Xmas dinner for Unexpected Vegetarians

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It’s a few days before Christmas, there might be a shop open somewhere but you don’t care, you believe you’re all sorted.
What do you do IF you find out you’re having another guest for Christmas day and they’re vegetarian OR an existing guest announces a conversion to not eating meat and no, they can’t wait till New Year to kick off?

Not to worry!  You’ve probably got everything you need to make a very basic nut roast already in your cupboard.

You’ll need:

  • about 4 slices of bread (wholemeal for preference)
  • vegetable oil, olive oil or sunflower oil
  • an onion or a leek
  • marmite
  • some dried herbs and spices, whatever you have will do
  • some nuts (it’s Christmas, there are probably nuts in the house – not including the ones you live with)
  • A blender OR amazing amounts of patience

Here’s what you do:

  1. Heat the oven to Gas Mark 4 / 180°C / 350°F
  2. Oil a baking sheet, doesn’t need to be a huge one
  3. Turn the bread into breadcrumbs by throwing it into the blender a few slices at a time – this experience may be quite soothing, unlike breaking it into bits with your hands, which definitely isn’t – throw the resulting breadcrumbs into a big bowl
  4. Measure out 235g of nuts – really any nuts you can get your hands on are fine: chestnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, almonds, cashews – if they’re salted, omit half of the marmite from later on in the recipe and don’t add any more salt
  5. Pull ALL of the nuts in the blender and blend till they also resemble crumbs.  If you don’t have a blender, put your nuts inside a clean plastic bag inside another carrier bag, tie securely and either stamp up and down on or bash the heck out of with a rolling pin – then put nuts in the bowl with the bread
  6. Add about a tablespoon of mixed herbs, or whatever you have, and a shake of cinnamon or cayenne pepper or whatever else you have (remember, this is an emergency recipe)
  7. Add pepper and salt (so long as your nuts weren’t salted to begin with) and give it a stir to mix everything together
  8. Put 2 tablespoons of oil into a frying pan and fry your onion (chopped) – if you have any garlic, bung a clove of that in too, also if you have any celery that has no current purpose in life, chop up and throw a stick of that in too – fry till soft but not browned (hint: lower the heat after about a minute)
  9. Add onion mixture to bread and nut mixture
  10. Dissolve 2 tablespoons of marmite (only 1 if your nuts were salted) in a quarter of a pint of boiling water and throw that into the bowl as well
  11. Mix all ingredients with a spoon – by now it should smell quite nice 🙂
  12. With CLEAN hands, form into a long loaf shape and place on your baking tray – decorate a few spare nuts if you can be bothered
  13. Bake.  The roast will take anything from 30 – 45 minutes, depending on your oven – try 30 to start and keep checking on it
  14. You can make the roast a day in advance and then warm it up on Christmas Day

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 The rest of the Christmas meal is fairly easy to adapt.  Potatoes should be roasted in olive oil.  They won’t want any stuffing that’s meat based – stuffing you can buy as powder in shops is usually veggie-friendly, though so have a quick look at the label.  Obviously avoid serving them the pigs in blankets!!!

Gravy is fairly straightforward: Fry a tablespoon of flour in oil then add some veggie stock (use green OXO cube or marmite again) – bay leaf, mustard powder and some more herbs make it taste nice, soy sauce or balsamic vinegar will help it be nearer the right colour but keep tasting to make sure you’re not making it too salty.

Oh, and if you’re a meat eater, try some of the nut roast yourself (this recipe makes plenty) either with Christmas Dinner or cold the next day.  For an emergency recipe, it’s actually OK 🙂

Sweet Potato Curry

The area of London where I used to live and the area of London where I live now have something in common – good South Indian restaurants.  Hence I know the delights of dosas, sambhar and coconut chutney and would take them over poppadoms and something eye-watering with rice any day.  Last time I went to my favourite South Indian Restaurant I was informed that their dosas contravened my no-dairy rule, which made me go ‘meh!’.  Then I thought “I bet I can make my own and make it dairy-free!”.  And I nearly did.  By the time I’d got the hang of how to fry the dosas there was only enough mixture to give everyone a tiny one by the side of their plate.  Fortunately the curry got the seal of approval from everyone who tried it, including the lovely neighbours, who have provided me with the photo below.

