Roast Pumpkin with Savoury Sage & Pumpkin Seed Granola

Those of you who are sceptical about vegan food should try this delicious recipe from Mildreds Vegan Cookbook by Daniel Acevedo and Sarah Wasserman. Yes, it's vegan but omnivores would enjoy it too and the pumpkin seed granola is wonderfully versatile.

Daniel and Sarah write: Since cooking with pumpkin and squash looms large in the USA’s national cuisine, Americans are well acquainted with the strange hinterland in which the pumpkin and squash reside, somewhere between sweet and savoury. Europeans, meanwhile, used to baulk at pumpkin pie one minute and pumpkin risotto the next, but we are adjusting. Although we draw the line at serving squash or sweet potato with marshmallows, we think you’ll enjoy the combination of sweet and savoury in this winter side dish, perfect for serving with a vegan roast or for a holiday meal. Alternatively, this could easily be bumped up into a salad dish in its own right by adding some peppery leaves. Use gluten-free oats for a gluten-free option.

Serves 6–8, depending on the size of the pumpkin/squash

FOR THE GRANOLA

50g (1¾oz) jumbo oats

25g (1oz) pumpkin seeds

½ tablespoon sea salt flakes

4 sage leaves, roughly chopped

½ teaspoon roughly chopped thyme leaves

3 tablespoons olive oil

4 teaspoons maple syrup

1 tablespoon Smoked Chilli Jam (see below) or 1 tablespoon redcurrant jelly and a large pinch of smoked paprika and chilli flakes

FOR THE PUMPKIN

I small pumpkin or butternut squash, de-seeded and cut into wedges 2cm (¾ inch) wide

50ml (2fl oz) light olive oil

½ teaspoon sea salt flakes

6 sage leaves

1 To make the granola, preheat the oven to 170°C (340°F),Gas Mark 3½. Line a baking sheet with baking parchment.

2 Mix the oats, pumpkin seeds, sea salt and herbs together in a bowl. Measure out the oil, maple syrup and chilli jam into a jug and whisk with a fork to combine. Add to the oat mixture and mix together well.

3 Turn the granola mixture out on to the lined baking sheet and bake for 15–20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it begins to brown. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

4 To roast the pumpkin, preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F),Gas Mark 6. Line a roasting tray with baking parchment.

5 Toss the pumpkin or squash wedges with the oil, sea salt and sage in a bowl. Turn out on to the lined roasting tray and roast for 45 minutes–1 hour until cooked through but still holding their shape.

6 Crumble the granola over the warm pumpkin or squash and serve.

Smoked chilli jam

We use this sweet smoky condiment both as an ingredient and as a dressing. It adds a real depth of flavour to our Savoury Sage and Pumpkin Seed Granola and glazes, and can be thinned with a little water or orange juice and used to marinate tofu or tempeh before cooking. It pairs wonderfully with any chargrilled vegetables but especially peppers and leeks). If you cook up a big batch and jar it up nicely, it makes a great gift too.

GF

MAKES 10–15 SERVINGS

1 red pepper

light oil (such as sunflower,groundnut or light olive oil)

1 chipotle chilli in adobo sauce

500ml (18fl oz) water

350g (12oz) demerara sugar

grated zest and juice of ½ lemon

2½ tablespoons agar agar flakes

½ teaspoon chilli flakes

¼ teaspoon liquid smoke (see below)

½ teaspoon salt

1 Start by roasting or charring your red pepper, either in a hot oven, on the hob over a gas flame or on the barbecue.

2 If using the oven method, preheat to 240°C (475°F), Gas Mark 9. Rub the red pepper lightly with oil, sit on a baking tray and roast for about 15–20 minutes, turning frequently, until the skin is blistered on all sides.

3 Alternatively, place the pepper directly on a gas burner of the hob turned to high, turning frequently with tongs, until the skin blisters, or do the same over a hot barbecue.

4 Transfer the red pepper to a bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave to cool, then peel off the skin and remove the stem, core and seeds.

5 Blend the red pepper and chipotle chilli with the measured water in small blender, or in a measuring jug with a stick blender, to a purée. Add the purée to a saucepan with all the remaining ingredients and bring to a simmer, giving the mixture a whisk with a balloon whisk every so often to make sure the agar agar dissolves into the liquid.

6 Simmer the jam for 15–20 minutes, then remove from the heat and leave to cool. It should thicken up while cooling until it resembles a firm jelly. Once cool, spoon into clean airtight jars or bottles and store in the refrigerator for 2–3 weeks.

*Liquid Smoke Is simply water that has been filtered through wood charcoal. Try the Living Nutritionals brand (not the kind with additives), which is available from some supermarkets and online.

What to drink: A rich chardonnay or oak-aged chenin blanc would work well with this.

Extracted from Mildreds Vegan Cookbook by Daniel Acevedo and Sarah Wasserman, published by Mitchell Beazley at £25. Photograph © Matt Russell. Mildreds has 4 vegetarian and vegan restaurants in London. For locations see their website

Cauliflower curry, boiled eggs & coconut crumble

Cauliflower and eggs are two of my favourite things, here ingeniously combined by Dan Doherty of the Duck & Waffle in his brilliant book Toast, Hash, Roast, Mash.

Dan writes: "I fell in love with vegetable curries while spending time in India and Bangladesh – cauliflower curry being one of my favourites. The coconut works really well, adding flavour and a rich creaminess, with a crunch in the topping."

