Warsaw: Beirut Hummus & Music Bar

Lentil Soup

Halloumi with pomegranate

I found another good place in Warsaw! The choice of veggie food was so varied for a non-vegetarian restaurant that it took me a while to decide what to have. I liked the variety of food Beirut offers, from small snacks to proper meals, e.g. halloumi burgers.

Hearty chickpea & avocado salad

I don’t normally order salads when I eat out because they're often rather boring, so I created a few easy salad recipes I actually enjoy eating at home.

My no. 1 is chickpea & avocado salad:

Ingredients for approx. 2 big portions:

1 can of chickpeas
a handful of radishes
a few stems of fresh dill
1 large avocado
2 tbs lemon juice
1 tbs olive oil
1 handful of cherry tomatoes
3-4 handfuls of lettuce/mixed leaf salad
ground black pepper
optional: grated cheese 

The instructions are simple - chop and mix everything in no particular order. 

Greek (Cretan) Cuisine

Crete offers a good variety of vegetarian food and, most importantly, you can enjoy traditional Greek vegetarian food (rather than rely on pasta or pizza).

It's probably not the most vegan-friendly place, but most restaurants should cater to special requests as the food appears to be fresh and made from scratch.

I didn't find many dishes with my favourite sources of protein (chickpeas and lentils), except for a salad in our hotel, which also happened to contain ham...but you can definitely survive in Greece being a vegetarian or vegan.

Surprisingly, I didn't come across much hummus or pita bread, perhaps they're more common in other parts of Greece. My favourite dishes were grilled halloumi cheese, stuffed peppers and tomatoes, roasted vegetables and potatoes, feta pastries, as well as "regular" European food like salads, pastas etc.

Grilled halloumi

Stuffed peppers & tomatoes

Feta pie

A random selection of veggie food in our hotel restaurant

Just to be clear, this is not a picture of one of my meals!

beautiful Balos

Spicy Tomato & Lentil Soup

Healthy & super easy to make!

Ingredients:

1.5l water
200g red lentils (check if they need to be soaked)
1 can peeled & chopped tomatoes
1 garlic clove (whole)
2 tsp salt
1 pinch of turmeric
1 allspice berry
1 dash of pepper
1 bay leaf
1 dash (or more!) of chilli powder
2 tsp soy sauce

Add the lentils to boiling water (if they need to be soaked first, do it earlier). Add the tomatoes and all the spices in any order. Cook at medium heat for as long as the lentils need to be cooked (check the package). 

  

Blue Cheese & Mushroom Pasta Bake

Vegetarian meals don't have to be super healthy or low in calories (thank god!)

This is one of these meals. I was surprised with the outcome as it tasted better than it looked and had a really rich flavour. Just make sure you use veggie cheeses if you're vegetarian, so no Gorgonzola.

Ingredients:

100g crumbled blue cheese
100g grated mature cheddar cheese
300g pasta
100g cream
1 can chopped tomatoes
200g chanterelle (or other) mushrooms
half an onion
2 garlic cloves
dried basil
salt & pepper
1 handful sliced black olives

1. Boil a pan of water for pasta. Heat oven to 180C. Chop the vegetables.

2. Fry the onions and mushrooms for a few minutes (with a bit of salt and pepper) and add garlic a couple of minutes before they're done.

3. When the pasta is ready, place it in a large oven dish and mix it with the canned tomatoes, cream and fried vegetables. Add a generous amount of basil and pepper and a bit of salt, then stir.

4. Sprinkle the cheese mixture on top, then stir gently so that some of it gets inside the dish.

5. Bake for about 25 min at 180 degrees. Scatter some sliced olives on top.

French-Indian food

One of my favourite Indian restaurants - Chez Mumtaj in St Albans.

Their weekend menu is not as vegetarian-friendly as it is during the week, but you can still get a few lovely dishes. A little swank, not your typical curry in a hurry kind of place :)

Paneer Shashlik - my favourite!

Spinach dumplings

Quick dinner - lentils with mushrooms

Ingredients for 2 -3:

1.5 cup red lentils (check that they don't require long soaking)
3-4 handfuls of oyster or other type of chopped mushrooms
half a cup of rice
half an onion
1 tsp salt
1 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp chilli powder
olive oil for frying
soy sauce (optional)

1. Cook the lentils with all the spices as recommended on the packet, normally 10-15 min.

2. Fry the mushrooms and onions with a little salt and pepper for about 10 minutes.

3. Once the lentils are soft and have absorbed most of the water (a little water is good as it creates a nice sauce), add the mushrooms and onions. Serve with rice. It's not a very saucy dish so the lentil to rice ratio should be 1:1 or 1:0.5

You can also pour a little soy sauce over the rice for a stronger flavour.