Green lentil and mushroom soup - bags of taste!

Spring is springing but it's not too hot to still enjoy soup. This is one I haven't had for a while but is one of my old favourites. It comes from 'The Bean Book' by Rose Elliot which I scooped up at an Oxfam bookshop and which has loads of great ways with beans.

It's very easy - the hardest bit is remembering to soak the lentils in advance. It is made with onion and garlic, mushrooms (I used chestnut), green lentils, water or vegetable stock and seasoning with a parsley garnish.

Mediterranean black eyed bean casserole

Had this with my folks last night. Very tasty. I would describe it as more fusion than Mediterranean. As well as the black eyed beans it contained shiitake and tamari, oregano, marjoram, basil, parsley, diced carrots, julienned courgettes, capers, tomato quarters, onion and garlic. I served it with white basmati.

Smoked haddock chowder

Tasty, quick and filling with minimal washing up - bonus! I used undyed smoked haddock with the leeks, onions, potato and prawns.

Quick and tasty black-eyed beans

This recipe is from http://www.simpleveganrecipes.co.uk/. It has been independently tested by friends not on special diets who brilliantly suggested having a blob of mango chutney on the side - delicious. Something I remembered to add after I'd taken the photo!

Although called black-eyed beans (hardly visible in the photo!) this dish also contains red kidney beans, tinned cherry tomatoes, onion, garlic, turmeric, cumin seeds, curry powder, lemon juice, tomato puree and fresh coriander.

This time I served the black-eyed beans (right) with vegetable pilau rice a la Uncle Ben (it's nice to find the odd convenience food that ticks all the boxes) and some instant oily fish (a tin of mackerel fillets in tomato sauce)!

Butterbean burgers

This is another favourite although I haven't yet mastered the burger shape. Mine usually resemble balls.

With cumin, coriander and chilli powder it has a gentle kick.

Here I served it with salsa and greens but they are equally nice cold with a salad.

It makes 4 large or 6-8 smaller ones and they freeze reasonably well for about a month.
This recipe came from http://www.simpleveganrecipes.co.uk/

Sweet potato and carrot soup - packed with flavour

I love this soup. It is a recipe from a Terence Stamp cookbook.

The great colour and flavour come from the spices. As well as the sweet potato, carrot and onion it has cardamon, coriander seeds, turmeric, bay leaf, lemon juice, black pepper, chopped tomatoes and vegetable stock. Lovely. The photo doesn't do it justice.

Hidden fish casserole

There is fish in this casserole honest! It just seems to have sunk to the bottom. The photo I took showing off the fish was out of focus, so you'll have to take my word for it!

This is my take on a provencale cod recipe I found in a supermarket magazine. It begins by sweating onion, garlic and celery in a pan. Then I add vegetables - this had diced courgette, sliced carrot, red pepper chunks, sugar snap peas - some fish stock, a tin of chopped tomatoes, a bay leaf, some black olives  and chunks of cod. I give it a stir and tip it into a casserole dish with a lid and bake for 30 minutes.

I served it with spring greens, asparagus and a baked potato.

Mexican bean burger

I got this recipe came from BBC Good Food and it was a definite hit! It was very tasty even without the lime yogurt.
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/9978/mexican-bean-burgers-with-lime-yogurt-and-salsa.

It was quick and easy. (To help I used a mini chopper to make my wheat-free bread into breadcrumbs and a stick blender to mash the kidney beans - so much easier and worth the washing up).
It makes 6 burgers and any extras can be frozen for a future meal.

Butternut, quinoa and spicy tomato sauce

This recipe came from a Sunday newspaper supplement
article on raw food - although this recipe is cooked!


The spicy tomato sauce contains red onion, garlic,
cumin, ginger, red chilli, ground cashews, tamari and
 honey as well chopped tomatoes with chopped
coriander stired in at the end. Very tasty.

No fuss spaghetti - leeks, peas and pesto or anchovy and courgette

I tried spaghetti with leeks, peas and pesto when I was too hungry to make the casserole I'd planned and it was just the ticket!
Very quick, easy and tasty.

