This is a delicious way to cook new potatoes. It’s from Jack Bishop’s Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook.

Soaking the potatoes in cold water helps remove some of the starch so they don’t stick to the roasting tin. Adding the garlic and herbs halfway through ensures the garlic doesn’t burn. You can use thyme and/or oregano instead of rosemary and sage.

Thanks for the great recipe, Jack!

Roasted new potatoes with garlic & herbs

1. Preheat oven to 210C (425F). Scrub potatoes and cut into 2.5 cm (1 inch) pieces. Place in a bowl and cover with cold water. Set aside for 10 minutes.

2. Drain potatoes but do not blot dry. Place them in a roasting tin large enough to hold them in a single layer. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of the oil and toss to coat evenly. Roast, turning once, for 30 minutes.

3. Crush garlic in a mortar and pestle with salt until reduced to a paste. Add sage and rosemary and ombine remaining 1-1/2 tablespoons oil, garlic, sage, rosemary and salt in a small bowl. Drizzle over the partially roasted potatoes. Toss gently to distribute the seasonings. Continue roasting, turning the potatoes occasionally, until golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes more. Serve immediately.

Yesterday being Sunday, we had a roast dinner (not that we have one every Sunday, but yesterday we did).

Instead of serving a faux meaty thing to go with all the veggies, I decided to try a nut roast. Cashew nut roast from Rose Elliot’s Vegetarian Christmas, to be precise.

It was awesome, really really delicious, with a perfectly moist yet firm texture. This would be so good for Thanksgiving (and what a coincidence… American Thanksgiving is right around the corner) or Christmas or really anytime you are hankering for a roast dinner and don’t want to do the whole fake turkey thing.

We served it with rosemary roasted potatoes, agave-mustard roasted parsnips & carrots, peas and gravy.

Note when you are assembling the roast that it looks like there is no way that it will fit into a 1-pound loaf tin, but it does (just) if you pack it in. The stuffing was a bit crumbly, so next time I’ll probably moisten it with some vegetable stock. I might further tinker with the recipe as it is quite high in fat, probably by adding some mushrooms for moisture and reducing the margarine. But it is delicious just the way it is.

Cashew nut roast with herb stuffing

For the roast:

1. Prepare a 450g/1lb loaf pan. Put a long strip of baking paper across the bottom and up the two narrow sides, then use some of the margarine to grease the pan and paper well.

2. Melt most of the remaining margarine in a medium-sized saucepan, add the onion and fry for about 10 minutes until tender but not browned. Add the garlic cloves and continue to cook for one minute. Remove from the heat.

3. Preheat oven to 200C/400F.

4. Grind the cashew nuts in a food processor until they look like breadcrumbs, then remove to a large mixing bowl. Process the bread into crumbs in the food processor and add to the bowl.

5. Add the onion/garlic, bouillon, nutritional yeast and seasonings to the crumb/cashew mixture and combine well.

6. Prepare the herb stuffing (see below).

7. Put half the cashew mixture into the prepared pan, top with all of the herb stuffing and pack down. Then spoon the rest of the nut mixture on top. Dot with the remaining margarine. Stand the pan in another pan to catch any margarine which may ooze out, then bake for about 30 minutes or until firm and lightly browned. Cover the roast with foil if it gets too brown before then.

8. Cool for a minute or two in the pan, then slip a knife around the sides, turn the nut roast out and strip off the paper.

For the herb stuffing:

Peel & grate the onion. Place it in a bowl and add the margarine and seasonings. Add the breadcrumbs and mix it together well.

Makes six servings.

Last night my father-in-law came over for an evening meal, and I decided to make curry.

Feeling bored with my usual repertoire of Indian food, I made some different things, all of which were extremely tasty and went over a treat.

On the menu was matar mushroom (mushroom & peas curry), rajma chawal (kidney bean curry), aloo dum (potato curry) and simla mirch bharata (bell peppers with garlic curry). Also rice, papadums, and store-bought samosas and pakoras.

