River Cottage Baked Mushrooms with Dauphinoise Potatoes

My friends and family know me well and I often get food related presents for birthdays and Christmases and I don't mind a bit. I will quite happily take a recipe book to bed for some night time reading! One of my presents from Mr VST was the new River Cottage Veg Everyday recipe book. 

It is packed full of veggie recipes, everything from mezze to mains although some of the 'recipes' are really just ideas. I'm not sure that you can call putting a few large mushrooms in the oven with garlic and butter a recipe exactly. I love that it is bright and colourful with pictures of most of the recipes, it is always nice to know what you food is supposed to look like. 

Anyway, Monday evening I decided to test out a couple of the recipes, one was the baked field mushrooms which I have described above and the other was the potato dauphinoise.

Mr VST and I made these together and used Oatly oat 'cream' rather than dairy as I had found some in the new Waitrose last Friday.

Both recipes were very tasty indeed and the recipes worked well although the mushrooms needed a bit longer than suggested. 

More from the River Cottage book later.....

Linguine with Tomato, Peas and Mushrooms

After a week of indulgence on the food front it was time to get back to some healthy eating so on Monday we had this easy and tasty linguine with tomato, peas and mushrooms. 

Linguine with Mushrooms, Peas and Tomatoes

Monday evening saw a return of this quick and easy pasta recipe. The peas give it a lovely sweet taste and it's not too bad on the calorie count either.

Bangers, Sweet Potato Mash & Onion Gravy

On Wednesday I used up the rest of the boiled new potatoes and baked sweet potato as mashed potato and added our usual Linda McCartney sausages, carrots, peas and the wonderful Anna's Onion Gravy. 

Bangers, Mash and The Best Onion Gravy in the World

Thankfully Linda McCartney bangers, mash (made with soya milk and sunflower spread), peas and the famous Anna's onion gravy are all dairy free. I realise that this isn't the typical kind of meal for July but the weather wasn't much like July weather either and Mr VST and I have to have this about once a month or we experience withdrawal symptoms! 

Linguine with Peas, Mushrooms and Tomatoes

I can't believe I'm over a week behind on my blog, what on earth has happened this week? I don't know. Anyway, last Saturday evening I wasn't quite sure what we were going to have for dinner. It was still officially dairy free week although we had spectacularly blown it with some ice creams earlier in the afternoon. I remembered that I had seen this recipe for linguine with peas, mushrooms and tomatoes earlier in the week and I had all the ingredients AND it was quick, easy and healthy - whoop!

As I recall it was a very easy recipe to make, I didn't have the allspice but it was still tasty without. 

Thanks Emily Levenson for an easy, dairy free, Saturday evening supper.

Bangers, Mash and Onion Gravy

Sunday evening classic last night. The onion gravy was SOOOO good!

Asparagus and Pea Risotto

Asparagus has been on the market stall now for a few weeks but it looked a bit poorly. I saw it there in Saturday though and couldn't resist. I decided to make a regular Summer favourite, asparagus and pea risotto. I found the recipe a few years ago on the BBC Food website. It's really easy and the only adjustments I make are adding a bit more wine and a bit more stock as I find it tends to dry out before the rice cooks properly.

Cottage Pie with Phili Mash

I bought far too many potatoes last week and decided to use some of them up by mashing them and putting them on top of a quorn mince cottage pie. I thought I'd try and jazz it up a little by mashing the potato with Philadelphia light cream cheese instead of butter and milk. Mr VST couldn't tell the difference (but I'm not sure about the quality of his taste buds anyway!). It was much thicker than usual but with a slight cheesiness.

For pudding we had some more of the vegan blueberry chocolate cake. Unfortunately it hadn't improved overnight. Did I mention that it has a strange slightly burnt flavour even though I didn't burn it? The best thing about it was the blueberries, oh and the ice cream that we served with it so it wasn't actually vegan any more! 

Leek and Mushroom Strudels with Roasted New Potatoes

My second attempt at this meal was more successful as there was no alcohol involved! The parcels are really tasty and easy to make, sorry strudels. I used the left over feta cheese from the frittata earlier in the week and I didn't have quite enough leeks but they were still really tasty.

Heart shaped roastie - awww!

Cottage Pie and Peas

The sun was shining brightly for most of the day today until my thoughts turned to my after work run at about 4pm then it kindly clouded over with a kind of "we're not going to make your run pleasurable in any way" sentiment. I thought I'd make the most of the not yet Spring weather by enjoying a cottage pie before it gets too hot and I don't feel like eating a heavy cottage pie.

Cottage Pie and Peas

Mr VST tried to steer us towards a pizza on the quay on our walk this evening but there were no free tables so we came home and I made us cottage pie instead.

Spinach pie with peas

Mr VST made his spinach and feta pie again this evening. He complained that the oven needed cleaning and that he could smell something burning. Unfortunately it was his pie! He had turned the grill on instead of the oven and the top of his pie was rather black. It didn't make any difference to the taste of the pie thankfully and as we have been rather disorganised over the holidays the only thing to serve it with was frozen peas!

Cottage pie with sweet potato mash

Made this before going out for a walk and then ate it when we got back and it was really yummy. The mash was a little sweeter than normal though. I bought my sweet potatoes from the 'Continental Shop' which is packed full of delicious and exotic goodies. The potatoes were labelled sweet-potatoes but had a darker skin than normal and when I peeled them they were white inside rather than the usual pale orange colour. I've googled it and I'm not sure whether they were a different kind of sweet potato or whether they were yams?!Whatever they were they made a cracking sweet mash for my cottage pie.

Bangers, Mash, Onion Gravy, Braised Cabbage and Peas

A Sunday evening feast! Absolutely delicious of course and much needed after my weekend of making an baking. My back is still aching from standing all day! My goodies look (and taste) pretty good though, I'm pleased with them. I'll post about my baileys and white chocolate and dark choc, orange and rum fudge and my cinnamon mince pies when I can.

Quorn cottage pie with peas and broccoli

Made this before setting off for a chilly walk down the river. It's a great winter warmer. The Quorn recipe book recommends putting peas and carrots in it but I've always made it with just carrots, I prefer my peas on the side!

Bangers and Mash

Tonight's dinner was another classic (I must find a more imaginative term!) Linda McCartney sausages, mashed potato, peas and Anna's onion gravy (recipe on the cottage smallholder blog in links).

You can see from the photo that the gravy really is the main part of the meal!

We now eat this with a knife, fork and spoon. Mr VST licks the plate behind my back. He says that the day he doesn't lick the plate I'll know I've made a bad batch - it hasn't happened yet!



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