Quorn Enchiladas Recipe

Our homemade Quorn Enchilada recipe is a favourite with my family.  It is an evolving recipe that has been adapted over the years.  When I received a selection of Gourmet Garden herb and spice tubes, I was excited to put them to work in my recipe to add the benefit of the fresh purees to flavour my filling!

Filling Ingredients

2 sliced onions

3 teaspn Gourmet Garden Garlic

1 teaspn Gourmet Garden Chilli

1 teaspn Gourmet Garden Coriander

150g sliced mushrooms

1 pack Quorn pieces

1 head of cooked fresh broccoli cut into florets

1 can of pinto beans

Sauce Ingredients

Small carton chopped tomatoes

1 teaspn Gourmet Garden Chilli

2 teaspn Gourmet Garden Garlic

small carton of single cream

1 egg

Plus

8 Corn Tortilla Wraps

Mexicana cheese to top

Method

Fry the onion.  

Add Gourmet Garden chilli and garlic and fry for 3 minutes.

Add sliced mushrooms and Quorn pieces.

Add the brocolli florets and pinto beans.

Cook until everything is soft and cooked down.

Meanwhile put tomatoes and Gourmet Garden chilli and garlic in a saucepan.

Heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Allow to cool slightly and add cream.

Beat in egg.

Fill the wraps and roll up.

Place into ovenproof dish.

Pour over sauce.

Top with grated Mexicana cheese.

Cook in a pre-heated oven at GM 6 for 20-25 minutes until bubbling and golden brown.

Serve with creme fraiche and refried beans.

Why I am a Vegetarian

This week's theme for Ella's Friday Club Carnival is Ethics and Activism.  Although I'm not very militant in my beliefs, I am a very committed vegetarian.  I write about my veggie family in my blog in an anecdotal way, but I've never really written about my core beliefs.  The reason why I decided to go veggie and why I have kept it up for a decade!

As a teenager I dallied with vegetarianism.  At one point I was a militant vegetarian refusing to touch anything that had ever so much as come across an animal.  I made a point of making sure everyone knew about it and listening to The Smiths' "Meat is Murder" on my Sony Walkman at high volume.  I was probably highly annoying, badgering the waiters in Pizza Hut as to the source of their rennet.  As in the case of most teenage rebellions, my vegetarianism didn't last.  My home made baked bean lasagne was shelved and I was back to McDonald's ordering Big Macs.

My commitment to a vegetarian lifestyle began in earnest ten years ago.  It was born out of a desire to achieve the optimum healthy lifestyle for me and my family following the devastating and untimely death of my eldest sister due to cancer.  I did a lot of research and it became evident to me that a diet high in animal protein was not how a human should eat.  A veggie diet is typically high in complex carbohydrates and dietary fibre, it's low in saturated fat and more likely to provide the recommended 5 a day. There are so many health benefits and the long term protection against diseases is well documented.

At first the children were still given the option of eating meat albeit "Happy Meat" sourced from local farms where the livestock had names until the fateful day when the stun gun came calling.  But quickly, they decided they preferred Quorn because it didn't have the "wet stuff" in it (turns out this was my 4 year old's interpretation of grease!)  So it was a natural and organic process to include the kids into the equation.  We signed up to the Vegetarian Society and got our pin badges.

My last two pregnancies have been sustained with a 100% veggie diet.  I didn't crave kebabs so my body must have been quite happy nourishing a baby without the aid of pork chops and chicken wings in my diet. I received a lot of negativity about my decision...even from the medical profession.  However, I gave birth a two healthy babies weighing in at 8lb 11oz and 9lb 10oz.  They are my only two asthma-free children and both have the constitution of little oxen.  Coincidence? Maybe...but definitely proof that a veggie diet doesn't harm babies in-utero.

As I delved deeper into the science of vegetarianism I became convinced that its benefits went a lot further.  I began to unearth facts and figures that I'd never seen before regarding the ecological effects of diet. Vegetarian diets are more sustainable, greener and could literally help save the planet and alleviate global human starvation.

