Well, that was a long title for a blog post, now wasn’t it? Once again I have dipped a toe into the (frankly massive) world of vegetarian and vegan cookery. This week I have kept it simple and tasty. Any die hard carnivores can rest assured that this recipe can also work as a side for steak, lamb chops or grilled chicken. It started out as a bit of a fluke when I decided to grate some courgette as I fancied both courgette and mushrooms for my tea.

Well anyway, I made this recipe twice and in between I discussed with my Dad how to incorporate a vegan friendly form of protein and he suggested pine nuts. Toasted pine nuts work very well in this, but if you’re not a fan you could always toast some cashews instead.

To make this recipe you will need:

2 mushrooms (portobello or large flat white mushrooms)

A courgette

A pinch of chilli flakes

1/3 a bag of pine nuts

Black pepper

(2 mushrooms serves one as a main course or 2 as a starter)

 

Preheat the oven to around 200°C. Was the mushrooms, remove the stalks and place on a baking tray or roasting tray.

Grate the courgette and put half in each mushroom, packing down the gratings.

Put the chilli flakes and a good amount of cracked black pepper over the courgette and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the mushroom is tender.

During the last 5 minutes of the mushrooms heat up a frying pan and dry fry the pine nuts until they are lightly toasted.

Take the mushrooms from the oven.

Using a spatula lift the mushrooms from the tray onto a plate and top with the pine nuts.

This tastes best when served with salad and cous cous, quinoa or bulgur wheat.