The mushroom/pea, kidney bean and potato curries were all from a fab site I just discovered, Manjula’s kitchen. Not only does the website have full detailed recipes, but also video tutorials of “Auntie” Manjula demonstrating exactly how to make each dish. I know I will be visiting this site regularly.

The bell pepper curry was from one of my Indian vegetarian cookery books whose name escapes me at the moment.

A very successful meal and one which we be having again tomorrow as there were lots of leftovers. Thank you, Auntie Manjula!

Last night, I decided, was going to be curry night, and Mr Thrifty concurred as he is always up for a good curry. I made an old favourite, and tried a couple of new dishes too.

I’ve made Succulent mountain mushrooms several times before; it’s easy and tastes waaay better than the mushroom dishes that our takeaway does (for starters, it isn’t swimming in oil… why do some restaurants think everything tastes better with a slick of oil on it?)

Then I tried my hand at tandoori tofu kebabs. They were really good, but somehow were lacking a certain je ne sais quoi. Perhaps because I forgot to sprinkle them with lemon juice & coarse salt before serving. Oops. Also, I think I pressed the tofu a bit too much, so I might skip that step next time.

I also wanted to make something with potatoes (cuz, ya just gotta have potatoes when you have a curry), and settled on Potatoes cooked with mustard seeds, from Madhur Jaffrey’s Eastern Vegetarian Cooking. The potatoes were golden and crunchy and delicious, and I’ll definitely be adding them to my rotation of Indian dishes.

Mr Thrifty has been asking me for ages to try my hand at vegan Yorkshire puddings. Since I finally have a Yorkshire pudding tin, I have no more excuses.

Woo hoo… success on the first try!

I cannot take credit for this creation.. it’s from the now-defunct blog gorgeousveganblog.co.uk. They are super-easy to make, with only four ingredients: plain flour, gram (chickpea) flour, soya milk and salt.

They are sooo scrummy! Since I’ve never had traditional Yorkshire puddings, I relied on Mr Thrifty to critique their authenticity. He said the only differences between traditional ones and these vegan ones were that these had a slightly sweet taste (from the soya milk, which has a bit of sweetness that I’ve never really noticed before); and also they didn’t rise quite as much.

They were perfect with our Sunday roast dinner.

Sharing the plate is a beefy seitan roast, stuffing balls, roast potatoes, vegan gravy and stir-fried Chinese cabbage with garlic.

For those who aren’t familiar with Yorkshire puddings (which is probably everyone outside of the UK), they’re like a pancake on the bottom with a crispy coating on the sides & top and a hollow middle. They are traditionally served with Sunday roast dinners, but Mr Thrifty has guiltily admitted to having them with curry in the past.

In future, these will make a regular appearance on the plate whenever we have a roast dinner.

The gal who created the original recipe made them in a muffin tin, and the recipe yielded six puddings, but my Yorkshire puddingn tin only has four holes. There is more batter here than is needed for four puddings, so I’ll tweak the recipe in future.

Because I’m lazy, I didn’t convert the UK “weight” measurements to US “volume” measurements, but will do so next time I make this recipe.

Here, thanks to gorgeousveganblog.co.uk, is the recipe for making these scrummy delights!

Vegan Yorkshire puddings

4oz  plain (all-purpose) flour

salt to taste

1 heaped teaspoon gram flour (chickpea flour, besan)

half a pint of soya milk

vegetable oil

1. Preheat oven to 230C (450F). Pour a thin layer of vegetable oil in the holes of a Yorkshire pudding or muffin tin and place in oven. The oven needs to be hot and the oil needs to be hot.

2. Mix plain flour, salt and gram flour together with a whisk. Gradually pour in the soya milk taking in the flour slowly until all the milk is added and the flour is incorporated. Whisk with all your might until you can see bubbles. (I used the whisk attachment of my stick blender.) Note: the batter will be very thin, much thinner than pancake batter. It’s supposed to be that way.

