Tim’s Delicious Veggie Recipes

Spicy Beetroot and Coconut soup  This is a good way to use beetroot which have grown larger than intended! Smooth and creamy with an astonishingly deep colour, the garnish of peanuts, chilly, cucumber and red pepper adds little bursts of flavour as well as crunch. Vegan.

Green lentils and honey-spiced walnut salad . This warm salad is a comforting, satisfying supper dish that is very quick to make. The original Ottolenghi recipe uses puy lentils, radicchio, Manuka honey and pecorino, but I used green lentils, green beans, lettuce, Co-op honey and cheddar, and the result is just as good! The chipotle chilli flakes are less fiery but have a lovely smoky flavor. We got ours at the chilli stall at the Local Excellence market in Abingdon. 

Chard & Chick Peas with Feta. A refreshing, satisfying supper dish that is really quick to make. The lemony dressing lifts the whole dish.

If you grow your own beetroot,

this is a good way to use the

tops, which are very similar

to chard but need to be used

soon after harvesting as they wilt quickly.

 Vegetable Paella.

This is by no means a traditional paella in terms of ingredients but the cooking method is, and it is a beautiful dish to serve to friends.


See the bottom of the page for all the other recipes…

Eating less meat and less dairy is a good way to reduce our carbon footprints and our impact on the planet. Many of us started with a meat-free day a week and found we enjoyed it so much that meat is now only for visitors – that way it can be the best, organic, local meat! And eating whatever veg is in season is itself a delight as well as cutting the food bills even further.

But what to cook? For those of us to whom veggie cooking doesn’t come naturally, we asked someone who has taught himself gourmet veggie cooking to give us a recipe a month, which is featured above. But when deciding what to cook every day, here is where he gets his inspiration:

  • Look in the fridge or the veg rack, pick one or 2 ingredients, and Google a recipe!
  • Browse the vegetarian or  “The New Vegetarian” sections on the Guardian website
  • Scan the Waitrose kitchen magazine and the Observer Food magazine for veggie recipes, and save them in a folder
  • Check out Nadine Abensur’s recipes or Yottam Ottolenghi’s recipes on-line – a few recipes include meat but most don’t
  • Get yourself a copy of Yottam Ottolenghi’s book “Plenty” – so delicious many people don’t notice that all the recipes are vegetarian!
Don’t be afraid to experiment, substituting veg you like for ones you don’t like or don’t have. Be creative!

And here are a few items it’s worth keeping in your cupboard or fridge:

  • nuts, seeds and lentils – lots of different sorts!
  • tins of beans (lots of different sorts too – flageolet, haricot, borlotti..)
  • Marigold Swiss Vegetable bouillon powder
  • chillies – buy a big bag of “bird’s eye” chillies from the Thai supermarket and keep them in the freezer
  • chilli sauce
  • quinoa – useful, protein-rich cereal, cook as for rice
  • cous-cous, very quickly cooked base for roast veg dishes
  • preserved lemons and pomegranate molasses (Yottam uses them a lot) – or try using fresh lemons, and honey with lime juice instead

Recipe bank:

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