Marinated aubergine and Monday night feasts

Last Monday I made a vegan, gluten free feast for my friends Amelie and Ruth, after deciding Monday nights should be more like Friday nights and include wine and lots of food.

As ever my portion control was out of control and I made far too much, but it meant I could also do lunchboxes for everyone for the next day. Over night the marinated aubergine got even better, while using a salad with shredded cabbage meant it didn't go soggy with all the oil and dressing mixed in. Monday night feasts make everything okay!

For the marinated aubergine I adapted a recipe from Turntable Kitchen. With this I added spicy potato cubes, roasted butternut and acorn squash with rosemary, shredded cabbage and spinach salad, chipotle refried beans (recipe to follow this week!) and sauteed green lentils with leeks. While all these dishes may sound a little summery, they're all made from seasonal vegetables so make a nice break from stews, pies and soups!

Makes enough for six as a side dish

Ingredients
2 medium aubergines, sliced 5mm thick
Handful chopped parsley
Juice 1/2 lemon
Oil to roast
2 tbsp capers
Seasoning

Preheat the oven to around 200 degrees celsius. Take a large roasting dish, cover the sides with oil and seasoning, and place in the sliced aubergine. Drizzle with a little more oil and then cover with foil and roast for around 20 minutes. In this time mix together the lemon juice, a little more oil, salt, pepper and capers. Once the aubergine is soft and cooked through, pour into a mixing bowl along with all the roasting oil, and stir in the dressing, finishing with the chopped parsley. Leave to cool until the rest of the meal is ready, then serve with a little more parsley if you fancy it.

Start as you mean to go on - with vegan Sloppy Joes and winter coleslaw

I don't have a clue why anyone would decide to start anything on the first day of the year. The way I see it, the first week of January is a kind of glorious no man's land, the tree is still up for a few more days, there's odd bits of wine left over in the fridge and no pressing need to step outside. After a few too many late nights I wasn't quite ready to start on anything remotely righteous or from Whole Foods, so we decided to have one last winter feast. These easy recipes for a vegan diner meal meant we could use up some odds and ends left-over in the fridge from some over-ambitious Christmas dinners, whilst keeping it vegan and hearty and not at all "January".

There's a fair few different dishes here to serve up and let your friends dig in and help themselves with- (I preferred to change my Sloppy Joe into a sort of pseudo-chili dog) so you can add whatever you have as long as it fits in the burger I guess!

Serves 4 generously.

Ingredients

For the chili
Morrisons own-brand soy mince (this is vegan although many others aren't so I would check if using a different brand)
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 clove crushed garlic
1 chopped onion
Pinch of dried rosemary
Pinch of dried thyme
Salt and pepper

For the winter coleslaw
Half a savoy cabbage, shredded to make long strands
1 small carrot, grated (I used a purple carrot which made a great bright colour for the coleslaw, but just use whatever you have to hand)
Handful of chopped parsley
50ml olive oil
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp chili dipping sauce (vegan from Sainsbury's)
Salt and pepper

For the burgers, chili dogs and Sloppy Joes
Bread buns
Linda McCartney sausages
Gherkins
3 onions, chopped into rings
Oil or vegan margarine

To make the chili, heat a little oil in a large pan and sweat the onion for a few minutes, before adding the garlic. Then add the mince and stir through the oil, before adding in the tomatoes. Add the dried herbs and seasoning, then allow to reduce and thicken for about five minutes.

To make the perfect onions for the top of your Sloppy Joes, just cut into rings and with a little oil, heat on a really low temperature for about fifteen to twenty minutes, keeping the onions moving all the time so they stay soft and hardly even brown.

Finally, shred the cabbage and grate in the carrot and add the parsley. In a jar or glass mix together the oil with the soy sauce and chili dipping sauce, along with salt and pepper to taste. Pour over the coleslaw and mix with your hands to make sure it's thorough.

And there you have it. Detox schmetox!