Moving blog content to Veg World

Over the next couple of weeks, I plan to move many of the pages from this blog over to my main website, Veg World. There are two reasons for this.

Firstly, Veg World is a well-established site, with a large following, and with a high ranking in Google search results. I hope that by moving the content to the site, it will be seen by more people - and especially by vegetarians in other parts of the world.

The second reason is that, by hosting the content on my own site, I will have more control over the formatting and layout.

I hope this move won't cause you any inconvenience. To make it easy for you to find the new pages, I will add an appropriate link on each of the original pages.

In the meantime, I hope you'll browse Veg World and let me know what you think of it. You can use the following links to find it:

Veg World home page

Full list of vegetarian and vegan recipes

Recipe: Vegetarian Scotch broth

Scotch broth is everything that good rustic food should be: filling, nourishing, economical, and capable of being adapted to the ingredients you have to hand. More than just a soup, it's almost a complete meal in a bowl.

Now you might think that a vegetarian Scotch broth is a contradiction in terms. But the defining ingredient is not meat, but barley. It's barley that gives the broth its characteristic taste, and it's barley that provides most of the protein. Although the soup is traditionally made with lamb or mutton, it does no harm at all to leave out the meat.

5 August 2011: I have now moved this recipe to my main website, Veg World. My apologies for any inconvenience. You can see the recipe by following this link:

Vegetarian Scotch Broth

You might also find this link useful:

Full list of vegetarian and vegan recipes.

Recipe: Potato scones

A potato scone is a versatile and filling snack. You can eat it just as it is, or serve it toasted, with butter, jam or cheese. It makes a tasty tea-time treat. Or it can be fried up with eggs and vegetarian sausages for a quick and easy breakfast or lunch.

5 August 2011: I have now moved this recipe to my main website, Veg World. My apologies for any inconvenience. You can see the recipe by following this link:

Scottish Potato Scones

You might also find this link useful:

Full list of vegetarian and vegan recipes.

Recipe: Scottish shortbread

Who can resist a crisp slice of Scottish shortbread? Well, if you're on a calorie-controlled diet, I suppose you might. But, putting that to one side, you must agree that a nice piece of shortbread is always a delicious treat.

So what exactly is shortbread? Despite the name, it has nothing to do with bread. Rather, it's a biscuit - a cookie, for Americans - made entirely with butter, flour and sugar. Unlike the similarly named shortcake, it contains no baking powder or other raising agent.

It's also very easy to make at home. I have several recipes, but the one I'm offering here is the simplest and most reliable.

5 August 2011: I have now moved this recipe to my main website, Veg World. My apologies for any inconvenience. You can see the recipe by following this link:

Scottish Shortbread

You might also find this link useful:

Full list of vegetarian and vegan recipes.

Taste test proves positive for Provamel

When I heard that Provamel were planning to improve their chocolate and vanilla soya desserts, I was immediately suspicious. I always keep a few of these delectable treats in the fridge, either for a quick dessert or just for an occasional snack. As well as having a lovely creamy taste, they boast excellent health and allergen-free credentials. So why mess around with a product which is already so good?

In fact, I needn't have worried. The new desserts appeared in my local health food shop this week, so I decided to conduct a taste test (admittedly, not a particularly scientific one) among myself and some family members. The verdict: the new version is at least as good as the original, and - in the opinion of 50 percent of my testers - noticeably better.

Eating out: Mimi's Bakehouse, Leith

Although it's not specifically vegetarian, I would like to tell you about Mimi's Bakehouse in Leith (except perhaps those of you who are watching your waistlines).

I discovered Mimi's when I was out with my cycling group (Edinburgh 20-Milers) yesterday morning. Along with seven other foolhardy peddlers, I cycled in snow and slush from central Edinburgh to Leith. The temperature was around zero, and by the time we reached the Shore, we were badly in need of warmth and sustenance

Celebrate the bard's birthday on the 25th January

With Christmas and Hogmanay now out of the way, it's time to look forward to the next great Scottish feast day: 25th January. That's when Scots everywhere honour the "immortal memory" of the national poet, Robert Burns.

