Ragu is a rich, slow cooked pasta sauce, traditionally made with meat and served with a wide pasta like pappadelle or tagliatelle. Of course you can also eat it however you like – with polenta or in layers in a lasagne with a béchamel? I love it with rigatoni, those large, ridged tubes of pasta pick up the sauce beautifully. My version uses earthy beetroots, satisfying green lentils and crumbled, rich, fatty walnuts. Delicious! Did you know we sell organic lentils and walnuts in our grocery section? If you have a slow cooker, this is a good one to get going in the morning and enjoy for supper. Simply boil some pasta and you’ve got a hearty, healthy meal ready to go. The ragu also freezes well so I always make a big batch and freeze some for a rainy day. And we are not short of those right now are we?
If you make this recipe please share it with us on our friendly facebook group, and please feel free to share this blog post with your friends and family of course! The illustration above is from my 2021 recipe calendar. While stocks last I’m including a free one with every book order this month. You can add my cookbook to your shopping here. Thank you.
I usually start a ragu with a soffritto. Soffritto is the word for gently cooking diced vegetables (usually onion, celery and carrot) in a little oil until soft to provide a base flavour to build a sauce, soup or stew from. In this case start with 1 diced onion, 1 large diced beetroot (or 2 small – just give it a scrub and don’t bother peeling, also finely chop & add the purple stalks from any leaves should you be lucky enough to have some – save the green leaves to wilt as a side), 3 diced cloves of garlic and a generous handful or two of crumbled walnuts. If you have celery to hand then definitely add a few diced stalks for extra depth of flavour!
Sauté the diced vegetables and nuts in the tbsp of olive oil in a large pot until soft. Then add a mug of green lentils, 2 bay leaves, 3 sprigs of thyme, a glass of red wine & a tin of chopped tomatoes. If you prefer more Italian herbs with this sauce then sub the thyme with some fennel seeds and a pinch of dried oregano. Add a tin of water or veg stock to swirl out the last of the tomatoey juices from the tin. Season with salt and black pepper.
Simmer until the lentils are cooked through then taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. This will take a minimum of 30-40 minutes, but if you have time to simmer for longer, the flavours will be richer. This is one of those sauces that is even better the next day. Keep an eye on the liquid levels as the lentils will absorb a lot. Add more water/stock as needed and give the pot a stir every now and then to prevent sticking.
Serve tossed through pasta or in a warm bowl with soft polenta and wilted greens.
Get hold of some of our beautiful, organic beetroots when they are in season, sign up for a veg box subscription!
I always keep a kitchen cupboard stocked with tins of beans, tomatoes, coconut milk and jackfruit. Having a repertoire of store-cupboard suppers is very useful when you are subscribed to a veg box delivery. Depending on what’s going on each week, sometimes I have a bit of fresh fruit and veg leftover when the new, weekly box arrives and sometimes I need to make a store-cupboard supper or two before it arrives and that’s totally fine! Especially with the range of brilliant, organic groceries at Green Earth Organics. What a luxury to be able to eat fresh, organic vegetables most days, and organic store-cupboard ingredients on other days!
Here’s one of our current store-cupboard staples, a spicy, Jamaican inspired jerk stew with the most delicious coconutty red beans and rice!
As always, please share your photos of your version of the recipe with our friendly community Facebook group. We love to see our recipes leave the blog! Liz x
Put the rice, coconut milk and drained tin of beans into a small pot. Add the onion wedge and whole cloves and a pinch of salt. Add a mug of water then stir briefly to combine.
Bring the rice pot to the boil with the lid on, then immediately as it comes to the boil, turn the heat down to the lowest setting, leave the lid on, do not stir, and allow the rice to gently simmer and absorb all the liquid in the pot.
For white rice this only takes about 15-20 minutes, brown rice takes double that time. So if you are using brown rice, get it assembled and on to boil first, if you are using white rice, get the stew on first then the rice.
Sauté the onion, celery, pepper and carrot in a large pot with the vegetable oil. Once it starts to soften and colour, add the jerk seasoning and stir to coat the vegetables and toast the spices.
Add the jackfruit pieces, break them up as you add them to the pot, then season with salt and pepper.
Add the tin of chopped tomatoes, 2/3rds fill the tin with water and swirl that out into the pot too. If you like it spicy, you can drop in a whole scotch bonnet chilli or two at this stage too.
Give the stew a stir and pop the lid on and allow it to simmer while the rice cooks. Remove the lid and give it a stir every now and then to make sure it’s not sticking on the bottom.
Serve with wilted dark leafy greens or with wedges of roast squash like I have done in the video above.
