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…
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Mushroom and Kale Stroganoff
I’m a huge fan of mushrooms, Kenny hates them but that just means there’s more for me. They’re the perfect star for a stroganoff with their bold, meaty flavours. I love this dish so much – its so easy and quick to pull together that it works well for a quick lunch or even a dinner when you want something quick, satisfying and oh so tasty. There are two key ingredients to this dish, mushroom ketchup and vegan sour cream. Mushroom Ketchup started out for me as an ideal vegan pantry replacement for Worcestershire sauce as it offers a similar depth in flavour but without the anchovies. While I am…
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Instant Pot Cauliflower and Black Bean Masala
My mother has always had this vast, Aladdin’s cave of herbs and spices that she viewed as essential in food and equally essential in our cooking education. An old coffee grinder, that is likely older than me, serves as a spice grinder for an array of whole spices that live on the top shelf before being toasted, ground and decanted into the jars for the ground spices on the bottom shelf. In my childhood memories I can still remember being taken to the Bangladeshi food shops in Yorkshire, so that she could get spices you couldn’t find in supermarkets in those days, bulk bags of rice, beans, pulses and the…
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Vegan Meatball Subs
I had planned for today’s post to be something completely different but last night’s dinner was so well received I thought I’d bump it up the queue. Most of my burger recipes use a binder of some description to help keep them together but due to cupboard shortages last night was an attempt to build a vegan meatball without a binder. Thankfully, I think I can say this black bean based attempt was a complete success! They’re only a little delicate and not crumbly, with bags of flavour. Seved with a really simple spicy tomates sauce, it makes for an easy and slightly different dinner option. I do have to…
