Meatless Mondays

I have some friends who are vegan, it does seem a very limited diet though,  they seem to eat lots of mushroom based dishes.

Most vegetarians, including my sons, tell me that they miss bacon sandwiches the most, so I came up with a veggie alternative.  You need some mild Waitrose smoked paprika (I haven' tried other smoked paprikas, but I know this one works), some Halloumi cheese, and some olive oil.

Slice the Halloumi about as thick as a pound coin, brush very lightly with olive oil and then sprinkle with a good amount of smoked paprika on each side.  Leave for about half an hour, and then fry until crispy  but still with some 'give' in the middle,  in a pan brushed with olive oil.

Pop into bread and it's as near as you'll get to smoked bacon - and both sons say they prefer it to the Quorn bacon substitute!

...that actually sound quite nice in its own right. I'll experiment with this, maybe try some chipotle paste too, just a thought!

My daughtèr was a vegetarian for about 16 years but since having the twins 18 months ago she now eats white meat and occasional red meat as a balanced diet.  Years ago it was Friday that was meatless so I'm not jumping on this bandwagon trend

I'd forgotten my childhood and Fish Fridays. Our parents were well ahead of the game! Pity we seem to have messed it in the meantime and now have to make an effort to put it right.

I  think  "Fish  on  Fridays"  is/was  a  Religious  thing,  now  seemingly  less  often  observed.

We eat a lot of fish anyway so a meatless Monday wouldn't faze us. There is much more variety in fish than meat (although would miss having a steak occasionally, so wouldnt give up meat altogether). We have a fresh fish van calling once a week  so no excuse for not eating it

Loads of recipes if you use Rice or pasta as the base. Leeks, Mushrooms, Peppers, or Artichokes seem to play a part somewhere along the line. You can substitute Bulgar Wheat or Quinoa or Couscous instead of rice. Make Pilafs or Risottos. Use shallots to make the base of a cream sauce and add tarragon into it to pour over pasta, adding some thinly sliced blue cheese into thee sauce as you serve it.

How about soups? Roasted squash with parsnips ( and maybe a whole roasted garlic bulb as well)  and a bit of curry powder or ginger, then blitzed and add a bit of cream. 

Sauté some Leeks and an onion. Add some smoked paprika. Pour over about 300 ml good quality veg stock and a tin of mixed beans, drained. Cook for about 20 minutes and pan fry some fish fillets. Serve fish on top of Leek "stew". Filling.

Recipes sound good,  wherenext. I love soups, made honey roast parsnip &rosemary  last week, roasting the parsnips with the honey first improves the flavour, did add a splash of double cream to serve, yummy. 

I must admit, H&T, that we usually have a soup meal once a week, although a couple of them include a bit of meat, like our sausage and lentil soup or smoked haddock chowder with a bit of smoked bacon in it for the base but try to have meatless meal at least once a week or at least have a minimal amount. Having Cock-a-leekie on Monday. Love it.

 meat consumption is unsustainable and that's before taking into account the methane issue from farting cows.

Never mind the cows, my veggie friends should also be taken into account.

Just had a thought, back in my childhood Monday's meal was that made up from the left overs fron the Sunday 'Dinner'. Now some of the concoctions were really tasty like 'bubble & squeak', goodness knows why my mum called it that!  I recall later in my teens the left over meat was sometimes used in home made curries, well I say homemade but my dad, the cook in the family, used those Vesta pack things as a base! 

BP