Tibits, Heddon St off Regent St

Tibits is a veggie buffet restaurant in a lovely little pedestrian street just off Regent St. You go up, help yourself to food and then pay by the weight of your plate! Four of us spent three hours there. We all ended up having seconds of the savoury food rather than puddings (which work the same way). Highly recommended if you're ever in central London!.
Below are just some of our plates!

222, North End Road, West Kensington

I have a lot of updating to do - I was in London last weekend and took a LOT of food pics.
The photos below are from 222 near Earl's Court. The service was a little 'chaotic' but the food was amazing and all totally vegan.

 'Heart's Desire' - roasted artichoke hearts with rocket and red pepper sauce.

 Trio of raw dips with crudites.

 Black bean and tofu pancake with amazing vegan cream.

 Veggie burger!

 Carrot tart with potatoes, veg and tomato sauce.

 Spinach and mushroom raclette.

 Chocolate cake nom nom nom!

 Apricot and almond cake w ice cream.

Spice island pie - OMG good!

'Great with anything' #1

I have a few dishes that I like to cook which I call my 'great with anything' dishes - they are easy to make, tasty and go with anything* you choose.

*not bananas.

Sorry about the picture quality - the sun was streaming in the window! The above is made by frying a few chopped mushrooms, two chopped fresh tomatoes and half a bag of spinach until nice and smulchy. Add a tbsp of tomato puree and plenty of oregano and that's it. I had it with a pack of mushroom basmati rice.

Eating out in Belfast

I am delighted to annouce that eating out in Belfast... has improved!!! Not by a great deal - we still don't have a veggie restaurant, but while looking for places to eat out last weekend I was pleasantly surprised.
The first photo below is of a yummy carrot and tomato soup, served with a chickpea and spinach salad, in the Avoca restaurant. They are a bit hit and miss with veggie food, depending on the menu variations, but you can always get a great bowl of soup there.
The second pic is from Hooligans in Talbot St - it's spinach falafels in pita with fattoush salad. WOW this was delicious, especially the salad, and I loved the presentation. Again I think they can be a bit hit and miss but I like Hooligans much more than Made in Belfast. The staff are much friendlier too!

Appetite for Reduction

So this is, quite literally, my new food bible- I eat out of it all the time! I already posted one recipe for it below but want to write about some more that I've eaten over the past couple of weeks. I'm not going to write out the recipes as that would be a) tedious and b) illegal  - but anyway, you need to go and buy it - will be the best £8 you ever spend, I promise!!

So, first up, Red Thai Tofu. I've made this twice. The first time I used an orange pepper and fried the tofu but I don't think I drained it enough as it really fell apart. The second time I used a red pepper and I baked my tofu cubes first which is my preffered way of cooking it anyway. The results both times tasted equally amazing but I think the second one looks better:

Oh and the strange-looking object in the foreground of the first pic is a steamed veggie dumpling from M&S!

Secondly, Pasta e Fagioli. Very easy to make and very tasty. I used small spelt fusilli (Biona, I think) and the textures worked really well together.

Finally, Mushroom and Cannellini Paprikas. I love mushrooms and this is a great dish. I had it with steamed cabbage and baked polenta but it would go really well with mash or even chips! It has a really savoury flavour which would go with any 'traditional' dinner-type food.

So in case I didn't say it loud enough to begin with - in summary, BUY THIS BOOK. NOW!!!

Cabbage Soup!

Soooo sorry for not posting in ages. Have loads of recipes to write about and pics to add but don't have time tonight. Just wanted to write quickly about the lovely cabbage soup that I made yesterday - really tasty and not at all like the yucky diet soup :-)

1 onion, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1 courgette (zucchini), chopped
1/2 small savoy cabbage, chopped
1 tin chopped tomatoes
500ml veg stock
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried basil

Saute veg in some fry spray until softening, add tomatoes, stock and herbs and simmer for 20 mins. That is all. So healthy and yum :-)

Polenta chickpea hash

This is one I made up all by myself! I use the block of Italfresco polenta which is 500g but you could make it up from fresh and let it cool before chopping. I hate to flatter myself but this is really, really delicious!

1 red onion
1 clove garlic
1 large portabello mushroom
1 red pepper
pinch of chilli flakes
1 block polenta
1 tin chickpeas, drained
splash of veg stock
1 tsp dried oregano

Chop all the veg and saute with chilli flakes (add more to taste if you like it hot) in a little spray oil until starting to brown. Chop the polenta into cubes and add to pan. Cook for another 10 mins until everything is nicely cooked through then add the chickpeas, a splash of stock (I'd guess 50ml water and 1/2 a tsp of Marigold powder) and oregano. Continue to cook until the chickpeas are heated through. Season with loads of black pepper. This makes two good servings. Would be lovely with some green veg - was gonna add some spinach along with the chickpeas but hadn't enough room in my pan!