Kitchen Basics Archives - Feast of Plants

Marinara Sauce (Kitchen Basics)

Feast of Plants — Mon, 30 Nov 2020 17:00:52 +0000

I have a somewhat paranoid method of managing my kitchen. With my various health conditions, I’ve had many periods where I’ve been too ill to make dinner so I tend towards making sure I’ve always got backup. This takes many forms from piles of leftovers in the freezer, to recipes so easy I can make them when ill. My marinara is part of this. Every now and then I’ll make up a big batch then save in individual portions. Want to make some pizzas, pull together some easy pasta, or have a sauce ready for (vegan) meatballs? Then you’ve already got a lot of the heavy lifting done. I’ve given instructions for making this with your pressure cooker, slow cooker, or even on the hob so you can do what works best for you. My version of this classic Italian base sauce isn’t entirely traditional, I’m no Italian Grandmother, but it’s oh so tasty. What’s more, it’s an incredibly easy recipe and makes for several dinners with very little effort. Let me know what you think of my marinara! Makes: 1.5 Litres (aprox) Ingredients 1 Onion, diced 1/2 Large Carrot, diced 1/2 Celery Rib, diced 4 Garlic Cloves, minced 125ml Vegetable Stock 1200g Tinned Tomatoes (3 x 400g Tins) 1/3 cup Tomato Puree 1 Tbsp Dried Basil 2 Bay Leaves 1/2 Tbsp Dried Oregano 1/2 Tbsp Dried Thyme 1/2 tsp Crushed Chillies 1 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar Sugar, to taste Salt & Pepper to taste Directions Instant Pot: Using the sauté function, place your pot on low with a touch of oil. Sauté the onions, carrot, and celery until softened and the onions have just started to brown. Add in the garlic and continue to cook for a minute, just until the garlic is fragrant. Deglaze the pan with a touch of stock, making sure to scrape up all the tasty brown bits at the bottom (this is very important with some models of pressure cooker. Neglecting to deglaze after sautéing can cause the dreaded burn warning). Turn off the heat and add the rest of the ingredients, stirring well. Cook on high for 30 minutes, allowing a natural pressure release. Slow Cooker: If you have time, soften and lightly brown your veg in a small pan before cooking but it’s not essential. Put all your ingredients in the bottom of your slow cooker and stir well. Cook on low for up to 8 hours (this isn’t a recipe that happily converts to high in a slow cooker). If your slow cooker has a tendency to loose some liquid then check halfway through and add an extra half cup of stock if running dry. Hob Cooking: Place a large, heavy based pot on a medium heat with a touch of oil. Sauté the onions, carrot, and celery until softened and the onions have just started to brown. Add in the garlic and continue to cook for a minute, just until the garlic is fragrant. Deglaze the pan with a touch of stock before adding the rest of the ingredients and stirring well. bring up to a low simmer, cover, and turn heat down low. Gently simmer for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the carrots are soft and the sauce if flavourful. Which ever method you use, once the sauce is cooked, season to taste and add a touch of sugar if needed. At this point I like to bring out the immersion blender and blend until mostly smooth. If you prefer a chunky sauce then blend slightly less but I like it smooth to make the perfect pizza sauce. Use immediately with pasta or on a pizza base, or freeze in individual portions to take out as and when needed. Notes Allergy Notes; This recipe is vegan, gluten free, nut free and soy free! If you have any issues with any of the ingredients in this dish then let me and I can suggest substitutions.

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Mum’s Meltaway Lemon Cookies (Kitchen Basics)

Feast of Plants — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 12:00:06 +0000

