Coconut and Lime Swiss Roll - Dairy Free

So, like many people, I've instantly got right into the new series of the Great British Bake-Off. In these troubled times we live in, it's quite soothing watching someone's cracked sponge become a NATIONAL EMERGENCY (with some crap innuendos thrown in).
It's infiltrated my subconscious so much that I made a Swiss roll for a barbecue under the impression that it was my own idea, when clearly it had been planted in my mind by the very first episode.

This is one of those amazing things that's naturally dairy-free, so great for those of you who are lactose intolerant. It does, I'm afraid, contain egg - because the volume of the sponge depends on it, I really don't know how you'd do it without.

A word on coconut cream - I really do mean coconut cream, not coconut milk. It's available in the same sort of supermarket aisle, and Sainsburys definitely do it. It's got to be the full-fat sort, and according to the wisdom of the internet, the stuff with guar gum as an ingredient doesn't work.
Chill it well, and don't shake it - what you want is for all the watery stuff to separate from the rest.
When you come to use it, you should just be able to pour the thin, watery bit off the top (it's not good for much, but you could add it to a smoothie or a curry or something) leaving behind an almost solid chunk of coconutty goodness.

You can, of course, mess about with the flavours as much as you like - replace the lime curd with pineapple jam, or chocolate spread and sliced banana is a good filling. Let me know in the comments if you hit on anything amazing!

What you need

85g plain flour
3 eggs
85g caster sugar
zest of a lime
3-4 tbsps lime curd (Sainsburys again)
250ml carton of coconut cream
Approx. 3 tbsp icing sugar

What to do

Preheat the oven to 170 (180 if it's not a fan oven), and line the base of a 33 by 23" rectangular tin with baking paper.

Put the sugar and the eggs in a mixing bowl, and have at them with an electric beater for about 5 minutes - this part is tedious but important. You're done when the mixture is thick and very pale.

Fold in the lime zest (make sure there's still a bit of green on the lime for you to grate over the top) and a tbsp of warm water, then add the flour a tablespoon at a time. I know it's really annoying to add the flour a little at a time, but otherwise you'll either end up with big clumps of flour in the finished article or you'll accidentally mix all the air out of it. So do as I say.

Pour the mixture into the tin and put in the oven for 10 minutes. You'll know it's done when it's golden and springy to the touch. If it's not quite done, only put it back in for 2 more minutes at a time - it's so easy to overdo it, and you'll feel Mary Berry's steely gaze on you from afar.



Quickly lay a largish sheet of baking paper on the worktop, and sprinkle it quite liberally with caster sugar. Run a knife around the edge between the cake and the tin, then carefully up-end so that it lands on the sugared paper.

Score with a butter knife about half a centimetre from one of the shorter edges, and roll it up, with the baking paper to help you. Because it's warm, it'll behave itself better once you put the filling in. Leave it to cool - about an hour.

While it's cooling, sort out your coconut filling. Pop the more solid part of the coconut cream (see my note in the blurb!) in a bowl and beat it with the electric mixer until it's starting to get the consistency of whipped cream. Add the icing sugar a tbsp at a time to taste - I ended up with about 3 tbsp in, but you might like it more or less sweet.

When cool, gently unroll and spread with a generous layer of lime curd, then a further layer of coconut cream. Carefully roll it back up, and trim the ends if it's a little scruffy.

Grate a final bit of lime zest over the top to decorate, and you're good to go!

Courgette Fritters

Well, it certainly has been a long time. Life got a little bit mental for a while, but I am now back in the North (good, as I was getting sick of Southern folk asking me to say "You know nothing, Jon Snow" in my accent) and getting back into the kitchen.
My feller's mum gifted us with some courgettes from the garden over the weekend so I've put them to us in these fritters, served with a load of veg. They make a nice, speedy mid-week tea, and you can easily adjust the recipe to what you like - try feta instead of cheddar, or different herbs.

Serves 2
What you need

2 small courgettes - about 250g
25g plain flour
1 egg
1 tsp fresh dill (or fresh herb of your choice!)
50g cheddar cheese
3 spring onions
a pinch of chilli flakes
1 clove garlic
salt
black pepper
something to fry in - I used 10g butter

What to do

First, coarsely grate your courgettes. This isn't as tedious as it sounds, as they grate surprisingly quickly. Spread them out on a clean tea towel, and sprinkle them with a decent pinch of salt. Leave them to it while you do the rest. They need to sit about 10 minutes so you might as well...

Chop your spring onions, the dill, and crush your garlic.

Put the flour, egg, spring onion, herbs, cheese, chilli flakes, garlic and black pepper in a mixing bowl.

Gather up the courgette in the tea towel, take it to the sink and squeeeeeeze for all it's worth, until you've got as much water out of it as you can. Whatever you do, don't skip this step as you won't have fritters, you'll have mush.

Mix it all to combine, until it's all come together. Start heating a large, non-stick frying pan on a medium-high heat, and add your oil/butter/whatever.

Add 4 dollops into the pan, and leave them for about 5 minutes per side. Scoop out and serve with a decent salad or a pile o veg - I've gone for carrots, peas, asparagus, mange tout and new potatoes (the entire contents of my veg tray basically).

A Two-course Vegan, Asian-Inspired Feast

Asparagus Tempura

then

Miso Tofu with Asian Salad

Asparagus Tempura

Miso Tofu

I tend to not use tofu very often, as it has eggy/wibbly tendencies which I'm not too sure about, but this version being roasted in the oven after being simmered in a marinade firms it up no end. The recipe was originally from Good Food magazine (read it here), but was a non-vegan version containing egg.  I used more tofu to compensate for the egg which, handily enough, also corresponded with the pack size of the most readily-available brand of tofu (Cauldron).

I felt very virtuous while doing the supermarket shop for this one, as many of the ingredients are available in seasonal British versions right now - radishes, asparagus, even yellow/orange and green peppers.

These two courses are both completely vegan and are intended to be relatively quick and easy to whip up. For that reason I've suggested using a ready-made sweet chilli sauce rather than making your own dipping sauce, but feel free to make your own if you're not in a rush. This recipe, for example, sounds dead nice.

You may notice in the picture of the tofu that only one piece of it appears to have any miso glaze on it. This is because I ignored the pan while watching telly, and let it reduce too much into a thick, burnt-ish jam - so don't do that.

