The fast is on

All week this week I'm going pretty much vegan, I've managed to kick start the day with muesli & soya milk and have avoided coffee all morning. Who know what might happen later. (I'm not a fan of black coffee).

Also, aside from making some traditional Greek Vegetarian dishes this week I wanted to branch out and try out a few different dishes such as the ones below.

Summer Chickpea salad - This is a lovely easy recipe from Jamie Oliver's 'Jamie's Dinners' book.
Serves 4 hungry peeps
• 1 small red onion, peeled
• 1–2 fresh red chillies, deseeded
• 2 handfuls of ripe red or yellow tomatoes
• 2 lemons extra virgin olive oil sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 x 410g jar or tin of chickpeas, drained, or around 4 large handfuls of soaked and cooked chickpeas - I'll be boiling my own from a packet.
• a handful of fresh mint, chopped a handful of fresh green or purple basil, finely ripped
• 200g/7oz feta cheese - I won't be using cheese!

Make it!:
First of all, finely slice your red onion. Once that's done, finely slice your chillies then roughly chop your tomatoes, mixing them in with the onion and chillies. Scrape all of this, and the juice, into a bowl and dress with the juice of 1½ lemons and about 3 times as much good extra virgin olive oil. Season to taste. Heat the chickpeas in a pan, then add 90 per cent of them to the bowl. Mush up the remaining chickpeas and add these as well – they will give a nice creamy consistency. Allow to marinate for a little while and serve at room temperature. Just as you're ready to serve, give the salad a final dress with the fresh mint and basil. Taste one last time for seasoning – you may want to add the juice from your remaining lemon half at this point. Place on a nice serving dish and crumble over the feta cheese.

I love how chickpeas are so versatile, you can play with so many different flavours, here's a recipe for Chickpea curry from the bbc.

Ingredients - serves 2 hungry peeps

1 tbsp oil or knob of butter
1 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp cumin powder
¼ tsp coriander powder
¼ tsp turmeric powder
¼ tsp red chilli powder
1 fresh tomato, chopped
1 x 400g/14oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
5cm/2in piece root ginger, grated
pinch of garam masala
pitta breads or plain basmati rice, to serve

Make it!

1. Heat a deep saucepan or a medium sized wok and add the oil or butter followed by the onions and garlic.
2. Fry the mixture till the onions are caramelised. Then add the salt, cumin, coriander, turmeric and red chilli powders. Mix for a minute and tip in the tomato. Cook the sauce until it begins to thicken.
3. Add ¼ cup of water and stir. Then tip in the chickpeas and mix. Mash a few of the chickpeas while cooking. Cover and simmer for five minutes. Then add the ginger and the garam masala. Cook for another minute.
4. Serve with pitta breads or plain basmati rice.

Vegetarian Lancashire Hotpot

This is a very simple dish to make in a large amount. This recipe will feed about 20 people: Crikey! Might have to edit the ingredients quantity.

• For the sauce, take four chopped onions, a clove of crushed garlic, a chopped green chilli, about 50g/1 3/4oz tomato purée, 100ml/3 1/2fl oz tomato ketchup, a splash of vegetarian gravy browning, a bottle of red wine and about 100ml/3 1/2fl oz vegetable stock.

Make it!:

• Sauté the onions, garlic and chilli in a little oil until they are soft, then add all the other ingredients and boil for about 30 minutes. Blend until smooth - this gives you a sauce.
• Now take plenty of vegetables - you can use butternut squash, asparagus, baby onions, broad beans, whatever you like - and boil them briefly until just cooked (except for the squash which you should roast). Once the vegetables are cooked, spoon a portion of them onto each serving plate and spoon over the sauce.
• To make the topping, very finely slice some baking potatoes, leaving the skin on, then blanch until the slices are just tender. Lay them out on a baking tray, brush with loads of butter and stick under a hot grill until crisp and golden. Pop a few slices on top of each serving of hotpot.
• If you don't want to put out individual portions you can mix it altogether in one pot and serve with a ladle.

What else is on the menu?

Lots of fruit & Veg for sure. I also love a Banana Soya shake - adding strawberries is awesome!
I love the simplicity that wild greens or steamed Broccoli has when you load it with Olive oil & Lemon juice and a little salt as a side dish. Olive oil will be off the menu this week so Canola or sunflower oil will have do the job instead.

Another easy fave is a chopping up a whole load of veg - aubergines, courgettes, carrots - whatever you want and adding a can of chopped tomatoes, crushed garlic, a little Oil, Salt & pepper and just throwing it all in an ovenproof dish on 180 degree setting for 45mins-1hr -yummy. I do tend to use fresh tomatoes instead of canned tommies where possible.

Other inspirational dishes come from my dear friends Bustaurant in London - this menu is amazing - I can never choose one dish so I always order a few things oh and lots of dessert. The Rootmaster is a vegan restaurant which uses the finest organic ingredients - suppliers who use the traditional methods of farming, they are incredibly environmentally friendly, recycling and re-using where possible and the booze is amazing by the way - organic and biodynamic all the way.