Consider these facts:

• Livestock rearing produces 18% of greenhouse gas emissions which is more than the entire transport system which is responsible for 13.5%.
• To produce a typical vegetarian diet uses 300 gallons of water a day, a meat based diet uses 4000 gallons.
• Livestock production is responsible for 70% of the Amazonian deforestation.
• One third of all fossil fuels are used to raise animals for food.
•  According to the Environmental Protection Agency farming pollutes rivers and lakes more than all  industrial sources combined.

It is a sobering thought that the food that we eat without thought could be contributing so negatively to this planet's demise.  This is a science based belief and doesn't touch upon animal rights, cruelty or the needless suffering of millions of sentient creatures.  These emotive issues upset me, but aren't my motivation for being a signed-up, badge wearing vegetarian.  However, the welfare of animals influences me enough that I only buy Free Range eggs.  I used to try to only buy organic dairy products, but this was just too hard and too expensive so my morality had to give a little!  I still however use soya milk instead of cows' milk as a token gesture. You have to do what's right for you and your conscience.

I am quietly passionate in my beliefs.  If someone questions me I will stand my ground, but I will not force my beliefs on anyone else.  I am changing my own life, my family and our lifestyle.  I am doing my tiny bit to help our suffering planet.  But on the most part I'm doing it because I believe it is the right thing and the best thing to do.  Fifteen year old me was misguided in her conduct...but the ethics weren't half bad.

I've changed my life for the better...and I don't miss meat at all.

My First, My Latest and My Favourite

The lovely veggie blog We Don't Eat Anything With a Face has started a blog hop where you write a post about your first, your latest and your favourite 'something'.  You can pick whatever 'thing' you want to share...Lisa has chosen cookbooks and I was very pleased to see that she is a fan of Rose Elliot.  I love my Rose Elliot cook books.  Her no nonsense style results in excellent wholesome vegetarian meals.  All too often veggie cook books are so faffy and use ingredients that are just not found on the everyday shopping list of a busy mother on a budget.  Elliot's love of beans and pulses results in hearty fayre a long way from Alfalfa Salad and Chicory with Orange Sauce (why do people assume veggies don't want pie and chips??? It's just the meat I don't want...not the comforting, homely, substantial elements of proper grub!!)  Anyway, I digress....

Although Lisa generously opened up the theme, I'm continuing with her theme...Cookery Books!

My very first cook book that I bought myself was the Children's Party Cookbook.  I'd just had my first born and wanted inspiration for his birthday.  I still use it for the gingerbread man recipe and it's got some nice ideas for kiddies' parties in it.  I got quite good at making cakes.  Here is a pic of Joe's 2nd birthday cake...I'm still quite proud of this one!

My latest acquisition to the recipe book shelf is the Quorn Kitchen that I sent off for.  For just two Quorn labels and P&P, I received this lovely paperback book through the post.

It contains some nice simple recipes which all incorporate a Quorn product.  I was most pleased to see some proper good food like this Quorn and Leek Pie.  It's user friendly, well illustrated and a fabulous freebie.  I love Quorn products...they have made feeding my family so much easier and they are versatile, low in fat and low in calories.  

My favourite cookery book is actually the first completely vegetarian book I bought myself.  It's a big, fully illustrated book simply called Vegetarian which has over 300 recipes.  It has a reference section at the front and I remember pouring over the facts and figures to be sure I wasn't in some way going to starve my family by deciding to go completely vegetarian.  It has had such a positive influence on my vegetarianism.  It made everything look so easy and so full of flavour.  It gave me a lot of confidence at a time when being a veggie was not so mainstream.  I love books that have photos and I can sit and flick through the pages for ages just looking at the pictures of the food. (There's no calories in looking!)

My most used recipes are for the Veggie Hot Pot with Cheese Triangles (a version of which I made for Valentine's Day with heart shaped cobbler on top...yum!)...

...and the Spicy Bean and Lentil Loaf, which is fabulous and so easy my daughter has made it on her own.  It's nice to find good, simple, hearty veggie recipes, so beautifully illustrated and so easy to follow.