Serves 2

For the tempura

What you need

50g plain flour
Half a tbsp cornflour
75ml lager or fizzy water
1 bunches of asparagus
any flavourless oil for deep-frying e.g. sunflower oil
sweet chilli sauce for dipping (or a dip of your choosing!)

What to do

Snap the woody ends off the asparagus, and get a pan of water onto a rolling boil. Drop the asparagus in and let it cook for 2 minutes, then drain. Blast with cold tap water to stop the cooking process, or better yet drop it into a bowl of iced water. Leave to one side.

Add enough depth of oil to deep fry into a wok or deep frying pan - you need less than you think, a couple of inches should do it - and put it onto a medium heat while you make up your batter.

Sift the flour and cornflour into a mixing bowl. Grab a balloon whisk and gradually pour in the beer or fizzy water, whisking all the while with the other hand. Get a friend to do the pouring if you're not terribly ambidextrous.

Check whether your oil is up to temperature - they say until a cube of bread browns in 30 seconds. I didn't have any bread, so a beansprout had to do, but the effect was much the same. When you're happy that the oil is hot enough, get a plate ready with a layer of kitchen roll on and grab a slotted spoon. Coat each piece of asparagus with the batter one at a time before dropping it in.

I would suggest doing the tempura in small batches - each should only take around 3 minutes to start browning. Fish them out as they're done with the slotted spoon, before transferring to the kitchen roll plate to soak up any excess oil.

Serve with your dipping sauce.

For the tofu

What you need

400g firm tofu (I used a 396g block of Cauldron tofu, close enough)

1 tbsp miso paste

150ml mirin

75ml soy sauce, plus 1 tbsp for the dressing

150g beansprouts
6 radishes, thinly sliced

half an orange or yellow pepper, deseeded and sliced

1 spring onion, finely sliced

handful of pea shoots

handful of plain roasted peanuts

1.5 tbsp rice vinegar

half a tbsp caster sugar

a nubbin of grated ginger - about half a cm

1.5 tbsp sunflower or rapeseed oil
1 crushed garlic clove

What to do

First of all, press the tofu to squish some of the liquid out of it - take it out of the packaging, wrap it in some layers of kitchen roll and put it under a biggish book or two. Leave it to press while you prepare the salad, as you do want it quite firm for this recipe.

Next, prepare the salad. Blanch the beansprouts in boiling water for two minutes, then drain and flush with cold water to stop them cooking. Transfer to a large bowl with the sliced spring onions, radishes and peppers.

For the dressing, whisk together the rice vinegar, 1 tbsp soy sauce, the ginger, garlic and sugar until the sugar has dissolved. Then pour in the oil in a steady stream, whisking all the while so it combines properly without separating (emulsifies, if you want to get technical). Stir the dressing into the veg and pop it in the fridge until you're ready to serve.

Unwrap the tofu from its kitchen roll, and cut into 8 triangles - cut once width-ways down the whole block so you have two thinner halves, then cut each half into 4 triangles.

Now you can start preparing the glaze for your tofu. Put the tbsp of miso paste in a mug and add 2 tbsp of boiling water, then stir with a fork until smooth. 

Get a large, deep-ish frying pan and pour the miso 'stock' in. Stir in the mirin and soy sauce, then bring it to the boil. Once boiling, add the tofu in a single layer. Let it cook for 15 minutes, turning the tofu over halfway through.

Turn the oven on at 200 degrees and line a baking tray with parchment. Fish the tofu out of the cooking liquid with a slotted spoon - but don't turn off the heat - and transfer to the baking tray. Pop in the oven for 15 minutes. While it's cooking, keep the heat on under the miso until it reduces and becomes syrupy - this will be your glaze! Keep an eye on it as it easily reduces down too much - which is exactly what happened to me! Just take it off the heat when it looks like the consistency you want.

When the tofu is done cooking, allow it to cool slightly and spoon the glaze onto each triangle, spreading it with the back of the spoon.

Pile the beansprout salad onto each plate, with the tofu slices arranged on top. Scatter over the peanuts and pea shoots.

Serve and enjoy!

Chickpea Patties with Carrot & Watercress Salad and Raita

            

I think it's often tempting for veggies to ignore foods that are typically seen by meat-eaters as being 'What Vegetarians Eat.' For example, a jowly colleague at a work buffet might loom over your shoulder chortling about the 'rabbit food' you've stacked your plate with, and commenting on how "no wonder you're all so pale when all you people eat is bloody lentils, hurr hurr," and you instantly feel like never eating lentils again just to spite them. Chickpeas are probably among the foods which have suffered on this count, but I feel more well-disposed towards them when I remember how cheap, versatile and tasty they can be.

On one of my weekend trips back up North I managed to put together these chickpea patties. Most of the ingredients are typical store-cupboard stuff, so they make a good Emergency Tea! They're very easy, very cheap and very versatile - you can serve these as shown, in a burger bun with all the trimmings, or the same mix in smaller balls as a snack or party food. If you don't have time or can't be bothered to make your own raita, the shop-bought versions are perfectly good.

You do, as with most burger-type things, need a food processor. They take up a lot of space but they're dead good.

Serves 2

What you need

For the chickpea patties

1 can of chickpeas
2 slices of stale-ish bread, torn up
1 free range egg, beaten
3 spring onions, roughly chopped
Half a bunch of coriander, leaves torn off the stalks
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 red chilli, de-seeded if you want to reduce the heat, finely chopped
Salt and pepper

For the side salad

1 carrot, grated
Large handful of watercress

For the raita

100ml pot of plain natural yoghurt
About 1/4 of a cucumber, diced into small cubes
Handful of fresh mint leaves, chopped
A pitta bread each to serve (if you like)


What to do

It's best to do the raita first, then that can be chilling in the fridge while you do the rest. Put the diced cucumber in strong kitchen roll or a clean tea towel, and squeeze some of the water out of them. This helps to avoid a sloppy dip! Stir the cucumber and chopped mint into the yoghurt, and put in the fridge until you want it.

Drain the chickpeas and put in the food processor, along with the egg, the torn-up bread, spring onions, coriander, garam masala, cumin, chilli, a pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Whizz it all up until it is smooth enough for your liking - use your preference here, some people prefer a few big lumps of chickpea.

Put a large non-stick frying pan on to heat, with a thin coating of oil, ready for your patties.

