These are two impressive vegetarian dishes for entertaining that even carnivores will devour:

• Ottelenghi’s Miso Leeks
• Donna Hay’s Haloumi Broccoli

Ottelenghi miso leeks have been a winner on more than one occasion lately. Bonus is that they are a relatively easy dish to make. Every time I’ve served them up, at least one person has asked for the recipe. Naturally I gladly share it with them, because reading the Ottelenghi Flavour book makes you feel that he would approve. I was planning on taking this dish to a family Christmas lunch, so I cooked it as a trial a few weeks earlier. The dish was do delicious that my husband decided to make it on the day and steal my thunder.

Vegetarian Side Dish Leeks with miso and chive salsa

• Peel the leeks, wash them and then cut off the darker green ends so the leeks fit in your dish.
• Thinly slice the leek heads.
• Pound ginger and salt in a mortar and pestle.
• To make the chive salsa, mix the smashed ginger with black and white sesame seeds, finely chopped chives, miso paste, mirin and rice vinegar together.
• Put water in the leek dish and heat it until it simmers, then add the leeks and reduce the heat.
• To make the crunchy topping coat the sliced leek tops with cornflour and fry them.
• Fry some garlic slices.
• Drizzle the chive salsa over the leeks.
• Sprinkle the fried leek slices and garlic over the top of the leeks.

Now laugh as all the carnivores who judge you for not eating meat the same way they do can’t get enough of this delicious vegetarian dish.

Another easy to prep and cook, delicious vegetarian favourite dish is Donna Hay’s haloumi broccoli from the Life in Balance cookbook. I probably over boiled the broccoli a bit before slicing into it and stuffing in the haloumi. So, it was a little flimsy, but it certainly was delicious.

Reading my breakdown of this recipe you may or may not pick up on the leek theme.

Haloumi roasted broccoli

• Thinly slice three leeks.
• Cook the leeks in a pan as slowly and for as long as you can in butter as they only get more delicious the more caramelised they get.
• Coat leeks with apple cider vinegar, a dash of sugar and season with salt and pepper. Stir them as you potter around getting the broccoli ready. You can add some herbs at this stage if you like.
• Preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius.
• Put equal amounts of vegetable stock and water in a large pot and bring to the boil.
• Place a small head of broccoli per person in the pot for 5 minutes.
• Place broccoli heads on a baking tray, slice down the middle and add the caramelised leek mix, slice of haloumi and sage leaves and roast for approximately 10 minutes.

Getting out the cookbooks and rekindling my love of cooking is good for the soul. So hopefully by sharing these delicious recipes it inspires you to enjoy some more vegetables.

For other delicious vegetarian recipes click here.

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