These spicy, crunchy sandwiches are a staple in Vietnamese food culture and are perfect on a warm summer’s day. It may seem complicated when you pick one up from a food truck but it’s actually quite approachable with lots of little bits that can be done ahead. In other words, its a recipe that’s made for lockdown, doing the odd bit here and there as working from home allows! The big benefit of doing this yourself is that it allows your to modulate the heat in this Sandwich. Traditionally, this is served with plenty of chillies and an extra layer of even more fresh chillies for those who want it.…
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Vegan Mushroom Pâté
The weather we’ve been having recently has put me in the mind of picnics. Whether you’re Eating lunch outside, or having a drink while watching the sun go down, taking a break and spending some time out side can be great for your mental health – especially right now where so many of us are stuck in our own homes! With that in mind, I’ve been thinking about what you’d need for a picnic and it just came to me – Pate! Obviously I haven’t had it in a while but this tasty toast topping and cracker accompaniment is ideal for veganising. My recipe is completely vegan but so meaty…
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Cauliflower Pakoras with Glasgow Pakora Sauce
Taking a picture of this one was a little tricky – mainly because Kenny kept eating them! He’s a Glasgow boy and Glasgow has vibrant community of people from India. This has fed into a strong tradition of Indian food that has developed almost separately from the rest of the UK. Now that we live in London, Kenny misses so many Indian dishes that you just can’t get down here, most of all Pakora Sauce! Traditionally, pakora batter is made from Chickpea flour so is both gluten free and vegan. The challenge was to remake Kenny’s favourite Pakora sauce so that it was both vegan and tasted the same. We…
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Vegan Shakshouka (with no tofu in sight!)
Shakshouka is one of those classic regional dishes that has as many different versions as it does regions who lay claim to it. A rich, spicy, tomato sauce with poached eggs, and plenty of bread for dipping. Traditionally it’s most commonly used for breakfast (and a great hangover cure!) but it works wonderfully for any time of day and we always used to love it for dinner. It’s one of those meals that made taking that final step towards being vegan and giving up eggs quite hard, so today I wanted to have a go at tackling a vegan shakshouka. There have been plenty of attempts to veganise this dish…
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Pad Kee Mao (or, Thai Drunken Noodles)
A few years ago, I went on holiday to Thailand with my sister and mother. It remains one of my favourite holidays and when we came home my brother asked about my favourite part. I told him about all the brilliant food, the wonderful street food stalls and the restaurants that appeared at night. Ever since then I have tried to recreate some of the flavours we had then and this, this is the closest I’ve come in a long time. There are a number of stories of how drunken noodles got their name. Some claim it’s because they’re meant to be so hot they’ll make you feel drunk, others…
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Coronation Chickpea Burgers
Coronation chicken is one of those classic kitschy English recipes. Invented when the country was still struggling with rationing after the second world war, it was then seen as exotic and sophisticated. These days you can get cheap tubs of the stuff in most supermarkets and people use it as sandwich fillings or cheerful additions to an impromptu barbecue. These chickpea burgers were inspired by that classic British dish. Spiced and slightly sweetened with the addition of mango chutney and sultanas. Served with my take on the classic coronation sauce, this works perfectly stuffed into a pitta bread or sandwiched between two naan breads. Yum! Makes: Serves 4 Ingredients For…
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Garlic Pickle
I know, this one is a little left field as it’s not a meal but more an accompaniment but trust me on this. If you’re one of those people who just can’t get enough of garlic then you’ll love this. Heavilly spiced and the perfect partner to a curry, a sandwich, or even a simple salad – this can liven up any dish. I’ve even been experimenting with using this in dishes as a base ingredient – I’ll let you know how those experiments go! So go for it, if you’re still social distancing then now is the perfect time to really indulge that garlic craving! Makes: 500ml Jar Ingredients…
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Fragrant Coconut Soup with Black Pepper Sweet Potato
I want to be completely up front here – the Black Pepper Sweet Potato in this dish is completely inspired by the Black Pepper Tofu in Yotam Ottolenghi’s brilliant book Plenty (you can find the recipe on his site here)- go buy it, read it and cook many tasty things. We weren’t able to make the original dish as written for a number of reasons but mainly because Kenny hates tofu with a passion, and I was trying to completely avoid soy at the time. Instead I’ve gradually built it out to work with sweet potatoes. The coconut soup then grew from this as I wanted something that would counterbalance…
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Vegan Spaghetti Alfredo
Carbs are my comfort food, and there’s no mistaking it, some days you just want a big bowl of pasta with a creamy sauce. But its a weeknight, so you want it to feel decadent but to be relatively healthy too, and well, I’m still me, so vegetables were going to have to be involved here. So in response to that urge I revisited Pasta Alfredo with the thought of putting my own stamp onto it. Done right, with a cauliflower and cashew base, the sauce is wonderfully smooth and creamy. However, I like a little bit more depth to my meals – it needed more than your standard pasta…
