Fennel and Potato Soup

This is a basic soup which is a nice comforting evening meal.

Boil up a pan of water, then add a good amount of diced potatoes (maybe 4 medium sized ones) and 2 teaspoons of veg stock.

Then add two diced onions and four cloves of chopped garlic. Let it boil for about 10 minutes.

Next, add a chopped fennel bulb and let the whole thing boil down until the potatoes disintegrate and the whole thing starts to look a bit soupey.

Serve it with fennel fronds sprinkled on top. I used my fennel preserved in olive oil.

Butterbean, Leek and Pea Salad with Fennel Dressing

This is a beautifully delicate and satisfying salad.

Fry a leek in butter. When it's almost done add a handful of frozen peas and cooked butterbeans. Let the excess moisture evaporate, then add some chopped fennel fronds and lemon juice.

Add a bit of salt and pepper if that's your thing, and serve on lettuce leaves with some toast and olive oil on the side.

Other herbs will do if you don't have fennel. I got a fennel buld with massive fronds in my organic veg box so I chopped it up and put it in a jar with olive oil to preserve it. Coming up are some other recipes that use this fennel in oil...

Tomato, Mozzarella and Strawberry Salad with Fresh Basil

Does what it says on the tin. Lovely.

Serving suggestion: eat with hot buttered toast.

Gwen's Quick Broccoli and Stilton Quiche

Gwen created a delightful new dish, wrote some lovely sentences about it, and was published in Atom Magazine! But Gwen is too modest or lazy to tell you that, so I am telling you. Follow the link for food: Atom Magazine Fall 2011

Good work, Gwen! I'll have to step it up a notch.

Dara's Sandwich no. 5

Courgette, tomato, fresh onion, and caramelised onion houmous on Toasted Rye Bread

All of the vegetables for this one came from right here on the farm in Sweden where I'm working. Even the homemade sourdough rye bread is made from rye flour from the farm. Good lunch.

- Dara

Curried Potato, Aduki Bean Mix, and Beetroot Salad

Hej! I'm currently working on an organic vegetable farm near Björklinge in Sweden with some other friendly folk. We work hard, and it's pretty hot here, so the best bit is coming in to a big, well-deserved lunch. We take turns cooking and I volunteered for my turn the other day. It was my first time cooking for eight people, but luckily there was enough for everyone to have seconds! Oh, and all of the ingredients, apart from the spices and beans, came from right here on the farm.

Curried Potato, Aduki Bean Mix, and Beetroot Salad

First, I chopped and boiled up the potatoes. While they were cooking I diced and fried up up some onions in a big pot. I added some sugar, curry spices, and plenty of oil to the onion mix. Once the potatoes were done I added them in and stirred it all up.

For the bean mix, I chopped up some old tomatoes and fried them up with some of the chopped onions and oil. I added lots of lovely chopped courgettes and some water, cider vinegar, and a tiny bit of water with a stock cube. After this had simmered for a while I added in some aduki beans, that had been cooked and conveniently frozen, and left the whole thing to simmer a bit more.

I roasted some beetroot that was lying around and diced it up with some cucumber and tomato for the salad. As a dressing, I mixed some nice Swedish mustard, homemade cider vinegar, sugar, and oil.

And there you have it! Food for eight hungry farmers, plus second helpings!

Vegetarian Travel: Czech Republic/ Vienna

I recently went on a trip that took in lots of the Czech Republic and Vienna and took photos of my meals for a travel blog. I stayed with lots of lovely hosts who showed me great places to eat and drink and even cooked me some lovely meals. So big thanks to Paty, Lenka, Sarah, Anna and Michal.

I had been eating little or no dairy before the trip, but thought that might be a little hard while travelling. So here are a few shots of the vegetarian & vegan meals I had along the way. I'm afraid I was a poor journalist and forgot to record the names of the places I ate, but hopefully my hosts might be able to help me amend this after reviewing the meals we shared!

Prague: 

Indian Restaurant near Old Town Square

 This was charged by weight and came to about 6 euro,
which is expensive for Prague, but it was quite the meal!

This dirty snack is available in lots of Czech pubs, good for hangovers!

Camembert Cheese pickled in oil with garlic & onion

Vegan City - a strange Asian/ faux meat restaurant

 Vegan Prawns & Mushroom Soup

Quite tasty! No idea what these vegan prawns are made of.

Tofu Wrapped in Seaweed

aka. Horrible Explosion of MSG

Thanks to Paty, one of my hosts in Prague, for making this delicious one:

Pastry with Spinach and Balkan Cheese

Brno: 

Vegalité

This two-course lunch cost me about 3 euro!

 Beetroot Soup Starter

 Fried Cheese and Potato with Salad

Vienna:

Thanks to my host, Sarah, for this delicious Austrian dish:

Marillenknodel,

Traditional Austrian Apricot Dumplings

Maschu Maschu

Fried Pastry filled with Feta Cheese & Spinach, served with tzatziki

I also made a wee film on my trip, which you can see here:

http://www.fakedogfilms.com/blogs/article/64/dara-s-travel-blog-one

 - Dara