Ingredients for jerk seasoning – mix together in a jar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground black pepper
6 tsp dried thyme
4 tsp ground allspice (or mixed spice if you can’t find allspice)
If we were having a New Year’s Eve party this year (sob!) we would make a grazing table, which is a bigger version of the board above on a clean, covered table, for our guests – filled with lots of delicious dips, plant based cheeses, crackers, pickles, ferments, chutneys, breads, olives, fruit, nuts, crisps and raw vegetables. It’s fun putting together a gorgeous, generous spread. It looks so abundant and it’s always a good idea to have substantial snacks like this at a party with drinks. Anyway, to console ourselves we will put together a mini version like the photo above for just us and the kids at home. The kids love it, they can take what they like and it feels a bit special. Glass of wine and some board games? That’s our New Year’s Eve plans sorted! What are you up to for NYE? Share your foodie plans with our friendly community over on our Facebook group.
No recipe of course, but I recommend you start with the pots and jars of dips, olives, vegetable sticks etc then add the larger items like bunches of grapes and other fruit, then add stacks of crackers and slices or chunks of cheese. Get everything tucked in snugly and fill any gaps with salad leaves or nuts. Add little pops of colour and flavour with pomegranate seeds.
As well as a selection of crackers, homemade tofeta and fermented cashew cheese I’ve got a board full of goodness from Green Earth Organics brilliant fruit, veg and grocery sections including:
Arn’t we lucky that the worlds tastiest organic carrots are a staple in every weekly Green Earth Organics veg box? Here’s one way to use them up in something a little bit different. Before going plant based, smoked salmon and soft scrambled eggs was one of my favourite breakfasts, reserved for special occasions like Christmas morning, Mother’s Day birthdays and so on. So I’ve recreated the dish with smoked carrot strips and scrambled, wobbly, silken tofu. It’s honestly, so delicious! Especially when accompanied with a celebratory glass of fizz (we also do this alcohol free one).
Carrots are perfect for this dish, they’re just the right colour and texture. When steam-baked with all the salty, tangy, smokey flavours they get just soft enough, but at the same time hold their shape perfectly. And of course you can also use this part of the recipe in any dish where smoked salmon is required. On bagels with cream cheese and capers? Stirred through a creamy pasta? As part of a lazy sushi bowl?
Silken tofu is the best tofu to use for making scramble. I see a lot of recipes calling for firm tofu, but it’s much too dry. Scramble should be silky soft, wobbly and beautifully buttery. If you are really missing that eggy flavour, get hold of some black salt and sprinkle over a tiny pinch of that just before piling on the smoked carrots. It’s sublime!
As always, let us know in the comments or over on our friendly Facebook page if you make this dish. We love to see what you’ve been cooking! Liz x
Scrub the carrots then use a peeler to cut as many long strips as you can out of them. You’ll be left with thick middle bits – just eat those with hummus or chop them up and stick them in a soup or a stew.
Then put all the ingredients in a small baking dish and toss the carrots strips well so that they are all evenly coated in the marinade.
Cover the dish with foil or a baking sheet and put it in a preheated oven at 200C for 15-20 minutes or until the carrot strips are soft, but not too soft… Take the dish out every 5-10 minutes and stir to ensure the pieces of carrots on the sides of the dish are not getting over cooked.
Then put the steam-baked carrots and all the juices into a small box or covered bowl in the fridge overnight or for at least a couple of hours to marinade further.
Serve piled up on buttery toast with scrambled tofu and sprigs of dill.
Scrambled Tofu
Making a wobbly, delicious scramble is easy with silken tofu. Simply heat up a knob of butter in a pan until it melts, add the contents of a pack of silken tofu (I really like the Clearspring Organic one), season it with salt, pepper and a pinch of ground turmeric and heat up. Stir gently to break up the tofu into little curds as you heat. Then serve it on buttery toast and add an optional sprinkle of eggy black salt.
Shakshuka is a stunning dish of eggs coddled in a spicy tomato and pepper sauce. It originated in Tunisia and is extremely popular in the Middle East, in fact it’s considered a national dish of Israel. It’s served with strained natural yoghurt and you eat it by scooping it up with torn pieces of bread. It’s so delicious, the sharp, tangy, spicy sauce is perfectly offset by the rich, creamy egg and yoghurt and since going plant based, it’s a brunch option I have really missed.
So I made a vegan version of it this morning. I replaced the savoury, creamy, rich eggs and yoghurt with a cashew sauce and oh my, it works! Same satisfying scoopability, same rich-meets-sharp, soothing-meets-spicy deliciousness. It’s simple to make too! You just need a blender for the cashew cream and a frying pan for the sauce.
