Bubble, squeak and spice

Yesterday, determined to beat the rain, I cycled down to the e5 Bakehouse to get a loaf of Hackney Wild. Naturally vegan, this pain de campagne loaf is perfect with anything fried or soupy because it holds together so well, the crust is thin but firm and it will last a good few days under wraps. Teamed together with spicy bubble and squeak, another recipe that's vegan-by-default, and you've got a match made in carb heaven.

Like most recipes that use up leftovers, bubble and squeak isn't meant to look pretty, but the flavour, especially after adding chili oil and paprika, more than makes up for anything lacking looks-wise. It's also the ideal culinary-mop for a hangover, teaming a bit of grease with carbs and something spicy.

Makes a good amount for two, or enough with other dishes for 3-4.
Ingredients
5-6 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped in quarters
Salt, pepper
50-100ml of chili oil (depending on your own taste)
1 chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, chopped
Around 200g cabbage leaves, cut into strips with any thick stalk removed

Toasted bread to serve. A simple tomato and basil salad (as pictured) also works really well with the flavours here.

Put the chopped potatoes in a large pan of boiling water with some salt and allow to cook through with a lid on top.

Heat some of the chili oil in a medium frying pan. (You'll be cooking the whole thing in this so it needs to have a large enough bottom to cook evenly, but- not a wok or anything too big that won't be able to keep together when you turn it over.) Sweat the onions and garlic in the pan until they begin to go translucent and season to get the salt and pepper flavouring the dish. After around 3 minutes of frying, add the cabbage and spread it out over the pan and let it cook. Sprinkle over a little paprika and a bit more oil if needed.

Once the potato is cooked, mash and add some oil and paprika also, and mix through. Add some seasoning to taste, keeping in mind the seasoning you've already added to the cabbage and onion. Then begin to spoon into the frying pan, packing it in as you go, so that it is eventually smooth on top and firm.

Allow to sizzle away for about five minutes- then turn off the heat and place a plate over the frying pan. Flip the whole thing over so the plate is now on the bottom, and gently nudge the bubble and squeak out of the frying pan (this takes some guts but just go for it, it doesn't need to look perfect). Hopefully the cabbage and onion have meant everything has stuck together, so slide it back into the pan on the un-fried side and cook for another five minutes.

Serve straight from the pan, on top of toast or fresh salad to counter the oil and potatoes, or just solo with plenty of brown sauce.

Homemade rosemary plait bread with vegan potato and leek soup

When I was 14, I circulated a petition around an entire school assembly. It wasn't for a change in uniform or longer break times or whatever- it was because I wanted soup for lunch. In the days before Jamie Oliver's coup of the nation's canteens, when Turkey Twizzlers roamed free and the vegetarian option was a spoonful of cheese, I worked out the mark-up on soup would be through the roof for someone that did it properly, and went to see the head chef of school dinners to ask why he didn't. He told me he needed 30 signatures from me, "real names" of people that would actually eat soup for lunch, and then they would think about it. I delivered 207 to him the next day, and soup made its much-awaited debut on the school dinner rota the next week. Unsurprisingly, it was gross: industrial-sized packet soup thinned down with boiling water served in polystyrene cups. In retrospect, I should have just made and sold my own.

Good soup is easy to get right, and here's a recipe I would have used to feed the masses at lunchtime- the bread is fragrant and just the right amount of stodginess to mop up the naturally creamy potato and leek soup.

Makes enough for six

Ingredients
For the soup
1 onion, chopped
6-7 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
3-4 leeks, washed and chopped
500ml vegetable stock
Salt and pepper
Few glugs of olive oil

For the bread
Sainsbury's Crusty White Bread Mix
Few sprigs rosemary
Olive Oil
Warm water

The bread will need to prove so start by following the instructions on the packet for the bread, adding in the rosemary as you knead it.*

While the bread is being left to rise, begin the soup by sweating the chopped onion in a large pan with some olive oil for about three minutes. I always add the leeks first as I like them to fry a little in the olive oil to start to bring out their flavour. Now add the potatoes and stir through with the oil, onion and leeks, before adding 500ml of vegetable stock. Allow to simmer.

At this point it will probably be time to knock back the bread and knead it again. I chose to do a plait as my bread tin is currently being used to store a vegan haggis (!?) but I think the crusty mix would also work well as individual rolls.

Following the instructions, allow the bread to prove once more and turn the oven on to preheat at the required temperature. Once the bread is ready and in the oven, blitz the soup with a hand blender and season to taste. I love eating the bread almost scolding hot, with lots of pepper to contrast the leek flavour. Lunch for under £3 for 6 portions, and no petitions in sight.

*I feel a major pang of shame writing the words 'follow the instructions'... I am working on some of my own bread recipes from scratch, I promise, just not on chilly, hungover Sunday mornings.