Cottage Cooking Club Three Recipes Month of March

It's time once again for the cottage cooking club to come together and posts our thoughts and experiences for the month. We are a group of international blogger's bound together by our love of fresh seasonal veggie dishes from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's cookbook, "River Cottage Veg". Our group is meant to be a project aimed at incorporating more vegetable dishes in our everyday cooking, and is and has been inspired by our dedicated leader Andrea of The Kitchen Lioness. Each month Andrea picks one recipe from each of the 10 chapters and then we pick and choose as many as we have time for. Next month we be our 24th month of cooking together and our last as we will be finishing up “River Cottage Veg”.

In May our little group will start two more of Hugh’s books. One is titled "River Cottage Every Day" and the other one is "Love Your Leftovers". Please join us! Our motto for the month of March is: Hang in there, we have almost made it!

The first recipe I prepared was the “Vegiflette” toastie. I learned that if you have a piece of bread you can conquer the world, you can provide food for any type of meal or appetizer, mains, lunch and even breakfast. The original recipe used potatoes and bitter greens. I cheated a little here and made mine on whole wheat toast with steamed broccoli and Swiss cheese. After a few minutes in the broiler, I topped them with avocado slices, pistachio pieces and a drizzle of olive oil. This makes a quick and easy meal.

The second recipe I prepared was the lentil and parsley salad. Another wonderful dish. Here I used beluga lentils, fresh parsley and a delicious homemade mustard vinaigrette. (Hugh’s recipe called for puy lentils but I was all out). Besides I love the way the beluga lentils hold their shape. The earthy flavor of the lentils combined with the slightly bitter parsley and mustard vinaigrette makes this another big winner here, marking for later to add to my favorites.

My third and last dish was the “Three-root boulangere. The three roots were celery root, potatoes and parsnips (I used carrots). What a creamy full flavored indulgent dish this was. Fresh thyme, sage and garlic were the ingredients used to highlight the ingredients of this dish. Certainly not a waist slimming dish, but everything in moderation is okay, right? Hugh recommended serving this along-side mushrooms baked with butter and garlic. I also added a fresh spinach salad.

These recipes have been slightly adapted from the "River Cottage Veg", by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. First recipe; from the chapter "Bready Things” Vegiflette toastie (page 206). Second dish from the chapter "Pantry Suppers" Dressed green lentils (page 237). Third recipe; from the chapter “Comfort Food and Feast” Three  root boulangere (page 64).

To see what recipes the other members chose for this month, head over to the LYL post for March 2016 on the CCC website, by clicking here.