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The dosa and sambhar are from a packet I bought at Morrisons although you can buy them online here
The dosa is based on rice and lentil flours but there’s a disclaimer on the pack that says it’s packed in a plant that processes wheat flour also so I don’t know if that counts as safely GF
The curry’s fine though – the amount below makes 3 portions

  • 350g sweet potato (one large one)
  • 125g carrots (I think about 3 medium-sized)
  • 1 red onion
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • Teaspoon sunflower oil (or other neutral oil)
  • 125g red kidney beans, cooked or canned and drained
  • 80g french beans (or dwarf or runner beans)
  • 100ml coconut milk
  • Teaspoon curry powder
  • Teaspoon stock powder
  • 2 medium tomatoes
  • Squirt of agave nectar
  1. Boil the sweet potato and the carrots till almost soft, steam the french beans over the same saucepan if you’re lazy (I am, BTW)
  2. Fry the onion and garlic in the oil in a wok or substantial frying pan
  3. Transfer potato and carrots to the same pan
  4. Add curry powder, tomatoes and (both lots of) beans and stir in
  5. Pour on enough hot stock to cover and simmer
  6. Add coconut milk and agave nectar
  7. Keep simmering till liquid reduces and potatoes and carrots go a bit mushy

In the interests of learning to make things that tend towards the healthy, I’ll be marking some of these recipes with Weight Watchers Pro Points values.  I know a number of my friends are doing Weight Watchers and I’d like to put recipes on here they can try so you’ll see at the bottom of some recipes the letters WWPP and a number.   People who are unconcerned with or even anti the whole Weight Watching thing are welcome to ignore the letters and the number.

WWPP: 6

Vegetable Burgers

IMG_0154 Trish's veggie burgers

I wanted to make something like the vegetable grills, burgers and fingers you can buy frozen in supermarkets but without the coating, which is my least favourite bit.   This recipe makes about 6-8 burgers depending on how big you make them.  Warning! They do fall apart quite easily – and that’s because there’s no chemical weird stuff holding them together, just love.

  • Couple of small potatoes or 1 big one
  • Vegan butter equivalent (or whatever you usually mash your potatoes with will do)
  • 1 carrot
  • Green beans (I mean small ones like these)
  • Handful of mushrooms
  • 1 onion
  • Almond flakes or other nuts of choice, chopped
  • Very small amount of marmite (optional)
  • Oil for coating / frying
  1. Boil potatoes ready for mashing
  2. Meanwhile chop green beans into small bits, cook and set aside
  3. Grate carrot
  4. Fry onion and mushroom in a little oil
  5. Mix all ingredients together in pan with wooden spoon till well and truly smushed up together then leave to cool
  6. When cool, wash your hands and shape mixture into burger (or sausage) shapes
  7. Brush with oil and grill or fry

Dill pancakes with broccoli, mushroom and kidney bean filling

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At The Tea House, we are currently of the opinion that the above dish could do with being renamed; not due to any current inaccuracy but because it takes a long time to say and we’re lazy.  Besides, when you’re hungry and asking the waiting staff what today’s specials are, you don’t want to listen to your own stomach grumble through endless descriptions of “a subtle yet racy tarte aux oignons with a hint of chillies, slathered in a gentle cornichon sauce”; you want to hear “Pie, Lasagne or jacket potato?” to which you say “Jacket potato with what?” … “Beans or cheese” …. “I’ll have the beans”.  Job done.

Anyone who makes this recipe has my permission to call it ‘Pancakes with savoury filling’ (I chose not to just in case I make something similar, but not identical, on another occasion).  You also have my permission to pretend to your friends that you invented it – I shall take it as a compliment.

The dill works really well in the pancake batter and the kidney beans give a semi-sweet kick against the backdrop of meaty mushrooms and sharp Tenderstem broccoli.  Alternatively, “mmmmmmmm”.

Pancake batter

Vegan

  • 3 heaped tablespoons plain flour
  • 1 teaspoon soya flour
  • 2/3 pint of soya milk
  • salt
  • Finely chopped fresh dill

Veggie

  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 pint of milk
  • 4oz / 115g plain flour
  • salt
  • Finely chopped fresh dill

