About Cook Eat Live Vegetarian

 

My name is Natalie Ward. I live in Andalucia, Spain with my partner Allen (The Washer Up), our dog Rufus and our three cats Anouschka, Biba & Tallullah.

I am a freelance food writer, photographer and stylist specialising in delicious vegetarian and vegan cuisine.

We used to own and run a restaurant called Santiago del Calvario which we sold in 2009 to our good friends Tim and Tony when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I am now fully recovered and feeling better than ever. I attribute my swift recovery to a combination of conventional and alternative treatments and my following a whole foods, mainly plant based diet. I avoided all cows milk products, sugar (including all fruit), processed and refined foods.

My diet post treatment is less strict but I still choose to keep my consumption of cows mik products very low, avoid processed foods, use whole foods whenever possible and I try to limit my intake of animal based foods to below 10 per cent of my diet.

When we ran the restaurant Allen was in the kitchen and I was front of house. We designed the menus together and have always been slightly obsessed with food. Now that we have sold the restaurant I am in our kitchen cooking every day and he does the washing up!

This blog is to share our enthusiasm for fantastic food with a world flavour. Using seasonal produce, grown locally where possible, we aim to excite with global vegetarian cuisine . Our inspiration comes from what fruit & vegetables we see growing while walking the dog in the “campo” in the morning  and we hope to share some of the beauty of Andalucia in the process.

The recipes that inspire us come from books, television programmes, restaurants, travelling and many other fantastic foodblogs. Although I am vegetarian The Washer Up isn’t so there will occasionally be some recipes that can be adapted to include meat and fish but the majority will be for fabulous meat free dishes from around the world that will have even the most stubborn carnivores drooling and singing your praises.

Join us on our Vegetarian Culinary Journey!