Liz x
Did you make this recipe? Let us know in the comments how it went and don’t forget to share it with your friends and tag us on Instagram or show us your version in our friendly Facebook group. We love to see our recipes leave the blog!
Put all the ingredients into a blender and then add enough water to partially cover the nuts. Blend until smooth then taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.
Food waste is a huge environmental problem all year round, but over Christmas, it seems we throw out about 30% more than usual. According to Stop Food Waste, here in Ireland we generate at least 1.27 million tonnes of food waste each year! Food waste is one of the largest contributors to climate change. Growing, processing and transporting food uses significant resources. And so if food is wasted, then of course these resources are wasted too.
Globally, around 1.4 billion hectares of land is used to grow food which is then wasted. That’s a lot of land that could be returned to the wild. While some food waste is anaerobically digested to make biogas, composted, or rendered for animal food, a lot of the food waste produced is still going to landfill where it doesn’t just harmlessly break down, but it emits methane, a gas 25 times more harmful than carbon dioxide. According to Project Drawdown, an international group of experts, reducing food waste is the 3rd most effective action we can take to reverse climate change.
Home composting is a great solution if you have the space, but you should only compost uncooked vegetables (known as green matter) along with brown matter like tea leaves, coffee grounds, shredded card/paper, tree leaves etc – successful compost has a balance of brown and green matter and is incredibly beneficial to your soil health. Cooked food waste should not go into your home compost as typical home composters don’t get hot enough to safely break down the food and it also attracts rodents. Put your cooked food waste in a council provided food waste bin where it will be taken to a commercial compost site to be anaerobically digested. Or better yet, don’t waste the food at all! Try to use up your cooked food waste in inventive dishes and show your leftovers some love!
Here are a couple of recipes to get you started. Please ask questions and share your favourite Christmas leftover meal ideas in the comments too and have a waste-free feast! Let me know if you made these leftover-loving meals and tag us on Instagram or share your meal on our Facebook page. We love to see what you are cooking! Liz x
Festive Farinata
A farinata is a bit like a frittata but made with chickpea flour batter instead of eggs. Simply whisk together one part chickpea flour (also known as gram flour) with one part warm water (I like to thin it out with an extra splash of water too), season the batter really well with salt, pepper and a splash of olive oil. Then let it rest while you pre-heat the oven and prepare a roasting dish with your leftover Christmas vegetables.
Put a little olive oil into the base of the dish, then chop up whatever leftover veg you have from your roast. Potatoes, parsnips, beetroot, red cabbage, squash, sprouts… pop them into the roasting dish then pour over the chickpea flour batter.
Drizzle a little extra olive oil over the farinata and crack over some black pepper. You could also add some crumbled tofeta (I used the leftover bit from making my cranberry and tofeta cigars) or other odds and ends of Christmas cheeses. Then put the dish into a hot oven (200C) and bake it until the batter is set. The time depends on how big or deep your dish is, just keep an eye on it. It’s done when it’s golden brown on top and with minimal wobble.
Allow it to settle for a few minutes out of the oven and then ease it away from the sides of the dish with a palette knife or spatula. Slice it into portions and eat it hot or cold with salads, ferments, dips and chutneys or sauces to your liking. Enjoy!
Swedish-style Stuffing Balls
Leftover stuffing, gravy and cranberry sauce? Make my Swedish style meatballs dish, it’s delicious. Swedish meatballs are typically served with boiled or mashed potatoes, a rich, creamy gravy, lingonberry jam (cranberry sauce is a brilliant substitute) and steamed greens. It’s a hearty and satisfying winter dish so I tend to make this rather than Italian style meatballs with leftover stuffing from our Sunday Roasts, or in this case Christmas Dinner, in winter.
Get some potatoes on to boil for mash and some greens ready for steaming or wilting.
Then simply squish your stuffing together into little balls (if it’s gone dry add a splash of stock, if it’s too wet add some oats or breadcrumbs) and fry them in a large pan with some melted butter and olive oil. Turn them regularly with tongs to get them browning on all sides.
Keep the stuffing balls warm in a dish in the oven while you finish making the mashed potatoes, steam some greens and heat up and enrich your leftover gravy.
Heat up your leftover gravy with a splash of water, then when it’s nice and hot enrich it with a generous splash of oat/soy cream. Gently bring it back up to heat, but don’t let it boil. Then taste it for seasoning and adjust it if needed with more salt/pepper.
Serve the stuffing balls with mashed potatoes, creamy gravy, steamed greens and a big dollop of cranberry sauce on the side.
