I am really enjoying our meat-free month and not really finding it a challenge so far – it’s really great to be trying out a lot of recipes that I would usually not cook because we seem to default to others. The only downside was this evening realising that we couldn’t eat fish and chips at the pub – I was pretty gutted.
Monday 16th January
Dev-Mex Pumpkin Soup from the Riverford Cookbook. Pumpkin and tomato soup with a hint of chilli, topped with crumbled tortilla chips, avocado chunks tossed in lime juice, grated Jarlesburg, and coriander.
Utterly, utterly amazing. It’s always those dishes that you want to like, but don’t think you really will, maybe because it contains an ingredient you don’t think you like, and WHAM – so delicious! If there’s one recipe so far I would recommend you make, it would be this one.
Tuesday 17th January
Mushrooms, creme fraiche and pasta. This is Hugh’s mushroom risioniotto…at least I think that’s what it’s called. He does make up some odd names. It’s basically tiny pasta that looks like rice, I love it, it’s very comforting and moreish – probably because you can eat big mouthfuls of it along with some rich sauce. The mushrooms were simply fried in butter until they start to go golden, then some wine and creme fraiche stirred through to make a sauce. I miss calculated the amount of mushrooms and did half the recipe…turns out it was only for 2 people so I definitely won’t mess this up next time, as it did need more mushrooms.
Wednesday 18th January
Roasted tomato and mozzarella risotto. Another from Hugh’s trust Everyday Veg book, and one that we had been cooking regularly before we even considered doing a meat-free month. Yes, perhaps eating tomatoes in January isn’t the most seasonal choice, but my body was craving it and they were bought from Unicorn Grocery in Manchester so not as bad a supermarket tomatoes.
Hugh’s recipe uses a roasted tomato sauce that he also provides a separate recipe for – I just sliced a whole load of plum tomatoes in half and roasted them in the oven with olive oil, sliced garlic and herbs until they were soft and gooey. I think pop the whole lot through my mouli, a carboot bargain that I couldn’t now live without. If the Dev-Mex Pumpkin Soup was my top recommended recipe, the mouli would be my top recommended piece of kitchen kit.
Eat the Earth 
5 comments
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January 20, 2012 at 11:51 pm
Dee
Some great choices of meat free foods there! You know, it is so easy to give up meat altogether especially now that you have experienced the tasty and nutritious selections, not to mention healthy. If you like fish and chips, try to ‘veganise’ it.
January 21, 2012 at 1:10 pm
CharlieB
Hi Dee, thanks for you message – yes, we’ve really been enjoying the recipes and food we’ve been eating. However I don’t think we will be giving up meat and fish altogether, we only eat it in small amounts even before we started our meat-free month, and for me I feel that eating fish and meat is a natural part of our lives and our history. I just don’t think as a society (or world) we do it very well at the moment, eating huge amounts more than we should and of terrible quality. I want to support those who grow and rear meat sustainably and well. It is difficult to explain my views, but thank you for sharing your thoughts 🙂
January 21, 2012 at 4:56 pm
Gemma
Hi charlie, I completely agree with your last comment. I find it very sad that people go for cheap meat just because they think they cant afford the more well kept and sustainable meat. I also dont have a big budget for food but i would rather only eat meat once or twice a week and eat well kept meat than eat caged chickens, for example, everynight. I wish more people shared our opinion. Your blog is great keep up with the inspiring delicious blogs.
January 23, 2012 at 2:11 pm
thoughtsonapicture
Am enjoying reading about your meat-free month Charlie – some of these recipies are delicious and will hopefully encourage me to become a more healthy vegetarian! I find that working nights and being pressed for time means that I don’t always eat as varied a diet as I’d like when I’m on shift.
A question – where do you get your rice-shaped pasta from?
K x
January 23, 2012 at 3:16 pm
Charlie
Hi Kate, so pleased you’ve been reading my meat-free posts – there are so delicious recipes we’ve been trying out, if there’s any you fancy the look of let me know and I’m you the recipes. It is so tough to cook healthy good food from scratch sometimes, especically when you’re tired, we’ve had the odd day when we just can’t face it.
The rice shaped pasta – we get ours from Barbakan, they have some fab pasta shapes, and the mini ones I particular like – they are great in soups if you want to bulk it out or thicken them.
Hope to see you soon – we have a couple of coats that we’d love your mum to fix, so perhaps I could come and drop them round sometime when you’re there and awake and catch up xXx