Welcome to March

When I was a teenager and dangerously armed with a student loan, living in a city for the first time, I spent any spare cash I had on ingredients. I had my first taste of belly of lamb on recommendation from Cardiff Central Market’s friendly butcher – “slow cook it, love, with tomatoes and herbs”. I attempted homemade Welsh cakes. I ate Findus Crispy Pancakes and potato waffles, regularly, in rebellion after having been fed (ungratefully) only meals cooked from scratch by mum for the previous two decades.

My version of shopping frugally, though, was to buy cheap meat and fish – fatty, chewy mince, flabby farmed salmon fillets, and bland (to my shame) cage-farmed chicken wings and drumsticks. I didn’t know or understand about provenance or sustainability. I didn’t realise meals could be more than meat and two veg (and by two veg, I mean either potatoes, rice or pasta).

And then I woke up. It seems we’ve all woken up, in the past few years, to the fact that consuming more vegetables, pulses, beans and other wonders of the plant-based world are not only good for our bank balance and our health but our planet. And we’ve realised that we don’t have to just eat salad to up our five-a-day. You can eat dirty doner-style kebabs (totally meat free), slathered with silky (you’d never guess it was vegan) garlic mayo and stuffed into pillowy homemade pittas. You can have bowls of creamy cauliflower pasta and be smug in the knowledge that you’ve wasted not an inch. You can even have your cake and eat it – parsnip and maple syrup cake, to be specific.

Modern vegan and vegetarian dining doesn’t have to be worthy, boring or (shudder) clean. It can be easy, inspired and delicious. Just as with any recipe you’ll find in these pages. So visit the restaurants putting veg first, be creative with your cooking and enjoy the leap into spring and all its seasonal rewards!