Mince pies are one of those divisive, love them or hate them foods. Which side are you on? I absolutely love them, but to be completely honest, I do find shop bought filling a little too sickly sweet. Dried fruit is already super-sweet, so I think it’s much nicer to make your own filling using the filling recipe from my ‘Raw Mince Pies’ recipe in my book which simply soaks the chopped, dried fruit in orange juice and spices, no added sugar is needed at all. It’s not as big of a faff as you might think. The only slightly tedious part is chopping up the dried fruit. I’ve switched the raw almond pastry in this recipe for a vegan shortcrust pastry which is very simple to make too.
Illustrated recipe from my book (which is available to add to your veg order here).
I think there’s nothing more delicious than a slightly wonky, homemade mince pie and big mug of spiced chai tea for a Wintery mid-morning pick me up, or with a warm glass of mulled wine in the evening!
Did you make this recipe? Let us know how it went in the comments, tag us in pictures on Instagram or pop them on our lovely facebook group (we LOVE to see our recipes leave the screen), and please don’t forget to share it with your friends and family. Liz x
Shortcrust Pastry Ingredients (makes about 16 mince pies)
Shortcrust pastry is very easy to make if you have a food processor with a blade attachment. (And by the way this recipe makes a brilliant pumpkin pie, apple pie or cherry pie crust too!) Just blend up the flour, butter, salt and sugar until it resembles wet beach sand. Then add a couple of tablespoons of very cold water and briefly blend again and it will magically form into a neat ball of dough!
If you don’t have a food processor you can just use your hands. Use the tips of your fingers to work the butter into the flour, salt and sugar until it reaches wet sand consistency, then add the water and gently bring it together into a ball of dough. The trick to a really short, melt in the mouth shortcrust pastry is not overworking the dough and getting it too warm. Then wrap it in a slightly damp tea towel and let it rest in the fridge while you make the filling.
Mincemeat Ingredients
350g chopped mixed dried fruit (I especially like dried figs, also apricots, cranberries, raisins…)
Chop up a mixture of dried fruit of your choice and put them in a mixing bowl.
Add the spices and the zest of the oranges and stir well to coat all the dried fruit in the lovely, Christmassy flavours.
Then squeeze the oranges and add all the juice (if they are very large oranges just add the juice of two to start off with and see how you go). Stir well, then squish the mixture down and cover it and allow the fruit to soak up all the orange juice and spices.
Assemble & Bake
Pre-heat your oven to 175C.
Roll out 2/3rds of the chilled pastry on a clean work surface dusted with flour. I like to roll my pastry to around 4mm thick.
Use a large round cookie cutter (or a mug or glass) to cut out 12 rounds. They should be about a cm or two wider the the muffin pan you will bake them in.
Then ease the circles into the muffin pan and gently press them into place. Fill each pastry case with a tbsp or so or of the filling.
Roll out the remaining 3rd of the pastry and use a star shaped cookie cutter to cut out 12 star lids for your pies. Or you could cut 12 smaller circles if you like and completely close up your pies.
Pop the lids on the pies ( you will probably have enough pastry and filling left over for a few more pies) – if you are using round lids, poke a little hole in the top of each pie. If you want to add a little sweet crunch to the lids, sprinkle over a tiny bit of caster sugar before baking.
Bake the mince pies in the oven until the pastry is just starting to take on some colour. Around 15 minutes or so – keep an eye on them.
Then allow the pies to cool and set a little in the muffin tin before carefully taking them out to completely cool on a plate.
Dust them with snowy icing sugar or leave them plain. Once they are completely cold you can store them in an airtight container and they should stay fresh for about 4 days.
I am such a vegetable geek, I always get overexcited when a new vegetable comes into season. So I eagerly wrote a pumpkin custard pie recipe, back in October when pumpkins and squashes were the veg of the moment. But one of the many beauties of these sweet, fleshy gourds is that they keep well for up to 6 months if properly stored, so you can have pumpkin pies up until March if you like, they are not just for Autumn! Pumpkins and winter squashes can be stored in a well-ventilated position at a temperature under 15°C and no colder than 10°C. I suggest finding a chilly part of your home, for example a shady windowsill. Watch for signs of rot, and remove any affected fruit immediately. I think their cheerful, bright colour and sweet, nutty flavour make them a gorgeous addition to your festive table too.
An illustrated recipe of my Pumpkin Pie from October 2020
Pumpkin pie is a very American, Thanksgivingy thing and like much of American food culture, it’s seeping over the pond and onto our plates. Pumpkin spice lattes and the like don’t seem to be going anywhere and why would they? The sweet, heady mixture of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves is pretty irresistible. Pecan pies are another classic American dish, traditionally served at the festive table, so I couldn’t resist combining the two here in my layered pumpkin and pecan pie. I think you’ll agree, it’s a great combination.
