I have had a huge blog hiatus. Rarely do I like to include personal details on here as it is a food blog – but right now, as I’m sure many of you have felt at one time or another – the cooking life and the personal life is intertwined. 
In the past 4 months I have a new house, new job, a baby kitten and a kitchen I don’t love! The last one is the only bad one, the rest have just made life in general crazy and unrecognizable.
I am determined that Vegetarian Fork will prevail despite the insanity! We must not stop eating.
Luckily, amidst all the change we had room for a trip home to see my family in England for a couple weeks. We somehow spent all our money on buying things like cereals we can’t buy here (see example here…they are delicious) and going out for fantastic veg full english breakfasts. We also finally got to visit my cousin’s fantastically successful neapolitan style pizza spot in Norwich, Brick (just voted #1 restaurant in Norwich on trip advisor!). All of this was fantastically inspiring to our taste buds. It was also nice to be reminded that I am from a family of people who love food and know how to cook it – one of my favorite meals was my aunt’s potato, pearl onion and feta hash with a green pea salad she threw together from a recipe in the paper one night – citrusy and classic, it was fantastic. So without further ado:
Potato, Pearl Onion and Feta Hash
5oz baby onions/shallots
- 5oz cherry tomatoes
- 12oz small jersey royal potatoes
- s+p
- Olive oil, to coat
- 1 lemon, zest
- Small bunch basil
- 8oz feta, crumbled
Par-boil the potatoes a bit beforehand. Pre heat oven to 400F. Peel onions and put into a large roasting tray and add tomatoes and halved potatoes. Season and add olive oil. Toss the tray to coat with olive oil and roast for an hour, returning to toss everything every 15 mins or so. Once it’s had an hour, the onions should be soft and slightly brown in parts and the tomatoes well cooked. Take tray out of oven, crumble over the feta, grate over the zest of the lemon and scatter with basil. Roast for another 15 mins.
Julia's Green Salad
- 1 avocado, sliced
- 1/2 cup fresh green beans, chopped
- peas, 1/2 cup
- pea shoots, 2 big handfuls
- For the lemon vinaigrette:
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest, grated
- juice of half a lemon
- small blob of honey
- 3 to 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- s+p to taste