3. Carefully remove tin from oven and fill the holes. If using a muffin tin, fill half way up; if using a Yorkshire pudding tin, fill all the way up. Put back in oven and cook for about 20 minutes. Don’t open the oven door to check them, as the oven needs to stay really hot. If your oven cooks hotter at the back than the front (like mine), you can rotate the tin halfway through, but do it quickly.

Enjoy!

When I think of the food of Switzerland, I think of cheese. So in choosing a dish to make from the land of yodelling, I decided to veganise Aelplermagrone, or Alpine farmer’s macaroni.

Aelplermagrone is a simple, cheesy pasta and potato casserole that’s full of wonderful homely flavours. I had an inkling (well, more than an inkling) that Mr Thrifty would love it, since it contains one of his favourite foods in the world, the versatile spud.

And love it he did. It took a lot of willpower, he said — after polishing off a second helping — to abstain from thirds and instead save some for his lunch the next day.

Besides sauteed potatoes, the dish contains slow-cooked onions, macaroni, meatless “bacon”, and a simple vegan cheese sauce made with soya milk, vegan sour cream and vegan cheese.

For the vegan cheese, I used half Smoked Cheddar Sheese and half Mozzarella Cheezly.

Served with a salad, it’s the kind of meal that’s perfect for a cool autumn evening… regardless of whether the view from your dining room is the Alps, or just the back garden.

Alpine farmer’s macaroni

1. Heat one teaspoon olive oil and one teaspoon margarine in a heavy skillet over low heat. Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are soft and golden brown, about 40 minutes. Add garlic, cook another five minutes.

2. While onions are cooking, parboil potatoes in boiling salted water for five minutes. Drain.

3. In the same water, cook macaroni according to package directions, until just tender.

4. Heat one teaspoon of olive oil and one teaspoon of margarine over medium heat. Fry parboiled potatoes until browned and crispy, 10-12 minutes.

5. Put potatoes and macaroni in a small casserole dish and mix.

6. Gently fry vegan bacon in a little olive oil until warmed through, a minute or two each side. Chop into small pieces and add to casserole dish.

7. Make sauce: Gently heat soya milk with vegan sour cream until just hot. Stir in vegan cheese and continue to heat, stirring with a whisk, until cheese is melted.

8. About 10 minutes before onions are done, preheat oven to 175C (350F).

9. When onions are finished cooking, add them to the casserole dish along with the sauce. Mix thoroughly. Season to taste with salt and pepper and mix again.

10. Bake in preheated oven for about 20 minutes.

Makes two generous servings.

For Vegan MoFo (Vegan Month of Food) this year, I will be cooking my way around the world with interesting dishes from different regions.

Starting in my own country, today I’m featuring that classic British pub dish, bangers & mash with onion gravy.

Anyone following my blog previously knows that I’m a big fan of veggie sausages, and I’ve previously shared recipes for breakfast sausages, bratwursts, hot dogs & sundried tomato sausages.

I’ve been experimenting with a new ingredient for my sausages that I’ve used a couple of times now. I was inspired by Quorn, a brand of vegetarian meat substitute that has a huge range of different products. Quorn isn’t vegan, but the main ingredient in Quorn is mycoprotein, which is a type of factory fabricated fungus. Of course, I have no way of making this type of fungus in my kitchen, so instead I used a fungus which is available, i.e. the marvellous mushroom. I used mushrooms in place of the tofu or beans I usually use in my sausages.

The first time I made sausages with mushrooms, I used fresh shiitake mushrooms, which are ever so tasty, but freakin’ expensive. This time, I used half shiitakes and half ordinary white button mushrooms.

The sausages were a bit softer using shiitake/button mushrooms, than with just shiitakes. I’ll be experimenting further with using mushrooms in sausages, but for now I’ll post the recipe as I made it. The seasoning combo I used was deelish.

I served the sausages with Mr Thrifty’s special mash, along with onion gravy and peas. The recipe for onion gravy is here, the only modification I made was to use vegan margarine instead of butter. It was super scrummy.