My mother is one of those women who seems to have endless energy. Even with all the demands on her time she still finds time to bake, making sure she always has a few treats in the house for any unexpected visitors. These wonderful cookies started life in mum’s collection as shortbread before she had a bit of a fiddle with it. It’s one of those few recipes that’s designed to work best with gluten free flour – it’s meant to be a little crumbly. If you want to use normal flour you can but to get the same texture will actually be a lot harder, and that’s not what this recipe is about. This recipe is about being able to pull together delicious, allergy safe, cookies in less than 20 minutes. So we’re adding this to our collection of kitchen basics, even if you’re new to cooking you won’t struggle with these. They’re made with gluten free flour so they can’t be over worked. Don’t have patience to rub in the butter? It’s fine, they work equally well in a food processor. My mum has always believed that anyone can cook and these cookies prove it. Makes: 20 Cookies Ingredients 250g Gluten Free Flour* 150g Vegan Block Butter 90g Caster Sugar, plus more for sprinkling 2 Lemons, zest only Pinch of salt Directions Preheat oven to 185 Degrees (175 Fan/365 F). Rub together the flour, butter and zest until well mixed and resembling bread crumbs. Add the salt and sugar and mix before forming into a cylinder. Remember we’re using gluten free flour so you don’t need to worry about over working the dough, just push it together. Cut into 1cm rounds and place onto a baking tray that’s been prepared with grease proof paper. Dredge with extra sugar before baking for 10-15 minutes. Cool well before eating (seriously, these aren’t made to be eaten warm) and enjoy! Notes These should keep well in an air tight container for a week or so. *Oddly enough for gluten free flour, make sure your blend doesn’t contain any xanthan gum. The cookies will come out stodgy if it does. Allergy Notes; This recipe should be naturally vegan, gluten free, nut free, and soy free.

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My Mother’s Hummus – Kitchen Basics

Feast of Plants — Wed, 26 Aug 2020 12:00:33 +0000

I’m well aware that probably every food blog has a recipe for hummus so yet another one might be slightly redundant. BUT I have to say that I’ve yet to find one that’s as good as this. Another one of my mother’s recipes that I grew up making, it’s incredibly easy and so simple. Ahead of her time in her love of hummus, this was a common snack for us in an era that predated the world’s current hummus obsession. I’ve put this into the Kitchen Basics, a series that I’ll keep occasionally adding to as we go. Focusing on easy recipes that anyone should be able to handle, these easy recipes are heavily influenced by what I grew up making and eating as a child. My mother always believed that cooking is a life skill that everyone should learn, but more than that, it’s something she loved and she wanted to share that joy with us. Many of the kitchen basics are some of the first things mum would trust us to make either by ourselves or with minimal supervision. As such, all of them are items that should be approachable for anyone, no matter your skill or experience in the kitchen. I’m aware that if you’re just transitioning to a vegan diet, gluten free diet, or especially both at the same time like us, your choices in supermarkets and restaurants are going to be more limited than you may be used to. So I’d like to encourage you to get comfortable in the kitchen and learn to cook from scratch. You’ll have greater variety in what you eat but more than that, it can be both healthier than pre-made foods and so much cheaper. As you get more comfortable in the kitchen you can adapt food to your taste meaning you’ll also enjoy it more. This hummus is no different. My mother’s general guidance was along the lines of ‘taste it and see how much of this to add’ or ‘until it looks right’. I’m giving you what I do to make it look right to me and to me, it tastes even better than shop bought (at a fraction of the price!). However, once you get comfortable with this, I’d encourage you to follow her guidance, taste it and see. Add more or less of some items until you’ve found your perfect hummus. Makes: Serves 4 as a snack Ingredients For the Hummus: 310g Cooked Chickpeas, drained and rinsed 3 Garlic Cloves, peeled 2 Tbsp Lemon Juice 1/2 tsp Salt 2 Tbsp Tahini* 1 Tbsp Olive Oil 1 Tbsp Aquafaba** 1 tsp Sumac 1 tsp Ground Cumin 1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper Optional Toppings: Olive Oil Fresh Parsley, chopped Pomegranate Seeds Paprika Freshly Ground Black Pepper Directions Optional Step: If you want a really, really smooth hummus then skin the chickpeas first. It’s not hard and actually quite soothing. I like my hummus with some texture so this is a step I rarely bother with. Seriously, this is so simple. Place all the ingredients into a food processor and blend until you’re happy with the texture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. If the hummus is too thick then add more aquafaba, a tablespoon at a time, until you reach the right texture. Taste and balance as needed, seasoning with more salt if bland, more lemon juice for more freshness, more cayenne if you like your hummus to have a bit of a kick. Place into a bowl and finish with your choice of toppings. I almost always swirl the hummus in it’s bowl and top with a touch of olive oil before anything else. Placed into an airtight container, this should keep in the fridge for up to a week. But really, mine never lasts that long – it always disappears! Notes *Tahini has a tendency to separate in the jar. Mix it well before measuring out or you’ll end up with greasy hummus one day and dry hummus the next! ** I normally whip up a batch of hummus on days when I batch cook a load of chickpeas so aquafaba is always to hand. You can always use the aquafaba found in your tin of chickpeas or substitute with water if you can’t find any – it won’t have quite the same mouth feel but it’ll still work. Allergy Notes; Hummus should be vegan, gluten free, soy free and nut free. However, if sesame seeds are an allergen for you then you can substitute peanut butter or sunbutter. I’m told you can even skip the nut butters entirely though you may need to play around to get the right texture without.

