Vegging Out

Last month, Chris Rosslowe, Andrew Downes and Niall Hill walked the entire length of Emperor Hadrian’s Wall (that’s 84 miles!) which was constructed to mark the northernmost reach of the Roman Empire in 122AD.

One of their sponsors was Emma Saxon who pledged ‘Veg Out’ for two months and promised to give up 6 meaty meals a week, saving an amazing 47kg of carbon!  Even after her two months were up, Emma decided to continue having some meat free meals because she found some fantastic recipes. Because they were so fantastic, and so are we, we decided to share them with you all to hopefully persuade you to have a go too! 

Sweetcorn fritters (makes roughly 8-10 fritters):

100g plain flour (wholemeal is best)

1tbsp baking powder

1 egg

150ml milk

198g can of sweetcorn, well drained

Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Make a well in the centre of the mixture and crack the egg into it. Beat a little of the flour into the egg, then gradually beat the milk Into the mixture until you have a smooth batter. Add the drained sweetcorn and mix until evenly distributed.

Heat a little oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Drop spoonfuls of the batter into the pan and fry until golden on each side, about 2-3 mins. Repeat until the batter has all been used. Drain the fritters on kitchen towel.

The fritters are great for brunch served with tomato salsa, but other sauces work well with them too!

Falafel burgers (serves 4 as lunch or 2 as dinner)

400g can of chickpeas, drained

1 small/medium red onion

1 clove of garlic

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp chilli powder

A handful of chopped parsley

2 tbsp plain flour

4 pitta breads, salsa and sliced cucumber to serve

Put the drained chickpeas, onion, garlic, spices, coriander and flour in a food processor and blend until the mixture is fairly smooth. Shape the mixture into 4 burgers with your hands.

Fry each burger in a little oil in a frying pan until golden on each side, about 3 minutes. Toast the pitta breads and stuff them with the burgers, cucumber and tomato salsa.

These are also good in burger buns spread with houmous or tahini (sesame seed paste) and sliced tomatoes instead of salsa. Alternatively, you can shape them into balls and serve in a tortilla wrap with salad, or on pasta in a tomato sauce.

 

To get in touch with Emma if you want to know where these recipes came from, to ask for some more recipe suggestions, or just for a bit of a chat, you can find her on twitter here