You’ll also need some butter or oil for frying the pancakes

Filling

  • Tenderstem broccoli (about half a pack)
  • Mushrooms (one large or a handful of regular mushrooms per person)
  • Garlic (lots, obviously)
  • Red kidney beans (about one tablespoon per person)
  • Oil for frying
  • Handful of plain flour
  • Vegetable stock
  • Balsamic vinegar
  • Agave nectar (optional)
  • Coconut milk or cream (dairy or plant-based equivalent)
  1. Start by making the pancake batter.  Blend all ingredients in a blender and leave it to one side while you get on with making the filling.
  2. Steam the broccoli for 5 minutes and put to one side.
  3. Fry the mushrooms then add garlic when they get to the point where they’re leaking mushroom juice.  Fry a bit longer to start the garlic cooking.
  4. Throw on some flour and stir it in, keeping the  pan on the heat.
  5. When you can no longer visually identify the flour, add enough stock to almost cover the mushrooms and let it simmer.
  6. Add some balsamic vinegar to taste
  7. Add kidney beans and cooked broccoli
  8. Add agave nectar to help bring out the sweetness of the kidney beans – if you don’ like your savouries too sweet then you can happily skip this step
  9. Add coconut milk or cream, how much depends on desired consistency
  10. Leave pan on a very low heat while you start cooking the pancakes
  11. Heat oil or butter in a frying pan – hot butter will sizzle and hot oil will smoke a bit.
  12. Pour some of your pancake mixture into the centre of the frying pan and move the pan to swirl the mixture around.  Your pancake will begin to solidify quite quickly so start shaking the pan when that happens in order to loosen it so you can toss it over and cook the other side.  If it’s particularly recalcitrant, try levering up the edges of the pancake with a suitable cooking implement.
  13. Now you’re ready to toss IF you are one of these supremely confident people who doesn’t drop four out of five pancakes they try this with.  An alternative is to get a wide spatula and work it under the pancake so you can flip it over without risk to your ceiling, floor or patience. You may want to flip a few times to get it cooked to your requirements.
  14. Place pancake on a plate and spoon some of the filling into the middle then fold the pancake over it.
  15. Serve and enjoy!

Stuffed Peppers

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I can claim very little of this as my own recipe.  The basic stuffed peppers concept and how to cook them properly was told to me by a passing shopper in a supermarket in the South of France, the vegan cheese topping recipe is from the internet (recreated here by me because I can’t find the original), the puy lentils were pre-cooked and packaged by Merchant Gourmet (what, me, lazy?) and the rice is Sainsbury’s Boil-in-the-Bag.  I totally invented the salad, just so you know – for the record nobody thought of pairing lettuce and tomato until I showed up.

  • 3-4 peppers – whatever colour you like
  • 1 bag of boil-in-the-bag rice – ditto (for people who can actually cook rice, this is equivalent to about 125g)
  • About a quarter of a packet of ready-to-eat puy lentils
  • As much garlic as you can stand, crushed
  • Half a teaspoon to a teaspoon of olive oil
  • Pinch of dried, mixed herbs or teaspoon of fresh herbs of choice
  • Pinch of salt or stock powder

Vegan “cheese” topping

  • Half a cup of soya milk
  • Half a cup of olive oil
  • Juice of half a lemon
  • 1-2 tablespoons of tomato ketchup
  • 2 tablespoons potato flakes (Supermarket’s own cheapo version of ‘Smash’, on no account attempt to make mashed potato with it); if your supermarket doesn’t have these, you can get just as good results by using potato flour
  • 1 teaspoon veggie stock powder (I use this one)
  • 1/2 teaspoon marmite
  1. Chop peppers in half lengthways, remove the seeds and the green stalk
  2. Boil for 5 minutes to soften then place to one side
  3. Cook rice according to instructions
  4. Mix rice, puy lentils and garlic together, add herbs and a very small amount of olive oil
  5. Place each half of pepper on a sheet of baking foil that will be enough to wrap completely around it when it is stuffed
  6. Put about a tablespoon and a half of rice and lentil mixture into each half of pepper and wrap them up
  7. Place your foil parcels on a baking tray in an oven set to 200°C/Gas Mark 6 and leave them to bake while you make the ‘cheese’ topping – check them after about 20 minutes though
  8. Pour the soya milk into a small pan with about 1/4 of a teaspoon of the stock powder and heat gently
  9. Pour the olive oil into a suitable receptacle for mixing with a hand-held blender (don’t use a proper blender unless you really love dismantling it and washing it up) – add the lemon juice
  10. When the soya milk is threatening to bubble, pour it into the container with the oil and blend together – it will look like mayonnaise
  11. Add all the other ingredients and blend thoroughly – it should look like cheese dip
  12. When the peppers are ready (usually about 20 mins or just under) take them out and unwrap them.  Spread your ‘cheese’ mixture on top of each one and return to the oven until the topping is bubbling and just starting to brown.  Actual cheese from a cow can be used as a substitute if you’re someone who eats dairy – pick something that enjoys melting.

