Spiced parsnip and apple soup

It's important to be cosy. It's especially important when the sun appears to be hiding the majority of the day. To be cosy, safe in the knowledge that you can go outside but it's far better to view it all from the safety of home.

When this time of the year dawns upon us all I wish to do is make meals which suit this cosy feeling. Meals consisting of warm and rich flavours that are the antithesis of the vibrancy that spring and summer more oft bring to the plate. This is especially true of the soups I am inclined to make. Out are the carrot and corianders and minted peas and in come the chunky minestrone and this take on some classic combinations in my spiced parsnip and apple soup.

Key to this soup is the core of flavours at its heart and as a medley of flavours ginger, celery and apple are a great combination. Not one that you would always look to make use of day to day I know but I can assure that, in measured addition, you can really create something excellent. By throwing into the mix some parsnip and spices this soup packs some delicate spice and a depth of heat that absolutely suits December cooking.

Serve with the best bread you can make or purchase and be sure to scoop and soak up as much as you can. If you can make or find bread made with fennel seeds added it wonderfully compliments this soup and adds that extra depth of spice that makes this soup so special in the first place.

Ingredients

100g celery, chopped finely (keep some for dressing)
1/2 half white onion, chopped finely
2 medium apples, chopped roughly (something like a Braeburn, the less fizz the better)
400g parsnips, chopped roughly
20g fresh ginger, chopped finely (around 20g)
2 whole sprigs of rosemary
2 sprigs of thyme
1/4tsp white pepper
1/4tsp mace
1/4tsp dried ginger
800ml vegetable stock
Handful of chopped parsley and paprika to serve

Method

Add your celery and onion and sweat on a low to medium heat for around five minutes until they both start to soften at which point add your herbs and continue to cook for a further five minutes on the same heat, seasoning generously with salt and cracked black pepper.

Once the herbs have softened with the onions and celery add your ginger, parsnip and apples and sweat down on a low heat, with a lid atop your pot, for at least 15 minutes, to allow your parsnips and apples to soften completely.

With all your main ingredients now softened you can add your stock and spices allowing you to simmer everything for a further 15 minutes to ensure everything is soft enough to blend and that all the spices have integrated sweetly into the mix.

You needn't add a thing further to give any creamy consistency to this soup as the parsnips will do the work for you. Blend thoroughly and stir in your parsley, leaving a little aside to serve.

Serve up with a sprinkle of parsley, celery and a dash of paprika.

Coqless au vin

It's very pleasant, especially at this time of year, to create meals that pack a little boozy punch to enrich the warmth in your belly and bring that alcoholic extra kick that can liven up some of our most beloved dishes. Whether it be a stroganoff or even a trifle there's something thoroughly exciting about getting the brandy, whisky or vodka out to dash (or douse) into our food, to bring to your meal an irreplaceable flavour no spice or herb can replicate.

For my vegan friendly aubergine au vin I have opted for red wine to keep with the classic feel of this dish. Naturally, for my vegan friends out there you will want to be sourcing a vegan wine free from the typical egg addition you'll find in many a bottle. To help, I've found a great website, barnivore.com, which assists in sourcing vegan alcohol and it's pretty extensive.

Now back to the meal. For this you're going to want to serve up with your favourite potato option, of which I have elected mash, to bring a perfect accompaniment to the rich stew so make sure you opt for the most appropriate potato for your style as each spud has its own properties which lend to the very best chips, roasties or mash so make sure you do your research!

Otherwise, this meal is a straight forward one pot that is deep with flavour and does nothing to rob the overall feel of the dish in spite of the missing meat.

Ingredients 

1 large aubergine, halved
Mixed mushrooms (quartered 2 large flat caps, halved 4 chesnuts and 6 whole baby buttons)
2 medium red onons, quartered
1 large carrot, chopped lengthways
50g peas
50g green beans
2 large sprigs rosemary
4 sprigs thyme
1 1/2 tbsp plain flour
1tsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 white pepper
200ml red wine
300ml veg stocl
1/2tsp marmite

Method

Begin by frying off your onions in a little oil with lots of salt and pepper for around 8-10 minutes on a medium heat and then add your mushrooms. Drop the heat to low, add your herbs in and cover for around 5 minute intervals for around 15 minutes in total, only lifting to check and stir whilst the mushrooms cook and take on that herby flavour.

Once some of the moisture has been released add your flour and balsamic and cook through, on low, for around 2-3 minutes just to allow the flour to begin to cook out. Now comes the easy part: add your wine, cook for another 5 minutes to cook the flour out now add the carrot, the stock and aubergine, stir through and cover to cook on low for at least 45 minutes until the aubergine has softened and taken on the deep purple of the wine.

