Chipotle-spiced black bean soup

Pulse-based soups like this black bean soup are super-comforting and warming in chilly weather. I rustled it up to use a batch of black beans my neighbour Jenny Chandler had given me and wouldn’t claim for a moment it's authentic but it is good!

(Jenny has written an excellent book on pulses called, appropriately enough, Pulse and is known to us locally as the 'bean queen'!)

Serves 4

3 tbsp sunflower or vegetable oil

2 red onions, peeled and roughly chopped

2 large cloves of garlic, crushed

1 chipotle pepper en adobo, chopped or 2 tsp chipotle paste

1 tsp sweet pimenton

1 1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tin chopped tomatoes

2 x 400g cans black beans, drained and rinsed or, better still, 450-500g cooked black beans

750ml vegetable stock

For the topping

corn tortilla strips or chips

1-2 avocados

A small bunch of coriander

A small carton of sour cream

1-2 limes, quartered

Heat the oil in a casserole or heavy-bottomed saucepan and fry the onions, for 10 minutes. Add the crushed garlic, cook for a minute then stir in the chopped chipotle or chipotle paste, pimenton and cumin, Stir and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the tinned tomatoes, beans and 500ml stock bring up to boiling point and simmer for about 20 mins.

Remove half the beans and whizz in a blender (or use a hand-held blender to blitz the remaining soup in the pan - the idea being to retain some texture in the soup). Return the purée to the pan, heat through and adjust the seasoning.

Assemble the topping ingredients. Pour a shallow layer of vegetable oil into a frying pan and fry the tortilla strips for a minute or so until puffed up and crisp. Chop the avocado into chunks. Chop the coriander. Serve the soup with some crisp tortilla strips, sour cream, avocado a squeeze of lime and scatter some chopped coriander on top.

What to drink: I’d probably go for a beer - either a lager or a negro modelo with this but a robust red like a malbec or even a young rioja would work well too.

For other pairings with bean-based dishes see The Best Wine Pairings with Beans

Cullen skink (smoked haddock and leek chowder)

If you can't face the thought of haggis on Burns' Night how about a warming bowl of deliciously creamy cullen skink - the Scots' answer to chowder?

serves 4

225g (8oz) smoked haddock, preferably undyed

300ml (1/2 pint) whole milk

1 medium to large potato (about 225g/8oz), peeled and diced

40g/1 1/2 oz butter

1 large or 2 small to medium leeks (about 225g/8oz sliced weight), cleaned and finely sliced

A good handful of chopped parsley

White pepper and a little salt (for boiling the potatoes)

Place the fish, skin side up in a single layer in a medium-sized saucepan and cover with milk. Bring gradually to the boil, simmer for a minute then take off the heat. Meanwhile put the diced potato in another pan, cover with water, bring to the boil, salt and simmer until tender. Scoop out half the potato chunks and set aside. Crush the remaining potato roughly in he remaining water. Melt the butter in a third pan* and cook the leeks over a low heat until just soft. Skin and flake the cooked fish, taking care to remove any bones. Put the crushed potato, cubed potato, fish and milk in the pan of leeks, adding enough water to get the consistency you’re looking for (surprisingly if you add water it'll still taste creamy. Heat through and adjust the seasoning (it should be salty enough but might benefit from some white pepper). Add a good handful of chopped parsley, heat through again and serve.

* you don’t need to use all these pans, obviously. You can cook the fish, then the potato in the same pan - it’ll just take longer.

What to drink: If you want to drink whisky I'd go for a light malt like Dalwhinnie or grain whisky although see Ewan Lacey's other suggestions here. Alternative you could have a glass of smooth dry white like a Chablis, Gavi or a chenin blanc

Parsnip, Miso, Oat and Shallot Boulangère

A gorgeously hearty, warming vegetable-based dish from Gizzi Erskine's inspiring book Restore which is full of and advice on how to eat ethically and seasonally.

This recipe is from the Autumn to Winter section and combines one of my favourite winter vegetables, parsnips with miso and, intriguingly, with oats.

Gizzi writes: Boulangère is a gratin of potatoes made by cooking potatoes in the juice (stock) and fat of lamb - the unsung hero of the potato dauphinois. Playing around with root vegetables in a gratin is a great way to really understand them. I've replaced the lamb stock and fat with a chicken or vegetable stock pumped up with miso and oat cream, that you can buy or make yourself. The flavour of the oat is what I want here, not the creaminess, and oat and parsnip are dreamy together.

