relight my vegetarian fire

[Cid]

Stir-fries are good and very quick and simple...

Star anise, cinnamon, Szechuan pepper, cloves (carefully), fennel seeds and lemon grass ground up and added to lime (carefully again) and ginger juice (grate it and squeeze) to make a paste. Obviously also add chilli to taste. Oh and garlic if it takes your fancy.

Veggie stir-fry get the pan nice and hot with some sunflower oil, put the spice mix in and heat until you get this sort of toasty smell... Immediately add all veg (finely chopped peppers, cabbage, pak choi, mange-tout, mushrooms - shiitake, oyster and enoki are common, and any other veg you have to hand), some soy sauce and some sesame oil... Put some spring onions in at the end. With veg it's very quick, you just want to soften them slightly, they should all still have crunch. I don't generally use normal onions for this reason.

e2a: if you can't be arsed to make the paste I suggested, just use 5 spice and add extra fresh ginger.

Also try adding nuts (specifically cashew) for your protein fix... I'd recommend toasting them in the oil right at the start.

 

[Herbsman.]

aldi closed at 8

ive already eaten

 

[Cid]

I don't give a shit, my opinion is clearly the most important thing on this thread.

 

[AnnO'Neemus]

Really quick and simple veggie dish:

Mushroom
*Garlic (optional)
Double cream
Fresh tagliatelle
Freshly ground salt and pepper for seasoning

(1 a) If you have some fresh garlic, chop very finely and fry off in olive oil or butter (or use some chopped, dried stuff from a spice jar from the store cupboard, or skip if you don't have any).

(2 a) Boil kettle.

(1 b) Chop and fry off mushrooms.

(2 b) Put boiled water in pan and add fresh tagliatelle.

(1 c) Turn down heat and add cream (nb. hot pan will cause cream to curdle, so make sure pan isn't too hot) and seasoning.

(1 & 2) Drain tagliatelle and put in pan with mushroom sauce.

Serve.

Optional: Serve with a green salad and also garlic bread. You can make your own garlic bread, before cooking mushroom sauce, turn on oven, roughly chop garlic, mix with butter, roughly slice baguette, smear garlic butter, wrap in foil, put in oven.

You can use dried, non-fresh tagliatelle, obviously, but start cooking that first.

This literally takes minutes to cook, 10-15 minutes; but you can make it fancier with nice side salad and home made garlic bread (or get some out of the freezer if you have some), or just keep it basic pasta with (garlic) mushroom sauce.

Bon appetit!

 

[Epona]

Not for now, but for when you have a bit more energy and inspiration, and knowing that you like to make your own stuff from scratch had you considered turning your hand to a spot of cheesemaking? Aged cheese is a tricky endeavour unless you have the correct storage facilities, but it's not that difficult or time consuming to make your own mozzarella, ricotta, curd cheese etc. As long as you can buy raw milk somewhere and have a big stainless steel or aluminium pan - you need cheesecloth, a dairy thermometer, and some vegetarian substitute rennet, and depending upon what you are making maybe some citric acid or a starter culture - all of which can be bought online at low cost. Plenty of methods to be found online.

Even if you don't feel inspired right now it might be something that you might want to try when you feel the urge to give something new a go I have been reliably informed that you can make better mozzarella from even normal cows or sheeps milk in 45 minutes that tastes better than the supermarket stuff, even if you can't get your hands on buffalo milk.