Tomato Soup

Just like the butternut squash soup, tomato soup is another great Autumn favourite. It is also great for using up any vegetables that you have laying about, and for getting vegetables into the kids. My kids love this tomato soup and it is definitely more than one of their five a day. The only trouble is cleaning up when the toddler has finished!! 

Ingredients
1 Onion, peeled & chopped
2 tbsp Olive Oil
2 Garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1 red Pepper, seeded and chopped
2 Carrots, peeled and sliced
2 Parsnips, peeled and sliced
1 x 400g chopped Tomatoes
700ml Vegetable stock
1 tsp caster Sugar

Method

1. Fry the onion in the olive oil for a couple of minutes until transparent. Next, add the garlic, carrot, pepper and parsnips and cook for a further 5 minutes
2. Add the remaining ingredients, bring up to the boiling point and then simmer for 20 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft.
3. Allow to cool a little, and then puree in a blender and reheat gently to serve.

Ten Tips for Budget Vegetarian Meals: plus Tomato, Parmesan and Rocket Tart

In the current economic climate, almost everyone is on a budget and looking for a bargain. This goes for food shopping as well as shopping on the high street. Personally, I can't believe how much the price of food has increased this year - almost 20% since last year according to a BBC report in May 2011. At the start of the year, a packet of pasta cost 50p in my local Asda. Slowly it crawled up to the 60p mark, then 70p, then last week it was 81p. This week, I paid 89p for the same packet of pasta. Similarly, two loaves of bread cost £1.50 at the start of the year, and now they cost £2.00 for two. It seems that the price of basic food items is being pushed up so much, that if it keeps on rising, many people will start forfeiting luxuries and basics from their weekly shop as they are no longer affordable.

As a vegetarian family, I think that our shopping bill is probably less than the average family as I don't buy any meat or fish which really pushes the shopping bill up, but I still seem to be spending more each week just buying the same things. Of course, if I truly wanted to save money, I could live like a student on beans on toast, tomato pasta, tinned fruit and soup and lots of frozen meals, but I want my kids to eat healthy food cooked from fresh ingredients. For some families however, a diet of tinned and frozen food is often the norm as fresh ingredients cost more to buy than ready made. I think it's sad that the government and NHS want to tackle childhood obesity and yet the price of fresh food is getting so expensive that you can understand why those on a budget turn to alternatives. 

So what could you do to reduce your food shopping bill? 

Here are my Top Ten Tips:

1. Plan your Meals for the week or for the month. Write a list of what you need and stick to the list. Netmums do great weekly and monthly planners here.
2. Shop Online to save money, fuel, and those little extras which sneak their way into the shopping trolley as you go round.
3. Buy Reduced Items. Find out when your local supermarket reduces their food and go and pick up some reduced food bargains.
4. Buy in Bulk. We have a Costco near us, which is great for stocking up and sells many basics at cheaper prices in bulk than the supermarkets.
5. Eat Vegetarian a couple of times a week. Omitting meat and fish from your diet could save on the shopping bill and also help save the environment. See Meat Free Monday for more details
6. Buy from the local market. Buying your fruit and veg from the local market is often much cheaper and much fresher. If buying at the supermarket, buy your fruit and veg loose as it is often cheaper than the priced packets.
7. Shop around for the best deals. Try MySupermarket to compare the prices of different supermarkets
8. Cook in Bulk  I often cook veggie mince and either divide it between two meals i.e. spaghetti bolognese and then bolognese with wedges the next night, or I cook a bulk batch of something such as a chicken casserole, then use half for a pie filling and freeze the other half for a later date.
9. Use store cupboard staples such as lentils, beans and tinned tomatoes to bulk out meals.
10. Cook from Scratch. Try making your own bread, cakes, biscuits and treats. Bakery items are often cheaper and more tasty made from scratch.

