1. Win Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall & River Cottage Books for National Vegetarian Week

    For National Vegetarian Week at Great British Chefs we’ve teamed up with our friends at Bloomsbury to bring you a fantastic competition. You get the chance to win copies of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s best selling River Cottage Veg Everyday and copies of a great River Cottage Handbook: Veg Patch  Read on to find out how: 

    You might remember last year’s Channel 4 TV Series River Cottage Veg about Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s quest to live on nothing but vegetables for a whole summer.  His food got people re-looking at the humble potato for summer eating and talking about dishes such as  tumbled potatoes and new potato and halloumi kebabs. 

    Roasted Pink Fir Potatoes with Harissa

    He showed that even without a traditional Sunday roast to go with it, the potato can still inspire.  As Monica Shaw said in her blog post for us, “The trick is to make the potato less of delivery device for gravy, and more of an event in itself.”

    Hugh’s book also has an abundance of “veg-tastic recipes”, including a warm salad of grilled courgettes, lemon, garlic, mint and mozzarella, lemony guacamole, linguine with mint and almond pesto and cherry tomatoes, baby carrot risotto, new potato gnocchi, a summer stir-fry with green veg, ginger, garlic and sesame, a cheesy tomato tart, a spring onion gallette, roast jacket chips with merguez spices and spiced yoghurt, curried bubble and squeak, scrambled eggs and asparagus with lemon, tomato gazpacho, pea and parsley soup, roast squash wedges, baba ganoush, beetroot houmous, spinach pasties and barbecued corn on the cob. See an except from Hugh’s book below

    With an introduction by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall River Cottage Handbook: Veg Patch draws on the experience of Mark Diancono, an acclaimed climate-change gardener, who set up the River Cottage kitchen garden from scratch.  Mark explains the practical aspects of organic growing, introduces us to a whole world of vegetables we may not have previously considered, and does away with alienating gardening jargon once and for all. 

    Mark begins with a catalogue of vegetables that will grow in the UK, explaining their benefits, what varieties to go for, dos and don’ts, and popular culinary uses. He then invites us to create a wish list of foods and turn that wish list into a coherent kitchen garden plan.

    Bloomsbury are kindly giving away two copies of River Cottage Veg Everyday and five copies of River Cottage Handbook: Veg Patch.  To enter all you need to do is give us a two course menu for a vegetarian meal for a dinner party that would equally delight meat eaters!  The competition is open to everyone, but Bloomsbury can only send books to UK addresses.

    To enter simply leave your two course menu in the comments here.  Our top two favourites will win Veg Every Day and five runners up, selected at random, will receive a copy of River Cottage Handbook Veg Patch.  You have until 11.59pm Sunday 27th May 2012 (the end of Vegetarian Week) to enter!
    Winners will be announced on this blog, week commencing 4th June 2012.
    Good luck and we really look forward to seeing your vegetarian menus.