To really get into the whole pub experience, the meal was made complete with beer (for Mr Thrifty) and homemade cider (for me).

Cheers!

Homemade vegan bangers

1. If you’re starting with whole almonds, grind them in the blender first while it’s still clean and dry, then remove and set aside.

2. Thickly slice the mushrooms, then saute in a bit of the coconut oil until excess moisture from mushrooms has evaporated. Set aside.

3. Put the bouillon cube into a glass measuring cup and add a couple of tablespoons of boiling water; stir to dissolve the cube. Add soy sauce to measuring cup, then add enough water to equal 125ml (1/2 cup). Add this to the blender.

4. Add remaining ingredients to blender EXCEPT gluten. Blenderise until completely smooth. If the mixture is too thick to blend smooth, add a bit more water, one tablespoon at a time, until the mixture can be blended smooth. (I added three extra tablespoons of water.) Empty into a large mixing bowl.

5. Add gluten to wet mixture in bowl and mix well, until you have a uniform soft dough. If the dough is too soft to form into sausages, add more gluten, one tablespoon at a time, until dough is firm enough.

6. Divide dough into eight pieces. Roll each piece into a sausage shape. Wrap each sausage in baking paper and then in aluminium foil. Lightly twist the ends together.

7. Bring water to boil in a pot that has a steamer insert. Arrange wrapped bangers in your steamer insert, with seam side down to reduce the likelihood of a foil blowout. (Packing the bangers tightly in the steamer also reduces this chance.) I arranged four on the bottom of the steamer insert, then another four at a 90 degree angle on top of them.

8. Steam for 40 minutes over gently simmering water. If you’ve arranged your bangers in two layers, switch their positions halfway through the cooking time (bottom ones on top and top ones on bottom). Turn heat off and let cool.

9. To cook, gently pan fry in a bit of olive oil until golden.

Can be frozen for future use: leave them wrapped and place in a freezer bag.

Makes eight bangers.

Mr Thrifty’s special mash

1. Peel potatoes and cut into large chunks. Bring a pot of water to the boil, then add potatoes and simmer 15 minutes, or until tender.

2. Drain potatoes, reserving a bit of the cooking water. Mash potatoes in the pot, then add margarine, mayonnaise and bouillon powder. If the mixture is a bit dry, add some of the reserved cooking water.

Makes two servings.

On Saturday, we had a Valentine’s Day breakfast of pancakes with strawberry sauce. I used frozen home-grown strawberries to make the sauce and it was yummy, although it simmered a bit too long and the strawberries dissolved into a puree. Tasty, but not very pretty!

For our evening meal, I wanted to make veggie steak with roasted potatoes and gravy, plus some cooked veg and a salad. Then we ended up going shopping. To Ikea. Ah yes, the lure of the Swedish flat-pack furniture store. I restrain myself from too many Ikea trips, as I always find something there to buy. On Saturday, it was their solid walnut “Hol” storage table, which was on offer for half price. (Which justified buying two of them.)

Before I knew it, the afternoon was pretty much gone, and I knew I wouldn’t have time to make the “steak”. The recipe I had in mind was a slightly modified version of this recipe from Tami at vegan appetite, which turned out excellent last time I made it.

But alas,  lack of time meant relying instead on a ready-made veggie steak. Grassington’s have come out with three new vegan “meat” products, one of which is pepper steak. We’d tried it before and liked it, so that was the cheating part of the meal.

To accompany, I made roasted potatoes, along with sauteed baby button mushrooms with garlic and steamed broccoli with garlic. Also gravy and salad.

It was most delicious!

Here for your enjoyment is my recipe for roasted potatoes, a very English way of serving the spectacular spud. The potatoes have a lovely crispy exterior and a fluffy interior. YUM! I don’t usually peel potatoes for this recipe, but you can if you like.

Crunchy roasted potatoes

1. Heat oven to 200C (400F). Place potatoes in a medium-sized pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Drain well and return to the pot, then shake pot to rough up the surface of the potatoes.