So bearing my tips in mind, the other day I popped into my local Waitrose for milk on the way home and saw that they were making their reductions. Of course, I could just have cooked tomato pasta for tea, but as I am a bit of a foodie, I want to eat on a budget, but still have a range of food with different flavours, textures and variety sometimes, so I managed to pick up a salad for 39p and some herb potatoes for 19p. Bargain! I decided to make a Tomato, Parmesan and Rocket Tart, and serve with the Baby Potatoes and remaining salad. 

Reduced Vegetarian Meal: Tomato, Parmesan and Rocket Tart served with Baby Potatoes and Rocket Salad

Ingredients

1 Pack of ready rolled Puff Pastry  £1.50

Half a tube of Tomato Puree 50p (25p for half)

1 packet of Rocket and Mozzarella Salad reduced to 39p

1 packet of Ready to Roast Potatoes with garlic and rosemary  - reduced to 19p

A sprinkle of grated Cheddar (or any other cheese you have) 75p

Total £3.08 = £1.54 per serving for two people or 77p per serving for a family of two adults and two small children.

Method

1) Cook the potatoes in a roasting tray as directed by the packet.

2) Roll out the ready to roll pastry onto a flat oven tray

3) Spread the tomato puree onto the pastry, leaving about an inch or so around each of the sides.

4) Top with the Rocket and then sprinkle the Parmesan and grated cheese over the top

5) Bake in the oven at 220 degrees for about 20 minutes

6) Serve with the remaining salad leaves.

TechNTaste Blogging Event

Last week I attended "Tech N Taste", a food blogging workshop hosted by Talk Talk at their offices in London.

As well as some inspiring speakers all specialising in different areas of food blogging, there was also a host of different food brands displaying their wares and offering samples.

As the event was hosted by Talk Talk, the company showcased their Home Safe  product, which is a really innovative piece of software which offers ground breaking Internet security for the whole family. They spent over 20 million on this piece of software and yet roll it out free to all their customers. It protects the whole family by creating a firewall at the point of entry to the house so that all mobile devices are covered too - great if you have under 18's and want to monitor what they are accessing. You can also cut access to certain sites at different times of the day to encourage kids to do homework without being distracted by social networking and email. I definitely think this piece of software is a reason to move to talk talk!

Speakers!

Chef Jesse Dunford Wood from The Mall Tavern in Notting Hill shared his tips on twitter and social networking and relayed to us how twitter has impacted his restaurant and his life! Cow Pie and Arctic roll anyone?

Next, Lee Smallwood, an SEO expert imparted his infinite wisdom on increasing blog traffic and getting your blog found by google - this was a fascinating talk for me.

Elisabeth Winkler who writes at Real Food Lover shared the "Do's and Don'ts" of blogging with us, as well as showing us some of her photography and proving that not all photos need to be amazing to be effective. I thought that Elisabeth was really interesting.

To counteract any bad photography, Giles Phelps then shared the art of "the angle of the dangle" and "food bombing" with us - proving you don't always need to have a fancy camera to take great shots - better get some practice in I think!

Food!

There were some wonderful food brands at tech n taste with some wonderful products.

My first mention must go to Tea Pigs. I think that being nice and friendly goes a long way when you have a product to sell and the lady at Tea Pigs was so friendly and lovely, plus she really knew her products. Tea Pigs sell fine green, white, black and organic Teas and have some yummy flavours like creme caramel, popcorn, chilli, liquorice and mint and my personal fave, spiced red winter tea. I would urge you to give their tea a go because it's fab and also follow them on twitter @teapigs

My next mention goes to Capricorn Goats Cheese. Made at the Lubborn Creamery from the milk of West Country goats who graze in one of the best dairy farming regions in the UK, Capricorn Goats cheese is lovely - creamy. mild, and doesn't taste too much like feet! It is also approved by the vegetarian society. Capricorn have some fab recipes on their website already and I shall be reviewing one of their delicious recipes in the next couple of weeks. You can follow them on twitter @berylthegoat @ethelthegoat

