Here are my 4 best vegetarian recipes, one for each season.
- - Lentil Salad (Autumn)
- - Spanokopita (Winter)
- - Minestrone (Spring)
- - Ratatouille (Summer)
These are all recipes I cook all the time….and my family too (my 15 year old daughter has completely mastered the spanokopita). Hope you enjoy! Would love to hear in the comments how you go trying some of them.
Buy local, fresh and in-season when you shop for fruit and veg
Estimated CO2 Saving: 8kg per month (100kg per year)
When you buy fruit and veg do the following: choose locally produced, in-season and fresh rather than frozen, don’t use plastic bags and avoid any overpackaged items. Do this for a month then try to keep going.
SPRING – Minestrone
Recipe from Stefano Manfredi
Photograph by Gorta Yuuki
Featured in Italian Food Safari by Maeve O’Meara with Guy Grossi
Published by Hardie Grant Books
This fabulous touch-your-heart soup full of fresh vegetables was eaten at least once a week as Stefano was growing up. The use of parmesan rind to deepen the flavour is very clever. Minestrone is a soup that gets better with age, so while it’s good the day you make it, it’s even better the day after.
-3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
-2 onions, diced
-8 garlic cloves, each cut into 3–4 pieces
-1 celery heart including the pale, tender leaves, sliced
-2 large or 4–5 smaller carrots, cut into bite-sized pieces
-2 cups roughly chopped savoy cabbage
-2 bay leaves
-1 cup fresh flageolet beans, or other fresh (or cooked dried) beans
-350 g waxy potatoes such as desiree, peeled and diced
-200 g tinned Italian tomatoes, crushed
-100 g carnaroli rice
-salt
-150 g spinach, roughly chopped
-1 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves, roughly chopped
-60 g parmesan rind, cut into 1 cm cubes
-freshly ground black pepper
-freshly grated parmesan to serve
Heat the oil in a heavy-based pot and add the onion, garlic, celery heart, carrot, cabbage and bay leaves. Lightly fry the vegetables for 2–3 minutes without letting them colour. Stir in the beans, potato and tomato, then cover the ingredients with water. Once the soup comes to the boil, add the rice and turn down to a simmer. Add a few good pinches of salt and simmer for 20–25 minutes.
Add the spinach, parsley and parmesan rind and simmer for another 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and taste for seasoning, adding extra salt if needed, and pepper. Serve with plenty of grated parmesan and crusty bread.
Serves 10
See all of Maeve's vegetarian recipes here: My best vegetarian recipes for every season…by Maeve O’Meara