When I make this it's usually too runny to treat like a burger and form the patty shapes before you fry, so I take big tablespoons of the mixture and put them straight into the hot pan. You should get 4 out of the mixture - 2 each. You can shape them a bit with the spoon once they're in. Give them about 5 minutes on that side, then flip them over. Using the biggest spatula/slice you can find and flipping them in one swift movement means they're less likely to fall apart. Fry for 5 minutes on the second side, then transfer them onto some kitchen roll while you plate up.

Put the pitta breads in the toaster, if you're using.

Add a big handful of watercress and another of grated carrot to each plate (the raita dip also does well as a salad dressing), then add a big dollop of raita, the patties and a toasted pitta bread.

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*

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Griddled Polenta with Roasted Tomatoes

If you have never tried polenta before, please allow me to inform you that it is THE BOMB. Compared to other carb-type stuff, it's pretty low calorie, it's as cheap as 'owt, it's a complex carbohydrate which is apparently a good thing (something something glycaemic index??) and it's gluten free.
It also needs very little adornment other than stock and garlic or herbs to flavour it. Intrigued? Good.

You can buy polenta from major supermarkets (definitely Sainsburys) and health food shops, either in its ground form or even as a ready-made block. Italfresco sell a ready-made version in Sainsburys which is all ready to be sliced and griddled, and costs 75p. Ground polenta is occasionally called fine cornmeal, but it amounts to the same thing. The main thing to check is the cooking time - some grades of polenta/cornmeal apparently take up to 45 minutes of stirring - no thanks. For this recipe, I used Suma's polenta (health food shop) which only needs stirring for one minute.

I've added cheese to the polenta here but it's dead easy to veganise - just omit the cheese and make sure your stock is vegan (for example, Marigold vegan bouillon).

This recipe only really has 2 main ingredients so, apart from beans on toast, it's one of the cheapest and easiest meals for two I can think of.

If after this you're in my club of Polenta Enthusiasts, try some different stuff - add different things to the polenta as it's cooking, eat it in its gloopy porridge-y form, use it as a hotpot topping, as a pizza base...

Anyway. I shall stop enthusing about cornmeal products because it's getting a bit sad. Have fun!

Serves 2

What you need

100g quick-cook polenta
500ml water
2 cloves of garlic,crushed
a good vegetable stock
250g cherry tomatoes - a mix of colours is nice if you can get them
olive oil
50g grated cheddar cheese (optional)
fresh basil
salt and pepper

What to do

Boil the kettle. Add a tiny drizzle of oil to a deep saucepan and add the crushed garlic - just heat it through to take the raw edge off, no need to brown it.

Add 500ml of the boiled water into the pan with the garlic and turn the heat up high to bring it back to the boil. Crumble in a vegetable stock cube, or if you've got 500ml of home-made vegetable stock hanging around then use that instead (if you're fancy like that).

When the pan has reached boiling point, pour in the polenta slowly in a thin stream, stirring all the while. It's easier if you pour the polenta from a jug.

Keep stirring for 1 minute (or however long the packet advises) - watch out because it will bubble like a crazy volcano, but that's normal. When the polenta has thickened, season it generously with salt, pepper and anything else you like (e.g. fresh or dried herbs if you have any knocking around) and add the cheese if using. Stir to combine, then pour into something with a wide, flat base like a roasting tin.

Leave it to cool a bit, then refrigerate it for about half an hour - it will solidify and you'll be able to slice it.

While the polenta is cooling, slice your cherry tomatoes in half and transfer to a roasting tin with a slug of olive oil. About 15 minutes in to the polenta-cooling time, put the tomatoes in the oven at 160 degrees. They need to be in for half an hour, so when the polenta comes out of the fridge you'll have another 15 minutes to slice and griddle it - tweak the timings as you like.

Bring the polenta out of the fridge when it's had its half an hour, and slice it into wedges. Brush a heavy griddle pan with a little bit of olive oil - if it's non-stick, this isn't always necessary - and put it over a high heat until it's outrageously hot.

Add the polenta slices and griddle for a few minutes on each side until they have nice char marks.

Serve the polenta slices with the roasted tomatoes, then scatter with a torn-up handful of fresh basil.

Baked Pasta Rolls/Sideways Canneloni

Hope everyone had an amazing Christmas and New Year!

This recipe is probably the only good thing to have come out of eating nothing but restaurant food for two months (apart from increased fatness-linked winter warmth). My colleagues and I ate at Jamie's Italian on a couple of occasions and enjoyed it - however it's not exactly great for veggies, because although there are a few options which are either veggie already or easily adaptable, nothing is labelled and they are pretty indiscriminate with the Parmesan so you have to just trust the knowledge of your waiter/waitress when it comes to making a choice!

This recipe is an amalgamation of what I ended up eating in Jamie's Italian - which they called Honeycomb Canneloni - and a recipe from Jamie's website called Squash & Spinach Pasta Rotolo. I've picked the best of both worlds when it comes to the filling - half have a spinach and feta filling, half have aubergine and sun-dried tomato. There's no reason why you can't experiment with different stuff, let me know in the comments if you hit on something incredible! I've labelled the recipe steps which relate to the different fillings, so you can ignore one and double the quantity of the other if you like.

Although it's pretty fiddly - I felt like I had 10 thumbs when I was trying to do the rolls - it looks really pretty and is a great variation on boring old canneloni.

Serves 4

What you need

olive oil

6 fresh lasgne sheets (or dried, pre-boiled)

300g fresh spinach

1 onion (chopped)

half a standard-size block of veggie feta

pinch of nutmeg

500ml passata

50g mature cheddar or 25g faux-parmesan

4 cloves garlic, crushed

2 aubergines

a good handful sun-dried tomatoes

a few fresh basil leaves (optional)

salt & pepper

What to do

Aubergine filling - First, slice both the aubergines in half vertically (stalks removed) and score across the cut side in a criss-cross pattern like you would a mango. Place in a baking dish. Drizzle each half with a tablespoon of olive oil (sorry for chronic unhealth but aubergine is such an oil sponge) and place in the oven at 180 degrees for about half an hour until soft all the way through. Set aside to cool.

Spinach filling - While the aubergines are doing, you can be sorting your spinach. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a saucepan and add the onion. Fry until softened and starting to brown at the edges, then add the spinach and put the lid on the pan. Leave for about 5 minutes until the spinach has wilted, then season liberally with salt, pepper and the nutmeg before taking off the heat. Pour off any excess liquid that's come off the spinach.

Aubergine filling - When the cooked aubergine is cool, scrape the flesh out of the skin and mash it with a fork. Cut up the sun-dried tomatoes (I find scissors easiest) and stir them in. Season with salt and pepper. 

