WORLD VEGETARIAN DAY

Today we celebrate veggies. Sadly, most vegetarians do not know about hemp and its Omega 3,6, and 9 oils along with its protein. Last month's Ecologist carried a feature on hemp, and along with it, a story about the danger of soya. Lots of vegetarians do not know about that either, just like many do not know how bad cotton is as a water hungry monocrop. Click around on this site and you will!

Then, as Adele Davis exhorted, you can start eating really healthy. In addition to hemp, I might mention a few other tips to the legume lovers - try pumpkin seed oil and rocket. Or carrots sliced and baked with olive oil and rosemary. Or for the real raw experience, cool sliced jicama. Make a mash with 40% celeriac - best to bake these and control the moisture to keep the mash stiff. This happens to have lots of earthy flavour, and is great with fresh thyme leaves. Another herb to consider is marjoram, very overlooked - but great with oregano. I include it in my Italian herb mix, which is: oregano, marjoram, thyme, basil and rosemary. Also overlooked are parsnips - one cannot eat too much though, they are slightly poisonous. Carrot and parsnip soup is great, leave the roots a bit gritty for texture. Gazpacho, with its mix of celery, onion, tomato, cucumber, peppers and olive oil can benefit from two secrets - bake the garlic and use pimenton - which is smoked paprika. Another capsicum delight is chipotle peppers, these too are smoked. And let's not forget borscht - this is underrated, but beets and cabbage make great companions in the cold soup pot.

Let me mention rocket again with another cooked item - take plum tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise, sprinkle salt, pepper, olive oil, bake at lowest heat for 2 hours. Garlic slices, salted and crisped, go well with this too. Fennel ought to be on this too - it bakes up nicely and goes well with peppers, onions, mushrooms and tomatoes.

Another item I might mention is hemp leaf - this makes an interesting herb, and I do not mean herb...I use it as a secret ingredient in the 15 herb cajun spice mix in my book.