Bob Bob Ricard

Staff Appreciation Day at work meant that the grunt labourers were being taken out to lunch and we could choose where.

After reading about Bob Bob Ricard in Soho on Seeds and Stitches I thought this would be the perfect time to try it out on someone else’s dime.  Admittedly, it is light on vegetarian options but a peruse of the menu had me eager to try their rhubarb Gin and Tonic (I am totally a G&T kind of girl) and the dessert menu boasted a peanut butter and banana ice-cream!  Veggie options be damned I was heading straight to this place.

I have passed the restaurant several times and been really intrigued by the exterior which has golden art deco style flourishes on the window but no hint at what the interior looked like.  Walking in you are greeted by incredibly friendly staff who were helpful throughout the meal; dressed in pink dinner jackets for the gents and turquoise waist-coats for the ladies.  The room has an art-deco style and feels almost like a luxury compartment on a train with booth seating and dividing curtains and small reading lamps over the table.  Each table also has a button which says “press for champagne”.  Their attention to detail is delightful with even the butter coming with an impression of the restaurant logo on it!

Food wise I was very impressed.  I went for a veggie bean burger which was surprisingly delicious (I think I have been eating Sainsbury’s own brand too long) and fries which were served in a separate small popcorn style box.  The ice-cream was amazing!  I tried all three flavours – caramel and salt which had that caramelised sugar taste with chunks of sea salt; Valrohana chocolate and banana and peanut butter which was absolutely yummy.  Everyone else was also really happy with their food.  Prices are a bit on the steep side but the servings were generous.

The rhubarb G&T was equally tasty and I am now trying to work out in my brain how to make it as it would be ideal to have on a picnic.  I imagine sitting in the park with a silver flask keeping my drink cold which I would then drink surreptitiously out a tea-cup (or is that too dramatic).

It might sound like I am a bit over enthusiastic but this place is definitely a must.  Go book a table now!  I am pondering an afternoon tea there for my mum’s birthday.

Sorry no pictures, I didn’t have my camera.  There are some on Hannah’s blog though.

My week in food

I am trying to make myself “healthy” muffins for eating as a snack at work.  I basically graze constantly and I am trying to reach for a healthier snack rather than a chocolate brownie all the time.

So this week I used a peanut butter banana bread from Joy the Baker to make muffins.  My recipe was almost exactly the same except I used all wholewheat pastry flour and coconut oil instead of butter, halved the sugar and didn’t have peanuts on hand so just skipped that. I didn’t get pictures this time.  Really looking forward to summer for the sole reason of some better light in the kitchen.  We get really good light coming in through the kitchen in the evenings.

I also made the flourless peanut butter cookies again as a gift for a friend.  I added chocolate on top this time.  I really need to experiment with another recipe but they are sooo easy to make that I just can’t help myself.

My week in food – zucchini muffins

I only tried one new recipe this week.  With our veg box that we get delivered we had got courgettes (marrow/zucchini or whatever else you want to call them), which I hadn’t got around to cooking.  I had seen some recipes in the past which used them in baking and thought I would try that out, imagining that it would do a carrot cake type thing.  I found two recipes I wanted to try, a muffin recipe from Joy the Baker and a zucchini bread (or muffin) one from Smitten Kitchen.  I was going to try the cake but didn’t have enough eggs when I got home so tried Joy’s version (though I will definitely try the cake version in the near future).

Joy call’s these muffins “gnarly” and they definitely aren’t pretty, and mine are even less pretty because I used wholegrain flour instead of white flour so they are even darker.  They really reminded me of the ugly bran muffins that my gran used to make look wise, although (sorry gran) mine were much more moist (even 4 days later).  The bonus with these muffins is that they are absolutely guilt free because there is no oil and no butter!  Also they have flax seeds in which are really good for you (so I have been told).

So here is the recipe with some minor adjustments that I made (adapted from Joy the Baker)

Zucchini Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 cup wholegrain spelt flour
• 1/2 cup wholewheat pastry flour
• 3/4 cup milled flax seed
• 3/4 cup oat bran
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt (though I just grind mine a couple of times over the bowl)
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 large zucchini, grated (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 2 small bananas, mashed
• 1/2 cup chopped dates
• 3/4 cup oat milk
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl
2. Add the banana, zucchini and dates
3. In a separate bowl combine the eggs, milk and vanilla extract and pour over other ingredients
4. Stir until all ingredients are moistened, but don’t over-stir.
5. Share out mixture into muffin cups
6. Bake in oven at 180°C for 15 to 20 minutes

The original recipe says it makes 15 muffins but I got 19.

Also, in our veg box this week we got blood oranges, which I love.  Don’t you just think they are so beautiful?  Nature really gets her colours spot on.

My week in food: vegan week

Okay, to start off let me just inform you that I didn’t make it the whole week.  It was going really well until I was hanging out with a friend on Sunday and I was faced with a peanut butter and chocolate cupcake.  From there it spiralled down hill to a cheesy buritto and some chocolate buttons.

However, I did go 6 days as a vegan,  so for those of you out there who are not vegan (or even vegetarian) and wonder what those ‘crazy’ people eat here is a run-down of everything that went into my mouth over the last week.

Breakfast:

During the week I had my normal winter cereal of porridge with oat milk and a squeeze of agave nectar.  In an attempt to try new things I have also bought some hulled hemp seeds which are relatively high in protein as well as having some omega oils and I stir a tablespoon through which gives a nice nutty flavour.  On Friday I was a bit lazy and thought I would get some porridge from EAT on the way in to work.  I then remembered they made their oats with milk!  So I had to make a detour and get some fruit and a trek bar.  This event did highlight to me the fact that vegans have to be more organised (repeated by temptation on Sunday).