Heat a small amount of oil in a large frying pan (So much oil! So many pans! I know, I know) and add the crushed garlic. Wait until it's sizzling but not burning, then pour in the passata. Bring to the boil, then turn off the heat. 

Now for the fiddly part. Lay out one lasagne sheet at a time on a plate or board. It helps to spray or brush the surface with a small amount of oil to stop it sticking. Make sure both your fillings and the feta are within reach.

Spread the lasagne sheet with your chosen filling - alternate fillings when you change sheet to make sure it's half and half - adding a crumbled handful of feta to the spinach one, then roll up like a tiny pasta carpet. Slice each roll into three, and place each roll carefully into the pan with the passata. Place them side by side until the pan is full.

Grate over your cheese of choice and scatter over the basil if you're using. Bake in a 180 degree oven for around half an hour until golden brown.

Serve with garlic bread or a green salad, depending on the degree of January diet austerity you're enforcing.

Lentil, Spinach and Red Wine Pie - Emergency Christmas Recipe

I've been away from home working for two months. All I have eaten during this time has been restaurant food and hotel breakfasts. By consequence, I am a) as fat as a lord and b) anxious to get back in the kitchen and away from whatever TGI Fridays consider to be a viable vegetarian option. This is, by the way, the reason for the long blog silence - the closest I've got to any type of meal preparation since October has been peeling a banana.

Christmas is tomorrow - TOMORROW - so this post is mainly for meat eaters who have a surprise veggie guest and are freaking out about what to feed them. This pie works really well either as one big pie for a centrepiece, or you can split it down into individual pies (as pictured) if there are just one or two veggie guests. The quantities can be really easily messed about with as long as you keep to the same proportions, and it's really easy to veganise - just use a white vegetable fat (e.g. Trex) in your pastry instead of butter, omit the cheese, and make sure your red wine is vegan - Sainsburys and the Co-op have clear labelling on their own-brand wines.
There's no pastry bottom to this pie, just the lid, to avoid a Bake-Off style soggy bottom crisis. 

I think people tend to panic the most either when they are new veggies planning their first meat-free Christmas, or when they are meat eaters catering for a vegetarian guest. Just remember that there are lots of options beyond the traditional, and largely detested, nut loaf. If your entire family is meat-free, remember that you don't have to stay traditional - why not just bung on a big tapas spread, or curry, or Thai .... anything which lends itself well to sharing! 

To make a 4-person pie, or 4 individual pies

NB this recipe is about a million times easier if you have a food processor

Don't forget to allow time for the pie filling to cool!

What you need

For the pastry

225g plain flour
100g butter, cubed and at room temperature
75g grated mature cheddar
1 tbsp cold water

For the filling

2 tbsps olive oil

2 400g cans of puy lentils
1 onion, chopped
1 small carrot, diced (food processor!)
1 small celery stalk, diced
2 cloves of garlic - crushed
1 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 175ml bottle of red wine
100ml stock
1 tbsp plain flour
A handful of fresh spinach

What to do

First, make your pastry. If you are lucky enough to have a food processor, tip all the pastry ingredients in then pulse it until it looks like breadcrumbs. Roll into a ball - if it's too crumbly add more water, if it's too wet add more flour - wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge until it's needed. If you don't have a food processor, rub the fat into the flour with your hands until it looks like breadcrumbs, add the cheese then do as above.

Now, the filling. Heat the olive oil in a largish saucepan then, when it's up to temperature, add the onions, diced celery and diced carrot. Fry over a medium heat until softened and just starting to brown - don't let the onion brown too quickly. Add the crushed garlic and the rosemary then fry for another minute before adding the flour. Cook for a further minute so you don't get that raw flour taste. 

Add the red wine and stock to the pan. Bring it to the boil then reduce the heat down to a simmer. Leave it, stirring occasionally until it's thickened - about 10-15 minutes.

Add the spinach and lentils into the pan and leave to cook for a final 5 minutes before taking off the heat. You now need to leave it to cool - if you add a pastry lid to boiling hot filling it will just collapse into mushy goo.

Towards the end of the cooling time, you could occupy yourself by rolling out the pastry and cutting out one or more lid shapes, and turning the oven on at 170 degrees.

When it's cool, transfer the filling into your pie dish/dishes of choice and lay over your pastry lid. Brush the top with beaten egg if you like, although of course not if you're vegan. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes - definitely check after 15 as pastry can go from golden-brown amazingness to burnt like THAT. 

Serve with whatever trimmings you fancy - we went for herby new potatoes and green veg - and enjoy!

Merry Christmas

Spinach Pasta Soufflé Bake

I am back from the horrible wilderness of exam time. I haven't posted anything in absolutely ages, but I honestly haven't produced anything that was even worth eating, let alone blogging! We have been living on convenience food while I frantically tried to learn how to do accounting in time to pass the exam. But it's over now, and what better way to welcome myself back into the kitchen but with a recipe from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's wonderful Veg Every Day.

This is a tasty cross between a pasta bake and a soufflé, with the added bonus of spinach and a decent amount of cheese. Absolutely impossible to veganise though unfortunately, there really is no substitute that I'm aware of for the wizardry of beaten egg white.

We're still dieting too, I make this just under 400 calories a portion if you use semi-skimmed milk and low fat cheese, which is pretttty good for something involving the unholy trinity of pasta, butter and cheese.

For the original recipe and plenty more brilliant stuff besides, Veg Every Day is available here.

I also realised while photographing this that there is no way to make this food look good. Oh well.

Serves 4

What you need

1 onion, chopped

100g pasta of any shape - except spaghetti, that would be weird

200g fresh spinach

50g butter

50g plain flour

300ml semi-skimmed or whole milk

3 eggs, separated into yolk and white. Hugh suggests one extra egg white but that strikes me as unnecessary ballache, and problem of spare egg yolk. Up to you.

60g mature cheddar cheese

salt, pepper, nutmeg

What to do

Heat either a small amount of olive oil or some frylight, and fry off the onion until soft and golden. Set to one side.

Put the pasta on to boil, following the pack instructions for cooking time, then drain and again set to one side.

Wilt the spinach - easiest way is by putting it in a colander and pouring boiling water over it. Make sure to really squeeze as much water as you can out of the wilted spinach or you'll have a very soggy bake. Try either squashing it with a potato masher or putting it in a clean tea towel and squeezing (flush it with cold water first if you do that, or you'll burn your hands! Stating the obvious but you never know!). Use kitchen scissors to snip the spinach into pieces. 

