The Recipe Room

This aubergine purée with cumin pitta bread is about as close as you can get to everyone’s favourite Greek restaurant aubergine purée.  It is intended to be an appetiser, but if you’re anything like me, you’ll find it hard to stop eating it and end up ruining your appetite for the rest of the meal.  So either make only half of the recipe, or make sure you’ve got plenty of guests to share it with.  Alternatively, just make a whole lot of it and eat it as your main course – you’ll only need a little salad and some black olives to complete the meal!

If you love aubergine like I do, I also recommend this baked aubergine parmesan with tofu pesto.

To make it pretty, I like garnishing it with black olives, lemon and a bit of red pepper. You can present the dip any way you´d like, or not at all. It´s all up to you.

It’s funny, as a kid growing up, I always hated sweet potatoes (and pumpkin for that matter, as they’re virtually the same when cooked), and it was all my mother could do to get me to eat even the tiniest mouthful.  However, somewhere along the way, I developed a taste for them, especially when they’re mixed with other veggies or pulses that I like more.  I invented this Red Lentil and Sweet Potato Soup one day when I had some sweet potatoes I needed to use up before they went bad, and the result was an instant success both for me and my family.

The soup is very filling and the sweet potato provides lots of dietary fibre, beta carotene and vitamin C.  As I mentioned before, cooked sweet potato and cooked pumpkin are virtually identical in taste, so if you want, you can go ahead and substitute an equal quantity of pumpkin for the sweet potato to create a tasty pumpkin soup.

What you’re going to need:

• 2 medium-sized sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
• 2 medium potatoes, washed and chopped
• 1 small onion, peeled and chopped
• 500g red lentils
• 1.5 litres water
• 3 tbsps extra-virgin olive oil
• ½ tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp ground coriander
• 1.5 tsp curry powder
• 1 bay leaf
• 1-2 tsps salt (to taste)
• 3 tbsps fresh coriander, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp Spanish Sherry Vinegar

What you have to do:

1. In a large stockpot, sauté the chopped onion in the olive oil over medium heat for 3 or 4 minutes, or until the onion turns translucent.
2. Add the potatoes, sweet potatoes and lentils and sauté for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
3. Add the salt, curry powder, ground coriander, black pepper and bay leaf and sauté for another minute.
4. Add the water and stir well, make sure you get any spices that may have stuck to the bottom.
5. Cover the pot, bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for about 25 minutes or until the potatoes and sweet potatoes are nice and soft, stirring occasionally.
6. Remove from heat and mash with a potato masher to make a slightly chunky purée.
7. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
8. Serve in soup bowls and garnish with a teaspoon of fresh coriander and a splash of sherry vinegar.

Preparation Time:  5 minutes

Cooking Time: 40 minutes

Serves:  4

Difficulty:  Easy

Delicious and healthy vegetarian Vietnamese spring rolls!  Goes great with peanut hoi sin dipping sauce, which I also posted on my blog. If you like Asian cooking, you should also try these Indian vegetable samosas.

What you’re going to need:

• Vegetable oil for frying
• 400g firm tofu, cut into 1cm thick slices, brushed with 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1/2tsp salt
• 1/2tsp pepper
• 1 large shallot, peeled and sliced (about 70ml)
• 1tsp vegetable oil
• 1 medium carrot, peeled and cut into matchsticks (about 350ml)
• ½ small jicama, peeled and cut into matchsticks (about 350ml)
• 1 medium red pepper, cut into matchsticks (about 350ml)
• 2 or 3 jalapeño chillies, seeded and thinly sliced (about 85ml)
• 2 scallions, both green and white parts, sliced diagonally and very thin
• 1/2tbsp hoi sin sauce
• 16 Vietnamese rice spring roll wrappers
• 2 heads Chinese leaf lettuce, separated and washed
• 1 bunch of fresh mint, leaves only
• 1 bunch of coriander, small sprigs only

What you have to do:

1. Heat vegetable oil about 1.5cm deep in a frying pan over medium heat until hot but not smoking.
2. Fry the tofu until crisp on the outside, about 3 minutes per side.
3. Drain the tofu on paper towels and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
4. Let cool and then slice thinly.  Set aside.
5. Put the frying pan over the heat again and fry the shallots until crisp and golden.
6. Drain on a paper towel and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Slice thinly and set aside.
7. Heat 1tsp vegetable oil in a sauté pan and add the carrots, jicama, peppers and 1/4tsp of salt and cook over high heat for 1 minute, stirring continuously.
8. Add the chillies and a tablespoon of water to keep the veggies from sticking.
9. Cook until the vegetables start to get tender, about 2 minutes.
10. Spoon the mixture into a bowl and mix in the scallions, shallots and hoi sin sauce.
11. Soak one rice wrapper in cold water until it starts to turn soft, no more than 8-10 seconds.
12. Place the damp wrapper on a clean working surface and lay a lettuce leaf or two on top.
13. Spread 3 or 4 tablespoons of the vegetable mixture across the centre, top with a few slices of tofu, a few mint leaves and a few coriander sprigs.
14. Roll the wrapper gently but snugly over the filling, tucking in the ends as you go.
15. Repeat for the rest of the wrappers.

Preparation Time:  30-40 minutes

Cooking Time: 20-30 minutes

Serves:  4-6

Difficulty: Hard

I’ve loved Chilli Con Carne ever since I was a little girl; in fact, I think it’s probably the first “exotic” dish I acquired a taste for.  It was also the first dish I learned how to make when I became a vegetarian. Initially, I just used a packaged mix from the health food store, but I soon realised it was so much better to make it yourself and really not very difficult at all.  I try new variations of Cheesy Chilli Sin Carne every year or so, and this is my most recent version of the dish.

As for the name, everyone knows the standard Chilli Con Carne, which literally means “Chilli with Meat” in Spanish.  I like to call the vegetarian version “Chilli Sin Carne”, which of course means “Chilli without Meat”.  Enjoy!

What you’re going to need:

• 2 x 400 g tins red kidney beans
• 1 x 400 g tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 x 200 g tin sweet corn
• 200 g strong cheddar, cut in 1cm cubes
• 1 large Spanish onion, peeled and chopped
• 1 red bell pepper (standard size), chopped
• 250 g TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein)
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 4 tbsps olive oil
• 2 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 tbsps fresh chopped coriander
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp salt

What you have to do:

1. Prepare the TVP by rehydrating with 200 ml of boiling water.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat.
3. When the oil is hot but not smoking, add the onions and red peppers and sauté for 3-4 minutes or until the onions turn translucent.
4. Set aside the onions and peppers and sauté the garlic, paprika, cumin and black pepper for about a minute, taking care not to burn the garlic.
5. Add the onions and peppers back into the pot and mix well with the spices and garlic.
6. Add the rehydrated TVP and sauté for another minute, stirring constantly to avoid sticking or burning.
7. Add the canned tomatoes, kidney beans, sweet corn and salt and reduce heat to low.  Mix well.
8. Add the cheddar cheese and keep cooking and stirring for 2-4 minutes or until the cheese is about 50% melted.
9. Remove from heat and mix in the coriander.
10. Adjust salt and pepper to taste and you’re done.

Preparation Time:  10 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Serves:  6

Difficulty: Easy