Lunch:

For work I made myself a tomato soup and home-made lemon spelt bread that I made on the weekend.

On Friday I went out for lunch with people from work.  I hadn’t planned on eating out as I thought that this would just make it more difficult and basically the choice of restaurant probably wasn’t the most helpful.  It wasn’t quite an Italian restaurant (they served a fish and chip salad which was basically fish fingers and chips on some leaves) and though they had several vegetarian options they all involved cheese.  I thought I could get away with a spelt risotto without the fromage frais but unfortunately it was already stirred in so had to go with a cheeseless pizza (on second thoughts I might have gone with a salad without cheese but it seemed to be all that was the ‘topping’).  I suppose more vegan friendly restaurants would be more Asian – stir frys, coconut curries, etc.

Snacks:

I am a grazer and basically eat all day long.  Snacks over the week included fresh fruit, dried fruit, a trek bar (or two), spelt cakes with peanut butter, some booja booja chocolate (vegan).

My tea I just had black.  I drink rooibos which has a less bitter taste then normal tea so isn’t too bad black.

Treats:

I made these amazing b-raw-nies.  Unfortunately mine didn’t stick together too well.  I used ground almonds instead of doing it myself so maybe that made it too fine?  But it was definitely delicious and might try them again.  The only problem with that being that T and I devoured them in two days which probably isn’t particularly healthy.  Will definitely use the icing for cupcakes in the future (I still want to try making some vegan cupcakes).

Dinner:

Monday – Redwood vegan sausages, millet and cauliflower mash inspired by My New Roots, though I didn’t have all the ingredients to hand) and peas.  We like the sausages and will probably eat these in future as they have a higher protein content then the brand we have bought in the past plus they are cheaper!  T didn’t really like the mashed cauliflower because he thought it tasted bitter so will be going with normal ol’ mash in future.

Tuesday – Beans on Toast.  I worked late so didn’t feel like cooking and just ended up with this bog standard.  I normally like mine with cheese to add some extra flavour but sprinkled with nutritional yeast instead (they really need to rename that) and my homemade bread added some extra flavour too.

Wednesday – Pasta with tomato sauce, vegetables and left over sausages (it doesn’t say they can be frozen but there are 8 sausages in a packet so I needed to use them up).

Thursday – Pizza and beetroot coleslaw.  I bought some vegan mozzarella style cheese but I just couldn’t put it on the pizza.  It tasted like those fake cheesy pouff chips that I ate as a kid, but worse.  This would definitely be a roadblock to me totally cutting out diary.  By the way – any vegans out there who want slightly eaten fake cheese?

Friday – I made this tempeh and spinach pie which I must admit that I didn’t really like.  I don’t think it was the recipe but the marmalade which is I used which was quite a strong one.  I did like the pie crust though and it was easier than I had thought a pie crust would be so might definitely use that again in the future.

Saturday – We went out for dinner with friends to China Town (to enjoy some of the Chinese New Year festivities) and had vegetable and tofu stir fry.  Then went to the movies and devoured a selection of vegan friendly sweets.

Sunday – fail.

I think all in all I just couldn’t give up some things like cheese (and definitely ice-cream).  However, I will definitely try to reduce my diary intake which I definitely know is doable.

[p.s. sorry about the lack of any pictures.  Cooking at night just doesn’t seem to be conducive.]

My week in food

I didn’t get around to baking this week but thought I would highlight some of the new meals that I tried out.  When looking back on them I realised that they all came from the food blog Green Kitchen Stories.  This is a blog of a super cute family who are all about healthy plant based eating.  At the moment they are travelling for a few months with their new baby Elsa, which I think is an absolutely brilliant idea.

The first new dish I tried this week was the white velvet soup, which was actually a guest post from Sarah Britton of My New Roots.  The only difference is I only had one can of beans to hand instead of two but it made a really creamy (though diary free) soup which is packed full of healthiness.  Sarah is a nutritionist so gives a lot of nutritional detail about the food she makes which I find really interesting.

The second new dish I made were the beetroot burgers.  I made them the night before and tried to halve the recipe but ended up with about 12 smallish burgers anyway.  So I now have some in the freezer for another quick evening meal.  We had them in a wholewheat wrap with hummus, cucumber and tomato and they were quite delicious.

There are definitely a couple more recipes on both these sites that I am going to try soon.

Saturday lunch I made a quick, fairly healthy pizza, mainly to try to use up some feta cheese we had in the fridge before Vegan Week.  I just used a spelt pizza base from the whole food shop, topped with a version of sundried tomato pesto (from 101 Cookbooks) which is one of essential ingredients.  I use it in tomato based sauces, on pizza bases or just on its own with some gnocchi or pasta and oven roasted cherry tomatoes.  I topped the pizza with a tomato, some thin slices of courgette (I used a peeler), the aforementioned feta and a sprinkle of Italian herbs. Pop into the oven until the base is hard and the feta melty and browned.

Today, I met with the Greens to practice our bread making skills (I have only made a few loaves so not really so skill might be a bit of an ambitious description).  We each made a loaf.  My friends made a wholewheat walnut and date loaf and hot cross buns (in preparation for Easter).  I made a lemon spelt bread (also from Green Kitchen Stories) which started off being a bit too runny but ended up fairly well and something I was quite pleased with.  Need some more practice to understand the nature of flour and yeast but it is all a wonderful learning curve.