To finish, add your green beans and peas, stir through and cover on a low heat still for around 3 minutes to cook your greens.

Serve up and get stuck in with your mash, roasties or chips and, if you fancy it, a glass of fine wine, beer or cider to pair up with this dish.

Skinnyscottishbroth

There aren't many occasions where you get a chance to wax lyrical about the qualities of Scottish cuisine that are veggie and vegan friendly. Simply due to the nature of our place in the world, quite some way north of the equator, we haven't found ourselves creating dishes packed only with the good stuff as there has been, over many centuries, a distinct lack of Mediterranean vibrancy in the Scots diet.

However, where there is nourishment, flavour and plenty of goodness is in our longstanding Scotch Broth, a stew or soup packed with root veg, barley and any other goodness you fancy that fits that classic broth mix.

For my own version, which doesn't go breaking any rules or set the heather alight, I have opted for some mild heat with white pepper and a fresher cruch with cavolo nero to add that little extra greenage and vibrancy in this dish which is best suited for dreach and dreary nights when all you really need is a warm embrace in a bowl.

Ingredients

100g celery, chopped lengthways
200g carrots, chopped lengthways
3 sprigs thyme
1 large sprig rosemary
3 large leaves of cavolo nero, sliced into ribbons
150g pearl barley
100g green split peas
1.4 litre veg stock
1/2tsp white pepper
Salt and pepper (plenty of both) for seasoning
Handful of chopped chives and cress

Method

Add your celery and carrots to a deep soup (heavy set) or stew pan and fry off on a low to medium heat with your thyme and rosemary and season well, cooking for 10-15 minutes until softened.

To your pan add your pearl barley and peas, stirring until the veg and herbs are well coated, and continue to cook for 3-5 minutes ensuring nothing sticks. To all of this now add your stock and white pepper and, over a low heat, cook with a lid on until your barley is cook al dente.

Around ten minutes prior to serving add your caolo nero, still on a low heat, and cover once more. To serve and finish ladel into a bowl and top with chopped chives and cress and crack on plenty of black pepper.

Simple and slow but full of flavour and plenty of warm goodness this batch will give you around 6-8 servings, so best suited to those cold weekend nights when you've the family together huddled by the TV prematurely watching Home Alone and Die Hard hiding from the baltic surrounds.

Italian style aubergine stew (Caponata)

• 
  I absolutely adore Italian flavours and Italian cuisine. They've managed to craft a cuisine so universally loved that, especially here in the UK and with our US cousins, we've taken to producing absolutely tonnes of pasta and pizza each and every day. It's with this output that I've grown to know and love the rich, vibrant flavours and visuals Italian cuisine has to offer with traditional dishes like Lasagne, Spaghetti, Gnocchi and Ristto. 
• However, southern Italian cuisine has something a little different to offer than the traditional expectations, still with the same vibrancy and sense of tradition, which speaks to the newfound vegetarian in me. One of those such offerings is Caponata, a beautiful Sicilian dish which can be worked perfectly as a side dish with some aromatic and homely ciabatta or, in the case of this recipe, served up in a big portion with creamy polenta.

I encourage you each and all to have a look at what southern Italian cuisine, and Sicilian cuisine, is all about as I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at the richness of the meals and the cheapness of the ingredients used to make them as well as the simplicity of the dishes themselves to make.

This meal is out and ready to go in around fifteen minutes if you're prepared and ain't too bad a cook. It's still exceptionally swift to put together even if you're still learning the ropes and the flavours don't fail to pack a punch.

Caponata

• 1/2 large aubergine , cut into medium-large chunks
• 2 large cloves garlic , finely minced (add a sprinkle of salt to assist)
• 1 small shallot, quartered
• 2 tbsp salted capers (around 10-15 capers)
• 1 handful black olives (around 5-7 olives) , stones removed (obviously)
• 2 large ripe tomatoes , roughly chopped
• 1/2 red pepper, chopped into four slices
• 5 sprigs fresh oregano, leaves stripped and finely chopped
• 1 small bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves stripped and finely chopped
• 2tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 50ml tomato stock or 2tbsp tomato puree and 50ml water
• 1tsp plain flour
• Ground black pepper
• Salt
• Method
• Add some oil (any cooking oil you like but it is Italian so olive wouldn't go amiss) to a large pan and turn up to a medium-high heat. Add your aubergine and shallot and season well with salt and pepper and toss regularly to ensure good coverage of heat and seasoning. Reduce your heat to medium after 5 minutes and your veg is starting to soften and char at which point you should add your tomatoes and red pepper and cook for a further 3-5 minutes.
  