The Hummingbird Bakery were also at Tech N Taste, featuring their new "Carnival" range inspired by the tastes and flavours of the fairground. With flavours like toffee apple, strawberry milkshake, cotton candy, popcorn and cherry cola float, these cupcakes tasted absolutely yummy and had my mouth salivating just looking at them. Hubby and the kids were all thrilled that I bought them a cupcake home. I just wish I lived closer to a Hummingbird Bakery shop! @hummingbbakery

Also exhibiting were Helsham chocolates, a lovely chocolate company situated in Leicester. Their chocolates were so luxuriously rich and tasty and came in many different flavours and forms. I tried a delicious salted caramel  truffle and also Sicilian lemon and peach schnapps - divine! You can buy Helsham chocolates here, or follow them on twitter @helshamchocs

An alcoholic drink on display which intrigued me was St Germain Liquor, which is an all natural elderflower liquor made in France. You can make the St Germain signature drink by mixing sparkling white wine or champagne, St Germain, and sparkling water or club soda. This liquor tastes heavenly over lots of ice, although beware as it is 40% proof!

Also exhibiting were Little Melton Gourmet Yogurt whose passion fruit yoghurt left me hankering for more. Follow them on twitter @littlemeltonyog

It was fab to meet up with other food bloggers, after having been to quite a few Mummy blogging events. Only a food blogger knows how hard it is to cook great food, take great photos and then write a great blog post about what you have cooked - it's a much longer drawn out process. My Food blogger shout outs go to Working London Mummy who it was great to see again, Laura at How to Cook good food and Kate from What Kate Baked who it was fab to meet and I have added all to my blog roll so you can keep up with their super blogs.

Despite some of the comments on twitter, I think that Talk Talk did a fantastic job organising Tech N Taste, especially @kat4pr & @GugsS at Citigate PR. The food speakers were all really interesting and the SEO talk was great info.

The few who were slating of the event has really bothered me, because as a newbie food blogger, I am always happy to be invited to a FREE event where it's pretty clear that I will benefit by going, gaining knowledge, blogbloggers and also lets face it, get a few freebies along the way. It is interesting that of those who complained, most made sure that they were around to collect their goody bag at the end of the night. If you are invited to a lovely event, at least be gracious enough to not slag it off on twitter - especially when there is a live feed twitter wall right in front of you.

Sadly my camera gave up the ghost, so I don't have pics of this event but needless to say, I had a great time and would love to go to any further Tech N Taste events.

Baked Stuffed Marrow

Marrow has always been one of my favourite vegetables to eat. When I was younger, we used to go to a "pick your own" farm towards the end of summer and pick lots of fruit and vegetables at much cheaper prices than the supermarket. Every time we went, I have vivid memories of coming home with a stack of Marrows and then my mum concocting lots of different things to do with them. 

Marrows are a funny old vegetable. A member of the squash family, they are very distinctive looking and a vegetable which people often don't know what to do with. Marrows are great for soups, jams and chutneys, cakes and bakes, in ratatouille and also baked and stuffed.  

Baked Stuffed Marrow makes a perfect vegetarian main meal and can be stuffed with all manner of things - vegetables, vegetarian mince, or vegetarian chicken pieces. For this recipe, I stuffed a marrow with a bolognese-style sauce. It was so filling and tasted really delicious. 

Ingredients

1 medium sized Marrow

350g Vegetarian Mince

1 Onion, chopped and sliced

1 Pepper, chopped and sliced

2 Carrots, chopped and sliced

250g Mushrooms - chopped and sliced

1 400g tin chopped Tomatoes

1 500g jar of Onion & Garlic pasta sauce

1tsp Oregano

1tsp Basil

Method

1. Fry the onion and salt flakes in a large saucepan with a little oil over a medium heat for 4 minutes
2. Add the pepper, carrots and Mushrooms and continue to fry for 4 minutes.
3. Tip in the mince,add more oil and stir to break up any clumps (tip - pound the bag of mince with a rolling pin to get all of the lumps out before opening). Cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
4. Pour the tomatoes and pasta sauce in the pan and place the oregano and basil in also
5. Cover and cook for 20-30 minutes over a low heat, stirring frequently.
6. Lightly brush the marrow with olive oil and cook for 10 minutes in the oven at 200 degrees.
7. Remove the marrow and stuff with the bolognese sauce.  Return to the oven and cook for a further 15 minutes
8. Remove from the oven once more, sprinkle some cheese over the top of the bolognese and cook for a further 15 minutes
9. Once cooked, remove from the oven and serve immediately