Did you make this recipe? Let us know how it went in the comments or over on our Healthy Eating facebook page. And don’t forget to share the recipe with your friends.
Shortcrust pastry is very easy to make if you have a food processor with a blade attachment. (And by the way this recipe makes a brilliant mince pie, apple pie or cherry pie crust too!) Just blend up the flour, butter, salt and sugar until it resembles wet beach sand. Then add a couple of tablespoons of very cold water and briefly blend again and it will magically form into a neat ball of dough!
If you don’t have a food processor you can just use your hands. Use the tips of your fingers to work the butter into the flour, salt and sugar until it reaches wet sand consistency, then add the water and gently bring it together into a ball of dough. The trick to a really short, melt in the mouth shortcrust pastry is not overworking the dough and getting it too warm. Then wrap it with a damp tea towel and let it rest in the fridge while you make the pumpkin custard.
4 tsp mixed spice (or 2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp each nutmeg, cloves and turmeric)
Method
I’ve never bought a tin of pumpkin puree, it seems that’s what most Americans use. Instead I just roast a halved and deseeded pumpkin or squash, cut side down, until it’s soft. Then scoop out the flesh and mash or blend it. I call this pie a ‘custard pie’ because this filling is a riff on my custard recipe. Simply blend all the ingredients until smooth. (And by the way, if you ever want to make regular plant based custard, just replace the pumpkin puree with another mug of oat milk, leave out the spices but keep the vanilla, then whisk and simmer on a low heat until thick and delicious.)
Then roll out the chilled pastry and carefully line a flan dish or a cake tin with it. Prick little holes in the base of the pastry with a fork to prevent a pocket of hot air forming under the crust and making it rise up in the oven. Then pour the custard into the pastry case and bake for about 30 minutes at 175C or until both the pastry and the custard are mostly cooked through. In the meantime, make the pecan pie topping.
Pecan Pie Ingredients
1.5 tbsp cornflour
1.5 tbsp milled linseeds (if you don’t buy them already milled, just blend some whole ones up in a small spice blender or smoothie maker until ground into a course flour consistency)
Mix all the ingredients except the pecan nuts together in a bowl. Then stir through the pecan nuts, ensuring they are all coated in the caramel-like mixture. Then once the pumpkin pie is par cooked enough so that the pumpkin custard is mostly set, carefully spoon the pecans and caramel over the top of the pie.
Return it to the oven to cook for another 10 minutes or until the custard, pastry and pecan pie mixture is all cooked through.
Allow the pie to cool and set before carefully removing it onto a serving plate and slicing it up. Serve it with whipped coconut cream or vanilla ice cream.
Whole Roast Veg, Nutty Stuffing, Roast Potatoes, Maple & Mustard Roots, Brussels with Citrus, Rosemary & Garlic, Nutmeg Cheese Sauce and Gravy.
As many of us are putting plants front and centre on our dinner tables, I thought I would show you what my plans are for our plant based Christmas dinner this year. Settle in, this is going to be a long blog. But don’t be discouraged, everything here is super-simple to make and, if you make the stuffing ahead of time, you could get Christmas dinner done in under two hours. I’ve put a handy ‘order of things’ bit at the end for you if you want to make Christmas dinner my way.
Christmas dinner in our house is just a slightly fancier, Christmassy version of our weekly Sunday Roast. Do you have a weekly ritual around food? Pizza night on Fridays or taco Tuesdays? Do you alway have pasta on a Wednesday or a Saturday curry night? To me, a roast dinner is the definition of a special family feast. We try and do one every Sunday, not just because it’s the traditional ‘Sunday Roast’ day, it also happens to be the only day off we all have together. So we go for a long walk mid morning after a lazy start, then come home and take our time making a big feast.
It feels important to have that ritual, that tradition of gathering around the kitchen table and decompressing. After a hectic week of work and school, enjoying a weekly feast of good food and good company and really taking the time to chat and make sure all is well in our little bubble is like a breath of fresh air. We all have our favourite part of a roast (is anyones favourite bit not roast potatoes?!?) but I think what really ‘makes’ the meal is to have something spectacular to carve in the centre of the table. The traditional focus of course has always been meat, but these days, beautiful, vibrant vegetables take centre stage. Again this year, we are letting the goose go and instead roasting a range of whole vegetables to carve.
