After all the stresses and rushing around of last week I can now get back to doing what I like best – cooking!

Now our boat is moved (which went without a hitch) the pressure has really lifted and rather than eating crazy late every evening I can focus on getting home from work at a reasonable hour and taking my time preparing some really nice food.

My book of choice this week is ‘The Modern Vegetarian’ by Maria Ella.

I’ve cooked from this book before – and was very impressed with the general simplicity of the recipes and the impressive flavours, textures and colourful dishes that I’d selected. Sadly I hadn’t blogged or photographed any of them – but the general opinion was that everything from it was very good. So I’ve decided to cook from the book again.

The recipes I’ve selected are a mixture of those I’ve made before (and loved – especially the beetroot ones) and a few new ones that I’d missed first time round.

This week I plan to make (in no particular order)

• Carrot pancakes with Houmous and a Feta Salad
• Smashed Pea, Dill and Feta Crostini
• Butternut Squash Barley Risotto
• Spiced Swiss Chard with Butterbeans and Couscous
• Fresh Borlotti Bean Cassoulet
• Beetroot Tzatsiki
• Spiced Caramelised Onion and Beetroot Bulgar Pilau
• Beetroot Keftedes
• Greek Beetroot Salad
• Parmesan Polenta with Poached Eggs and Roasted Feta
• Puy Lentil and Feta Tabouleh
• Fennel Salad
• Braised Broad Beans with Lemon and Dill
• Rosemary and Butternut Squash Polenta Chips
• Rosemary Popcorn
• Dino’s Greek Peas

That quite a lot to make – but all the dishes are quick and easy. The four beetroot dishes are part of a ‘flavours of beetroot meze’ which is really quite special.

As always I’ve steered clear of nearly all the rice and pasta dishes and dishes with lots of cream – just because I want to keep my weight down and because I eat late most nights and don’t want to go to bed on a very full stomach.

This is definitely a book to own if you are vegetarian. You’ll certainly make most of the dishes in this book over time. The photography is really good too.