I Can Has Cook?

Here’s a great recipe for a meat-free dinner, lovely for non-veggies and veggies alike, and easily made appropriate for vegans by taking away the Feta Cheese.

In fact, this would be even better to eat when squash is in season in Autumn – late September, perhaps?  It’s so delicious  that I wanted to share it with you here, just in case you’re not on Twitter

With preparation and cooking time, altogether this dish takes about 1 hour and 30 minutes to make.  We had it with a nice plain green salad, as even if the squashes are a small size, it’s a hearty meal.

Head over to the BBC Good Food guide for all the recipe – and don’t leave out the pomegranates!  It makes it.  Nom!

The deliciously long title of this particular post was created by my buddy @Fensterdj who tweeted it at me last week in reply to my update about going for a consultation at the Ayurveda Centre on Stephen Street in Dublin 2.

It’s true.  I do have hipster tendencies – buying glasses from Specsavers Mens Department, going to Billy Ocean concerts “ironically” etc.  But it wasn’t these tendencies that brought me to the Ayurveda Centre.  Rather, it was the gift of a consultation voucher combined with the cloud of lethargy that has been following me around for say, forever.

Ayurveda is an ancient Indian medical system, which focuses on how you can eat your way to better physical and emotional health.  In fairness, could it be any more perfect for a food blogger?

The advice given by the spectacularly lovely Dr Brennan – a GP turned Ayurvedic counsellor – is nothing that you don’t know already.  I mean, you really know it.  Eat bigger meals during the day and smaller meals at night, don’t over eat, exercise, drink nice digestive teas, cut down on stuff that’s bad for you…

But, the act of going to the bother of making an appointment and talking to someone about these things should not be underestimated – it can often kick start that oh-so-often elusive inner motivation to get healthy.

Head to the Ayurveda website to see if you think it’s for you, but also to get some of the basic tips about the Vata, Pitta and Kapha, the three basic personality elements, and how when one or more of these qualities goes out of balance, it can be reflected in your health.

Personally, I’ve found it a motivating exercise in helping me towards eating more healthily and in a more balanced way.  I’m very good at eating fruit and vegetables, but I’m equally as excellent at eating Pringles.  And there lies my imbalance

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Lentil, red onion, cherry tomato, chorizo and (paprika dyed) feta cheese salad

We had bought some Chorizo for our ‘Baked’ Haddock yesterday, in the knowledge that we would probably get around 3 meals out of the 225g M&S packet.  Which is good, as it set us back nearly €5.00.

This Chorizo is made in Spain and claims that it’s from ‘The Farm…’ which is rather ambiguous, in truth.  It does say on the packet that it’s from M&S assured pork from farms within Spain.  Not as much information as I’d like about my meat but it’s something at least.

We’ve been becoming very fond of Chorizo of late after it single-handedly made a whopper of a dish of our Paella so I’d really like to find a good producer of it in Ireland – if there’s such a thing – or at the very least a good supplier of the yummy stuff.  I might take a walk over to Magill’s over on Clarendon Street (Dublin 2) or check out some of the meat stands at The Meeting House Square Market and see if I can find any chorizo enthusiasts.  Because it don’t half help to add flavour to things.  Phwoar.

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