Dine and Discover at vegetarian themed event

CULINARY lovers in North East Lincolnshire are invited to a night of food tasting and entertainment in Cleethorpes thanks to YMCA Humber.

The youth charity have received a grant from the Vegan Society to host an event that provides an introduction to vegetarian and vegan cooking, as part of National Vegetarian Week, which runs from 15-21 May.

Dine & Discover will be held at Moon on the Water on Cleethorpes’ North Promenade from 7pm on Thursday 18 May.

The evening will see volunteers cooking a variety of vegan and vegetarian meals that attendees will be able to sample, scoring them in a Come Dine With Me-style fashion that will see the winning cook presented with a prize at the end of the evening.

Entrance to the event is free, although donations will be welcome. There will be a raffle on the evening and live entertainment from local musician, John Crossley.

Leanne Kennedy is YMCA Humber’s Events and Marketing Assistant and she is looking forward to a night of discovering new recipes.

She said: “We are hoping that food lovers across the region will come and join our event and learn something new about vegan and vegetarian food.

“I am not a vegetarian myself but I am getting involved in the event by trying out some vegetarian cooking – I just hope everyone likes what I come up with!

“The idea behind the event is to promote that a vegetarian diet can be interesting and tasty.

Organisers will use some of the funding from the Vegan Society to prepare recipe cards for diners to take away, so that they can recreate the dishes at home.

Leanne continued: “Hopefully people will try something and find out they really enjoy it and go away and try the recipes at home.

“There will be dishes that are suitable for starters, main course and dessert – so there will be something for everyone to try.”

This year’s National Vegetarian Week is backed by TV chefs, the Hairy Bikers – Simon King and Dave Myers, who will be launching their new book ‘Hairy Dieters Go Veggie’, in conjunction with the week of action.

They added: “As cooks, we’ve always appreciated our veg and they’re a hugely important part of our cooking.

“And lately, without really thinking about it, we’ve been eating less meat. The more we learn about cooking great food, the more we enjoy making use of all the amazing produce that’s on offer and creating dishes where vegetables, pulses and other plant foods are the stars of the show.

“That’s why we’re getting stuck into National Vegetarian Week this year… and we think you should too!”

For more information on National Vegetarian Week, please visit http://www.nationalvegetarianweek.org/.

For further details on the Dine & Discover event, please call YMCA Humber’s Events & Marketing Team on 01472 359 621.