In the past, Burns Night suppers have been a turn-off for vegetarians. But things are changing. Most hotels and restaurants now include veggie options on their Burns Night menus - often featuring the famous vegetarian haggis from Macsween.

Of course, you can also make a vegetarian haggis at home, as this recipe demonstrates.

Recipe: Rumbledethumps

Onions. Cabbage. Potatoes. They don't sound very exciting, do they? On their own, they might not amount to much. But taken together, they're a winning combination.

There's something about both onions and cabbage that makes them go wonderfully well with potatoes - especially when they're all mashed up and cooked together. You see it in dishes like bubble and squeak (from northern England), colcannon (Ireland) and Stamppot (Netherlands).

The Scottish version is called rumbledethumps - or sometimes rumblethumps. It's a delicious dish that can provide plenty of sustenance on a cold day. It's also an excellent way of using up left-over vegetables. It's often served as an accompaniment to a main course, but it's also good enough to make as a meal on its own.

5 August 2011: I have now moved this recipe to my main website, Veg World. My apologies for any inconvenience. You can see the recipe by following this link:

Rumbledethumps

You might also find this link useful:

Full list of vegetarian and vegan recipes.

What exactly are neeps? (And are they the same as turnips?)

You can't venture far in Scotland without coming across neeps - a staple of Scottish cuisine. This distinctive root vegetable crops up in several Scottish recipes, and is also eaten as an accompaniment to other dishes. But what exactly is it?

5 August 2011: I have now moved this article to my main website, Veg World. My apologies for any inconvenience. You can see the article by following this link:

What exactly are neeps? (Are they the same as turnips?)

Recipe: Cock-a-leekie soup, vegetarian style

Photo from Wikimedia Commons

In these chilly December days, you need a thick, sustaining soup to keep out the cold.

Cock-a-leekie is a traditional Scottish soup, usually made by slowly boiling a chicken along with leeks and rice. The chicken is then removed and served separately.

Fortunately, it's easy to make a vegetarian version of cock-a-leekie. It's just as warming as the original, and the absence of the fowl does no harm to the taste.

5 August 2011: I have now moved this recipe to my main website, Veg World. My apologies for any inconvenience. You can see the recipe by following this link:

Cock-a-leekie Soup (vegetarian style)

You might also find this link useful:

Full list of vegetarian and vegan recipes.

Book review: Scottish Traditional Recipes, by Christopher Trotter

For my first book review for this blog, I looked hard for a book of traditional Scottish recipes, written specifically for a vegetarian audience. Alas, there's no such thing - or, if there is, it's not known to Amazon or Google. There are, however, several excellent general Scottish cookbooks that include at least a sprinkling of veggie-friendly dishes.

Scottish Traditional Recipes, by Christopher Trotter, is one such volume. It's true that its main focus is on fish, meat, poultry and game (venison and salmon both make a strong appearance). But more than a few of its 130-odd recipes are either naturally vegetarian or can easily be adapted. The Vegetables and Grains chapter, for example, includes a barley risotto (but you need to use vegetable stock rather than chicken stock) and colcannon (which I always thought was from Ireland, but which has Aberdonian connections, according to the author).

Scottish cuisine: a personal view

Scotland is a beautiful country with a fine culinary tradition. Its cuisine is not based on formal recipes that have been written up in books, but rather on traditional dishes and cooking techniques that have passed down the generations. Dishes have changed over time, and, for most of them, there is no one correct way to make them. There are also many regional traditions - more than you might expect in such a small country.

Because of the country's rugged climate, and the prevalence of an outdoor way of life, Scottish cuisine tends towards the warming and sustaining: thick, nourishing soups and stews, for example, rather than delicate sauces or fancy pâtés. Many recipes are based on one-pot dishes that are cooked slowly for long periods, such as Scotch broth and cock-a-leekie soup. For the same reason, rich baked goods are also common - the Aberdeen buttery is one that comes to mind.