Whole roast vegetables are a revelation. The crisp, caramelised edges and juicy, sweet centres are as delicious as they are beautiful. As much as I love a nut loaf or a flakey pastry beetroot Wellington, the spectacle of a whole roast Romanesco cauliflower has won my favour this year for Christmas. I mean, it looks an awful lot like a Christmas tree, it’s in season in December, so how could I not? I also love whole roast squashes and red cabbage, but they take longer to cook through than the Romanesco, so I’ve chopped them in half to roast them in time together in one beautiful pot. If you can’t find a romanesco you can replace it with a regular cauliflower. But the cauliflower has a tighter structure and takes longer to roast, so don’t halve the other vegetables, they will cook in around the same time as each other – just increase the total cooking time and adjust when you put the trimmings in the oven. Romanescos have a more open structure, a bit like a broccoli, so cook much quicker than their tight-as-a-snowball, pale cousins.
I like to first steam the whole vegetables, lid on, in the oven, on a bed of stock, wine, onions, garlic and herbs (and I’m adding apples and cranberries too for extra festive flavours). Then take the lid off and let them crisp up for the last half of the cooking time. And at the end, all those lovely juices in the bottom of the pot will be turned into a rich gravy.
While that’s all going on I make a nutty, lentil and oat based stuffing (for those worried about protein, you’ll find ample here – it’s basically a nut roast), a big tray of roast veg – the sweet roots roasted with a maple and mustard dressing, a nutmeg spiked cheese sauce to spoon over the roast Romanesco, and it wouldn’t be Christmas without Brussels sprouts. So here we go! Here’s my step by step, easy but oh so delicious, Christmas dinner plan for 2020. (More photos and a video coming soon so come back and check this space).
Start with The Stuffing
You can prepare this ahead of time, make it the day before if you like. It is actually the longest process of the whole meal.
LENTILS
Boil a small mug of green lentils in stock until they are cooked through. Lentils need about triple their volume of liquid to cook through so keep an eye on them as the cook to make sure they don’t absorb all the liquid and burn on the bottom. I simply measure out a small mug of lentils into a pot, then add a stock cube and 3 mugs of water. Then bring it to the boil, turn down the heat to simmer with the lid on and just peek in every now and then to see if I need to add any more liquid. Once they are done ( test this by eating a lentil), you can tip them into a large mixing bowl. You could make this step much quicker by just using a tin or two of ready cooked lentils.
NUTS
Again, use my ever-flexible mug measurements… about a mug of chopped nuts – or more! This recipe, like most of mine, is very forgiving and doesn’t need exact measurements.
My favourite nuts to use this time of year are of course chestnuts. We sell them whole and raw so you’ll need to pierce them with a small sharp knife and boil or roast them until they are cooked. Then peel off their tough skins, chop them up and add them to the mixing bowl with the cooked lentils. If you want to buy ready cooked and peeled ones then that would make this step quicker. Otherwise you can use any nuts you like.
Toasted hazelnuts are so special and have the best flavour in this kind of dish so they are my first choice for replacing the chestnuts. Hazelnuts are easy to toast and peel, simply roast them in a hot oven for a few minutes until they are nice and toasted all the way through – keep an eye on them, they can catch very quickly – then tip them onto a clean tea towel, place another tea towel on top and rub them. The skins will just flake off. Then pick them out and carefully chop them up and add them to the mixing bowl.
SUGAR & SPICE
Then add some flavours to your nutty stuffing mix. By ‘sugar’ I mean a handful of chopped dried fruit. Dried cranberries are the best at Christmas time of course, but you could add a handful of chopped apricots or dates instead if you like? Add some orange or lemon zest for fragrance and flavour.
Then add some sweet christmassy spices. A pinch of ground cloves, a little touch of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger…that sort of thing, or for ease, a tsp of mixed spice. Go easy though, these spices have powerful flavours and you don’t want to overpower the dish.
SAGE & ONION
Sage and onion are classic stuffing flavours and so I generally add a finely diced red onion or two and a couple of tbsp of fresh or dried sage leaves to the mix too.
OATS OR BREADCRUMBS
If you have a stale half loaf of bread going, then chop it up and whizz it into crumbs in the food processor, otherwise do what I do as a cheat and just chuck a mug of porridge oats into the mixing bowl instead. (We also sell gluten free oats so this recipe is easily made suitable for the coeliacs in your life). Then give everything a good mix and taste it for seasoning. You may wish to add more salt or herbs and spices.
I also add a couple of tbsp of milled linseeds mixed with a little water to the mix to help it bind together. Ground linseeds are a fantastic egg replacement as work really well in this kind of scenario. I buy the whole ones from our shop and grind them up in a little blender so they are ready to use whenever I need them.
SQUISH & BAKE
Then really get in there with your hands or a potato masher and give everything a good firm squish together. You are aiming for a mixture that can form into a ball. If it’s too dry, add a little stock or water (or even the juice of that orange or lemon you zested earlier), if it’s too wet add some more oats or bread crumbs. Then press the mixture into a lightly oiled small baking dish or loaf tin. Rough up the top with a fork and bake in the oven with the roast for the last 30-40 minutes. The nutty stuffing will cook quicker if it’s in a wider, shallower tray than in a deeper loaf tin so do keep an eye on it.
