Summer nights: In a jiffy roasted vegetable wraps

I love what weeknights become in the summer: corners of the weekend that fall into Mondays and Wednesdays that are way too cold to do anything with in winter. Summer is tinnies in the park, night buses home way too late, and good food before grabbing every bit of sunlight you can. 2013 has finally turned me into a serious serotonin chaser. I didn't think it could happen either.

This dinner is perfect for pre-going out, making a bit of a fuss of a friend before heading off, and it would also make a very easy Sunday lunch. Just call me Lionel. You could also easily adapt this for a vegan barbeque by skewering the vegetables into kebabs and grilling instead of roasting.

Refried chipotle beans form the glue for these wraps, the recipe for which can be found here. I added tomatoes and salad to mine, with a squeeze of lemon. They also last really well in lunchboxes- (If you want to be extra kind to your hangover the next day, wrap up yours while you serve your dinner so the hard work is done for the next morning!)

Makes enough to serve 2 generously, multiply up for more
Ingredients
2 peppers
4 small onions
1 courgette
Handful of mushrooms
Olive oil
Seasoning

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Chop the vegetables into chunks- I like to leave the onions whole as they retain their juices and then break them up once roasted.

Place all the vegetables in a large oven-proof dish and drizzle with a good amount of olive oil and seasoning. I don't think you need to add too many herbs or other flavours here because of the refried beans and lemon juice, but maybe some thyme, rosemary, or oregano could work well.

Cook for 30 minutes, in this time you can prepare the refried chipotle beans and salad.

Springtime roast with braised celery and paprika butternut squash mash

Sunday, Sunday here again! A few notes from a spring-time roast last week.

Celery is one of my all-time favourite flavours, and yet it sometimes feels a little side-lined, just one stick needed for each recipe, a few sticks garnishing a jug of bloody mary, left in the sieve from gravy, reduced down beyond any recognition in rich sauces. And all of those components are better with celery, but on it's own, it's strikingly salty flavour and texture can also be delicious. I lightly roasted a few sticks along with some carrots and onions last Sunday, so it came out juicy and almost the same taste as celeriac, (the bulb of the plant of which celery makes up the stalk), but without the aniseed flavour, which I can sometimes find overwhelming. One thing to bear in mind when seasoning the celery is that it does seem to absorb any salt it goes anywhere near.

With the braised celery I made a paprika butternut squash mash, adding some chili flakes and chili oil. The squash seemed to release a lot of liquid so I let it reduce on a low heat for about 20 minutes. You could also add a potato to the mash to absorb some of the excess liquid. This paired up well with some flash-cooked greens and leeks, barely boiled and left with a clean, light flavour to counter everything else going on. 

Roast potatoes, vegan haggis uncovered from the depths of the freezer and rosemary onion gravy completed a pretty huge Sunday roast line-up.

What we talk about when we talk about cauliflower

As the UK approaches the ‘hungry gap’ in the year’s produce, I’m still way over excited about something you can grow and eat almost year-round, and that’s cauliflower.

So forget what you thought you knew: maligned to the sloppy cheesy roux sauce dishes of the world, cauliflower is actually one of the easiest and cheapest vegetables I’ve found that transform into a different beast entirely with just a little curry powder and oil.

Although I guess many think of the cauliflower as a traditionally British staple, most accounts cite it as originating from the Arab world. It’s high in vitamin C and B6, and maintains its nutrients better if you don’t boil it. For once cheese can take a back seat, because cauliflower truly shines when it is roasted, teamed with spices, oil and lemon juice.

Serves enough for 2, or maybe 3, but it’s really moreish. I’m saying 2.

Ingredients

1 cauliflower, curds (the florets) cut into large bitesize pieces

Sunflower or vegetable oil for roasting

1 tsp curry powder

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp turmeric

Juice of one lemon

Salt, pepper

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Lightly coat a roasting dish with oil, then place in the chopped cauliflower. Sprinkle over the spices and seasoning, and mix well so it is lightly covered. You don’t want to lose the clean taste of the cauliflower beneath the curry spices.

