Pav Bhaji- Spiced Vegetable Mash

This is an absolutely delicious, wholesome, nourishing, spiced bowl of comfort.

Yes, there are dishes, but it's worth it

I affectionately call it spiced veggie mush, but it’s so much more than that. This is apparently a common lunch in India, where it is served with a lovely soft bap on the side. I’m salivating just thinking about it, especially with my delicious brioche bun recipe.

The good thing is, all you need are a few vegetable cupboard staples and some spices and you’re good to go. The spice mix is the only tricky bit, made by toasting and grinding whole spices.

It feels like a lot of ingredients and I know that not everyone obsessively buys whole spices. You can sub in the ground version of the spices if you need, but the flavour won’t quite be the same.

For a mix made of pre-ground spices, I’d suggest:

• 1.5 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp cumin
• pinch chili powder
• pinch ground cinnamon
• pinch ground cloves
• a good few twists of ground black pepper 

(the traditional recipe also calls for amchur powder which is hard to find. It is a dried mango powder and apparently is quite zesty, I just left it out because I find the chopped tomatoes zesty enough.)

I served mine with what I had to hand – wholemeal chapatti. I kind of wish I’d had a fresh brioche roll though.

Lasagne Pasta Bake

So, there’s not much pasta to be had in the shops so you can’t be choosy about the type you’re using. My boyfriend casually mentioned yesterday that we hadn’t eaten lasagne in ages (probably years) and today I got a delivery from a local fresh food market who have had to close but are rolling with the punches and reinventing as a delivery service. We got onions, carrots, peppers and mince (among other lovely things) – so I had all the fresh basics for lasagne! 

Pre-cheese phase

Now we had  zero lasagne sheets in the house, but this lockdown requires adaptability and inventiveness. AND bonus, I prefer it with shaped pasta.

Banana Chocolate Fudge Cake

Next in my series of foods that you can make with what's on hand at home/non-perishables!

This is great because it uses no butter or eggs, and almost everything is taken from the larder/cupboard, alongside some unhappily over-ripe bananas that you’d never have eaten anyway. 

It’s fudgy and dark and sweet and it really hits the spot. I adapted it from a vegan recipe, so it can easily be made vegan with the use of vegan dark chocolate and oat or almond milk. Feel free to adjust the sugars as well, granulated, caster, white, golden, muscovado, whatever! Adaptability is key.

Lentil and Black Bean Chili Non Carne

Look, it's not photogenic. But it tastes good, I promise.

So I guess we are all looking to our cupboards for what we can make from pantry staples. And I've basically got chilli without the meat, but with the same punchy flavour and very similar texture.

And it's also meat-free! It isn’t strictly veggie the way I made it, I had just fried some chorizo for quesadillas so I used that oil to fry off my onions for some extra smoky depth of flavour. But you can very easily just use vegetable oil and make this veggie/vegan.

I find it easier to stick to flavour profiles I know and textures I like when I'm trying something new. I LOVE lentils and beans. I LOVE Mexican flavours. And I love the versatility of Mexican food. Note - I did not use kidney beans because I hate them. Feel free to use them if they're your fave.

You could serve this on top of nachos, or with some guac, sour cream, or salsa on top. It would be a lovely meat-free filling for tacos or enchiladas. I had mine with mozzarella stirred through it while hot which gives it some cheesy goodness, and scooped it up with a soft tortilla wrap.

Cauliflower Coconut Curry

That meal prep life

More vegetarian food! And it's absolutely delicious!

My biggest problem with doing a “weekend big shop” is that you can never trust the meat to last more than 3-4 days, so by the time you’ve hit Friday, your options are really limited.

Bright yellow loveliness

A simple way to combat this, something I really should have considered earlier, is to lose the meat. This involves expanding the selection of veggies that I eat. I have a love-hate relationship with cauliflower. I hate when it’s made to be something its not – rice/pizza bases it is NOT. However, it brings an incredible texture to soup.  And I hoped it would be nice in a curry (don’t worry, it is).

This meal is great - low in calories, main ingredients unlikely to go bad in 5 days, delicious and easy to whip up! You could also mix up the veg – spinach, peas, carrots would all work here.