Roots Manoeuvre Curry (Vegan)

Things have been so busy at work lately, I've been leaving the house at 6:30am and then not getting back until 6-7ish. So the last think on my mind is cooking, and I'm not too fond of beans on toast!

So I've taken to making one big meal to eat during the week and as curries work well with this method, last week was a Thai inspired curry, but this week I decided on something more Indian.

I got turnips and carrots in my veg box this week, and I never get round to using the potatoes I get every week, so Abel and Cole's roots manoeuvre curry looked ideal as you can add pretty much any root veg and any other veg you have lying around.  I settled on potatoes, turnips and carrots.  But I was very tempted to roast some broccoli too because, as proved previously, roasted broccoli rocks.

This is a vegan curry, but I had some left over sour cream and chives from making nachos over the weekend, so I dolloped some on which went really well with the curry, but you could always use an alternative if you desire.

The curry was really nice, I think veg tastes so much nicer roasted and was worth the extra effort, plus they retain far more nutrients than boiling. If I made it again I would probably add more potatoes as I parboiled them as you would when making roast potatoes which is unsurprisingly nice. I found this out when visiting a very popular Indian restaurant in Bolton called The Royal Balti House for my Birthday, the website isn't that impressive but it is very popular and was featured on an episode of Phoenix Nights and it was my Parent's local Indian when I was a kid (and I wouldn't touch curry because it looked weird, even though I liked the smell!). Anyway, getting back to the point I had a curry from said restaurant and they roasted the potatoes, and ever since I've been obsessed with roast potatoes in curries!

This would also be an ideal thing to make using left overs from a Sunday roast.

The real faff is grinding the spices, luckily I have a pestle and mortar that I stole from The Boy, but I guess wrapping the spices in a cloth (or sandwich bag) and bashing with a rolling pin would work just as well.

Roasted cauliflower and casperita coconut curry (vegan)

In this week's veg box I got green cauliflower and a casperita squash which is kind of like a white pumpkin.  I knew I was in for a busy week at work therefore I decided to make something that would last me an entire week. So I had a go at Abel and Cole's Cauli and Coconut curry, using the casperita squash as the 'other veg'.

It took a while to make, but thanks to my new food processor, it took less time than it would have done using my hand blender to make the sauce. This seems to taste better when reheated as when I had it yesterday it was a bit 'meh' but today it was an improvement.

I really do recommend roasting cauliflower, I'm not a big fan of cauliflower, but roasted the flavour is a lot nicer.

Mushroom risotto with garlic and mushroom bruschetta (vegan option)

A while ago I went to Manchester's Food & Drink festival and picked up a jar of mushroom and garlic bruscetta topping from Francas.

Francas is actually a Italian pizza takeaway in Bolton, but they also do a lot of local food festivals selling their authentic pizzas and Italian ingredients.

I've been meaning to use this for ages, so when I get some mushroom with this week's veg box I decided a risotto was a good idea.

First of all, I made a quick stock using Abel & Cole's 'Stock and Roll recipe', this is really easy and as with any stock, you can use anything you have to hand. This time I used onion, celery and carrot plus a few cabbage leaves and the stem part of a used broccoli.  This resulted in quite a dark green stock!

My new food processor which I received as a Birthday present from The Boy really helped with the stock recipe!

For the risotto itself, I used a basic risotto recipe, and then added the bruscetta spread near the end.

1. Sizzle an onion in butter or oil (I used Suma Sunflower Spread) until tender
2. Add around 50g of risotto rice per person and cook for a few minutes.  Add in sliced mushrooms
3. Add a glass of vegan/ vegetarian white wine and let the rice absorb it.
4, Add a ladle of warm stock.
5. Set timer for 20, add the stock to the risotto a little at a time until the time is up.
6. Add cheese, or as I did add a bit of bruscetta topping and a sprinkling of pine nuts!

The lady at the festival gave me a tip when I bought the spread: when you've opened it and used it, cover the remaining spread with sunflower oil- it makes it last longer and infuses the oil!

Romesco Cauliflower Stir Fry

Today is THAT day of the week.  The day before veg box deliver day when I try to piece together the last of this week's veg into some sort of meal.

This week, I had left half the Romesco cauliflower, some red onions and potatoes. The onions and potatoes will keep so it was more a case of using up the cauliflower, and although I really enjoyed Tuesday night's tea it took a while and I just wanted something quick.

It was a toss up between pasta and a stir fry, and the stir fry won.

Along with the cauliflower (and noodles) I planned to add chilli, garlic, soy sauce and the juice of half a lemon that I had in the fridge.

All was going according to plan, until I accidentally pour red wine vinegar into the wok instead of sesame oil, and since I thought I'd buggered it up all ready I thought I would experiment a bit so added a bit of Thai green curry paste.

I was expecting something vile, but it actually tasted OK and the only thing was I went a bit OTT on the soy sauce so it tasted a bit like a posh pot noodle!

I would post a recipe/method but there isn't one, I think it probably needs a bit of work. But just shows that with a few store cupboard staples, half a cauliflower, chilli and onion you can make a meal. And don't be afraid to wing it!