On this occasion, the salad was made up of romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, spring onions (green onions) and toasted almond flakes.

Please do gather to applaud the excellent photographic skills of my lovely neighbour, who sent me a selection of photos to choose from – all of them awesome.

Smokey Stew

I know, Smokey Stew sounds like an expendable extra from a western (“dangnammit! you done shot Smokey Stu”) but this dish is well nice, much thanks to smoked paprika, which I haven’t researched yet to see if it’s bad for you because I’m not done liking it :)I made it to use up leftover veg so please feel free to follow suit and substitute whatever’s in danger of expiring instead of the veg I used.

I served it with roast sweet potato and kasha.

  • One onion
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • Few handfuls mushrooms
  • 1 carton organic tomatoes (yeah, I try to use all fresh veg but the tomatoes I currently have are all tiny, cherry ones and they’re too cute to pulverise plus they’ll look awesome in salad)
  • Cauliflower
  • Broccoli
  • Carrots
  • 1 carton red kidney beans
  • Stock
  • Agave nectar
  • Coconut milk
  • Smoked paprika
  • Braggs Aminos
  • Balsamic vinegar
  1. Steam or boil any veg apart from the onion, garlic and mushrooms (use your noodle: if you think the veg will do better fried then fry it)
  2. Meanwhile fry chopped onion, garlic and mushrooms in a little oil till soft
  3. Add smoked paprika and tomatoes and let it bubble gently till other veg is ready
  4. Add rest of cooked veg and stock and simmer
  5. All the other ingredients are for flavouring so add them in whatever quantities you like, keeping tasting until you’re happy with it – or add your own favourite things

Cauliflower, mushroom and chickpea curry

I was aiming for something like a korma here but without too much sugar and fat.  Serve with rice for bonus amino acid points 🙂

Ingredients

  • 1 onion
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 1 small cauliflower
  • some mushrooms (I used 2 of those giant mushrooms chopped into bits)
  • 1 can or packet of ready-to-eat chickpeas
  • Oil for frying
  • Curry powder mix (I used mild curry powder and added extra cumin)
  • Vegetable stock
  • Coconut milk
  • Agave nectar
  • Salt to taste
  1. Fry onion and garlic until the onion is kinda see-through
  2. Add cauliflower and mushrooms and fry some more
  3. Add spices (curry powder mix)
  4. Add chickpeas and give it a good stir
  5. Add vegetable stock, enough to almost cover, and boil for about 8 minutes (primarily to get the cauliflower softer)
  6. Add agave nectar then turn the heat down to a simmer
  7. Add coconut milk, not loads, just enough to get it tasting creamy
  8. Taste, then add salt and whatever else you like to get it tasting how you want

Lentil and tomato curry (because we can’t spell Dhaal …see?)

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Back in my early 20’s I was a thrifty cook, mainly out of necessity and brokeness.  Thus there were some things I made often because they were economical and nourishing.  Some of them even tasted ok, although they wouldn’t have won any beauty competitions.  One such thing is the following lentil curry, which may look like someone has chucked into the pan but which caused my human guinea pig to wonder this evening just why we give so much money to the Indian takeaway place.  I even fried poppadoms to go with it (you need a LOAD of oil in the frying pan and it gets scary but it’s cheap so your fear is saving you money!).

You’ll need:

  • Some red lentils
  • Some tomatoes (either a tin of or some large, fresh tomatoes, which is what I prefer to use now that I earn money)
  • An onion
  • Some garlic
  • Curry powder (although am still using spice mix given to me by the lovely Danielle in 2008)
  • Soya margarine (yes, I know it’s actually called ‘spread’ but nobody calls it that, do they?)
  • Oil for frying
  • Stock powder and/or salt
  1. Wash the lentils and boil for 10 minutes, simmer for another 20-30 just till they’re soft and squidgy
  2. Meanwhile fry onion, garlic and tomatoes and simmer till mushy
  3. Add curry powder/spices to onion, garlic and tomato thing, also add stock powder or salt if wanted
  4. When lentils are done, drain and add to the onion, garlic and tomato thing
  5. Stir together with a knob of soya margarine

People who are allowed to eat dairy may want to use butter instead.  Go on then, just to spite me.  Serve with poppadoms or bread or rice or any combination of those and you too, my friend, may question your allegiance to your local curry house.