Melt the butter in a heavy-based saucepan over a medium heat. When melted, add the flour all at once and whisk furiously with a balloon whisk until any lumps have gone. Cook for one minute, then add the milk little by little, whisking all the time. Keep whisking until the mixture has come to the boil. You should have a thickish bechamel sauce. Turn the heat off, then stir in the onion, egg yolks, cheese, nutmeg, spinach, salt and pepper. Stir the cooked pasta into the sauce.

In a pristinely-clean bowl, use an electric whisk to beat the egg whites until they are at the firm peaks stage. Stir a spoonful into your spinach and pasta mixture just to loosen it, then carefully fold the rest of the whites in, taking care not to knock too much of the air out.

Transfer the lot to a baking dish and bake at 190 degrees for 25-30 minutes, or until risen and golden brown. 

Have fun!

Spiced Aubergine and Lentil Filo Pie

We're still riding the healthy-eating horse, and doing pretty well too, but one of the things I've really been missing is pastry. Big, fat, buttery pastry. Definitely one to avoid for the moment. BUT there's hope yet - thank heaven for filo! At about 100 calories a sheet it means a pie is still a pie, but one that won't make me as wide as I am tall. So I've been doing some experimenting, and this recipe is one of the results.

This crispy, flaky, spicy aubergine and lentil offering came out at under 250 calories per serving if made with the dreaded Fry-Light (I've stated oil in the recipe because I don't hate you all, should only add about 350 cals for the whole recipe though if you measure out the 3 tablespoons). Pretty good going, and it's damn tasty as well. It goes well with Middle Eastern-type accompaniments - a tabbouleh or a fattoush salad for example, but equally well with just some green leaves out of a bag if you can't be bothered. And a glass of red.

It's also vegan! Check the packet of the filo pastry just in case, but most brands I've seen are suitable for vegans, including many supermarket own-brands.

Serves 4 - don't forget to leave time for the filling to cool! 

What you need

1 large aubergine
1 400g tin cooked brown or puy lentils
As many sheets as you like of ready-made filo pastry - I used 6
2 medium sized onions (chopped)
1 400g tin chopped tomatoes
2 cloves garlic (crushed)
thumb-sized nubbin of ginger (grated or just bunged through the garlic crusher)
1/2 tbsp dark brown sugar
3 tbsp olive oil (or other weapon of choice)
2 tsps fennel seeds (plus extra to scatter over)
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp cayenne chilli powder
salt and pepper to taste

What to do

Turn the oven on at 180 degrees. Chop the aubergine into smallish cubes, toss in 1 tablespoon of the oil and transfer to a baking dish. Put in the oven to roast while you carry on with the rest - it will want to be in for about 20 minutes, but keep checking it.

Heat the other tablespoon of olive oil in a large saucepan, and add the chopped onion, garlic, ginger, coriander, cumin and chilli powder. Put the lid on so that it all just sweats together rather than browning too  much.

Grab a frying pan and put on a high heat. Add the fennel seed to the dry pan and dry-fry them for a couple of minutes until they're brown and smelling all fennel-y, then add to the onion and spice mixture.

Once the onions etc. are translucent and starting to brown in places, add the chopped tomatoes and the lentils, having poured off the liquid from the lentil tin. Your aubergine will probably be roasted enough now, so slap that in too. Add the brown sugar, and season with salt and pepper.

Allow the pie filling to cook down over a medium heat until it's thickened. You can mainly just go off and do something else at this point, just come back every once in a while to give it a bit of a stir. It will probably take about 15 minutes for the mixture to reduce to pie-filling consistency. Once it's done, the filling will need some time to cool down. If you add the hot filling straight to the pastry, it will just go into a soggy mush. Spread it out on something so it cools quicker and it should be alright after about half an hour.

Grab a shallow baking dish and layer up 3 (or more if you like) sheets of filo pastry, brushing each sheet with some of your remaining tablespoon of olive oil (or spray with you-know-what). Spread over the filling, then finish up with a further 3+ layers of filo to form the top layer, still brushing each one with oil.

Scatter some fennel seeds over the top, and put in the oven for 25 minutes until the pastry is golden brown.

Enjoy!

Courgette, Chilli and Pine Nut Tagliatelle

We're on a bit of a weight loss mission at the moment, scary stuff. Soooo where my normal way of eating pasta is smothering it in cheese and sauce, I've been experimenting with some slightly less artery-fuzzing options. I did the courgettes in Fry-Light (that stuff makes me shudder slightly but it's a necessary evil) and by my maths it works out at under 500 calories per person.

The flavours in this are a bit of a swan-song to summer - it's almost autumn, in fact as I'm typing there's even a Christmas re-run of QI on in the background which is just making me feel all wrong. So may I present some  happy summertime type food before we all plunge back into dark and cold and misery.

Dead easy to veganise, just make sure your pasta is egg-free (most dried varieties are) and leave off the cheese.

Serves 2
What you need

2  medium-sized courgettes
200g tagliatelle (or whatever pasta you've got!)
1 medium-hot red chilli (finely chopped and seeds removed if you don't want too much heat)
2 cloves garlic (crushed)
a small handful of pine nuts (about 10-15g)
2 tbsps olive oil (or Fry-Light if, like us, you are a masochist)
juice of half a lemon (optional)
a few shavings vegetarian parmesan-style cheese
salt and pepper to taste

What to do

Courgettes first. Top and tail them then, with a potato peeler, thinly slice the two courgettes length-wise into ribbons.

Heat half of the olive oil (or depressing Fry-Light) in a ridged griddle pan. If you don't have a griddle pan, a normal non-stick frying pan will be absolutely fine but you won't get the dark ridge marks. When the pan is up to temperature lay out the courgette ribbons, turning when they are starting to brown. It won't take long because they're so thin! You'll probably need to do this in batches, unless you have a monstrous catering-size griddle pan, so pop them on a plate as they're done. It doesn't matter if they get cold, they'll warm back up when you eventually add them to the pasta.

In the mean time, heat a separate dry frying pan and add your pine nuts. Keep shaking the pan until they're evenly toasted all over, then put them on one side. At this point you should also start boiling a pan of water ready for the pasta.

In the same pan (no point creating extra washing up), add the rest of the olive oil, the garlic and the chilli. Keep a careful eye on it because you don't want it to brown, just to sweat slightly so you lose the harshness of the raw garlic. Put that on one side as well when done.

