h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Today is V for vegetarian cooking.

We abandoned meat bit by bit, after the Mad Cow Disease scandal. I refused to give up fish but, nevertheless, the majority of the meals in our house are vegetarian.

Some of our early dishes were based on Rose Elliot's 'The Bean Book' and, although I've changed these over time, I still do chickpea curries, lentil lasagne, spaghetti with lentils, and ratatouille with haricot beans. So the pulses have to be included in any vegetarian's list of useful ingredients. They can be difficult to digest and, if you use dried beans, most need to be soaked and cooked thoroughly.

When I taught my son a few recipes, he commented that all of them started with chopping and frying onion, crushing and adding garlic and then adding tomato. This does have a certain amount of truth to it! Although onion, garlic and tomato might come top of the list of useful ingredients, I would add aubergine, courgettes and mushrooms.

Many of my favourite dishes feature cheese, and I don't stick to vegetarian ones. Some of them are pies - like the cheese and spinach pie I know as spanakopita, and a goats'cheese and beetroot flan which comes from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. You can, of course, ring the changes: leek and mushroom, blue cheese and broccoli, asparagus and ricotta.

Many Italian recipes lend themselves to vegetarian versions - pasta, pizzas and risottos. But Indian cookery is another great source of vegetarian recipes. I do paneer saag (spinach with paneer cheese) vegetable biryani and a two potato vindaloo devised by Yotam Ottolenghi. My husband makes super samosas in filo pastry and a couple of starters from a book by the Prashad restaurant. The nicest is a pethi which consist of balls of spicy coconut filling coated in potato and fried.

It's surprising what you can stuff. Aubergines, peppers, mushrooms and butternut squash are good. But you can also stuff cabbage leaves and vine leaves, as well as cannelloni and conchiglioni.

If all this makes me sound like a super cook, I don't think that's true. I must have made every mistake in the book - from lumping white sauces to burning beans. I suppose it's often just a question of trial and error.

I try to include some kind of legumes in every meal I cook. I've never stuffed any peppers, mushrooms, or cabbage leaves. I leave that to others.

Diabetes is apparently far more prevalent in the vegetarian south part of India, compared to the more carnivorous north part. Vegetarians can eat lower-carbohydrate diets, but it's a lot of work. India is hampered by a distaste for the higher-protein tofu that neighboring China relies on. Some have tried pureeing soybeans and reshaping the mash into the shape of lentils, which Indians *do* like.

I was reading about a remote island in the Pacific where the diet is largely coconuts and fish. You'd think that such a high-fat diet would be correlated with a high incidence of heart disease, but heart disease is quite low there. Coconut oil has been researched a lot in the last few decades, and have been found to metabolize much like olive oil.

I probably eat vegetarian 4 out of 7 days. I'm about to cook up a big batch of ready meals - a big pot of mushy pea curry I can freeze then reheat as a mid-week meal.

When I say cook...I'm going to open two tins of mushy peas, two tins of baked beans & two tins of chopped tomatoes. Then I'm going to dice & fry 3 onions in garlic frylight (unfortunately I forgot to get garlic at the supermarket yesterday). Once that's softened it'll go in a big saucepan with the contents of the six tins and some mild curry powder and I'll simmer the lot for twenty minutes, stirring every 5 minutes or so.

It's quick and easy and looks disgusting, but don't knock it til you've tried it, as they say

I'm not much of a cook, really

Deb

I'm not a natural cook either. When I did cookery classes at school, I would rush round, dropping things and getting in a muddle. I've just kept going.

I wouldn't bother with the pies and the stuffed vegetables if I was on my own. Curries and pasta dishes can be easy though.

I just sort ingredients into three or four main categories [spices, cans, frozen, fresh veggies to be chopped, and water], and then work my way through each category. Mixing the spices and mixing them with the broth gives me chance to turn on the burner and let the broth steep while I prepare the other categories. If there's anything big form the freezer, I add that so it has the longest time to thaw and stew.

I'm going t make cassoulet for lunch.

There are four spices [chicken bouillon, garlic, thyme, and parsley], four cans to open [tomatoes, tomato paste], cannellini, tuna, and chopped olives], one type of frozen thing, i.e. greens, and three things to chop, i.e. carrots, broccoli, and onion. Also rice and chicken and water. This is not supposed to be an authentic recipe, butg it works better than the others I've tried. Okay, I might skip the carrots since I'm using broccoli.

Sounds good.

[Amy P]

I'd like to have supper with all of you, please.

You're welcome!