Monday 17 March 2014

Spiced Butternut Squash and Rice Noodle Broth (vegan)

Sorry for long silence - I've been working between Yorkshire and Hampshire so I feel like I live on a train at the moment, and feel a teeny bit fried.

Although I normally don't bother with recipe books with too much meat going on, there are some proper gems in Jamie's 15 Minute Meals. He's got his detractors, sure, but I find myself quite fond of him, especially now he's stopped saying 'pukka' all the time.

I haven't actually managed to produce anything edible in the stated 15 minutes, but that's more because I split my kitchen time evenly between actual cooking and dancing around to David Bowie with my spatula guitar rather than anything else. 

This broth is a veganised version of the Thai Chicken Laksa recipe in the book - ex-chicken, fish sauce etc. A note on fish sauce - I'm aware that there are veggie alternatives but have never come across any in a shop... I did for one brief moment of madness consider using Henderson's Relish instead, but decided to just omit it in the end. 

Anyway, this is coconutty, warming and quick (even if not 15 minutes quick) so I hope you give it a try.


Serves 4!

You pretty much can't get out of having a food processor for this one. If you don't have one, you can get one for about £15 quid in Asda (a pants one, but you know) and they're dead handy.

What you need

About 800ml vegan stock e.g. Marigold Vegan Bouillon
Half a butternut squash, peeled and grated - use food processor!
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
a nubbin of ginger
1 red chilli (remove seeds if you don't like too much heat)
1 tsp turmeric
About 4 spring onions, topped and tailed
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp peanut butter (original recipe says a teaspoon - I misread it and used a tbsp - much better!)
1 tbsp soy sauce
300g rice noodles - choose your thickness, I used fine
400g tin of coconut milk
Juice of a lime 
a big handful of fresh coriander
Bunch of asparagus - none in the picture you may notice, as I didn't have any in. Such is fate

What to do

Bring the stock to the boil in a large pan. When at a rolling boil, tip in the grated squash.

Bung the garlic, ginger, chilli, turmeric, spring onions, sesame oil, peanut butter, soy sauce and most of the coriander (reserve some leaves to sprinkle over) into the food processor, and whizz it all together until it's a fine paste. Tip it in with the stock/squash. Add your rice noodles.

Cut the asparagus in half and add to the pan, along with the coconut milk. Bring it to the boil and let the asparagus cook to your liking - couple of minutes at most really - then add lime juice and more soy sauce to 'balance the seasoning', as Jamie puts it (very cheffy). 

Turn the heat off and serve, sprinkled with the reserved coriander leaves.

Done! 'Pukka!' *groan*