2. Heat oil in a roasting tin until very hot, then add the parboiled potatoes. Turn them so that they are evenly coated with the oil. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper.

3. Roast potatoes for 30 minutes, rotating tin after 15 minutes. Then remove tin from oven and turn potatoes over. Roast for an additional 15 to 20 minutes, or until they are brown and crunchy on the outside.

Makes 2 servings.

After being inspired by denny’s morphing of my vegan meatball recipe into Miss Meatballs, as well as Happy Clucks Clucks “Chicken” Strips, I decided to transform said meatball recipe into vegan breakfast patties.

The process is pretty much the same as the meatballs, except that I sauteed the onions & garlic for extra flavour instead of just adding them in to the mix raw, and I didn’t bother with the final bake in the oven.

Breakfast patties are a Canadian/American thing, not known on this side of the pond. As a result, Mr Thrifty had never tried breakfast patties, meaty or veggie version. I don’t think I ever had the meat ones, and it’s been years since I had veggie ones, so I couldn’t say how closely these resemble either of those.

I can tell you that these are tasty little morsels which are seasoned just right, hold together nicely and are toothsome but not too chewy. Perfect with a side of home fries. I found the recipe for the fries at food for living. Unfortunately I didn’t have any multi-coloured potatoes, but my combination of new potatoes and oca worked well.

Vegan breakfast patties

1. Make the TVP mixture ahead of time, as it needs to cool completely. Stir the prepared beef-style bouillon, Marmite and optional gravy browning together in a medium-sized pot and bring to a boil. Turn off heat, add TVP and stir well. Cover and set aside for 15 minutes.

2. While TVP mixture is cooling, saute the onion in 1 tablespoon of the vegetable oil until softened and lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Take care not to burn it. Add the garlic and continue to saute for another minute or two. Stir the onion/garlic into the TVP mixture and set aside to cool completely. The mixture must be cold before adding the other ingredients.

3. Mix together the coconut oil and remaining vegetable oil until you have a smooth paste. Set aside.

4. For the liquid mixture, put beef-style bouillon cube in a glass measuring cup. Add a couple tablespoons of boiling water, and mix until bouillon cube is dissolved. Add ketchup, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and herbs & spices. Then add enough cold water to equal 165ml (2/3 cup). Set aside. Note that this must also be cold before adding to the other ingredients.

5. In a medium mixing bowl, combine wheat gluten, besan, breadcrumbs and nutritional yeast and stir well.

6. When TVP and liquid mixtures are cold, first add oil mixture to TVP and combine well. Then add the liquid mixture and stir again. Now add this to the gluten mixture and mix it until it is evenly combined.

7. Form into balls, then flatten balls to make small patties. I made 12 patties, each about 2 inches in diameter.

8. Prepare your steamer insert by lining it with baking paper so the patties don’t stick. Place patties in steamer insert with a gap between them. My steamer is not very big, and I did three patties at a time.

9. Bring an inch of water to boil in the bottom of your steamer, then turn heat down to maintain water at a simmer. Steam patties for 10 minutes, then carefully turn them over and steam for another 10 minutes. Remove them to a baking paper-lined tray to cool. Steam the rest of the patties the same way. Check the water level periodically to ensure the pot doesn’t boil dry, and add more boiling water if necessary.

10. Panfry steamed patties in a little olive oil, until lightly browned.

Makes 12 meatless breakfast patties.

Home fries

1. Cut potatoes into 1.2cm (1/2″) cubes. Put into a small pot, add water to cover and bring to a boil. Turn heat down and simmer for 5 minutes. Drain.

2. Whilst potatoes are cooking, mix together salt, paprika, pepper, onion granules and garlic granules.

3. Heat a bit of olive oil in a heavy skillet (I use cast iron). Saute potatoes until golden and crunchy.

4. Push potatoes to the side of the pan. Add a bit more oil and saute shallot for a few minutes, until softened. Mix it all together and sprinkle on the prepared spice mixture to taste (I didn’t use all of it.)