The pasta water will hopefully now be at a rolling boil, so add your tagliatelle and cook for however long the pack says, usually about 10 minutes. Drain it and put it back in the pan.

Toss the courgette ribbons, chilli, garlic and the lemon juice if using, as well as a decent amount of good-quality salt and pepper in with the tagliatelle - the heat from the pasta should warm the courgette etc. back up if it's gone a bit cold.

Plate up and sprinkle over the 'parmesan' shavings.

Now go and sit outside with a glass of chilled white wine and pretend we all live in Italy. Mmm.

Raspberry and Almond Tart

Firstly, sorry for the long silence! Lots of changes at work and similar busy-making life events has meant that by the time I get home, the last thing I feel like doing is anything in the kitchen. We've pretty much been subsisting on pasta, which is all I've managed to summon the energy to make, but I think it's time to emerge from the carb swamp and get back on the culinary horse.

I can't really say that my first re-entry to the kitchen is on a healthy basis - a great big tart full of fruit, nuts and sugar - however it is bloody delicious, especially with a big scoop of ice cream. Diet starts on Monday eh.

A brief note on pastry - I think that ready made pastry is one of the best time-saving inventions of modern times, and actually find home made pastry too rich in comparison. It's also vegan a lot of the time. Any pastry purists among you can feel free to make your own, but you can still find me kneeling at the altar of Jus-Rol.

The quantities in the recipe mainly come from a Peach and Pistachio version from a Sainsburys recipe card. Unfortunately the recipe doesn't seem to be on their website, but you can find plenty more suggestions here.

What you need

1 375g pack sweet shortcrust pastry
150g unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
1 tsp almond essence
3 medium eggs, beaten and at room temperature
150g ground almonds
2 tbsp plain flour
250g frozen raspberries (you can get these in the freezer section of most supermarkets)

Ice cream to serve (optional)

What to do

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Roll out the pastry and use it to line a flan tin. Easiest way is to drape the pastry over a rolling pin, then lay it gently onto the tin, pushing it down into the edges and leaving some hanging over the side. I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds this part a bit fiddly, so there's some helpful advice on lining tins with pastry here. My flan tin is 23cm, so that's the basis on which this recipe has been tested! I'm sure other sizes would also be fine. Prick the base with a fork so that air bubbles don't form.

Line the pastry with baking paper and fill with baking beans, uncooked rice etc, then bake for about 15 minutes. After the 15 mins, take the paper and beans out and bake for a further 5 minutes until the base is cooked. The timing here will depend greatly on your oven and how thinly you've rolled the pastry out, so keep checking it and give it more time if it still seems a bit squidgy. When done, put it to one side.

While the pastry's sorting itself out, make the filling. Beat the butter, sugar and almond essence together with an electric mixer (or a hand whisk if you've the stamina) until pale and creamy. Then add in the beaten eggs a little at a time. I've specified that the eggs should be room temperature because sometimes a mixture can curdle if the eggs are cold. I have been known to, when I've forgotten to get eggs out of the fridge enough in advance, wander round with them in my pockets until they're up to temperature! Sounds insane but it's one way around it, even if you do run the risk of a lovely pocket full of raw egg.

Once all the egg's in, fold in the almonds and the flour until thoroughly mixed in, then add the frozen raspberries. The reason I say to use frozen rather than fresh is firstly because they are cheaper, and secondly because frozen ones won't disintegrate when you stir them in.

Spoon the mixture into the tart case and bake for 35-40 minutes until set and golden. If you're worried about the edges of the tart case burning, you can cover just the edges with tin foil - fiddly but works.

Slice it up and serve it with a scoop of vanilla.

Italian Bean and Tomato Salad with Halloumi

The evenings are getting lighter and sunnier, which for me means two things - white wine consumption has gone up by at least 50%, and the stews and soups of winter have been replaced by salads. However, I'm training for my first 10k run at the moment after months without any exercise whatsoever, and my body is so alarmed by this sudden activity that I'm absolutely bloody starving all the time.

This halloumi salad was perfect this evening when I came home from a run feeling like I could eat a bear (a vegetarian bear obviously), as it's refreshing and summery while still being substantial and filling.

Serves 2-3

What you need

A 225g block of halloumi cheese
A 400g tin of butter beans
200g small tomatoes (e.g. cherry or baby plum)
A large handful of fresh basil leaves
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
A pinch of chilli flakes
salt and pepper
A tortilla wrap per person (optional)

What to do

First make the bean and tomato salad. Empty the beans into a largish bowl and rinse off all the gungy can water. Next, blanch the tomatoes - cut a small cross shape in the base of each one, cover with boiling water for about 30 seconds, then plunge into cold water. The skins should then slip off really easily. Chop roughly into chunks and de-seed if you prefer. Add in with the beans.

For the dressing, roughly tear the basil leaves and add to the bean and tomato mix, before adding the olive oil, red wine vinegar, chilli flakes, garlic, salt and pepper. Give it all a good stir then refrigerate while you sort out the halloumi. It wants to be in the fridge for at least 15 minutes to allow all the flavours to mingle, so no rush.

Cut the halloumi into thick slices then either place under the grill or fry, as you prefer. I tend to grill them as then I'm not having to add extra fat to fry in and the heat's a bit more even.

Pile the bean salad on top of a tortilla wrap if using, then add the cooked halloumi.

Enjoy!

Asparagus Tarts

Asparagus is in season!! Although who knows, it's not really been springtime yet (not in Huddersfield anyway) so for all we know it might all be a trick and they've brought last year's lot out of the freezer.

These tarts are very loosely based on a recipe from Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries II, which you can buy here.

They look quite pretty for how ridiculously easy they are - they use ready made puff pastry so minimal effort - ideal with a salad as a summery dinner.

Makes 4 tarts

What you need

A bunch of slender asparagus spears - 8 spears for 4 tarts
a 375g pack ready-rolled puff pastry
100ml double cream
a few sprigs lemon thyme - leaves only
40g grated mature cheddar or 'parmesan'
1 egg, beaten

What to do

First, cook the asparagus. Snap off any woody stems and get some lightly salted water boiling. Plop the asparagus in - they should only need 5 minutes. Have a bowl of icy cold water waiting to immediately plunge the asparagus into once you've drained them - this will keep them nice and fresh and green-looking! It's of course fine if they sit there getting cold as they'll go back in the oven anyway.