Roast for around 30-40 minutes until the cauliflower pieces are soft and a little sticky at the edges. Squeeze over the lemon juice and serve hot. This tastes great added to a larger biryani dish or just with dahl and rice. Hell, it even tastes great with air. 

Supper fit for a tree

One of my ultimate favourite new-traditions-in-the-making is our yearly journey to get the Christmas tree. Last year we got a 5ft tree, this year they only had 6 ft trees left so it's now taking up half the flat. I really hope we can afford a 7ft tree next year. 

As you can probably tell by how cold I look in the photo above, it was freezing work. It became pretty clear on the trek home that a big dinner was in order, not a Christmas dinner per se, but something with the same zest for FEST.

I chopped up a few of the leftover roasted chestnuts from the other day, and added these to Sainsbury's sage and onion stuffing- which is clearly labelled as vegan making things much easier in the supermarket aisle! 

If you're looking for something a little different from roast potatoes, hasselback potatoes are fun to make and give a nice crunchy texture when you've got lots of vegetables in the mix. Get these in the oven before anything else as they take a deceptively long time- around 50 minutes to an hour. 

While trying out various ways of making the tree stand up (no dental floss this year, thankfully) I also chopped and roasted some apples, parsnip, carrots and onions, along with a few Linda McCartney sausages. Once these, along with the stuffing, where all set in the oven, I started on the gravy: chopped mushroom and onion, along with chopped cabbage. Finally I cooked through haricot beans with rosemary, crushed garlic, seasoning and olive oil, mashing lightly once bubbling and allowing the beans to thicken a little as they cooked. Cobbled together and all the tastier for it!

Nut roast alternatives: Vegan haggis

Mark: Mmmm. Why toast when you can roast?

Jeremy: Another roast? That's the third today.
Mark: What's nicer than a roast?
Jeremy: Yeah, but, chain-eating roasts?

I'm not quite at chain-eating status yet, but with sooooo much amazing autumnal produce from Growing Communities, there seems to be enough food for at least three ginormous roast dinners every week. I'm not complaining, after all what's nicer than a roast? 

At the start of Autumn my friend Jenny suggested I tracked down some vegan haggis to try with a roast dinner. I haven't come across any in a shop yet, so instead, I've been working on my own recipe. Despite not having any of the traditional meat products in it, this haggis recipe is perfect when a nut roast just won't quite cut it, and I can confirm it also tastes amazing alongside tatties and neeps.

It's essential to watch The Life Aquatic while cooking Sunday lunch.

n.b. the ingredients list does look almost Ottolenghi in length, but most of these things will be hiding in your kitchen supplies- feel free to change the nuts or beans to ones you have in- the Vegetarian Society recipe I based this on asked for hazel nuts instead.

Makes enough for four

Ingredients

1 onion, chopped 

Few glugs of sunflower or vegetable oil 

4 carrots, very finely chopped

Handful of mushrooms, finely chopped 

50g red lentils

600ml vegetable stock 

25g mashed, tinned red or white kidney beans 

35g ground peanuts 

35g ground cashew nuts

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp lemon juice 

2 tsp dried thyme

2 tsp dried rosemary 

1 tsp dried curry mix

200g fine oatmeal 

Salt and pepper

Decide how you are going to cook and serve the haggis- I greased with oil four pie tins, a bread tin, and also some muffin tins, I'd say the pie tins were the perfect size portion. 

Preheat the oven to 190C. In a large pan sweat the onion in the oil for 5 minutes, then add the carrot and mushrooms and cook for a further 5 minutes. Add the lentils and about three quarters of the stock.

With the remaining stock, blend in the kidney beans and add this to the pan, along with the nuts, soy sauce, lemon juice and seasoning. Mix well and cook for another 10 to 15 minutes.