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Mum’s Roast Potatoes – Kitchen Basics

Feast of Plants — Fri, 03 Jul 2020 12:00:24 +0000

It’s been a long, difficult week and the weather really hasn’t helped with grey skies and near constant rain. So I reached for on of my favourite comfort foods, roast potatoes. I grew up eating the perfect roast potatoes but it was only once I moved out and started cooking for friends that I realised just how good mum’s roast potatoes really were. If I wanted to impress someone, roast potatoes would often feature in dinner, the first time I cooked for Kenny I’m pretty sure they were there. The perfect roast potato is crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, a little salty, and with the perfect balance of the two textures. Once you know what you’re doing, it’s surprisingly easy to accomplish with no special ingredients needed. I know this might be controversial but you don’t need animal fats to make the perfect roast potatoes. In fact, my mother always disapproved of using anything other than vegetable oil. Animals fats like goose and duck (the traditional cooking accompaniments to this dish) often tend to overwhelm the flavour of the potatoes and, more importantly, have too a low smoke point – in other words its far too easy to burn the fat and ruin your potatoes. Keep it simple (and vegan!) and stick to a good basic vegetable oil. The key basics for your best roast potatoes are simple, so simple you barely need a recipe. Grasp these and you’ll never have bad roast potatoes again. Use a floury potato if you can, Maris Piper always works well Par boil your potatoes Get your oven and oil really hot Plenty of salt Be patient – don’t be tempted to keep opening the oven to check on them Don’t let the potatoes cool when turning No fancy tricks, no odd ingredients, no flour needed to try to guarantee crispness, just 3 cupboard staples that equal the prefect side dish. You might even need to do more than you think you need, they always have people coming back for seconds! Makes: Serves 4 Ingredients 1 Kg Potatoes (preferably a floury variety like Maris Piper) Vegetable Oil Salt (preferably something with large crystals like rock salt or maldon if you’re feeling fancy) Directions Preheat your oven to 220 Degrees (200 fan/425 F). Grab a large roasting tray and add enough oil to come to about a centimetre up the side of the tray. You want enough oil to cook the potatoes but not drown them. Put the try into the oven while it heats to get the oil nice and hot. Peel the potatoes and chop into medium chunks, about 2 inches square. Much bigger than this and the inside of your potatoes will cook too slow resulting in a stodgy potato, too small and it’ll be all crunch with no fluffy inside. Place into a large pan and cover with cold water and a teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil and simmer until the outside of the potatoes is soft but the inside is still raw, about 5 minutes. Drain the potatoes (don’t rinse them – I’ve seen this tip on some recipes and it’s just craziness!) and tip back into the pan you cooked them in. Put the lid on the the pan and shake lightly until the edges are fluffed up. You’ll need to work quickly now so have everything you need for the next step laid out ready; salt, somewhere to put the hot roasting pan, and a large spoon. When the oil in the roasting try is really hot, so hot it’s shimmering, take the tray out of the oven and tip in the potatoes (very carefully!). Make sure the potatoes are well spread out and not crowded. Working quickly, coat the potatoes in the hot oil and sprinkle over a really generous coating of salt. Place back into the oven and let the potatoes cook for between 45 minutes and hour. Turn the potatoes every 20 minutes, working quickly so they don’t loose too much heat. The potatoes are done when they’re a delicious, deep golden brown all over. Remove from the oil and coat in a last layer of salt before serving. Notes Allergy Notes; This recipe is vegan, gluten free, soy free, nut free … it’s the perfect allergy safe side dish!

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