From: Linda McCartney’s Home Cooking, p. 91
A quick, easy and delicious Cauliflower Gratin! Mixing the steamed cauliflower with fried onion and other ingredients and and then putting it under the grill works wonders and makes cauliflower a positive surprise. My daughter loved this and had more cauliflower than she would have if it had just been steamed and served as a side.
Vegan: I tried a vegan version (remember, it is veganuary!), substituting the parmesan for my vegan “parmesan”- delicious.
From: Linda McCartney’s Home Cooking, p. 149
This is the first dish I cooked in the New Year. And as it is “Veganuary“, I decided to cook only vegan recipes or recipes that can be adapted to be vegan this month.
It is a great recipe for a tasty and easy Bolognaise Sauce. Both my children and husband agreed that this is a recipe that should be cooked VERY often ‒ and my son showed some interest in learning how to make this sauce by himself.
I served the sauce with spaghetti and a spoonful of “vegan parmesan” ‒ just great!
Gluten-Free: Make sure the TVP mince you use is gluten-free and use gluten-free spaghetti.
From: Linda McCartney’s Home Cooking, p. 94
This is a great basic recipe for vegetarian Chilli and can be adapted in many different ways. My husband made this for us and added 1 tsp. paprika powder and 2 cloves crushed garlic plus some sweetcorn. Other additions could be diced red or green peppers, fresh chillies, or smoked paprika powder.
I find this is great served with a spoonful of sour cream or (plant-based) yoghurt alongside rice and a green salad.
From: Linda McCartney’s Home Cooking, p. 92
My husband made this delicious cauliflower bake with tomato sauce for us today. He opted for the spicy variation with chillies instead of capers, cloves and cinnamon. An unusual way to eat cauliflower, easy to make and very tasty.
We found that there was too much cheese in this dish, so I would recommend reducing the amount of cheese to 110g.
Serve with potatoes.
Vegan: Use 3 tbsp of my “vegan parmesan” instead of the cheddar.
Gluten-free: Use gluten-free breadcrumbs.
From: Linda McCartney´s Home Cooking, p. 84
This recipe reminds me of one of my gransmother´s recipes. She would make a large tray of Baked Macaroni Cheese whenever a lot of people came round for dinner or lunch. So this recipe is definitely one with lots of memories of family get-togethers, and of chatter and laughs around a big table. She would serve it with some carrot salad with chopped apple and a sweet lemon juice and honey dressing.
When I tried this recipe on my family, we found that the quantities used were too little for us- I would say this recipe serves 2-3.
Variations: Adding 1/2 tsp. of smoked paprika powder and 1/2 tsp. of sweet paprika powder gives more flavour and reminds me even more of my gran´s recipe, as she used some smoked ham in her maccaroni cheese.
Gluten-free: Use gluten-free macaroni.
From: Linda McCartney’s Home Cooking, p. 104
Having cooked “Lasagne Italiano” from Linda´s book two weeks ago, I decided to prepare Linda’s Lasagne now to find out which I like best. Both my family and I agreed that it is impossible to tell: both recipes are great and we would rather take it in turns to have one or the other. This way, no decision is needed 🙂
Linda’s Lasagne is special as it uses cottage cheese as one of the layers in the lasagne, giving it a nice balance between the tomato sauce and the mild flavour of the cottage cheese.
A friend of mine showed me to make a very similar lasagne when I was working in Sweden on a work placement.
Variations: Instead of using cottage cheese, you could add a layer of White Sauce (see Linda McCartne’s Home Cooking, p. 150) to make a very traditional Italian Lasagne.
Gluten-Free: Make sure the TVP mince you are using is gluten-free and substitute the lasagne strips with a gluten-free version.
From: Linda McCartney’s Home Cooking, p. 104
A very simple and tasty Lasagne with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. It is great with a simple salad and some crusty fresh italian bread!