This dish is a good way to show how we often overlook the flavours of the modern plant-based movement. This gratin is superb as a main dish for a supper or served as a side dish, and if you make it with vegetable stock, your vegan friends will thank you."

SERVES 4 as a side dish

Preparation lime 15 minutes

Cooking lime 45 minutes

2 tbsp oil

4 shallots, very thinly sliced

500g parsnips, cut into very fine rounds (ideally using a mandolin e or a food processor with a thin slicing attachment)

500ml fresh vegetable stock (or chicken stock if you're not making it for vegetarians or vegans)

1 tbsp white miso paste

½ tsp salt

250ml oat cream

few sprigs of thyme

freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 240°C/220°C fan/gas mark 9.

Start by sweating the shallots. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium-low heat, add the shallots and cook gently for about 20 minutes, stirring regularly, until beautifully soft and caramelised.

Add the sliced parsnips (I don't think they need peeling - the peel adds a nice texture) to a separate saucepan, along with the stock, miso paste and salt. Bring to the boil then take off the heat immediately. Drain the parsnips, reserving the stock. Return the stock to the pan and cook over a high heat until the volume has reduced to about 150ml and the stock has a thick, syrupy consistency.

While the stock is reducing, you can start constructing the dish. Once the parsnips are cool enough to handle, take a gratin dish (about 2 litre capacity) and make a layer of parsnips on the bottom, two or three parsnip slices thick. Spoon over a thin layer of the shallots, season with pepper and the leaves from the sprigs of thyme. Repeat this process until you have used everything up.

To finish the sauce, add the oat cream to the stock and allow to reduce further for a couple of minutes until thickened slightly. Pour this over the parsnips and put the dish in the oven to bake for 20 minutes, until the top is crisp and golden. Remove from the oven and leave to sit for a couple of minutes before serving.

What to drink: I'd go for a rich white with this, maybe with a lick of oak. I'm thinking white Rhône or Roussillon (anything from grenache blanc or gris), oaked white rioja or a Douro white

Extracted from Restore: a modern guide to sustainable eating by Gizzi Erskine is published by HQ at £25

Photography credit – c. Issy Croker.

Easy South African seed bread

I discovered this deliciously nutty bread in South Africa when I first visited back in the 90s and couldn't stop making it but had forgotten about it until I was reminded about it the other day by winemaker Bruce Jack. This is the version I put in my book The Healthy Lunchbox, adapted from one I was given by Silwood School of Cookery in Cape Town.

It really is one of the easiest breads out there

South African seed bread

You will need a 900g loaf tin, preferably non-stick

450g malthouse or granary flour

50g bran

50g sunflower seeds + extra for topping

15g each poppy and sesame seeds + extra for topping

1 1/2 tsp fine sea salt

1 1/2 tsp easy blend yeast

2 tsp barley malt extract (available from health food stores) or clear honey

1 tbsp sunflower oil + extra for oiling the tin

Tip the flour, bran, seeds and salt into a large bowl and mix together well.

Measure out 500ml of lukewarm water and stir in the barley malt extract or honey.

Sprinkle the yeast over the flour mix and pour over the oil and half the liquid. Start mixing it together with a wooden spoon. gradually adding as much extra liquid as the flour will absorb. The consistency should be slightly wetter than a normal loaf. Keep stirring until the dough begins to come away from the sides of the bowl (about 2 minutes). Tip the dough into a well oiled loaf tin, pressing it down evenly.

Using a teaspoon carefully shake each of the seeds in a vertical line down the length of the dough (see photo) and press down gently.

Cover the tin loosely with clingfilm and leave to rise for about 25-30 minutes until the surface of the loaf is about 1.5cm from the top of the tin.

Meanwhile heat the oven to 190°C fan/400°F/Gas 6. Bake the loaf for about 40 minutes.

Using a round-bladed knife loosen the sides of the loaf away from the tin, carefully ease it out then return the bread to the oven for a final 5 minutes for the base to crisp up.

Take the loaf from the oven and leave on a cooling rack until completely cold before slicing. It's particularly good with cheese and also with honey!