Broccoli and Vegan Cheese Soup

Serves: 2

Ready in: 15 minutes

The first time I ever had Stilton was in broccoli and stilton soup when I started working in a hotel restaurant as a teenager. I thought it was the height of sophistication. I loved it then and I still crave it sometimes now, though I'm not certain it's the cheese I miss, rather than the nostalgia of having finally branched out from exclusively ordering pizza and chips when eating out. Anyway, this has the broccoli and the creaminess that I remember and the truffle oil replaces the stilton for the depth of flavour that it would otherwise be missing.

Ingredients

• 1 medium head of broccoli
• 1 cup vegetable broth
• 1/2 cup (overnight) soaked cashews
• 1/2 cup water,
• 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 2 tsp tahini paste
• 1 tsp white miso
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 lemon
• Truffle oil

Method

1. Chop the broccoli and boil for 5-7 minutes.
2. In a blender, add the cashews, water, nutritional yeast, tahini, miso, garlic and onion powder and lemon juice and blend until completely smooth (around 3 minutes). Remove a couple of tbsp of sauce for garnish.
3. Add the cooked broccoli and vegetable broth to the blender blend to the desired consistency. I like mine fairly chunky so just blended for about another minute or so.
4. After pouting into a bowl, I mixed in a little drizzle of truffle oil as well another drizzle just on top with the leftover cheez sauce, crispy onions and sesame seeds.

Jackfruit Curry

Serves: 2

Ready in: 25 minutes

Usually I'd have eaten this jackfruit curry with rice but I had onion bahjis and I was feeling rebellious. Then I garnished with mango chutney, pomegranate seeds and spring onion and now I think this might be how i eat all of my curries for the rest of my life.

Ingredients

• 1 tin shredded jackfruit (in brine or water, not syrup)
• 1 chopped shallot
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 cup vegetable stock
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp garam marsala
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp cumin

Method

1. Saute the shallot for about 5 minutes, stirring through the garlic, curry powder, garam marsala, mustard seeds, ginger and cumin half way through to temper.
2. Stir in the stock, tomato puree and jackfuit and simmer until the liquid has reduced (about 15 minutes)

Walnut Pesto

Serves: 2

Ready in: 10 minutes

I’ve been dying to taste walnut pesto since ordering it in a restaurant and receiving something else, so I decided to just make it myself. I ate it with linguine, rocket, pickled walnuts and candied walnuts. You might think that this was probably more walnuts than necessary, but you'd be mistaken. It was the perfect amount of walnuts.

Ingredients

• 1 cup walnuts
• 1 & 1/2 cups fresh basil
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 lemon
• 3 tbsp water
• 4 tbsp olive oil

Method

1. Put the walnuts in one layer on a baking tray and toast in the oven for 5-7 minutes. Be sure to check frequently as they can burn really quickly.
2. Add toasted walnuts along with all other ingredients to the blender and blend to desired consistency. I did mine for about 1 minute

Harissa Spiced Butternut Squash Soup with Tahini Drizzle

Serves: 2

Ready in: 40 minutes

I feel like I find a way to sneak butternut squash into every soup I make so I've made it the star of the show and chucked a cheeky carrot in for good measure. Actually, sneaking extra veg in everything I cook is kind of my thing. The trick is adding veg that are the same colour as what you're already using so they're less conspicuous. Yes, I am genius.

Ingredients 

Soup

• 2 cups diced butternut squash
• 1 diced carrot
• 1/2 white onion
• 2 cups vegetable stock
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tsp harissa paste
• 1 handful of chopped parsley

Drizzle

• 2 tbsp tahini paste
• 2 tbsp water
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• Juice of half a lemon

Garnish

• Pomegranate
• Croutons

Method

1. Sauté the onion and garlic for about 5 minutes, stirring in the harissa half way through.
2. Add the stock, squash and carrot and cook until soft (20-30 mins)
3. Stir in the parsley and blend until smooth
4. For the drizzle, in a separate bowl, whisk the tahini, water, olive oil and lemon juice.
5. Serve!

