National vegetarian week: cheesy sun-dried tomato & oregano muffins

This week – Monday 21st – Sunday 27th May – is National Vegetarian Week; the UK’s annual awareness-raising campaign promoting inspirational vegetarian food and the benefits of a meat-free lifestyle.

The NVW website has details of all the local veggie offers and events available in your local area, as well as some unusual recipes to try out. We thought we’d join in by sharing some tried and tested delicious recipes from our recent cookery books.

First up are these cheesy sun-dried tomato & oregano muffins from Life & Soul by Emma Forbes. Emma suggests these are perfect served warm for a lazy Sunday brunch.

Cheesy sun-dried tomato & oregano muffins

Makes 12 Prep/cooking 25 mins/20 mins

Ingredients

80g/3oz unsalted butter

150g/5½oz mature Cheddar cheese

280g jar sun-dried tomatoes in oil, drained

250g/9oz plain white flour

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tsp caster sugar

¼ tsp salt

1 tbsp dried oregano

100ml/3½fl oz milk

100g/3½oz Greek yogurt

2 medium eggs

To make the muffins

Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F/Gas 3. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases. Melt the butter and set aside. Grate the cheese.

Spread the tomatoes on a sheet of kitchen paper, put 2–3 more sheets on top and press down to blot up any excess oil. Remove the paper and chop the tomatoes into small pieces.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, sugar, salt, oregano and grated cheese. Add the chopped tomatoes and stir again until everything is coated with flour.

Whisk the milk and yogurt together, and then whisk in the eggs, one at a time.

Make a well in the centre of the flour. Pour in the egg mixture and then add the melted butter. Gently stir with a wooden spoon until only just combined (the trick for a light, fluffy muffin is not to stir the mixture too vigorously and it’s very important to stop stirring when the mixture only just comes together). Spoon the mixture equally into the paper cases.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, until lightly golden on top. Leave in the tin for 2–3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack and leaving to cool (this will prevent the bottoms of the muffins from going soggy).