Tuscan Bean Stew

This is very easy and delicious, and when served with olive oil drizzled on wholemeal toast it makes a nice filling meal. This one is full of sun-dried tomato oil, but it would be possible to make it with no fat by replacing oil with water.

I used: a big onion, two carrots, three cloves of garlic, a tin of tomatoes, about a teaspoon of very lovely veg stock, a good squirt of tomato paste, a few chopped sun-dried tomatoes and their oil, a handful of kale, a chinese take-away box of frozen butterbeans (boil them up in bulk and freeze to avoid throwing away lots of tins) and a fistful of fresh coriander.

First I fried the onion and diced carrots in sunflower oil until they softened, then I added the chopped garlic for just a minute or two. Before it started to burn I added the tomatoes in all their forms, I also added the butterbeans. After letting it reduce for about 5 minutes I stirred in the kale. When it was all cooked and soft and bubbling beautifully I crushed my coriander (hence the fistful, rather than handful) then used scissors to chop it into the mixture before mixing it all it and taking it off the heat. A bit of freshly crushed black pepper and there you are - an excellent Tuscan bean stew.

Cabbage Bake

That Christmas Eve skipping haul I posted a while ago went a long way. I made some nice dishes from it, though I think I've had enough of dairy again for a while (then again I may skip a wheel of cheese next, so who knows). This recipe has some superfluous cheese, but apart from that it's delicious and vegan and entirely from the skip (condiments and seeds aside).

So, I chopped up the entire head, steamed it for a bit, then fried it up in a pot with some chopped garlic and oil. I added lots of sesame seeds, some Frank's Hot sauce (we don't work for them, really), tomato puree, and black pepper. The mixture was delicious and vegan just like that, but I went one step further, as I had cheese to use.

I put the mixture in a baking dish, used my last few slices of (at this stage extra mature) cheese, and stuck it in the oven. I served it with some garlic bread and (purchased!) veggie sausages. It was one of the nicest things I've created in a while, and I sort of regretted using the cheese as it would have been just lovely without it. But I don't regret it that much.

- Dara

Spinach, Watercress, Tofu and Avocado No-Quesa-dilla

First I thinly sliced some tofu and marinated it in balsamic vinegar and salt.

Next I wilted some spinach and put it to one side.

I diced the tofu and fried it in just a bit of sunflower oil for quite a while so it was really crispy.

Then I placed a tortilla (seeded, yeah!) into a flat based frying pan, and spread the spinach over it. I sprinkled the watercress and tofu over it, then added slices of avocado.

A fair bit of salt, some ground black pepper and a bit of balsamic vinegar all over it, then it's ready for another tortilla on top. First, though, take a step back and look how pretty it is. Admire the food.

If you use cheese (as in a quesadilla) then press the edges it seals nicely. This doesn't happen with the greens and browns of vegan food, but with a bit of vegan super-powers it is possible to turn the whole thing over and cook both sides so that the tortilla crisps up and chars slightly.

This one I cut into quarters, but if I was being true to the Mexican idea then I would do it like a pancake and fold the tortilla in half like a half moon. Tomorrow I might try this- watch this space...

Beautiful Wedges

These are truly spectacular.

This is how you make them:

1. Preheat the oven, around 200 degrees Celsius.
2. Peel and chop floury potatoes in to wedge shapes. (The best way is to cut a rectangleish piece, then slice diagonally to make two triangular pieces. Otherwise known as wedges.)
3. Boil the potato for about ten minutes, until they are almost cooked, but still pretty firm.
4. Drain them using a colander and leave them to steam their moisture out for a bit.
5. While you're waiting chop up some fresh rosemary.
6. Put a good swig of vegetable oil in a baking tray and put it in the oven for a few minutes until it's hot, you can tell by shaking the tray to see how quickly the liquid moves. Another way to tell is to add a drop of water, if it spits and dances it's the perfect temperature. If it tries to burn your eye balls and alarms small animals in the vicinity then it's too hot. Put a little more oil in and turn your heat down. Open the oven door till the light goes on then put it back in and repeat this step. Got it?!
7. The reason for all of these shennanigans is that you want the wedges to start crisping up as soon as they hit the oil - it will make for wedges that are soft on the inside, crispy on the outside. Armadillo...
8. When your oil is a good temperature and your wedges have stopped steaming (or if you're really organised, you can put them in the fridge and take them from cold) then it's time to place them in the baking tray. Don't overlap them; use a few trays. You'll eat more than you think, promise.
9. Sprinkle salt over the wedges, then the rosemary. Leave them to cook in the oven for about seven minutes, enough time for the underside to start to brown, and for the other edges to get nice and dry.
10. Now, get the baking tray out and turn over each wedge, making sure all edges have some oil on them. Leave them cooking nicely for about ten minutes.
11. There are a lot of steps here, it may be because I like to get things out of the oven and fiddle with them. It may be that you would get the same results without following these steps, but I think that it's worth doing. Also, you can eat one each time you get a tray out, just to test them.
12. If you're not like me and would rather leave them you could always make some ketchup. Check out Dara's recipe: http://peasandloveblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/home-made-chips-and-ketchup.html
13. Keep cooking and occasionally shaking them around to prevent sticking until they are lovely and golden. Ideally I would have cooked the ones in the photo a little longer, but there was a room full of hungry people and all the other food was ready. Sometimes a cook must compromise...

Voila! Here are your wedges. YEEEEEESSSSS!!!! Ahh, the humble potato.

Tofu, Mushroom and Olive Scramble

This was an experiment well worth undertaking.

I mashed a block of plain tofu with a fork and sprinkled about a teaspoon each of bouillon and inactive yeast. Next I fried some diced mushrooms in a very small amount of oil, leaving a lid on them to keep the moisture in. When they started to brown I added the tofu mixture and a few halved olives. That's it!

This time I ate it with boiled potatoes, salad and a healthy dollop of hummous. Tomorrow I will have the other half in a pitta bread for my lunch.

Creamy Lentil Curry

Another recipe that used some of my Christmas skipping haul. I washed and cooked up some red lentils till they started to go a bit mushy (I actually blended them as well for a smooth consistency). I fried up some various curry spices, onion, and garlic in a frying pan with lots of oil. I added this to the lentil mixture, along with some cooked chickpeas and some carrots and broccoli that I got from the skip and let it all mellow out together.

I don't eat dairy, but I had six cartons of skipped cream to use up, so I threw one in to the curry. It really set it off and gave it a lovely, well, creaminess. Coconut milk would give the same effect, but you don't often find that in the skip. Serve with some rice, or potatoes, or whatever you have lying around and you're done. It's pretty quick, and an especially good way of using up left-over veg, of which there is plenty at Christmastime.

Vegan Apple Crumble

In my Christmas Eve skipping haul there were about a dozen packets of pre-sliced apples & grapes in snack-packs. There was also a bag of peanuts & cashews. And a few dozen pitta breads. So, for Christmas dessert I decided to make an apple crumble mainly from these ingredients.

I mixed the apples with some fair trade muscovado sugar and spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, mixed spice). I placed them at the bottom of a baking dish. Then I made the topping. I crumbled about four pittas into a bowl with some of the nuts (washed as they were salty) and some brown sugar and a bit of flour. I added in a good bit of oil and mixed it all up until I got some nice crumbly clumps. I piled this on top of the apple mixture and stuck it in the oven. You don't want the top burning, so don't have it on too hot. I also poured some maple syrup over it towards the end. It's done whenever you want to eat it! It depends on your crumble preference.

It will hold out of the fridge in a cool place for a few days and I think it's even better cold.
(Props to Erin and Anna for getting me on the crumble train.)

- Dara