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