Butternut Squash Soup

Autumn is one of my favourite times of the year. As the green leaves of summer change to golden yellows reds and browns and fall from the trees, the dark nights start to draw in, and the weather gets colder, inching closer every day to my very favourite season winter!. It is only since I have had kids that I have come to appreciate the seasons more. Autumn is a great season  for small children: harvest festival, family birthdays, bonfire night, my birthday, generally a short break away and of course, the excitement and lead up to Christmas which generally kicks in at the start of November in our house.

Autumn is also a fantastic season for food. There is a huge array of delicious dishes to prepare as all of the nights draw in. As the weather gets colder, my Autumn menu will typically feature casseroles, pies, baked dishes, soups and hearty warm foods.

So for the first of many autumn dishes, I am featuring Butternut Squash soup. Butternut squash is a sweet vegetable with a tough exterior and orange flesh. Generally in season between September & November, it is really versatile to cook with and features lots of vitamins A &C and is also very low in fat. Butternut Squash also keeps for quite a while. In a cool (not refrigerated place, they can keep for three months or more. At room temperature, or in the fridge, they will deteriorate more quickly, but typically keep for at least a couple of weeks.

I am ashamed to admit that I never really came across butternut squash until I started weaning my eldest and found out that it was a great first food to puree, but since discovering it, I have started to cook with it more and more, including it in pasta dishes and baked on its own. One of my favourite things to do with butternut squash though is to make soup.

I have included the recipe below, but you could also vary the soup by adding a teaspoon of Nutmeg and or Cinnamon. You could also just add half the butternut squash and add sweet potato or carrot to the soup also.

What do you do with butternut squash?

Ingredients
1 Onion, peeled & finely chopped
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1 Garlic Clove, peeled & finely chopped
1 medium Butternut Squash, peeled, deseeded & cut into small cubes
1 tsp ground Turmeric
800ml Vegetable Stock

Method

1. Saute the onion in a frying pan for 8 minutes over a medium heat and stir intermittently until transparent. Add the garlic and stir for a further minute or two.
2. Add the butternut squash cubes and turmeric to the frying pan and saute for a further 5 minutes.
3. Add the stock and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes or until the squash is tender.
4. Allow to cool and then puree in the blender. I typically puree one half, and then the other. 
5. Reheat to serve, or freeze for a later date.

St Albans Food & Drink Festival 28 Sept – 9 Oct

The 4th St Albans Food and Drink Festival starts on Wednesday the 28th of September and runs until Sunday the 9th of October. Organised by St Albans City and District Council, the food festival showcases some of the finest range of food, drink and produce available across the district. 

The famous St Albans Beer Festival, organised by CAMRA kick things off on the 28th of September, and throughout the 12 day festival, many pubs, restaurants and hotels will be offering special meal deals or holding events such as tastings, workshops and cookery demonstrations. There will also be a continental market, farmers’ market and festival stalls giving you a chance to sample and buy local food.  

A gourmet treat will be held at Poggenpohls showroom on the 3rd of October, as special guest chefs from Lussmanns & Darcys cook up a mouth-watering three course menu. Drinks from Flagship Wines and canapés will be served and there will be a raffle. The proceeds from the event and raffle are going to Grove House.

On the 6th of October, La Cuisine Imaginaire hosts “Great Vegetarian dishes from around the world” – a "Watch & Taste" cookery demonstration by BBC author Roselyne Masselin, featuring seasonal and flavour filled ingredients from around the world. Being vegetarian, I am excited about this one, and I am going, so see you there!