The Pot Roast
You will need a large, oven-safe pot with lid. Or you can use a deep baking tray and some tin foil.
THE BASE
Start with the base. This is going to be the gravy in the end, but first it will do it’s job of steaming the whole vegetables, keeping them from drying out or getting burnt on the outside before they cook through, and infusing them with flavour.
I like to roughly slice in a couple of onions, halve a whole bulb of garlic, and then you can add some other stocky vegetables if you like, like sticks of celery and chunks of carrot, then a sliced apple or two and a handful of fresh cranberries. You could also use pears or plums.
Drizzle the base vegetables with a little good olive oil, season them really well with plenty of salt and pepper, then cover them with a glass or two or white wine and a little water. You could also use stock and a couple of tbsp of cider vinegar or a bottle of cider instead of the wine.
Then add some wintery herbs. A bouquet garni is perfect here, or just chuck in some fresh thyme, rosemary, bay leaves and sage leaves. All of the above or just pick one or two in a combination of your choosing.
THE MAIN EVENT
Then the main event. Trim the base off a romanesco cauliflower. Give it a rinse, gently score the base of the stalk and pop it into the pot or deep roasting dish. Then add a halved red cabbage, and a halved and deseeded squash. Drizzle the veg with some olive oil, season it with salt and pepper (I also love adding a few caraway seeds to the cabbage) pop the lid on the pot (or cover the dish with foil) and put it in the oven at 200C to steam-roast for 30-40 minutes.
Now is the time to get your tray of potatoes and maple & mustard roast roots ready for the oven! They need to go in in around 20 minutes from when then you put the whole roast veg in.
Your nutty stuffing needs to go in the oven around then too!
After the whole roast veg are mostly cooked through (test this by inserting a knife), remove the lid and roast for a final 20-30 minutes to crisp up and caramelise the edges.
Side Vegetables
POTATOES
How do you like your roast potatoes? Most often I just chop scrubbed, but not peeled, potatoes into large chunks, season them in their roasting dish with olive oil, salt and pepper and pop them in the oven to roast for around 40 minutes. But at Christmas I like to take the effort to peel and par-boil them first. Then tip them carefully into a pre-heated roasting tray with hot vegetable oil, and roast them for around half an hour. This way you get really beautiful, golden, fluffy-in-the-middle, crispy-on-the-outside roasties.
MUSTARD & MAPLE ROOTS
A mix of roasted carrots, parsnips and beetroots make a beautiful, autumn-coloured side dish. I scrub them, but don’t peel, then trim and quarter them lengthways and pop them in a roasting dish. Then in a small jug, mix a couple of tbsp of wholegrain mustard with a generous drizzle of olive oil and maple syrup and a good pinch of sea salt. Pour this mixture all over the vegetables then mix them well so that each is covered with the dressing. Roast them in the oven for around half an hour or until they are cooked through. They should be sweet and sticky, but also sharp and savoury. Delicious!
SPROUTS
Brussels sprouts are absolutely fantastic with citrus, herbs and garlic. You can do this dish in the oven if you have room, my oven is tiny so I just do it in a large frying pan or wok on the hob. Simply trim and halve your brussels sprouts and put them straight in your pan. Then drizzle them with oil and add lots of sliced garlic. Season them with salt, pepper and rosemary and turn the heat on. Get them sautéing in the pan about 10 minutes before you are ready to serve. Add the zest of a lemon, cut the lemon in half and add it, cut side down, to the pan. Let the cut side of the lemon almost burn and caramelise in the bottom of the pan. Then, using tongs, pick up the lemon halves and squeeze them over the sautéing sprouts just before they are ready to come out onto the table.
Cheese Sauce & Gravy
PLANT BASED BÉCHAMEL
I usually make this sauce for a baked cauliflower cheese on a Sunday, but as I’m making a whole roast romanesco cauliflower I am making the sauce on the side this year (my children would never forgive me if I didn’t include it in some form in every roast dinner we have). A béchamel is very very easy to make. Simply melt a fat of your choice (I like to do a mix of butter and olive oil), add some flour, salt, pepper, mustard, nutritional yeast and ground nutmeg and whisk it together, then slowly cook out the flour with little splashes of milk, whisking as you go. When the flour is cooked out and you have a beautiful silky sauce, taste it and adjust the seasoning as needed. You may need more salt or some extra nutritional yeast to make it a little cheesier. Here’s the illustrated recipe from my book to help you:
GRAVY
Of course you could just use a vegetable gravy powder. But I like to make use of those wonderful, flavourful juices in the bottom of the roasting dish. Once your roasted vegetables are done. Pull them out on to a platter and keep them warm. Then put the pot on the hob (if you are using a roasting dish then scrape the juices and all the vegetables into a small pan on the hob. Squeeze the garlic out of it’s skin and remove the skin and any woody bits of herbs left in the tray.
