Twenty tasty foodie blogs

2nd October 2015pierre Share:FacebookTwitterShare

From North East Scotland to South West England, and from savvy meal plans to culinary musings, here are twenty of our favourite food blogs. Tuck in!

Essbeevee

Healthy or indulgent? Hard to tell...
Image: Essbeevee

“Hello. Let’s talk about delicious things.” St Albans blogger Sarah Vernon sure knows how to introduce herself. The self-confessed “redheaded little weirdo”  started off as a fashion blogger but has moved on to her “one true love” - food.

She divides her recipes between two categories: healthy and indulgent. To us, the virtuous chilli, lime and ginger chicken rice and the naughty four cheese BBQ pulled pork macaroni sound equally yummy!

Tinned Tomatoes

Roll with it 
Image: Tinned Tomatoes

Vegetarian and vegan recipes are all a bit samey, right? Think again! Scottish food writer Jacqueline Meldrum’s blog boasts more recipes than you could ever imagine. Try her Cajun spiced black bean & sweet potato burgers or three-bean sausage rolls -  you’ll soon understand why husband Graham and son Cooper can’t get enough of her clever and comforting recipes.

Jac lives life “at top speed”, and has therefore also compiled a handy list of quick vegan meals for midweek dinners. How she finds the time to run the Dundee chapter of the Clandestine Cake Club is beyond us...

Fitness on Toast

Superfit for a banquet
Image: Fitness on Toast

When Swedish personal trainer Faya Nilsson moved to London, she was staggered by the amount of meals served on toast. Originally a fitness blogger, she set out to provide a platform for “unbiased, honest, organic free-range views on fitness, nutrition and fashion”. And to offer “fitness on toast” rather than cheese, eggs or beans!

Faya certainly knows how to transform sensible nutrition into a treat rather instead of a chore. How good does this salmon and saffron soup sound? Alternatively, go oriental with Faya’s clever brown rice sushi. Eating healthy has never felt so good!

Food Stories


Herby: fully loaded
Image: Helen Graves

Award-winning food writer Helen Graves has two passions in life: Peckham and food, which probably explains how she came to give the world PKFC™ (that’s Peckham Korean Fried Chicken).

Helen likes nothing better than culinary discoveries, such as kookoo sabzi, the herby Iranian omelette. She is also passionate about brown bread ice cream, which she serves with a raspberry jam ripple. Let’s just hope she saves some for Delia Smith and Chas Michael Michaels. They’re her cats, by the way.

Daisies and Pie

I donut believe it…
Image: Daisies and Pie

Wendy's blog is “all about making an easy and happy family lifestyle”. This Mancunian is a dab hand at meal planning for the whole family, with inspirational weekly menus that make clever use of leftovers. But it’s her donut-based birthday cake that really caught our eye: a triumph of decadence that’s bordering on genius. 

Check out her handy five-minute activities for kids - including sending the kids off to “find me something blue/green/yellow/red”. They could give you the window of me-time you’ll need to get stuck into that slice of donut cake.

Them Apples


The world is your lobster
Image: Them Apples 

Yorkshireman and food adventurer Rich Ramsden loves telling it how it is: “Nobody really likes kale, except the people who run veg box schemes,” he proclaims. He’s happy to suggest kitchen shortcuts, but if a job’s worth doing yourself he’ll explain how best to do it and tell you to “crack on”.

Straight-talking aside, Richard’s recipes for lobster raviolibeef rendang (“because a good beef rendang is a thing of considerable beauty”) and beef bourguignon pie look utterly mouth-watering.

Sunny Sweet Pea

Heaven scent: lavender scones
Image: Sunny Sweet Pea

“Life is too short for dull food,” opines Jenny Julian, and quite right she is too! In between long walks through her beloved Norfolk with boyfriend Ben and Springer Spaniel Pip, she writes about surprising dishes with big flavours. 

Her scrumptious lavender scones pack a floral punch. She teams avocado with strawberries in a ridiculously delicious salad and goes all out with meringue-topped hot chocolate. Respect!

Lavender and Lovage

Best among spears
Image: Lavender and Lovage

Born in South Africa and brought up in too many places to mention, Karen Burns-Booth now calls North Yorkshire home. Or does she? The recipe developer also runs a cookery school in… South West France!The name of her food blog reflects her love of scents and herbs, both in French and British cuisines.

Take her cheesy coddled eggs with smoked fish, sorrel & dill - how good does that sound? Similarly, she takes her Serrano-wrapped asparagus with bronze fennel dish to another level with the inclusion of chives. She grows her own, but you probably guessed that.

The Vegan Family House


Simply irresistible 
Image: The Vegan House 

The Vegan Family House is home to dad Davie, mum Lucy and their children Daniel and Charlotte. Here you’ll find tonnes of delicious vegan recipes, vegan cookbook reviews and tips on feeding a vegan family.

Why not try their sausage & mushroom pie? It once featured on Come Dine With Me! Or for a decadent after-dinner treat, the moo-free chocolate-rum truffles look every bit as scrumptious as they sound. 
 

Anne’s Kitchen

Moreish meaty morcels
Image: Anne's Kitchen

Anne Faber is a bit of a TV celebrity in her native Luxembourg. Having stayed in London at the end of her media studies, she started a food and travel blog. Its success led to national broadcaster RTL offering her a cookery programme. Anne is not afraid to tackle British dishes on her show, “sometimes with a Luxembourgish twist”.

