Seriously Veg

There have been a few times in the past where I've tried to fool (lovingly, of course!) my boyfriend into eating a completely vegetarian meal, but I realised I'd pushed it a tad too far when I made this and realised there was absolutely no way to hide the fact that there was a complete absence of meat. Not that these weren't lovely, but for the avid meat-lover and I must admit - even myself - these are perfect as a carb side but we did need some meat to buff out the meal. There were a few patties leftover which we'll have with a good hearty steak tomorrow!

• Vegetable and Chickpea patties (from www.exclusivelyfood.com.au)

This recipe does look quite orange-coloured as I had no zucchini and substituted carrot. The carrot is gently fried with onion and garlic.

Canned chickpeas, peanut butter, curry powder, egg yolk and bread are whizzed together in a food processor.

This mixture is then added to the fried carrot, onion and garlic, along with chopped herbs (I used coriander purely because it's the strongest growing plant in my herb garden at the moment!) and sesame seeds that have been roasted in the oven briefly to enhance their flavour.

I added the diced vegies, which were boiled and diced potato and sweet potato


The patties are formed and supposed to be refrigerated for 20-30 minutes before pan-frying but I was starving and gave them a quick 10 minute session in the freezer. I did have the heat up a little to high and so the outsides are a bit charred, but this didn't affect the overall taste - they were nice and crispy on the outside and squidgy internally.


I did have quite an appetite though, after spending the whole afternoon outside in the vegetable patch putting potatoes in. Well, more like sneaking them in as they were supposed to be planted before August - but I'm hoping my the patch will forgive me for being 2 weeks late.

I've given up on my broccoli plants, which don't seem to be growing at all from their seedling size - I think I mulched too close to them and have somehow suffocated them, as the only thing that's happening is their leaves are going purple. I've replaced them with some lettuce seedlings and will keep my fingers crossed that they do their thing - I'm not going to let this vegetable patch get the better of me. Jamie Oliver makes it looks so frustratingly easy!