Add extra vegetable stock if there is not much left of the juices in the bottom the pot of roasting dish, then blend the contents with a stick blender until smooth. Add a splash of red wine or port, allow it to simmer for a while then taste for seasoning to see what it needs to become a dark, rich gravy. You may wish to add some more salt or pepper, I tend to add a splash of soy sauce or a spoon of marmite or miso. Then thicken the gravy with cornflour. Put a heaped tbsp of cornflour into a cup with a little splash of cold water and mix into a smooth paste. Then whisk the paste through the simmering gravy until it thickens to your liking. Serve in a warm jug on the table.
Serve
Serve the whole roast vegetables on a large platter surrounded by all the roasted potatoes, carrots, parsnips and beetroots and sautéed sprouts. Have warm jugs of gravy and béchamel on the table and the dish of nutty stuffing. Carve big slices of the vegetables and serve with scoops of nutty stuffing, roasted veg and sprouts drenched in gravy and drizzled with cheesy sauce. And don’t forget the cranberry sauce on the side!
Here’s a video of me making the full Christmas roast from scratch. I hope you find it helpful! Merry Christmas!
Cooking Things in the Right Order
Christmas Eve:
make the nutty stuffing & get it into a covered dish ready to bake
peel your potatoes & get them in a pot of water ready to par boil
scrub your carrots, parsnips and beetroots
Christmas Day:
about 2.5 hours before you want to eat, pre-heat the oven to 200C
get the potatoes on to par-boil
assemble the pot roast and get it in the, now hot, oven
drain the par-boiled potatoes and get a tray of vegetable oil into the oven to pre-heat
prepare the mustard & maple roast carrots, parsnips & beetroots
20-30 minutes after the pot roast has gone in get all the roast vegetables (potatoes and maple/mustard roots) & stuffing into the oven
10 minutes later remove the pot roast lid
then you have about half an hour to easily make the béchamel and sprouts
remove the whole roast veg and other roasted veg and stuffing from the oven when it’s done and arrange it on a platter, cover it and keep it warm in a low oven while you make the gravy
heat up the gravy, sprouts and béchamel, take the platter of roast veg and stuffing out of the oven and serve!
The ‘dip, dress, sprinkle’ chapter of my book is probably the most useful chapter. It’s one I refer to the most and it’s those little extras, the condiments, crunchy toppings and delicious dressings that really make meals go from ‘good’ to ‘great’. At the end of the chapter is this tofeta recipe which is really simple but incredible! It’s crazy how like feta it is!
Tofu is a really nutrient dense, brilliant food, wrongly vilified as bad for humans and the environment, it’s nothing new and has been eaten by healthy cultures for around 2000 years. Most soy grown for human consumption is not grown in deforested areas (unlike the vast majority of soy which is grown for animal feed). If you buy organic tofu like the one we sell, you can rest easy knowing it is not genetically modified and is grown in a sustainable way.
Use this tofeta as part of your cheeseboard at Christmas, top a homemade pizza with it (roast beetroot or squash, red onion and tofeta is a brilliant winter pizza topping, especially with wilted spinach or kale in the tomato sauce), layer it in your lasagna, top a moussaka with it, or make my festive cranberry and tofeta cigars. They make a great starter – or make them a little smaller and they are perfect for nibbles on a canape tray with drinks.
Open out a pack of filo pastry onto a clean chopping board or work surface. Most shop bought filo is incidentally plant based but check the label.
Cut the pastry in half (or quarters if you would like smaller cigars) with a large, sharp knife.
Brush one sheet of pastry with olive oil, then spread a tsp (or half tsp if making smaller cigars) of cranberry sauce onto the pastry in a neat line about the size of your little finger, centred but about 5cm away from the left edge.
Place a little finger sized slice of tofeta onto the line of cranberry sauce then fold the 5cm left edge over it.
Fold the top and bottom sides over each other then brush them with more olive oil and roll up the pastry, left to right, into a cigar shape.
Brush the outside of the cigar with a little more olive oil and place it, seam side down, on a lined baking sheet. (I use this compostable baking parchment or a re-usable one).
Repeat until all the pastry is used up. Then sprinkle with some optional sesame seeds and bake at 180C for around 15-20 minutes or until they are golden and crispy. They are lovely served warm or cold.