Other highlights include the Flagship Wines Autumn Wine Fayre on the 30th of September from 7-10pm, with over 100 wines available to taste, gift ideas, tapas and special offers. Tickets cost £10 a head and are available from flagship wines, or the tourism office.  

Family highlights include the Honey & Nectar festival at Butterfly World on the 30th September to the 2nd of October, and the Tudor Treats family event to be held at the Museum of St Albans from 2pm to 4:30pm. For just £1, you can come along and sculpture your own “sweet meats” – a Tudor delicacy made of marzipan and sugar that would be generally be eaten after a feast, and also design your own decorated Tudor plate to take away with you. There will also be an “Apple Day Fair” held at St Peter’s Church on the 8th of October to raise funds for the church.

The festival culminates in the town centre on Sunday the 9th of October with a farmers market, cookery demonstrations, music and stalls.

Vote for your favourite food and drink venue!
From Thursday 15 September, you can vote for your favourite eateries, and the winners will receive their awards at the special award ceremony to be held on Thursday 6 October at St Michael’s Manor Hotel in Fishpool Street, St Albans. Everyone is welcome to attend the ceremony. The evening includes a welcome drink, delicious 3 course buffet and a raffle in aid of the Mayor, Councillor Aislinn Lee’s charities which are Sure-start St Albans and St Albans and Hertsmere Women’s Refuge (SAHWR).

This event is sponsored by Flagship Wines, Mokoko and St Michael’s Manor Hotel. Tickets are £25 plus a booking fee and can be booked online: 

The categories you can vote for from across the whole district are:

Best Restaurant
Best Pub
Best Bar
Best Café
Most Family Friendly Venue
Local Gem
Local Producer

To vote go to the website: From 15 September the shortlist for each category will be available online. 

You can also nominate an individual person working within the food and drink industry for the Kate D’Arcy Award for Exceptional Customer Service. This award was created in memory of Kate D’Arcy, co-founder of Darcys Restaurant and is for someone who has exceeded normal expectations by providing outstanding service. To vote go to the website: 

Voting for all categories including the Kate D’Arcy Award closes on Friday 30 September.

If you would like more information about the event, then please see the festival website or facebook page. You can also E-mail: foodanddrinkfestival@stalbans.gov.uk to join the mailing list.

Brochures can be downloaded from the website and are available online. You can also pick up a copy from the District Council Offices and the Tourist and Information Centre in St Albans. 

This looks to be a fab festival and I for one am excited to attend some of the events and fully immerse myself in the finest fare that St Albans has to offer. If any local peeps would like to join me, then please do get in touch!

Wild Ivy Flowers, St Albans: The flowers that travelled one thousand miles!

As social networking continues to creep into more and more areas of our lives, physical copies of books like The Yellow Pages have no relevance for me, and so when I needed a talented florist for a bouquet I wanted to purchase, a chance encounter through a friend on facebook led me to Ellie who has just set up Wild Ivy, a new flower company in St Albans.

Ellie at Wild Ivy offers flowers for all kinds of events, weddings, parties, gifts, sympathy and corporate contracts. Her portfolio includes The London Design Centre, Kew Gardens and the Greenwich Maritime Museum, as well as numerous weddings, parties and events. Along with running Wild Ivy, Ellie also juggles life as a busy Mum, often starting her day at 4am to go the flower markets. I can barely function at 8am, so for someone to be up, out and working at 4am is definitely an achievement to be admired in my book!  

The flowers I intended on purchasing were for my Mother in law, as a gift from my Father In Law to thank her for organising his 70th birthday. Being male, and generally not his area of expertise, he delegated flower buying  duties to me. My Mother in Law is herself very talented at flower arranging and goes to the local Flower Club . As she is interested in flower arranging, she also knows what flowers she likes, so I wanted to order flowers from someone who would be able to create a special bouquet with flowers that she specifically loves, rather than a few favourites with other flowers she is not so fond of added to make up the weight.

