This week is National Vegetarian Week and over at Betta Living they have been running a competition (now closed) to find the best vegetarian recipe. They also asked me to do a round up of the dishes that caught my eye and to create a dish of my own, featured below.

Here are some of the dishes that entered into the challenge. The winners will be featured too.

Roasted Veggie Pasta Bake-Eat Your Veg. A perfect one dish family meal which involves little more than roasting off an assortment of veggies then baking them along with some pre-cooked pasta, olives,creme friache, Mozzarella and tinned cherry tomatoes. A versatile dish that yo could adapt according to your own tastes. I would add extra olives into mine.

Tagliatelle alla Genovese-Flavour Photos. There are few aromas more captivating than fresh basil. What I haven’t tried before though is a vegan version. Chava created a vegan pesto  then sautéed off some red pepper and mock chicken to mix through the tagliatelle. This sounds intriguing. Chava also uses oat cream to enriched the dish, again something new to me. I must explore the vegan world more!

Hot ‘N” Sour noodle soup-The Veg Space. This is exactly the kind of soup I love to enjoy for lunch or on a day after I have been over indulging on rich food. It is super quick to put together and all you need is some fresh and dried mushrooms, noodles, tom yum pate and whatever else you wish to throw in for added flavour. I like to add fresh red chilli and ginger to mine which is especially good if you are feeling under the weather.

Roasted Veg Salad with a Smokey Paprika Dressing-Natural Kitchen Adventures. Ceri’s wonderful salad contains roasted squash, cauliflower, tomatoes and red pepper. Roasting veggies does bring out their flavours, slightly sweet, with crisp charred edges. I am always roasting veg, keeping some in the fridge for lunches or quick meals. The salad is served with a smokey spiced dressing and given more substance with chickpeas, almonds and freshly chopped coriander. A delightful combination.

Sweet Potato & Aubergine Moussaka-Happy Homebird. There is something so comforting about moussaka. Soft spices, rich tomato sauce and the decadent cheese topping. I could happily omit the regular meat addition and swap it for courgettes and sweet potatoes. It would always have to include aubergine just as Sam’s does. She also uses Mascarpone in her topping for added luxuriousness.

The Winner

Grown Up Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup-Jacob & Me. This is the winning dish, well done Sarah. I can see why. The soup is rich and packed with goodness as well as taste. What turns this into a winner, for me, is the serious looking grilled cheese sandwich. Interestingly it contains iron rich kale as well as buttery balsamic onions, shallots and mushrooms. This is a partnership I want to try, so perfect in every way.

Runner Up

Spicy Cauliflower Tempura-Citrus Spice. Spicy crisp nuggets of cauliflower, warm and aromatic. Served with a chilli garlic dip. This would definitely be something I would order in a restaurant. Even better if Nayna would come over and make it for me, I think I would polish off more than my fair share. A worthy runner-up in my eyes.

Spaghetti with Fresh Herbs

Now here is my dish to celebrate National Vegetarian Week.

Ingredients for spaghetti with fresh herbs

I have chosen to focus on a simple pasta dish utilising all the flavours of late spring, my favourite time of the year.

Spaghetti with fresh herbs

I am entering this dish into a few challenges this month:

Simple and in Season–Ren Behan

Four Seasons Food-Eat Your Veg & Delicieux

Pasta Please–Franglais Kitchen & Tinned Tomatoes

*This is a featured post working in collaboration with Betta Living*

Print

Spaghetti with fresh herbs

A celebration of the flavours of late spring.

Course Lunch, Main Course, Vegetarian

Cuisine Italian

Keyword spaghetti with fresh herbs

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 25 minutes

Servings 2

Author Laura Scott

Ingredients

• 200 g Spaghetti
• 2 tbsp Olive oil
• 4 Spring onions chopped into chunks
• 5 Dried bird's eye chillies crushed
• 1 Small tub of creme fraiche 200g approx,
• 1 Lemon zest only
• Salt & Pepper
• 1 Punnet pea shoots
• A handful of home grown Mizuna leaves or rocket leaves
• A generous selection of chopped fresh herbs. I used dill chives, flat parsley, mint (home grown), basil and some garlic chive flowers from the garden,
• Parmesan to serve

Instructions

1. Boil the pasta according to the packet instructions,

2. While the pasta is cooking you can assemble the rest of the dish,

3. Fry the chopped spring onions and dried chillies in the olive oil over a medium heat for 5 minutes,

4. Place the creme fraiche into a bowl and add in the lemon zest and plenty of seasoning,

5. Chop all the herbs and add to the creme fraiche,

6. Tear the mizuna/rocket to add later,

7. Once the pasta is cooked stir through the spring onion mix then place into pasta bowls,

8. Spoon the creme fraiche mixture on top of the pasta, dividing it equally between the 2 plates,

9. Top with the mizuna/rocket, garlic flowers (if you have them), pea shoots and Parmesan. You could substitute extra olive oil for the Parmesan which complements the dish well.

Recipe Notes

You could also add char-grilled asparagus or baby leeks to this dish or maybe some sweet green peas.