Today I have some links for you, recipes and articles I've spotted recently on the Internet.

 

 

 

As I mentioned before I've been cooking a lot over the last few weeks and I've enjoyed trying out some new recipes. Below is a photo of the tart I mentioned in that previous blog post. It was quite delicious and I ended up making the tart three times, to take to picnics and people's houses.

 

 

 

 

I also re-found this recipe for a Tomato, Walnut and Pomegranate Molasses Salad. I made this a few times two years ago, when I first saw the recipe. However I then forgot about it over the following winter, when there were no decent (and affordable) tomatoes available. It is an unusual salad, but quite outstanding. Make sure you keep any leftovers, as they are delicious tossed through pasta the next day.

 

Having a barbecue one Sunday I made up a large batch of these tandoori kebabs, from K.O. Rasoi. The marinade is good. I mean really, really good. We had paneer, tofu and mushroom kebabs, I left out the cassava, served with rice, natural yoghurt, lime pickle, a green salad and a whole lot of barbecue vegetables. The meal was a great hit and the marinade was so good I'm planning on making and freezing a batch for future use.

 

 

 

Over the weekend we had our first barbecue of the year. A few friends came over, for a very relaxed lunch, sitting in the garden. The weather was glorious, I hadn't seen some of the people for months and it was a beautiful afternoon.

The combination of people invited also meant a combination of food requirements - vegetarian, wheat free and dairy free. After a busy week I wanted the lunch to be very low fuss, spending minimal time in the kitchen.

Vegan "sausage" rolls: we started off with a batch of these "sausage" rolls from Where's the Beef. I've made this recipe countless times, they're delicious, easy and always go down well a treat. I pre-made them and then cooked when the guests arrived.

Sweet potato and coriander fritters: we had loads of sweet potato, leftover from the last few week's vegetable boxes. So I used them to make these fritters. I replaced the parmesan with some miso, because of the dairy intolerant friend. The fritters were absolutely delicious and barbecued really well. I made double the batch and have about a third left, for lunches and dinners this week.

Barbecued eggplant with tahini sauce: a variation on a recipe from the Ottolenghi cookbook, we sliced up some eggplant and salted them. I made a marinade of olive oil, lemon juice, chilli, fresh coriander and garlic, plus an easy tahini and lemon sauce.  We then cooked the eggplant slices on the barbecue, put them on a plate, poured over the olive oil marinade and served with the tahini sauce.

Chilli tofu: we thickly sliced some tofu and cooked it on the barbecue with some bought chilli infused sesame oil.

Flat "chips": I thickly sliced and then par boiled some potatoes, before our guests arrived. We also cooked these on the barbecue, together with some sliced onions.

It took me about an hour and a half to pre-make the sausage rolls, fritters, eggplant marinade and tahini sauce. Then, once our guests arrived I put the sausage rolls in the oven and par-boiled the potatoes.

Once these were cooked I sat in the garden, with my friends and a glass of wine and formed the sweet potato mix into fritters, while chatting away. Everything was then cooked on the barbecue, while we all sat around enjoying the sunshine.

If you can't eat gluten, here are some suggested menus for Christmas day.

 

You can either cook the whole meal or pick a few dishes which suit your occasion.

 

While most of the ingredients in these recipes are naturally gluten free, please do remember to check labels carefully.

 

 

 

 

Photographs by Cyron Ray Macey and Tina.