After looking at some of the beautiful creations on the Wild Ivy website, I contacted Ellie to chat to her about what I wanted, and she was immediately able to offer me bouquet ideas which completely fitted with what I knew my Mother in Law would love.  

Ellie kindly offered to comp my flowers in return for featuring the bouquet on my blog, so I was very excited to see what she would create! When the flowers arrived, both hubby and I were amazed at how outstandingly beautiful they were. The bouquet smelt so fragrant and featured Lillies, and pink rose of a really good size, with eucalyptus and other foilage added for effect!.

My Mother in Law was very excited & surprised to be presented with such a lovely big bouquet of flowers. Lillies and pink roses are her favourite flowers and she absolutely loved them. She was also very impressed with the arrangement and the quality and fragrance of the flowers.

Two days after the party, we all left for a weeks holiday in Scotland. Not wanting to waste such beautiful flowers, my mother in law decided to take them with us! So a 500 mile north trip, an overnight stay in a car, a week's holiday, 500 miles back south and another overnight stay in the car, this is how they emerged from their 1000 mile round trip. We were really surprised that they had lasted the journey so well and still looked amazing.

The flowers were so fresh, that they actually lasted a whole three weeks, and the roses lasted longer in a separate vase!  If you are local to St Albans and looking for a florist, I would definitely recommend contacting Wild Ivy. Ellie is a very interesting and creative florist and her flowers are absolutely amazing. I shall definitely be knocking at her door the next time I need flowers!

Disclaimer. Flowers offered in consideration for review.

Easy Peasy Pizza

Easy Peasy Pizza

Another great light meal for tea, this "easy peasy pizza" comes from the "I Can Cook" recipe book and requires you to make your own base, but you could also use a pre-made one.  I wasn't sure about the grapes on to at first, but the kids loved it and it did actually taste really delicious.

For the base:  (Makes one small pizza)

75g self-raising Flour
10g soft Butter
30ml Milk

1. Rub together the flour and butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs,  Slowly add the milk and stir with a fork until you achieve the desired consistency. Flatten the dough into a pizza base and place on a baking tray.

For the topping:

4 cherry tomatoes, halved

1 sprig fresh rosemary, 

5 green Grapes

25g Cheddar Cheese

1. Arrange the grapes, tomatoes and rosemary over the top of the pizza base and sprinkle cheddar cheese over the top.
2. Cook at 220 degrees for 15-20 minutes

Ideas for Quick Teas for Vegetarian Kids - Link Up

Along with many other 4 year olds up and down the country, our eldest started school this week, marking her transition from preschooler to infant pupil. One of the big changes that comes with this is that she has opted for school dinners rather than packed lunches for lunch, which leaves me with the dilemma of what to feed her when she comes home from school. She won't need a big dinner, but as the dark nights and cold weather draw in, I am thinking that a simple sandwich might not suffice!, so I need to think of ideas for quick, easy, light teas in the evenings where she doesn't need to eat lots, but needs filling up before bed time.

There has been lots of great packed lunch ideas on various blogs over the summer,but what about quick and filling tea/supper ideas for children having school dinners? I need meal ideas which I can add to for youngest who is still having a sandwich as home for lunch, or can be just a warm snack/light meal for eldest.

So I have decided to create my first "Meme" (hate the word!) and ask you for some ideas of what you typically cook or make in the evening for kids who have school dinners at lunchtime. Feel free to link up to a post on your blog, the only thing I ask is that all recipes are vegetarian, or could be made vegetarian.

Here are a couple of my ideas for tea:

Cheats Pizza

Base           Pizza Bases, Tomato Puree, Cheddar Cheese,
Toppings    Green Peppers, red Peppers, Onion and Tomato

Obviously you could add any toppings you like. This takes about 15 minutes to make and 10-15 minutes to cook, so is quite a quick recipe.

Cheese and Vegetable Pasties 

These Cheese and Vegetable Pasties make a great tea. I have taken them from the I can Cook cookbook. To bulk it out you can add potatoes/veg or baked beans, or just have it on its own with salad as a light snack.