  Once the tomatoes have softened up sprinkle with flour, add your stock and capers and cook for only a few minutes more, finally tossing in the oregano and parsley.
  
  Serve with smooth and creamy polenta and add a little oregano or parsley on top for garnish and a little sprinkling of chilli flakes for that extra hit.

Vegetarian "Chicken" and veg pie

In continuing my mission to better eliminate meat from diet I have asked you lovely people what you would like to see made in a vegetarian stylee and what you would like to see is pie.

It is entirely possible and workable to make vegetarian meals the staple part of your diet, with fish and meat only making a small part of your diet. Choosing to start with pies is pretty simplistic as you've some excellent meat substitutes to elect as you draw yourself away from those meaty needs (yes I said meaty needs).

For this recipe I have elected to use quorn chicken as, when it cooked in sauce, it makes for a rather appetising addition to meals. It has to be cooked in a little stock or sauce to make it work best I find so a rich creamy sauce really does the trick. It is also accompanied, as is the theme here afterall, by a plethora of vegetables to really ramp up the health benefits you may feel you're being slightly robbed of with the fact that my recipes lend themselves to large portions.

This recipe is for two pies because you must always cook for others, I insist!

Pie filling

1/4 white onion (sliced thinly)
2 large flat cup mushrooms sliced quartered and roughly chopped
200g quorn chicken
3 florets of brocolli (sliced vertically)
70g sweetcorn
70g peas/broad beans/soy beans

150ml veg stock
50ml milk
Handful of sage, chives and 1/2 handful dill all chopped finely
1 tbsp plain flour

Potato Topping

5 medium white potatoes diced
100g polenta
1/4 white onion chopped finely
Large handful parsley
30-50ml water
Salt and pepper to season

Method

Begin by making your potato topping so you can set aside ready to place upon your filling. Do so by adding your dry ingredients into a food processor or hand operated slicer and pulse or crank to create quite a fine mix which is very coarse. At this point add in your water, bit by bit, and pulse once more until your mix takes on more moisture. The mix should not be in any way sodden, it should have just enough moisture to slightly stick to a spoon.

Once made set aside at room temperature.

Next, cook your white onion in either a small amount of butter or oil (I prefer butter for sweeter onions) on a low to medium heat until the onions begin to caramelise and add your mushrooms and chicken. Add in with this your sage and 50ml of your stock and cook on a low to medium heat to allow the mushrooms and chicken to absorb the flavours so that most of the moisture has cooked out for around 10 minutes.

The next step is merely preference so I will provide two options. You can in a seperate pan add your flour, the stock and milk to cook your sauce or add your flour to your already cooking ingredients and then add the stock and milk. To cook separately add your flour to a pan on a medium heat and slowly add your stock and whisk continuously until the stock thickens greatly. Continue like this until you've added all stock and milk continuing to whisky until there are lumps of flour left. Be sure to season generously with salt and pepper and taste to suit and then stir in your dill and chives. To cook with your ingredients simply sprinkle the flour over your onion, chicken and mushrooms and cook on a medium heat for 1-2 minutes and then add, at once your stock and milk, cooking out as per above and adding once cooked through your herbs.

Once your sauce has been cooked through or added to your ingredients then add your brocolli, sweetcorn and peas and cook for only 2-3 minutes.

Now that your filling has been cooked add it evenly to two small to medium sized pie dishes and cover with the potato topping. Be sure to get a nice large and even covering over you filling to conceal it completely.

To cook your topping through and complete your dish please on a medium placing in your oven at 180c for 20-25 minutes until the potatoes have browned and grill for 2-3 mins on a very high heat to crisp up your top.

Be sure to wear some slack clothing for this one folks, it's a big pie!

Veggie Toad in The Hole

So I have made it somewhat of a mission to ensure that, from now until forever, my meat consumption significantly reduces. There are no sanctimonious reasons for letting you all know, it's actually that I am finding I (I guess unsurprisingly) feel better from a digestive point of view. I suffer from irritable bowel syndrome and, for me, it's pretty obvious that red meat makes me suffer pretty bad and well the rest I can actually do without on the regular.

With that in mind I am looking at working veggie alternatives of my favourite meals into my repertoire to work into this period of transition and so I have begun this period with savoury delight: toad in the hole.

A super simple meal to make as long as you stick to the age old instructions to make this puff up and work with as much gravy as you can possibly fit into this monstrosity.

Great Sunday night dinner material if ever there was one.