I got the recipe from http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/9799/spaghetti-with-leeks-peas-and-pesto

I used organic brown rice spaghetti and a pesto free from wheat, gluten and dairy from Meridian.

I added a few sugar snap peas I had and sprinkled it with ground black pepper and Engevita (a curious vegan food with a 'cheesy, nutty taste' that provides B-group vitamins and trace elements). Definitely a recipe to keep!

Here's another satisfying sauce in a jiffy. Anchovy and courgette pasta. You fry a clove of crushed garlic and some dried chilli flakes in the oil from a tin of anchovies for a minute. Then add diced courgettes, the anchovy fillets and passata, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Easy and tasty!

Adventures with oily fish! Bridget's pilchard pie with a twist

To get away from my usual mackeral and sardines I decided to try some new oily fish. Pilchards appealed on price (loads cheaper than other tinned fish) but I was a bit wary and the tin sat in the cupboard for ages until Bridget taught me this recipe. I took the plunge and I haven't looked back. This is a great way to get some oily fish. Quick, easy, cheap and tasty. It even makes great leftovers. Here it was the next day with salad...

It's easy to make. You microwave sweet and white potatoes a la Jamie Oliver with half a lemon. Then mash and stir in the pilchards in tomato sauce. I added a twist with some fried red onion, red pepper and portobello mushroom chunks to vary the textures. Then fork over the top and brown off the top under a hot grill while you steam some veg. Voila!

Sunday brunch - spicy tomato baked egg whites

This was a new one which, despite forgetting two ingredients, worked well! (After I found the garlic clove which I'll remember next time and sugar which I won't add next time - it didn't need it)!
This recipe came from http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/content/recipes/. I had it with a green salad and some w/f Genius brown bread. I used egg whites rather than whole eggs which was just as tasty.

I began buying the little BBC Good Food cookbooks as I found quarter to a third of the recipes were suitable and I love cook books with a photo. Then I found I could get many of the same recipes and more online. I checked out the vegan and low-fat recipes for recipes that needed little or no adaptions.
My 'MS diet' is informed by various sources - Judy Graham's 'Managing MS Naturally' and George Jelinek's http://www.overcomingmultiplesclerosis.org/ There is some inconsistency with regards to some foodstuffs (e.g. some say wheat is ok and others say to avoid it). But I visit a kinesiologist every year to check what is right for me and consistently some foods come up as beneficial and others as not beneficial.

One of my winter favourites - red bean stew and herby dumplings

This one is great. It is easy, tasty and makes great leftovers with extra to freeze. Great one on a wintery day.  Got this one from http://www.simpleveganrecipes.co.uk/ a great website with some great recipes. Friends who are not on special diets can eat and enjoy it with you too!

A decidedly MS unfriendly adventure of a birthday cake!

I made this cake for a friend's birthday. It sounds odd but, though I didn't eat any of it, the aromas were so rich and indulgent I felt I had!

What a learning curve - my first black forest gateau.

This cake was a ‘cake and a half’ literally! Started at 2.30pm Friday 18th Feb.

Was supposed to make 3 layers and my first cake didn’t rise enough and cracked like an earthquake epicentre.

So I made a second one.

Still didn’t think big enough to slice into 3 layers, so I used half the first and all the second.

Had a break while I went to the supermarket for extra chocolate.

Once I’d added the cream and cherries it started to look a bit on the big side! And when I came to ‘ice’ it (with chocolate melted into double cream) a little icing had to go a long way!

Finally hung up my apron at 8pm (after 2 rounds of washing up)

It's gonna be serious ‘death by chocolate’ - just hope the birthday girl doesn’t have a coronary!

Carrot and cumin soup and pea pakora

Today I made a couple of new tasty recipes from http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/content/recipes/ . Both easy and quick to make (and cheap as I don't get paid till Monday!)

The pakora make great leftovers. I enjoyed it with salad and a blob of mango chutney.