If you have met me or we have eaten together, you know I am not a vegetarian. I enjoy the occasional roast dinner, juicy steak and cook with chicken frequently during the week, however I do often go days or weeks with enjoying vegetarian dishes. There is so much variety, colour and flavour in vegetarian cooking its easy to skip the meat so ‘meatless Mondays’ are common in our house!
I enjoy following vegetarian recipes and tweaking them to use up leftovers, or a few carrots in the bottom of the fridge. I love the fact that these days there are so many sites whereby you can type in ‘google’ – ideas for cauliflower, broccoli and quinoa and loads of inspiration is there for experimenting. I like ‘fuss free’ cooking and so my recent favourite is a salad with roasted carrot and beetroot, tangy feta, bulgur wheat and a zesty lime dressing. You pop all the veg in the oven (traybake style) crumble feta over the beetroot wedges and carrots and sprinkle cumin seeds, drizzle honey, olive oil and a little salt and pepper. Colourful and really tasty!
Do you eat enough veg at home? do you feel there are enough recipes, vegetable inspiration to wet your appetite? and what about the family?
I was very interested at the recent press story about the Peas Please initiative which is proposing a new Veg Ad Fund that enables vegetables to receive similar levels of marketing investment as branded chocolates, fast food outlets and soft-drinks.
“Of the estimated £296.6 million spent on confectionary, snacks, fruit, veg and soft drink marketing in the UK each year only 5% of that total is allocated to fruit and veg. To address this gap in marketing budgets, the Peas Please initiative is proposing a new Veg Ad Fund that enables vegetables to receive similar levels of marketing investment as branded chocolates, fast food outlets and soft-drinks.”
TV chef and presenter, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, said: “It’s time to shout about how great veg is, and how vital it is for families to buy, cook and eat more of it. But unlike all the junk food and confectionery we are relentlessly sold every day, our delicious vegetables are not ‘owned’ by massive global brands – so they don’t get the marketing and advertising clout they deserve. Having a pooled marketing budget from retailers, producers and government is a brilliant idea – it means we can get top agencies behind the marketing of veg, which will drive up demand and boost consumption…”
I agree with Hugh that not enough is done and its long overdue especially if you look at growing numbers of diet related issues in the country. I will be reading further about this initiative as I understand Jamie Oliver is also part of the growing campaign.
If vegetarian recipes appeal and you would like to support National Vegetarian Week it is taking place 14-20 May 2018. I am looking at organising a local ‘veggie fest’ over that week, and would love to hear your input and if you would be interested in coming along. Please drop me an email jobanks@alivewithflavour.com. My ‘hands on’ supper club on 7th March is ‘vegetarian’ themed too, details to book here.
I have blogged before about different food boxes available and if I am talking vegetarian I must mention ‘Riverford Organic’. Just a reminder about this company, check out their website here:
All the produce is 100% organic
It all comes from our farms, from other farms in our organic co-op or from trusted partner farms that we have worked with for many years.
Delivery is free.
You don’t have to be in – just tell us where to leave it.
There’s no contract. Some customers have a delivery every week, some every fortnight, others just order as and when.
If you don’t want one of our set boxes, you can make up your own bespoke order of veg, fruit, meat and more. The only “rule” is there is a minimum order of £15.
So on the menu tonight a beetroot curry, well what better way to start the weekend ‘live life on the veg’…