Unroll the puff pastry from the packet, and slice vertically into 4. Score a border about a centimetre away from the edge, without cutting all the way through. Egg wash it if you like, I never do - I always feel like it's a bit of a waste of an egg! Lay the pastry out on a non-stick baking tray and put in the oven at 200 degrees for 10 minutes, just to start crisping the pastry before you add your filling.

While that's in the oven, stir together the cream, grated cheese and lemon thyme leaves, with salt and pepper to season.

When your pastry comes out from its first stint in the oven, lay the asparagus spears on - I did two per tart. Spoon over the cheese mixture, distributing evenly between the tarts. Return to the oven for a final 10 minutes, until the filling is starting to brown and the pastry is crisp.

Serve and enjoy!

Creamy Stuffed Peppers

This is ideal for when you're doing the what's-in-the-fridge maths of an evening, as you can pretty much add anything you feel like adding. Those tomatoes that have seen better days, the bunch of spring onions that are starting to shrivel - whap them in and they'll be delicious.

If you can't get the pointy Romano peppers then normal ones are fine, just the Romano ones are sweeter. I teamed with some sautéed potatoes and salad.

Serves 2

What you need

1 tbsp olive oil
2 pointed Romano peppers
a bunch of spring onions, chopped
a finely chopped green chilli
2 large tomatoes, chopped
1 clove garlic
a splash of white wine
2 tbsp cous cous
2 tbsp stock
3 tbsp double cream
50g grated hard cheese

What to do

First, prepare the peppers by halving and de-seeding them. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees C.

Fry the chopped spring onions, chilli, tomatoes and garlic over a medium heat until softened and just starting to brown.

Stir in the cous cous, the stock and the wine and remove from the heat, covering the pan with a lid. Leave lidded for around 5 minutes to allow the cous cous to absorb the liquid, then stir in a tablespoon of the cream.

Place the pepper halves in a gratin dish and fill them with the cous cous mixture. Drizzle over the remaining 2 tablespoons of cream, and sprinkle over the grated cheese.

Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until the cheese is melty and browning.

Enjoy!

Veggie Burger and Sweet Potato Fries

Please note: You need a food processor to follow this recipe

Home-made veggie burgers can be a bit of a divisive subject - there are so many great pre-made versions available that the effort involved in making your own can seem unnecessary. However, they're so dead easy to knock up and hold endless room for adaptation and reinvention. Everyone's got their own 'perfect' veggie burger, and here's mine!

Additional tips: a renowned issue with veggie burgers is the difficulty getting them to hold together. This is partly just the nature of the beast and something you'll just have to put up with, but there are a couple of things you can do to improve matters.

- Make sure your pan is really hot before you add your burger, so that the side seals immediately rather than just going soggy and falling apart

- When flipping, use the biggest spatula/slice thing that you can find in your kitchen

- Try and flip them in one swift movement, like a burger ninja!

Makes around 8 burgers - enough sweet potato chips for two (the rest of the burger mix will keep in the fridge or, if already formed into patties, will even freeze!)

What you need

3 slices of bread, whizzed into breadcrumbs
1 400g tin of kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 400g tin of cannelini beans (or any other white beans!), drained and rinsed.
2 fresh green chillies, roughly chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
6 spring onions, chopped
a handful of fresh coriander
1 red pepper, de-seeded and roughly chopped
an egg
2 smallish sweet potatoes (1 each - use more if you're doing the full 8 burgers)

What to do

First prepare your chips: peel the sweet potatoes and slice them into thin chips. Lay them out on an oven tray - in a single layer so they go crisp - and drizzle with oil. Put them in at 180 degrees on the middle shelf for 30 minutes.

While they're in there crisping up, make your burgers. It's pretty much as simple as slapping it all in a food processor: in go the breadcrumbs, both tins of beans, the chillies, the garlic, the spring onions, the coriander, the red pepper and the egg. Season well with salt and pepper and pulse until roughly blended.

Form into patties and roll in flour. Chill in the fridge for 10 minutes. Your chips should only have been in for about 5 to 10 minutes at this point, so you've still got time to fry your burgers.

When they've had time to chill, heat up a little bit of vegetable oil in a frying pan and fry the patties for a couple of minutes each side.

Serve in a bun with lettuce, tomato and a slice of cheese, with your chips on the side.

Paneer and Spinach Curry

I only gave paneer a try about a year ago and I love it for several reasons: it's delicious, you can fry or grill it and it keeps its shape, it's cheap and it's low-ish in fat compared to other cheeses.

You can apparently make your own at home very easily, see advice on how at We Don't Eat Anything With a Face - must confess I've never tried it myself because it's so cheap and readily available where I live, so let me know if anyone has a crack at it!

This curry isn't intended to be particularly hot so I've only included one green chilli, but if you do prefer a bit more fire you can substitute for one or more red chillies and keep the seeds in.

So that you're not stressed out trying to prep and watch the pan at the same time, it's worth doing all your chopping, grating, crushing and what have you beforehand. 

You can easily veganise this by making sure you fry in oil rather than ghee, and using either cubed tofu or pre-boiled potatoes in place of the paneer.

Serve with rice, naan, chappattis, raita... whatever you feel like!

Serves 2-3 (2 greedy people, or 2 normal appetites with leftovers)


What you need

2 tbsp vegetable oil or ghee
1 large onion, chopped
1 green chilli, de-seeded and chopped finely
a thumb sized nubbin of ginger, grated
2 large cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp turmeric
227g pack of paneer (size as sold in Sainsburys), cut into smallish cubes
1 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
A pinch of salt
500g bag of spinach
chopped coriander to garnish

What to do

Heat up your oil or ghee over a medium heat, then add the onions, ginger, garlic and chilli. Turn down the heat a little if necessary so that you can just sweat them all together until soft rather than browning - this should take around 5-7 minutes.

Add the dry spices and cook for another minute. Stir in the tomatoes and a little salt to taste, then leave to simmer for 10-15 minutes.

While the sauce is simmering, heat up a little oil in a separate pan - preferably non-stick - then add your paneer. Keep turning it until it's brown on all sides, then set to one side. You need to add this right at the end or it'll go soggy.

Once the sauce has been simmering for a while, it should have reduced down quite a bit. This is good. Loads of water will come out of the spinach once you add it, so your sauce even needs to look a bit on the dry side.

Add your spinach - the easiest way is a handful at a time, waiting for the last handful to wilt in before adding another. Cook for another minute until all the spinach is soft and wilted in, then stir in the fried paneer.