Yorkshire Pudding mix
4 eggs
120g plain flour
240ml milk
1tsp salt
Handful chopped parsley

1tbsp veg oil

4-6 high quality veggie sausages (Linda McCartney ftw!)

Method

To make your batter mix the eggs, flour, milk, salt and parsley together and pop into the fridge to go cold.

Prior to making your pudding place your sausages into a medium sized flat skillet pan and cook as per around a third of the time as per the instructions, usually 10-15 minutes (so 3-5 minutes will do to sear) and set aside.

Once removed, heat a the oil in the pan a by placing into an oven 200c for around 3-4 minutes until the oil is spitting hot. Add your sausages back to the pan and pour your cold mix to the pan, ensuring you hear a good sizzle, and place into the oven to cook for around 20 minutes. Be sure not to open the oven as you will run the risk of your pudding collapsing so just keep an eye through your oven door.

Once cooked I recommend serving up with some sauteed greens and loads of onion gravy. Yorkshire puddings love gravy so don't disappoint.

Skinny Scottish Fried Chicken and Slaw Salad

There appears to me to be only two types of cooks on Instagram and that is either #vegan #healthy #cleanliving or super duper fatty and indulgent food makers. I like to think I can straddle both but know that ultimately I will always be the fatty and indulgent man because it's what I love to cook. Homemade, yes but not always healthy.

One of the best examples of this attempted balancing act is my fried chicken and fresh slaw salad. Now tried and tested a whole one-time and I can report it was a roaring success, even tempting my sister, who is on a diet (sorry!), to try some.

There are probably a million and one recipes out there for fried chicken, for the varied styles across the globe, but I have tried to rob and thieve the elements I like the most to create something sweet, salty and spicy to go alongside a vibrant and lively slaw salad  that nicely balances out the overwhelming sense of cardiac arrest within the words "fried chicken" served with and rich spicy sauce that compliments the absolute savoury flavours within the chicken.

My blog is in its infancy right now but if you are going to try one of my recipes now or going forward make this your place to start, I entreat you, because it is one I feel is guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

Wet mix (to be made separately)

200ml buttermilk
1tsp tamarind
1tsp chipotle
1tsp rice wine vinegar
1tsp worcester sauce
1tsp sriracha
2tbsp soy sauce
2tbsp tomato ketchup

Dry mix (to be made separately)

200g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
1tsp garlic powder
1tsp dried oregano
1tsp paprika
2tsp muscavado sugar
1tsp golden caster sugar

600g of chicken thighs (sliced in half horizontally)

1.5l veg oil for frying

Slaw Salad

1/4 red cabbage (finely sliced lengthways)
2 small carrots cut to thin battons
1/2 red onion cut finely lengthways
4 large radishes finely sliced
Handful of chopped coriander
50g toasted cashews and peanuts (1/2 tsp of five spice and salt for toasting)
1/2 fresh lime juice
1/4 tsp dried chilli flakes

Method
Make your slaw first and set aside in the fridge by combining your sliced veg, keeping aside the coriander and nuts, in a bowl seasoning with salt and the chilli flakes. Toast your nuts by setting a high heat, no oil, and placing them into the pan and seasoning with 1/4 five spice and salt. Allow them to sit in the pan and begin to crack, not burn, and toss intermittently to ensure they don't turn to charcoal. Turn the heat off once darkened and season with the rest of the five spice and salt and set aside to cool.

To make the fried chicken start by mixing all of your wet ingredients together and dry together (separate bowls) and add your chicken thighs to the wet mix, marinading for as long as you can wait. Once marinaded fill a large pan or fryer with your oil and bring to 180c and turn your oven to 125c, covering your marinaded chicken in your dry mix, shaking off any excess, and place into the fryer or pan, remembering to always place your chicken away from yourself as you place in to save any splashing.

Cook the chicken for 5-6 minutes, ensuring not to overload the pan or fryer so the chicken cooks, turning the chicken to evenly cook the batter. Once cooked and the batter browned remove from with a slotted spoon and place on kitchen roll to remove any excess oil. Once all chicken is cooked place into the oven to allow you to finish your slaw and make your sauce.

To complete the dish, bring your sauce to heat in a pan by combining all ingredients and stirring regularly until dark and molasses like. Bring off the heat and add to an appropriate dipping bowl, I picked a souffle dish to be contrary. Remove your salad from the fridge, tossing in your nuts and coriander and squeeze over the fresh lime to bring it all to life.

Serve to as many people in your home would eat 600g of chicken, in ours it's just me and Charlotte (mostly me), and enjoy the spectrum of flavours on display.