Month: Jan 2020

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https://www.coop.co.uk/recipes/cheap-eats-vegan-paella

This week Rooting Aboot tried making another recipe from the Co-op’s free January magazine. I must say cooking this paella was easy peasy compared with preparing risotto – no stirring required. Leaving the pot sitting for 15 minutes at the end really made the difference to the rice being cooked and making the whole dish taste full of flavour.

My tips for this recipe:

Use a non-stick pan – this is essential for a successful outcome. If you want the rice well seasoned then use two vegetable stock cubes. Only one cube in 900ml of water would make it too weak for my taste. I also included some green beans – parboil them beforehand and add when the rice and stock goes in.

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https://www.coop.co.uk/recipes/indian-spiced-roasted-cauli

I’m seriously impressed by the person who creates the vegan recipes in the Co-op’s free in store magazine. Time and time again they come up with the goods. There is quite a few in this month’s edition seeing as it’s Veganuary so get your hands on a copy if you can. Being a fan of the old cauli, this was the recipe chosen to try first.

One of the best things about this recipe is that it uses cauliflower leaves – never thought to eat them until now. They are tossed in vegetable oil then sprinkled with chilli flakes and baked for twenty minutes.

The rice recipe to eat along with the cauliflower is also pretty good. Make sure to really cook the red onions well before adding the sugar and vinegar.

The Co-op’s Spinach and Pistachio pilau rice would also complement the roast cauliflower so we’ll probably have that next time. There definitely will be a next time. Here’s the link to the pilau recipe:

https://www.coop.co.uk/recipes/spinach-and-pistachio-pilau

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/vegan-haggis

With January’s dreich weather upon us and Burns Night approaching, we all need food that’s hearty and warming and this vegan haggis has it all (except for the tripe, obviously). We couldn’t quite believe how brilliant it was – Robbie Burns certainly wouldn’t complain. There’s proper Scottish ingredients in this recipe such as barley, porridge oats and suet (vegetable of course). Plenty of finely chopped mushrooms, onions and grated carrots give it an all round, authentic haggis texture.

My tips for this recipe:

Put this big puddin’ in a steamer because it’s easier to handle. Instead of using nutmeg, I recommend adding one teaspoon of black onion seeds and half a teaspoon of black mustard seeds – these spices give the haggis a much better flavour.