Garnish with coriander if you're a fan, serve with whatever accompaniments you fancy, and enjoy!
 

Spinach and Feta Pie (Spanakopita)

Even if you haven't looked out of the window for several days, you will probably have been made aware from social media alone that IT IS SNOWING. It's cold and wet and inconvenient, but never mind that! Shut the curtains, stick some pictures of hot countries on the wall, make some of this tasty Greek pie and imagine you're in the Mediterranean.

This pie is dead easy, and is really adaptable to whatever you've got in the fridge - if you feel like throwing in some fresh herbs, some ricotta, some mushrooms which'll be on the turn in a couple of days, or whatever you like - it'll be perhaps less 'authentic' (so watch out for the pretentious food police) but it'll be all the better for it.

Because it's so rich I only really serve it with something simple and acidic like a tomato salad, but if you want to go all out you could do a proper Greek mezze. You can find a nice idea for an Easter Mezze of 3 different dips here, courtesy of Vegetarian Living.

What you need

olive oil
500g fresh spinach
200g feta cheese (Tesco & Co-op own brand both veggie at time of writing)
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
a generous grating of nutmeg
black pepper
ready made filo pastry (at least half what you get in a normal packet is enough)
1 medium egg

What to do 

Firstly, for those who have not cooked with spinach much in the past, don't panic at what looks like a crazy amount of spinach - it will all wilt down to a manageable amount!

Chop the onion, crush the garlic and sweat them over a medium-low heat in some of the olive oil until soft. This will take about 7-10 minutes, so in the mean time, wilt your spinach.

I find the easiest way of doing this is to put it in a colander and pour a kettle of boiling water over it, then run the cold tap over it so it's cool enough to handle. Then you need to squeeze as much water out of it as you possibly can, or your pie will be soggy! It can help to get a potato masher and squash water out of it with that. You'll probably have to do this part in batches, unless you have one massive colander.

Transfer the spinach to a mixing bowl and add: your softened onion and garlic, the nutmeg, some black pepper (I don't add salt because the feta's quite salty anyway, but you can if you want), the egg, and the crumbled feta - then give it all a good mix. Get the hands in there, everybody likes mess.

Layer a few sheets of filo pastry in the bottom of your pie dish - as many or as few as you like, I normally do about 4 - brushing each sheet with olive oil. Then add your spinach filling and layer another few sheets of filo on top, again brushing with oil.

Pop it in the oven for about 30 mins at 200 degrees C.

Enjoy!

Weekend Brunch Buttermilk Pancakes

There are few better ways to greet the day on a weekend than a stack of thick, American-style pancakes slathered in maple syrup. We're a bit late for Mother's day now, but why not give these a try over Easter bank holiday? 

This recipe is based on Delia's - which can be found here - just veggie-fied (minus lard!). 

If you want to go REALLY American-style, accompany these with some grilled rashers of veggie bacon.

Makes 10 - 14 pancakes, depending how generously you dollop the mixture! 

What you need

150g plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

3 eggs 

120ml buttermilk

75ml cold water

oil for frying

maple syrup to serve

- TIP - proper maple syrup is pretty expensive, so if it's bit beyond your budget Lyle's do a maple flavoured golden syrup. Not quite the same, but tastes pretty good and MUCH cheaper.

What to do

Weigh out your flour into a mixing bowl, then add the salt and baking powder.

Measure out the 120ml buttermilk into a jug, then add the 75ml cold water and stir to combine.

Add the buttermilk/water mixture a little at a time into your dry ingredients, whisking after each addition (electric or by hand). 

Add the eggs one at a time, again whisking after each one. To save time, you can just slop all the wet ingredients into the dry without all the little-by-little stuff, it just means your mixture is less likely to be lumpy. 

Heat the oil in a non-stick pan over a high-ish heat. When it's hot enough, add a tablespoon-full of batter per pancake to the pan. 

Each side only needs a couple of minutes so keep a close eye on it. While you're cooking each batch, the rest will keep warm if you put them under the grill on its lowest setting.

Stack em up, drizzle a generous amount of maple syrup over, and enjoy!

South African Bobotie

I tried to describe to my boyfriend exactly what we were having for tea, and the best description I could come up with was shepherd's pie.... but with no potato, more spice, and an egg on it. So, not shepherd's pie at all really, but bear with me.

This is a veggie version of South Africa's national dish, based on my mum's recipe. It's one of those that's sweet and savoury at the same time (think along North African lines) and is traditionally served with Yellow Rice - dead easy, just add a cinnamon stick and a tsp of turmeric to the cooking water of some normal basmati rice, then add a handful of sultanas when cooked.

The tomato's just there because it was starting to turn a bit and needed eating rather than any culinary reason.

Serves 4! ... Or 2 greedy people with leftovers for packed lunch next day - careful if reheating rice though, doesn't do your belly any good if not properly hot.

What you need

250-300g veggie mince (quorn, TVP etc.)
1 chopped onion
1 tbsp mango chutney
2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3 whole cloves
a few gratings of nutmeg
1 tsp ginger
3 tbsp sultanas
2 bay leaves (and 3 for the top if you want)
30g whole blanched almonds
2 large eggs
2 tbsps whole milk (& some extra to soak the bread in)
1 slice white bread

What to do

Soak the bread in the extra milk. Might seem like a pretty weird thing to do but it helps the texture of the mince-y bit. Leave it soaking while you do the rest.

Fry the onion in a couple of tbsps olive oil on a gentle heat, until softened. Add the garam masala, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg and bay leaves and fry for another minute or so. Stir in the mango chutney, then add the mince, frying off until it's all cooked through. Add the sultanas, and salt and pepper to taste.

Toast the whole almonds (works well in a dry frying pan) until brown - make sure you watch them, they go from not done at all to burnt inconveniently quickly - then add them to the mince mixture.

Now pick up the milky bread and squeeze the liquid out of it - wet bread feels completely disgusting to touch, but it's easier than faffing around trying to squash it with a spatula or something - and beat it into the mince mixture. Pick out the bay leaves and try to fish out the cloves as well if you can find them. It doesn't really matter if not, as long as you don't mind finding a whole clove in your mouth!

Tip the mix into an oven dish. Now make the topping - beat the eggs with the remaining milk and pour over the top, laying the 3 bay leaves on top if you're that way inclined.

Bake at 180 degrees C until the top is set and golden - about 30 mins. It should look like this!

Dish up and enjoy! Hope you give it a try.