What’s Cooking?

The thing with food is, it’s not like exercise, “I could take it or leave it,” you might say.  With food, you have to eat.  Every day.  Several times a day.  So even if you love food, as I do, sometimes it can all feel a bit too hard.  Hand up if the divine dinner you were planning in your head on the way home from work via picking the kid up from school turns into boiled eggs, plain pasta and veggie sticks?

This is one of the reasons I love the internet.  Who would have thought there were so many ways to prepare the humble vegetable?  For every recipe, there are at least five different takes on it – and mouth-watering pictures to go with them!  Here’s what I’m digging from around the web this week.

The following dish falls directly in the “everyone has a recipe for this” category.  What I love about this version is the consistency of the main ingredient.  It takes the original concept and adapts it to suit the eater’s taste.  The end result is a delicious looking dish that I am definitely going to try. (Cookie and Kate)

I’m a little embarrassed to say that I only recently discovered this veggie comes in a tin.  Embarrassed because I was missing out on such a delicious ingredient.   You drain them, toss them in olive oil and  pop these little suckers on the griddle. Voila! You have a tasty veggie that looks really impressive.  I have a few recipes kicking around that include this veggie (watch this space) but I’m going to make this one for the sandwich lover in my life. (Love and Lemons)

Preparing veggies in the following way really speaks to my Slavic background.  I have fond memories of my grandmother getting out the container of homemade Russian Salad that had been marinating in the pantry and serving it up for guests.  It always felt so special to me.  It tasted really good too.  The following dish contains echos of this long lost feeling. What’s more, it’s much quicker to prepare and has the added bonus of some lovely plant protein.  (Blissful Basil)

Being a vegetarian means you’re often overlooked at a BBQ.   When I’m invited to someone’s house I always bring a hearty salad to share. That way I know I won’t starve and I get to share a yummy dish with people who might not normally try such meatless delights.  Two birds, one stone. 😉

It’s a different story when people come to my place for a BBQ.  Yes we grill meat (I live with two meat eaters)  but I am free to experiment with other ingredients.  I’m going to try the following dish at our next BBQ.  (The Muffin Myth)