Ingredients (Makes two)

375g Puff Pastry

8 Spinach or Rocket Leaves

60g Cheddar Cheese, grated

pinch of ground Nutmeg

2 rounded teaspoons of Ratatouille

Small bowl of water

Method

1. Sprinkle the work mat with flour and roll out the puff pastry.
2. Use a cutter, or small bowl to cut out 4 circles in the pastry.
3. Place 2 of the circles on a baking tray.
4. Tear the spinach or Rocket leaves up into a bowl. Add most of the cheese, a pinch of nutmeg and the ratatouille and mix it all together,
5. Prick all of the pastry circles with a fork, and then spoon the mixture into the centre of the two pastry circles on the baking tray.
6. Use the pastry brush to brush water around the edges and then place the remaining two pastry circles on top of each of the filled pastry circles and add the remaining grated cheese.
7. Place in a preheated oven at 220 degrees, gas mark 7 for about 15 minutes.or until puffed and golden.
8. Once cooked, remove from oven, allow to cool a little and serve.

Vegetarian Italian Shepherds Pie

Today I am featuring my vegetarian take on Gino D'Acampo's Italian Shepherds pie. I must confess to being a fan of Gino's cooking  mainly because he cooks mainly italian food which I love. I also have his cook book "The Italian Diet" and have adapted some of the meaty recipes from there to be vegetarian like my Aubergine and Mozzarella Bake. I saw Gino D'Acampo make this Italian Shepherds pie on This Morning and it really appealed to me. 

This is one of my absolute favourite dishes and it has a really interesting flavour. The combination of the red wine and basil in the bolognese and sweet potato and parmesan on top are delicious. I also love it because it contains red wine and of course, opening a bottle of wine for one glass means that I can have one too!

If you only sample one recipe on The Vegetarian Experience, I would definitely recommend this one. My eldest daughter says that this is her favourite dish to eat.

You could vary this recipe by using purely sweet potato instead of both. I have also made this recipe using mozzarella cheese which is more vegetarian friendly, and also using cheddar cheese on the top. Both worked well. You could also add a splash of lea and perrins Worcester sauce to the bolognese for an extra kick, although this may not appeal to strict vegetarians.

My Vegetarian version of Gino D'Acampo's Italian Shepherds pie

Ingredients 
5 tbsp Olive Oil
1 large Onion, finely chopped
3 Carrots, chopped
70g button Mushrooms, halved
500g vegetarian Mince
1 glass dry Red Wine
1 x 400g tin Tomatoes
6 fresh Basil leaves
350g Sweet Potatoes, chopped
350g Potatoes, chopped
30g Butter
50ml full fat Milk
150g Vegetarian Parmesan cheese
Salt & Pepper

Method 

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees, gas mark 6 Heat the Olive oil in a large saucepan and fry the onion, carrots and mushrooms for about 10 minutes until softened.
2. Add the vegetarian mince (tip - I use a rolling pin to get the clumps out before the pack is opened).. Season with salt and pepper and stir frequently with a wooden spoon for 5 minutes to separate any clumps. 
3. Add in the red wine and simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the alcohol has evaporated. 
4. Add the tomatoes and basil, taste to Season and cook, uncovered over a medium heat for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally.
5. Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water until soft. Drain and mash well, adding in the butter, milk and 100g of the vegetarian Parmesan. Season with salt and pepper and then stir vigorously over a low heat for 2 minutes to give a creamy texture. 
6. Pour the vegetarian shepherds pie mixture into a pie dish and spread evenly over the dish. Spread the potato over the pie mixture, ensuring that the mixture is completely covered. Use a fork to create small peaks, and then sprinkle the remaining vegetarian  parmesan on top. 
7. Bake in the centre of the oven for about 20 minutes or until the topping is crisp and golden.

I served my Italian Shepherds pie with an Italian salad and drizzled some Balsamic Reduction over the dish. Bon Appetit!!