Meat-Free Monday #3 - The frittata and the vegetarian feast

Oh my God it's Friday and I'm only just doing this post?! I scandalize even myself. So I'm making up for it by posting this awesome little frittata recipe. Maybe we could change the name of this feature to Fritatta Friday just to make us all feel a little better about this whole situation. And then there was the amazing vegetarian feast that my housemate cooked the other day. Oh, but I'm getting ahead of myself here - back to the frittata.

I have an awful secret. Which I now feel ready to tell the world. Here it is...I am a failure at cooking eggs. I can cook all kinds of food (not well you understand but I can just about throw a meal together) but eggs are a no-no. I went to university not even really knowing how to poach an egg. When Elliot realised this dire situation and taught me to make scrambled egg I panicked when it turned lumpy and stirred like a manic until he pointed out that was the egg scrambling. Embarrassing I know. So anyway, I fail at anything with egg in. But earlier in the week I was feeling a bit ill and icky, and when I was ill as a kid my mum would make me eggs. So I decided to conquer eggs once and for all. With a little help from Hugh.

My housemate bought this book with his birthday monies and it has some legendary recipes in. All vegetarian of course. This is where I got the instructions from on how to cook a frittata.

For this recipe I used a medium sized potato, a handful of brocolli trees, 1/3 of a courgette, a handful of mushrooms and 3 eggs. Basically you just cook all the vegetables separately. Then whisk up the eggs and season. Lay the veggies out in a layer in the bottom of a frying pan which is preheated with a drop of oil. Pour over the eggs and wait! Don't stir it, don't move it, don't even breathe near it for fear that the eggs will rebel and your frittata will morph into a scrambled mess. Or maybe this rules only apply the those of us who are frittata virgins. Hugh clearly states it should be left until nearly all the egg has cooked with only a thin layer of liquid egg on top, and Hugh knows his stuff.

Now grate over some cheese and whap it under a preheated grill, frying pan and all, until the cheese is deliciously melted and the egg is all cooked. Then you om-a-nom-nom it down in record time. Alongside a giant dollop of ketchup o'course!

It was super delicious and so so easy. I would cook this a hundred times over. If only to prove to the world that I have conquered eggs.

Right, on to the feast to end all feasts! The beast of feast! The...yeah, the vegetarian feast. James made this on Wednesday night when we had friends round, all recipes from Hugh's book. We had garlicky minty mushy peas, quinoa salad with squash and fennel, and a tomato and goats cheese tart. Everything was super yummy and devoured in record time. And then we had some amazing homemade coffee ice cream with berries. And I don't even like the flavour of coffee but I could have eaten the whole lot myself.

Quinoa salad

Garlicky minty mushy peas

Tomato and goats cheese tart

All photos are taken straight out the book because the food was gobbled before I could get a photograph. Only one more Monday left in May for another meat-free recipe. I'll try and actually remember next week. Though I am going home for the bank holiday weekend to soak up some weedy little northern sunshine so don't go getting too hopefully. Hope everyone has a great long weekend of wonderfulness!