I’ve just discovered that Creole jambalaya contains tomatoes, unlike Cajun jambalaya, which does not. So my version is Creole jambalaya!

This casserole is traditionally made with assorted bits of dead animals; my vegan version, which does not harm your karma, uses faux meat (or seitan, tofu or tempeh) of your choosing. Tonight I used homemade sundried-tomato sausage and store-bought veggie prawns.

This dish is a bit involved to make, but it tastes sooo good. Mr Thrifty would climb over a barbed-wire fence to get to this jambalaya (or so he claims). The rice is baked in the oven in the spicy seasoned broth until it is plump, tender and infused with flavour. I usually serve this with a salad.

1. In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil over low heat. Saute onion three minutes, until softened. Add celery and red pepper and continue to saute for 10 minutes, until vegetables are tender.

2. Add garlic and continue to saute for two minutes.

3. Add uncooked rice and saute until translucent, another couple of minutes.

4. Now add salt, paprika, cayenne, thyme, oregano, basil, pepper, sage and bay leaves to the skillet and mix well. Turn off heat and transfer to a large casserole dish (one that has a lid).

5. Preheat oven to 180C (350F).

6. Put vegetable stock and passata (tomato sauce) in a small pot and bring to a gentle simmer.

7. Clean skillet and add remaining tablespoon of olive oil. Saute faux meat until heated through and beginning to brown.

8. Add hot stock mixture, fresh tomatoes and faux meat to casserole dish and give it a stir.

9. Bake in preheated oven for one hour, until rice has absorbed liquid and is tender. If it starts to dry out before rice is tender, add small amounts of boiling water as necessary.

Makes 4 servings.

I know that every vegan probably has chili in their kitchen repertoire, so yeah, yawn, another chili recipe.

But this is one darn fine chili, very nicely flavoured with just the tiniest bit of heat (though feel free to crank it up a few Scoville units and set your tongue on fire.)

It’s based on this recipe, though of course it’s much much better in its vegan incarnation. (I say this with confidence although I have never tried the meaty version.) You could serve this up to die-hard carnivores and they’d be none the wiser. And of course, there’s no risk of contracting the human version of that nasty mad-cow disease.

It looks like a long list of ingredients, but it’s mostly spices and flavourings. For more heat, add red pepper flakes, fresh hot chilies and/or hot pepper sauce. For the veggie mince, I usually use Realeat VegeMince.

1. Heat oil in a heavy saucepan over medium-low heat. Add onion and saute for five minutes, until softened. Add red pepper, cook another five minutes, then add garlic and continue to cook for another couple of minutes, or until vegetables are softened and fragrant.

2. Add veggie mince (veggie crumbles) and 125ml (1/2 cup) water. Saute until water is absorbed.

3. Next add Worcestershire sauce, paprika, cumin, cocoa powder, sugar, chili powder, oregano, salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly.

4. Now add the sundried tomatoes, tinned tomatoes, passata (tomato sauce) and another 125ml (1/2 cup) or more of water and mix thoroughly. (How much water you add will depend on the brand of veggie mince you use, as some seem to suck up the water more than others. You want a nice bit of sauce, but not too runny.)

5. Add beans, mix again, then cover and bring to a simmer. Cook on low heat for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding more water if it seems dry.

6. Stir in sweetcorn (corn niblets) and cook for 10 minutes more.

Nice served with rice and a green salad.

Makes six servings.

I have actually been cooking lately, not that you’d know it from how few food posts there have been. Everything has turned out well though the recipes still need tweaking, but I will let you salivate over the photos.

This is a roasted mushroom lasagna, based loosely on a veganised version of this recipe from epicurious. Although I reduced the recipe proportionally, there was not nearly enough filling, so next time I will use a lot more mushrooms, and perhaps a mixture as well (oyster mushrooms are especially nice roasted). I was very pleased with how the cheezy white sauce turned out, though next time I’ll use a bit of Cheezly mozza on top as well. Instead of the prosciutto, I used some marinated roasted peppers.

This is the first time I’ve made a non-tomato lasagna that I’ve really liked, and with a few adjustments, this will be a great recipe.