Not convinced? Try her pork scratchings with apple compote dip, or the gorgeous Rieslingspaschtéit. These meat pies made with Riesling wine are so moreish, the Hairy Bikers fell in love with them when they visited Luxembourg!

A Wee Bit of Cooking

Finnish with a sprinkling of herbs
Image: A Wee Bit of Cooking

Anyone for Kesäkeitto? Or maybe a slice of Mustikkapiirakka? Unless, of course, you’re more of an Omenakakku sort of person? (Also known as, respectively: summer soup, blueberry pie and apple cake) Inverness teacher Wendy Harrison lived in Finland for a few years and developed a real passion for its food scene.

In fact she’s quite an international cook; her blog also features Greek, Chinese and Palestinian recipes! That doesn’t mean she turns her back on her own local favourites. Highlands staples such as stovies and tablet are all present and correct. Phew!

Greedy Gourmet

Pear pizza? Perfect
Image: Michelle Minnaar

Michelle Minnaar left South Africa for Essex, where she quickly put her apron and “got stuck in due to a lack good restaurants in the county”. The success of her blog has led to her becoming a professional food photographer.

Amazingly, Michelle had never eaten pizza until the age of 26, but we simply love her pear, stilton & walnut version. She also claims to be totally ignorant about birds, but her chicken, mushroom & oyster sauce stir-fry says otherwise.

Eat Like A Girl

This dish blue us away…
Image: Eat Like a Girl

‘Adventurous’ is one way of describing London-based Irishwoman Niamh Shields. Not just because she has travelled to over thirty countries, but because her sense of adventure stretches to the kitchen too.
Take the book she’s working on, ‘Project: Bacon’. It will feature sweet as well as savoury bacon recipes!

Her recipe for coconut & chocolate curried chicken, which she picked up in Grenada, is just as intriguing as her bacon-based sweets. But if more ‘traditional’ fare is more your thing, why not try the crab cakes with poached eggs and spicy hollandaise? Don’t forget them to eat them like a girl!

Kellie’s Food to Glow

Health kitchen
Image: Kellie's Food to Glow

Floridian expat Kellie Anderson works as a health educationist and nutrition adviser at Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centres. “The people I see at the Centre – and importantly, the people I can’t see because of distance – are the reason I started Food To Glow,” the Edinburgh resident explains.

Kellie’s recipes are healthy and mostly plant-based, and her aim is always to make them taste amazing. Just take a look at her asparagus, shiitake and roquefort Turkish pastries: Kellie  doesn’t mind the odd “decadent twist”. We are really excited about her baked chocolate wontons. Her favourite kitchen gadget? Her husband.

Lay the Table

A dish straight from the heart
Image: Lay The Table

For Leeds blogger Becs Kemm, “there’s nothing better than reminiscing with old friends over a delicious dinner”. Surprisingly for a farmer’s daughter from Norfolk, she nominates dim sum as her desert island food!
Becs has a deliciously light touch, as her Stilton and chorizo oven-baked risotto demonstrates.

The Bexy Bexy chicken kebabs, meanwhile, are just the thing for her lactose-intolerant husband. They’re so nice, she had to name them twice!

Full to the Brum

Blondies have more fun
Image: Full to the Brum

“From the second city but second to none!” Proud Brummie Laura Creaven’s enthusiasm for all things Brum is as endearing as it is contagious. She will gladly champion “anything with a B-postcode”, sometimes with unexpected results.

Try her chocolate curry cake recipe - yes, that really did say chocolate curry cake. Or her “blondies” - brownies made with white chocolate and laced with Spanish liqueur. Yes please!

Foodie Quine

Catch of the day: fish pie
Image: Foodie Quine

Claire Jessiman is a "quine", Scottish for a young woman from Aberdeen. The daughter of a farmer and a cookery demonstrator, here you’ll find such delights as roast suckling pig with Basque cider.

Eager to to pass on her love of cooking to her two children, Claire is no doubt delighted that her son already aspires to be a sushi chef. His sister is, “more of a chips and chicken nugget connoisseur” but she hopes that will all change.

 She Cooks, She Eats 


The green, green icing of home
Image: She Cooks, She Eats

She cooks, she eats and - when she’s not working for a children’s charity - she writes about food. Coventry-native turned Londoner Amy Jones started her blog to keep track of the recipes she was trying. It has now grown into a proper recipe emporium, with dishes as diverse as chorizo mac ‘n’ cheese and a health-conscious hunter’s chicken

Amy’s blog also includes a Slimming World section, full of delicious “cheats”, such as her jacket potato with ‘extra special’ beans.

The Rare Welsh Bit


Sunny salad from the sunny Welsh valleys
Image: The Rare Welsh Bit 

Journalism graduate Kacie Morgan left Cardiff University with “an insatiable desire to write about food”. However, a lengthy stay in Jamaica last year prompted her to add a travel section to her blog.

Many of her recipes and restaurant reviews also reflect her Caribbean adventure. Next to Cymru classics such as Welsh goat’s cheese and leek tarts you will find hallowed Jamaican staple jerk chicken with rice and peas and callaloo. Next stop: fusion cuisine?

Jam and Clotted Cream


Please note: cream goes on top
Image: Jam and Clotted Cream

Blogger Beth Sachs is as passionate about Cornwall as she is about food  - and she writes about both in Jam and Clotted Cream. Family life revolves around her darts-playing husband and their three little ones.

Check out Beth’s recipe for vanilla yogurt scones - her brave modern take on the ultimate Cornish afternoon treat. And she’s not afraid to tamper with the Italian classics either, as her yummy smoked salmon and asparagus carbonara demonstrates. 

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