Makes 2 servings.

When I moved to this side of the pond, I was introduced to the Full English breakfast, vegan style.

A full English breakfast is typically sausages, bacon, hash browns, eggs, baked beans, mushrooms, tomatoes and toast, along with coffee (or tea) and fruit juice. Anyone partaking of this cholesterol extravaganza will usually be able to hear their smaller arteries slamming shut partway through the meal.

Vegan versions are fairly widely available, though they’re usually abbreviated to hash browns, baked beans, mushrooms, tomatoes and toast. If you’re lucky, vegan sausages will be available, and if the gods are smiling down on you, vegan bacon will also be on the menu.

This morning, I decided to make my own version of the full English vegan breakfast. Homemade breakfast sausages, hash browns, tofu scramble, baked beans, mushrooms, tomatoes and toast, along with coffee and fruit juice. I haven’t experimented with homemade bacon (yet), and couldn’t find any in the shops, so that wasn’t included.

The tofu scramble used the same recipe as the one I’d made last week (except I was out of lemons and therefore lemon juice, but I couldn’t say I noticed a difference).  The breakfast sausages had been made the day before. I tried a new recipe for hash browns, and it was the most successful yet, though it does require precooking the potato the day before. The beans were organic ones from a jar, and the mushrooms and tomatoes were simply fried with a bit of vegan margarine and seasoned with salt and pepper.

Needless to say, it was delicious, and I’m happy to report that not only were no arteries closed during the meal, but my karma survived brilliantly. What more could one want on a cold February morning?

Seitan breakfast sausages

1. If you’re starting with whole almonds, grind them in the blender first while it’s still clean and dry, then remove and set aside.

2. Crumble the tofu into the blender. Put the bouillon cube into a glass measuring cup and add a couple of tablespoons of boiling water; stir to dissolve the cube. Add soy sauce to measuring cup, then add enough water so the mixture equals 100ml (6-1/2 tablespoons). Add this to the blender.

3. Add remaining ingredients to blender EXCEPT gluten. Blenderise until completely smooth. Empty into a large mixing bowl.

4. Add gluten and mix well, until you have a uniform soft dough.

5. Divide dough into 12 or 16 pieces, depending on how big you want your sausages. (I made 12 this time.) Roll each piece into a sausage shape. Wrap each sausage in parchment paper and then in either aluminium foil or cheesecloth. Lightly twist the ends together if using foil, or tie them with string if using cheesecloth.

6. Bring water to boil in a pot that has a steamer insert. Arrange wrapped sausages in your steamer insert. If using foil, arrange with seam side down as this reduces the likelihood of a foil blowout. Packing the sausages tightly in the steamer also reduces this chance. I arranged six sausages on the bottom of the steamer insert, then another six at a 90 degree angle on top of them.

7. Steam for 40 minutes over gently simmering water. If you’ve arranged your sausages in two layers, switch their positions halfway through the cooking time (bottom ones on top and top ones on bottom). Turn heat off and let cool.

8. To cook, gently pan fry until golden.

Can be frozen for future use (leave them wrapped and place in a plastic freezer bag).

Makes 12 to 16 sausages.

Homemade hash browns

Plan ahead, as the potato needs to be pre-cooked the day before.

1. The day before, steam potato (unpeeled) for 20 minutes, until tender (some firmness in the center is okay). Cool, then refrigerate in a plastic bag overnight.

2. The next day, grate potato using a coarse grater, discarding any large pieces of skin. Put in a large bowl. Add minced onion, garlic (if using), plus salt and pepper to taste. You can also season with herbs.

3. Heat a large cast iron skillet over medium-low heat. Add a tablespoon or so of olive oil. Form potatoes into three patties and fry until golden brown, then carefully flip and fry the other side. Keep in a warm oven if not eating immediately.

Makes 3 patties, enough for 2 or 3 servings.