Hot on the heels of Gordon Ramsay's welcome outburst in favour of indigenous, seasonal fruit and veg, Marks & Spencer has identified a new breed of consumer known as the “meat-reducer”, and is doubling its vegetarian range.

My cooking has over recent years leant towards vegetarianism, prompted as much by food scares as the high cost of eating humanely reared meat and sustainable fish. I'm a typical meat-reducer, no longer believing that meat or fish is crucial to a healthy diet. It's not so long ago that restaurants loathed vegetarians, but these days vegetarian cooking is a favourite with adventurous cooks.

Goats' cheese tart is a dish that I find hard to resist and I had a really delicious one recently at the Porthminster Beach Café, St Ives, Cornwall. It's what I call a restaurant tart, by which I mean it's an assembly job, using ingredients, including the filo pastry shell, prepared in advance. The well-chosen combo of roasted sweet potato, truffle-scented leek with piquillo peppers, a scoop of black olive purée (both from a jar) and cherry tomatoes, with a baby leaf salad, was colourful and interesting to eat.

Back home, I toyed with making individual filo pastry shells but opted for a lazy solution using a ready-made pastry case. I often whip up a simplified onion tart using puff pastry, rolled thinly to fit a small oven and forked all over to stop it rising. A few salty anchovies counter the sweetness of the slippery onions and thick slices of goats' cheese, and a tumble of cherry tomatoes turn it into a lovely mix of textures and flavours. Best of all, it's ready to eat after 15 minutes in a hot oven and always goes down well with a rocket salad with flakes of Parmesan.

A stint working in Tunisia turned me on to couscous with vegetables. It's vital to me that it includes a combination of firm and soft vegetables and plenty of the spicy, hauntingly flavoured broth to spoon over saffron-flavoured, golden couscous. A final dollop of fiery harissa adds the edge that makes the dish. This recipe is a particular favourite, but it's one to play around with and easy to adapt to serve fewer or more.

Ras al hanout, incidentally, the essential Moroccan spice mix with dried rose petals, is widely available. If you have any problems, visit www.seasonedpioneers.com or www.bartspices.com.

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