Now add the oatmeal and reduce the heat to a simmer, cooking for 15 to 20 minutes. Keep an eye on the mixture as the oats tend to stick to the bottom of the pan, so add more stock or water if needed. 

Garlic roasted beetroot to go along with the haggis

Spoon the mixture into your chosen tins and bake in the centre of the oven for around 20 to 25 minutes, until the tops go crispy.

The haggis freezes really well and just takes half a day to defrost in the fridge, so if you make extra you can store away for another roast- a perfect excuse!

EDIT

Roast dinner: this time it's vegan

It's been October for all of one week... so naturally I've already eaten a month's worth of Sunday dinners AKA ROASTS THAT RULE THE WORLD. Because it turns out roasts aren't actually *that* hard to veganise... apart from the whole roasted meaty bit. The rest is a breeze.

Just like fry ups, everyone has their favourite components for roasts- but here's a few vegan ideas and alternatives I've been working on (eating a lot of)...

Making a nut roast from scratch (that's coming later) or cooking Morrisons Butternut Squash Nut Roast - (seen above) Morrisons don't provide a list of vegan-suitable products, but as far as I can tell and have researched, these are vegan friendly.

Roast potatoes with olive oil, roasted carrots, parsnips, apples, shallots, cauliflower, curry-roasted squash (again, coming later...) onions, garlic and not forgetting cubed and roasted celeriac.

Mashed potatoes- just use olive oil whilst cooking, and then once the heat is off I add plenty of Vitalite (or another dairy-free spread) to add a little butter-flavouring. This is great with plenty of seasoning and chopped chives.

Kale, spinach, chard, green beans, peas, courgettes, cavolo nero. You know, ALL THE GREATS.

Stuffing- even with a nut roast, there is something about stuffing I can't get enough of! And what's even better is that from a look through Sainsbury's vegan-friendly product list, there are plenty to chose from.

And last but not least.... mushroom and onion gravy.
Running out of gravy is something that just does not happen for me. I've been known to disguise it as soup for lunch the next day, as is my level of devotion to that glorious gloop.

To make a really simple, hearty gravy, (as seen above) chop a white or red onion, sweat in a little oil, then add a handful of chopped mushrooms per person you are cooking for. Once these have reduced, pour in boiling water to just cover the mushrooms. Crumble in a vegetable stock cube and allow to reduce for about fifteen minutes, stirring occasionally. If you're lucky enough to have come across Geo Watkins Mushroom Ketchup then add about 2 tablespoons to the gravy now, or if not and you like a tang to your gravy, add a few good glugs of vinegar (although I feel this might be a love or hate thing...). Allow to reduce until your roast dinner is ready, making sure there's more than double enough to go round- this stuff won't hang about for long!

What are your favourite vegan roast staples?

Smashed sweet potato with basil and truffle oil

Anyone else in the UK still making curries, stews and pies despite it being July? Not a good look. 

Determined to add a bit of sunshine to SOMETHING, I've been making a few vegan dinners that look like summer, taste like winter. This smashed sweet potato is perfect to add with a vegan roast or pie, and will happily chill in the fridge for another day. 

The truffle flavouring actually comes from extra virgin olive oil flavoured with white truffle (so just extract). This means you can use a generous amount and not get an overpowering taste. Instead, this dish is just rich and full of vitamin C,vitamin B6, and a lot more health-giving than a common potato. 

Perfect with pie!

Ingredients

(Enough for two people)

2 large sweet potatoes, chopped into chunky cubes

1 tablespoon olive oil flavoured with white truffle

Loose handful of basil, chopped as fine as you want

If you're making a pie with this, get the pie in the oven first, and this can be done in the baking time.

Boil the sweet potatoes in salt water for about 15-20 minutes. Once they're over-done and squash with a little pressure from a fork, drain the water away and add the chopped basil and olive oil. Then put the lid on the saucepan and shake the pan for a few seconds. Shake until you have them smashed as much as you like. Your pie should be ready by now, so plate up!