Again with the veg. I'm neither Dry nor Veganu- Januarying, but there is a certain amount of retrenchment and regret after a self-indulgent Christmas break, where food and booze were the only fun stuff that didn't get cancelled sigh. Still, this has been far from punitive - a fab snacky snack, an excellent veg stew I will make again, and yet another roast cauli option. Also, Do Not Arsk About Any Christmas Cake I May Have Bought In The Sales.
Will start with the stew because I'm so impressed. It's from Diana Henry's early Food From Plenty book, which is sometimes super cheap on offer and I'd recommend - great for twists on recipes and lots of vegetable options even though it's long before clean eating took over.
Nicoise vegetable stew, is what it is. A virtuous veg stew, de-virtued at the last, though you could skip that bit if you are feeling very January.
The stew: small onions (I just chopped some giant spring onions into chunks), a couple of leeks also chunked, and 500g small potatoes halved. Saute this lot ("it's nice if the potatoes brown" says the recipe; they didn't).
Get some aromatics together while you saute - a couple of bashed garlic cloves, a couple of thyme sprigs, a long strip of orange zest. Add them when you feel sauted out, stir a bit, and add stock to lightly cover the veg.
Now get a bulb or two of fennel, cut lengthwise, and a few chunky tomatoes, quartered. Add them to the stew when you've given it about 10 minutes, and then give it at least another 10 mins. I think I did at least 25 mins overall, maybe more like 30. I added a bit more liquid with the fennel and tomatoes as it wasn't quite covering the veg, but I reckon don't go overboard with it.
This is already a cheeringly chunky and tasty stew, and you could definitely serve as is. It's meant though to be served with rouille (or aioli, which I prefer), and grated Gruyere. At which point it becomes brilliant winter warmer. The garlicky aioli especially absolutely makes this. NOM.
Snack: if like me you have lately acquired Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Shelf, let me recommend the polenta and gram flour chips. Mix those two speedy grains in equal quantities into a pan of hot water containing chana masala. turmeric, salt and some other bits. It will look very sinister.
Stir for 5 minutes or until you can't stir any more, pour onto a baking sheet and cool it down. Then slice into chips, oil them up and sprinkle with more chana masala (I'm going to have to buy more chana masala; I think it's only a year since I learned what it is); and roast on a high heat for half an hour.
Meanwhile, contemplate making your own vegan mayo from about 1/4 tin of chickpeas, scoff at the very idea, and get the mayo out of the fridge.
Devour, with salad.
The only downside I'd say is that they are no good the day after; and roasting a portion at 220 for half an hour is no joke if that's all that is in the oven. One for a group, or for another plan for the rest of your set polenta.
It wasn't the only thing in the oven, obvs. I had cauli florets roasting in there for two days of good salad. This one was meant to be with roast onions, but I didn't open the recipe till the next day, oops. Thriftfail. So it was just with the rest of the recipe - which is from Taverna, and therefore has loads of mint and parsley chopped and scattered. And an Exciting Salad Dressing of whizzed up medjool dates, with vinegar, oil and plenty of mustard. It was good for an exciting change, but I think it's disguised mayo, just with that grainy texture that date flesh has, and incredibly chunky so it slightly took over the dish. I should probably have a week without mayo now.
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