Substitutions

• Harissa paste - you could just use and chili paste though it wont have quite the same aroma
• Butternut squash - pumpkin

Sweet Potato Hash

Serves: 4
Ready in: 45 minutes

I feel like my recipe for hash changes every single time I make it, but this sweet potato hash was a good one. It's filling but not to heavy and the joy of it is that you can throw in any bits of veg you have lying around.

Ingredients

• 2 large sweet potatoes
• 1 red pepper
• 1 cup chopped mushrooms
• 1 can sweet corn
• 1 can pinto beans
• 1/2 red onion
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp any vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp onion powder

Garnish

• juice of 1 lime
• avocado
• vegan sour cream

Method

1. Chop the sweet potatoes in 1cm cubes and mix with 1 tbsp oil, smoked paprika and onion powder.
2. Roast potato mixture for 35 minutes, turning occasionally.
3. In a pan, saute the onion, pepper, mushrooms and garlic in 1 tbsp oil for 5 minutes.
4. Stir in the red wine, tomato puree, corn and beans and cook until the potatoes are done.
5. Mix in the potatoes and garnish with lime juice, avocado and vegan sour cream 

Substitutions

Red wine - vegetable stock
Sweet potatoes - potatoes, pumpkin, squash
Pinto beans - whatever beans you have will give you a similar effect

Chipotle Chickpea Toast

Ready in: 15 minutes

Serves: 2

I invented this chipotle chickpea recipe when I was having the kind of day where I needed to eat like, now. But I also really wanted something tasty. The kind of day where your energy has gone but you need some joy in your life, and of course we all know that that joy can be found in a tasty morsel. Cut to me hanging off the kitchen cupboards lamenting the lack of food in the house. 1 tin of chickpeas and an almost empty tub of guacamole later and I'd managed to scramble this together. It was so quick and so easy that I've had it about 20 times since. Sometimes I add another 1/2 cup of vegetable stock and cook for an extra 20 minutes for a mushier, thicker chickpea. 

Ingredients

• 4 slices bread (I just used sliced seeded bread)
• 1 can drained chickpeas
• 1/2 red onion
• 1/2 cup vegetable stock
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tsp chipotle paste
• 1 tsp cornflour

To serve

• Juice of half a lime
• guacamole
• spring onion
• coconut yoghurt

Method

1. Saute chopped onions and garlic in a pan until soft
2. Add the chickpeas, stock, tomato puree an chipotle paste to the pan and mix in.
3. Mix the cornflour together with 1 tbsp cold water and add to the pan
4. Simmer until the stock has thickened to a saucy consistency- about 10 minutes
5. Toast the bread and top with the chickpeas, guacamole, spring onion and yoghurt

Substitutions

• Chickpeas - You can really use any bean you have. I've done this with borlotti and pinto and had the same effect. 
• Chipotle paste - You can substitute for 1tsp of any other chili paste you have or 1 chopped medium heat chili and another 1/2 tbsp tomato puree.

Sticky Gochujang Tofu

Serves: 2
Ready in: 30 minutes

I'm completely aware that I was taking a bit of a gamble when I first decided to see if gochujang and red wine were a compatible duo but I had a sad looking dribble of wine left in the bottle so I threw caution to the wind and whacked it in the pan. It helped to add a more savory edge to the fermented taste of the gochujang whilst also helping to dilute the spiciness. Because it is quite a spicy sauce, I recommend having it with some sort of fresh and juicy cooked veg like courgettes or with a salad.

Ingredients

• 200g extra firm tofu
• 2 courgettes
• 1 yellow pepper
• 30ml red wine
• 1/2 cup vegetable stock
• 1 tbsp gochujang
• 1 tbsp liquid sweetener 
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 tbsp vegan oyster sauce
• 2 tsp white miso paste

Method

1. To a pan, add the wine, stock, gochujang, sweetener, tomato puree, miso and vegan oyster sauce and boil down to a thick syrup (about 20 minutes) stirring frequently.
2. In a separate pan, saute the chopped courgettes and pepper for about 5 - 10 minutes. 
3. Once the sauce has become thick, add the cubed tofu and cook for another 5-10 minutes

Substitutes

• Red wine - you can just skip it entirely if you like.
• Gochujang - any kind of chili paste would be fine but I'm not sure if you'd get the same kind of sticky texture. 
• Tofu- I've also used this sauce on cauliflower buffalo wings