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We've discovered some lovely vegetarian recipes this year! The lockdown last year was actually a pretty good opportunity to get better at cooking, especially when we had to dig into our stockpile - yes, it really got to that point, strange to think now. This year was a bit less extreme in that sense, but we've come across lots of new recipes, and in particular getting better at being vegan-compatible. Here is a selection of the absolute best recipes we've been eating this year.

First, main courses - all vegan, all lovely!

• Meera Sodha's hasselback celeriac with pomegranate, miso, red onion --- a gorgeous combination of flavours, great. We've made this multiple times because the flavour combination is so ace.
• Chana chaat - Delicious! Layers of complex, fruity & sour flavours, in this Indian chickpea salad/streetfood snack
• Sweet potato and kimchi cakes --- a great trick with kimchi!
• Jackfruit & bean rendang, topped with lime zest, toasted coconut, and fried onions - served with rice, spicy sambal and a pineapple ring :)
• Turkish spiral flatbread ("BÖYLE BİR LEZZET YOK") - I don't know what this is, but watch the video, it's fun to make, quite easy, and a lovely lunch!
• Red lentil and squash soup with za’atar croutons -- easy, nice, filling
• Winter mushroom stew: many types of mushroom (200g per person), with dark beer (herfstbock), winter spices (star anise, bay, clove), stock, onion rings, and brown sugar. Served with celeriac chips (which were tossed in cornflour and oven-baked for 40mins).

These two main courses are not vegan but lovely anyway:

• Pasta met kruidenpangrattato -- a nice variant: crunchy pasta! This recipe is in Dutch
• Lancashire cheese & onion pie

Desserts (all vegan):

• Figs poached in orange, cardamom and honey (from the book "Fruit" by HFW)
• Rhubarb, cardamom and pistachio tart
• Vegan sticky toffee pudding

Treats (all vegan):

• Vegan banana chocolate chip muffins
• Chocolate courgette cake (I replaced the soft icing with a crunchy choc shell, yum.)

See also my list from five years ago (FIVE??), The best vegetarian recipes of 2016. If you want to follow along with more foody explorations, I have a dedicated Twitter feed at @nomnomdan.

Shout outs to some awesome convenience foods we found in the Netherlands:

• Lidl Vegetarische Bradworst -- very good indeed. Yv said it was exactly like those other dutch sausages, I said it was quite british-sausage-y.
• Kips Vega Pate (the classic version) -- great pate taste. We had it on sarnies on holiday, and it's fabulous.
• Future Sausage -- very nice! One of the nicest veggie sausages we've had - https://futurefarm.io/
• Mr & Mrs Watson "Aged Camemberti" -- phenomenal texture, and very good nuanced flavour. Glad we bought it!