In brief, Haricoco 's website is about ;
you, me and the planet.
And how we will continue to enjoy ourselves and each other, in relation to food , wine, and all the other finer things in life. While living an environmentally conscious life.
What, where to find on the site
A plant based diet does not have to be boring. There are a tremendous amount of flavours and textures to use. I will post my new vegan recipes, with suggestions on wine pairing.
Alongside my favourite recipes, I will occasionally write about vegan or eco-friendly topics, check out the Sustainable living 'resources' to read more about vegan lifestyle, and easy & simple ways to reduce your carbon footprint.
In 'More to enjoy' you can read about my other passions related to food and enjoyment, like;
During the 2020 lockdown, I decided to dedicate a separate part of my website to travel. Not the type of travel we are all familiar with, but using our senses and imaginations to discover a new way of travel. You can read about this in my Recipes by Region; 'travels of taste' .Which will be a ever-growing project with ever more countries or regions added.
A bit about myself & why I started Haricoco
Since 20+ years I have been active in the tourism & hospitality industry in multiple countries and on multiple continents. I love working with people but even more so if it involves good food & good wine (+ good beer). A foodie who wants to share the finer things in life, while continuously creatively evolving my path.
In 2021 I became a qualified wine professional, so wine and wine pairing will become more & more part of haricoco website, as from 2022.
Why plant based? In recent years the environmental situation and our necessary response has become ever more important and more urgent.
Therefore during the last few years I have adjusted my foodie path and followed a vegan chef training in the U.K. Since then my main focus has been plant based food & cooking.
I love to cook fresh, local and seasonal. with lots of fresh herbs, and spices. I have to say living in the South of France does make this easy. And I do realise and acknowledge that this might not be the case for all of us. But, I really try to minimalize overseas transport of produce. What good would it be for my Carbon footprint if I eat plant based, but let the banana's, jack fruits and avocado's fly overseas? Therefore you won't find these ingredients on my website. Well, avocado's I fortunately can find reasonable local for about 2 to 3 weeks in the year. So at that time I overindulge in them 🙂
Even though I mostly eat plant based food, I am not a vegan. With this website I want to show that eating plant based is not a sacrifice, even for foodies. Plant based food can be as delicious as omnivorous food.
Where I find my inspiration for recipe development
I get my inspirations from Restaurants, my favourite pastime 😉 ,the many great chef's I used to work with, cookbooks, and other interesting recipe site's. I never follow a recipe completely. Whenever I am researching a certain dish I typically read about 10 recipes, and start cooking. Mix & matching until I get the desired outcome. I am a great believer in only using local produce, there fore I adjust most recipes to my local & seasonal produce. I don't only follow vegan/vegetarian cooks, I get my inspiration from everywhere, also from omnivores. In which case I will try and veganise the dishes while keeping balance, flavours and textures in mind.
A few of the sites I find very pleasant and inspiring to browse around are;
- Minimalist baker
- Cookie and Kate
- Little sunny kitchen
- Manjula's kitchen
- Mediterranean dish
- My Moroccan food
- One Arab vegan
- Feast glorious feast
- Taste of Moroc
- Bianca Zapatka
- Oh she glows
- Tin and thyme
I could still add many other inspiring cooks. Like The Bosh Boys, Woon Heng, Rabbit and wolves, Jamie oliver, Gaz Oakley. Etc. Etc
You don't have to be a vegan to enjoy and indulge in plant based foods.
For me eating plant based is one of the easiest & most enjoyable life-style changes in order to lower my carbon footprint.
I hope many others will be motivated to enjoy more often plant based food, with delicious wines or home brewed beers. Let's create our own garden (referring to Epicurus garden) in which we enjoy good food and good wine while keeping our planet in mind.
I hope you will enjoy! X Nicole
"The presumption that more sustainable consumption always involve sacrifice rather than improve well-being needs challenging"
- Kate Soper
Reference to 'The Garden' , a place to keep and to nourish
Epicurus (341-270BC) an ancient Greek philosopher and hedonist. He established his own school known as 'The Garden' in Athens. Epicurus and his followers were known for eating simple meals and discussing a wide range of philosophical subjects. He openly allowed women to join the school as a matter of policy.
"Not what we have but what we enjoy constitutes our abundance."
Epicurus