I’ve also tried simmered seitan again, and this time ended up with cutlets and not brains (YAY!)

I used a recipe from vegan yumyum. I found the detailed cooking instructions very helpful… eg. this time I used a deep skillet rather than a pot, and it made it very easy to check the progress of the cutlets.

Both Mr Thrifty and I really liked the end result, though I thought it just a tad too “bouncy”, and next time I’ll add a bit of chickpea flour to reduce this. I also didn’t have Old Bay seasoning (I’ve never seen it in this country), but I used a bit of celery seed instead and LOVED the flavour it imparted to the cutlets.

And here is the jambalaya I made recently:

Actually, I’ve been using this recipe for awhile, and it’s delicious, so I really do need to write this one up to share.

I’ve also been perfecting my vegan meatball recipe, so you can look forward to that one soon.

Hope you are all having your own happy kitchen adventures!

So what’s with “seitan brains”, I can hear my reader asking. Well it was supposed to be seitan chicken cutlets, but that is so NOT how it turned out. At least the hotpot was an unequivocal success.

Let’s start with the hotpot then. I’d bought some asparagus t’other day (yes, I know, all the way from Peru, NAUGHTY Felicity) at the greatly reduced price of 75p for a pound of the stuff. At first I thought of veganising a recipe for cream of asparagus soup, but then I came across this one for garden veg pie. Yummmm. I ended up changing it so much, it really doesn’t resemble the original recipe at all, but it did turn out scrumpdillyicious.

As for the seitan, well I made this recipe for seitan chicken cutlets, and I followed the recipe to a “T” (where does that expression come from, anyway, to a “T”?). The dough was VERY moist, wet even, but I persevered and formed the cutlets before gently simmering them for an hour. Result?

SPONGY SEITAN BRAINS!

At least that’s the words that sprang to mind as I stared the the mass of “stuff” floating in my pot. At least you can’t get seitan spongiform encephalopathy from them. I squeezed all the water out of the “brains” and tasted a bit. Hmmm, not an unpleasant texture, but totally bland. Sprinkled a bit of soy sauce on another piece. Hmmm, I might even be able to make this edible. So it went into the fridge for the time being instead of the compost. We’ll see what I end up doing with it.

But here’s the recipe for the stuff that did work. Since the chicken cutlets were a bomb (not THE bomb, which would be a good thing), we served it with homemade Cajun sausages from the freezer.

Creamy asparagus mushroom hotpot

1. Heat olive oil in a heavy frypan (I use cast iron) and saute mushrooms until their moisture is released and they are starting to brown (5-10 minutes). Season with pepper and herbal salt (I use Himalayan salt), or plain salt and herbs of your choice. Add garlic clove and saute for a minute more. Remove from pan into a medium-sized casserole dish. Clean pan.

2. Heat margarine in the same pan and cook leeks, covered, until soft, stirring occasionally (about 10 minutes). Add to mushrooms.

3. Meanwhile, prepare asparagus. Snap bottom of stalks off (the tough bit) and discard (or better yet, compost them). Pare the bottom couple of inches of the stalks to remove the tough skin (with homegrown asparagus, you won’t need to do this). Cut the tips off and slice the stalks into 2.5cm (1″) pieces.  Keep the tips and stalks separate. In boiling water, blanch the stalks for 2 minutes, then add the tips and blanch for another two minutes. Drain and add to the casserole dish.

4. Prepare the sauce. In a small saucepan, heat the soya milk over medium-low heat until warm. Add cream cheese and sour cream and whisk until melted into the soya milk. Now add the shredded cheese and continue to whisk until it is melted and the sauce is smooth. Season to taste. Mix into the veggies in the casserole dish.

5. Preheat oven to 200C (400F).

6. For the topping, peel potato and slice into 3mm (1/8″) slices. Blanch in salted simmering water until just soft, but not falling apart. This will probably take between three and five minutes. Drain and arrange slices on a plate to cool, being careful not to break them up.

7. Place potatoes in overlapping slices on top of vegetables. Brush olive oil on top. Bake in a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, until hot. If potatoes aren’t browned at this point, place under grill (broiler) for 10 minutes, or until browned.

Makes two servings.