seasoning.

Turn the mixture on to a floured board, and form a loaf shape with your hands. Coat evenly with flour on all sides.

Heat the oil in a roasting tin. Place the loaf in the tin. Bake for 30 - 40 minutes, basting occasionally.

NB: I found it quite difficult to form the mixture into a loaf shape as its so sticky.  It can also just be put straight into a oiled loaf tin / casserole type dish.

Lent starts tomorrow and I think I have just about got my head round the very basics of blogging.  I thought it would be the easiest way to havea web presence for people to share stories, recipes and ideas, but it doesn't seem to be quite as simple as I was hoping! 
Because I am a vegetarian already, my own Lent Challenge is going to be to have at least two Vegan days each week.  My children have already announced that I'm in this on my own - they are not joiing in! I am also hoping that lots of people send in recipes so that I can try out other people's ideas.