Food: A vegetarian week

I don't eat an awful lot of meat, but I'm a bit of a sucker for really awful processed meat like sausages and bacon (they're just too tasty). So this week, I've been trying to eat far more vegetarian food. Veggie food tends to be healthy and pretty inexpensive so win win all round.

On Sunday, I followed one of Jamie's 15 minute meal's recipe and made a very healthy falafel and wholemeal wrap complete with homemade salsa. The falafel was practically dry fried which makes it far healthier than its deep fried alternative.

Falafel - makes 8
1 large tin of chickpeas
1 large tin of mixed bean
1 tsp all spice
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp Harissa
1 tbsp plain flour
stalks of a bunch of fresh coriander (use the leaves to make a salsa; recipe below)
vegetable oil

1. Whizz the ingredients up together in food processor and then use wet hands to shape the falafels into mini burger shapes.
2. Fry for 3 minutes each side in a frying pin coated with a little oil (I like to add a tiny amount of oil to the pan and then use a silicon pastry brush to cover the pan with a very light coating. This is a far better alternative to synthetic spray oils)

Homemade salsa is so easy to whip up and tastes so much better than its shop bought counterpart.

Simple salsa
3 tomatoes
1/2 red onion
2 tbsp fresh coriander
Juice of 1 lime
1/2 fresh chili

All you have to do is chop up all the ingredients finely. I use my Magimix to speed the process along.

To make your falafel wraps, heat some large wholewheat flour tortillas in the microwave for 30 seconds, add some freshly chopped red pepper, salad leaves, cottage cheese, salsa and falafel. Yummy!

On Tuesday, Martin treated me and cooked dinner. He made a cauliflower stew made with fresh tomatoes using a recipe he found in my Wild Food Cafe cookbook and served it with brown rice.

On Wedneday, I made a spicy mango red lentil bake (I'll add this recipe soon when I have time).

Yesterday, we ate another of Jamie's 15 minute meals recipe: Camembert filled filo pastry with a homemade cranberry sauce accompanied with baby spinach leaves. His book really is very good and most of his recipes are pretty healthy and calorie controlled. It's currently £12 on Amazon.

This morning, I couldn't resist knocking up a banana milkshake:

1 small banana (previously chopped and placed in the freezer for at least 5 hours. This negates the need for ice and results in a thicker, silkier milkshake)
100ml skimmed milk
1 tsp agave syrup

1. Blend all the above ingredients in either a blender or food processor. Serve immediately.

So yes, lots of veggie food this week! Do you eat a lot of vegetarian food? What are your favourite recipes?