Recipes I'd like to try from the River Cottage Veg Cookbook

My parents kindly bought us Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage Veg Every Day recipe book for Christmas (excellent, recommended) and I want to take advantage of this lovely book to broaden my repertoire a little.

I've learned that if I don't plan at least a little what I'm cooking, I tend to fall back on my usual five to ten recipes I know back-to-front and always have the ingredients for at home. And it would be nice to have some more variation.

So, here are some things I'm contemplating cooking (subject to family veto). Not all of the recipes are included on the River Cottage website, so I've included sample links to other sites, just to give you the idea. 

Spinach & new potato curry

North African butternut squash and chick-pea stew

Pasta with new potatoes, green beans and pesto

Macaroni peas

Baby carrot and broad bean risotto

Vegetable biryani

Swede speltotto

Courgette and rice filo pie

Pinto bean chilli

Oven roasted ratatouille

Christmas cooking link library

A link library of ideas for vegetarian, nut free, mushroom-free Christmas dinner ideas.

Thanks to everyone who suggested ideas via Facebook or Twitter, especially but certainly not limited to Anna, Beatrice, Brenda, Carol, Jan, Kiran, Mel, Niall, Nick, Owen, Rach and Sarah.

Thanks even to those who suggested steak and kidney pie (ah, no), cheese (ahem) and the Linda McCartney Celebration Roast (not to diss Linda, but this wasn't quite what I had in mind).

What we're seriously considering

Souffle (if we can find a dish in the next few days)

Things I like the sound of and might cook over the break anyway

Vegeree

Squash stuffed with leeks

Aubergine cassoulet 

Vegetable paella

Shallot tarte tatin with goats cheese

Spinach pie with peperonata
Twice-baked spinach and cheddar souffle

Lasagne

Filing away for future reference

Parsnip pudding (sounds curious!)

Goodwill Pie

Moroccan spiced pie

Butternut squash pie

Goats Cheese And Spinach Pie

Cheese And Leek Pie

Stuffed Aubergine

Choux Pastry Ring

Puy Lentil And Vintage Cheddar Loaf (or, on a similar note, Lentil And Cider Loaf)

Vegetarian haggis with roast vegetables

Foil-baked feta

Useful links

The Ultimate Guide To A Very Merry Vegan Christmas 

Vegetarian Society Christmas recipes

Minimalist Baker (not sure how Christmassy it is, but I love this site so thanks to Mel for suggesting it anyway!)

BBC Food Vegetarian Christmas

Oh... and here's a rather nice recipe for German Christmas Biscuits (Lebkuchen) I put into practice this Christmas.

Recipe-watch: sweet pretzels

A friend made some amazing sweet pretzels last weekend.

In lieu of Mary Berry generously making her books available free online (open source baking), here is a recipe, at least.

Recipewatch: Cheese and onion pie and onion gravy

This weekend we made Rach's family cheese & potato pie (see above) with honey roasted vegetables and my favourite onion gravy recipe. Very tasty, even if we do say so ourselves.

The cheese did provide enough sauce, so the gravy was then combined with left over pastry to make mini-tartlets. Nom!

Recipe-watch:broken biscuit cake vs mac and cheese

Broken biscuit cake courtesy of The Code Train

Macaroni cheese courtesy of BBC food