Serves 4–6

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

olive oil

1 cauliflower, broken into florets

1 tablespoon cumin seeds

1 tablespoon coriander seeds

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 teaspoon onion seeds

1 tablespoon curry powder

1 onion, finely chopped

2.5cm (1 inch) piece of ginger, grated

4 garlic cloves, crushed

1 red chilli, finely chopped

150g (5 ½ oz) cooked yellow lentils

2 x 400ml (14fl oz) cans of coconut milk

sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons desiccated coconut

8 eggs, hard-boiled and shelled

a large sprig of coriander

Heat some olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and brown the cauliflower florets on all sides.

Meanwhile put the cumin seeds, coriander seeds, ground turmeric, onion seeds and curry powder in a dry frying pan over a medium heat and toast for a few minutes, shaking the pan, until you can smell the aromas and the spices look toasted.

Add the onion to the cauliflower pan and cook over a medium heat without letting it colour for 5–6 minutes, or until soft . Add the ginger, garlic and red chilli and cook for a further 3 minutes, again without letting them colour. Stir in the toasted spices and cook for 3 minutes, then add the cooked lentils and pour over the coconut milk. Season with salt and pepper, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a dry pan, toast the desiccated coconut over a medium heat, shaking the pan, until golden brown.

After the final 10 minutes cooking time, the cauliflower should be cooked but retain a little bite. Add the eggs and cook for 3–5 minutes more. Roughly chop the coriander, stalks included, and stir through.

Transfer to a serving dish and scatter the toasted coconut all over, like a crumble, then serve.

What to drink:

Assuming you manage to resist the temptation of having this for breakfast (I would be sorely tempted, personally) a glass of dry white wine such as a chenin blanc, (not too oaky) chardonnay or viognier would be delicious with it. And if you're having it for brunch, why not a glass of champagne or cava?

See also The Best Wine Pairings for Cauliflower

Extracted from Toast Hash Roast Mash by Dan Doherty, published by Mitchell Beazley, £20 www.octopusbooks.co.uk. Photograph ©Anders Schonnemann

Spinach & agushi curry

I recently chaired a panel on women in food at the Abergavenny Food Festival which included the wonderful Zoe Adjonyoh. I hadn't seen her book Zoe's Ghana Kitchen before but discovered it was full of the most delicious recipes, many of them vegan.

There's also a really brilliant section at the beginning of the book showing and explaining the more unfamiliar ingredients she uses.

Here's one of the recipes that particularly appealed to me.

Spinach & Agushi curry

Serves 4-6

Here’s my twist on traditional Kontomire or nkontomire stew – a delicious vegan spinach curry, to which you can add extra steamed veg of your choice to make it into a more substantial meal.

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1 small onion, thinly sliced

2 teaspoons curry powder

1 teaspoon chilli powder

350ml (12fl oz) uncooked Chalé sauce (see below)

100g (3½oz) or about 2 heaped tablespoons agushi (dried ground melon seeds, available in West African and Caribbean shops and also online )

8 guinea peppers, crushed (also known as grains of paradise - optional)

juice of 1 lime

150–300ml (5–10fl oz) water or good-quality vegetable stock, if required

200g (7oz) baby leaf spinach

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper

Grilled plantain (optiona)

4–6 ripe plantains

1 tablespoon ground ginger

½ tablespoon dried chilli flakes

sea salt

coconut oil (melted) and olive oil, for drizzling

Heat a large, heavy-based saucepan and add the coconut oil. When it has melted, add the onion and sauté over a medium heat for a few minutes until softened, then add the curry and chilli powders and stir well. Stir in the chalé sauce and simmer over a low heat for 20 minutes.

Gently stir in the agushi, using the back of a wooden spoon to break down any lumps that may form – the sauce should start to turn creamy and resemble scrambled eggs. Add the guinea peppers, if using, and the lime juice. Leave to simmer over a medium heat for a further 10 minutes. If the sauce becomes too thick, add the water or vegetable stock a little at a time to loosen it. The colour of the stew will have changed from pink to a mustard colour.

Stir in the spinach and sea salt and black pepper, then simmer gently until the spinach has wilted.

Meanwhile, prepare the grilled plantain, if making. Preheat the grill to medium-high. Using a sharp knife, peel the plantains by cutting the tips off each end and slicing through the skin lengthways (avoid cutting into the flesh), then use your hands to remove the skin. Cut the plantains in half lengthways. Rub with the ground ginger, chilli flakes and sea salt, and drizzle with coconut or olive oil. Grill for 12–15 minutes, turning over halfway through. Serve alongside the spinach curry.

Chalé Sauce

This basic recipe is based on my dad’s everyday cooking sauce. He would whip this up and then literally throw in any type of meat, fish or protein, but it was always tasty.

You can just blend the ingredients and store the uncooked sauce for later use, or cook it and then leave to cool – either way it saves time when making many of the recipes in this book. I make a big batch of this at least once a week – you can easily double the quantity if you want to make a bigger batch, although it’s not necessary to increase the Scotch Bonnet unless you like it extra-extra-hot!

400g (14oz) can tomatoes or 250g (9oz) fresh tomatoes

30g (1oz) or 2 tablespoons tomato purée

1 onion, roughly chopped

5cm (2-inch) piece fresh root ginger, grated (unpeeled if organic)

1 red Scotch Bonnet chilli, deseeded

1 tablespoon dried chilli flakes

1 teaspoon sea salt

3 garlic cloves (optional)

To cook

1 tablespoon sunflower oil

1 onion, finely diced

1 teaspoon curry powder

1 teaspoon extra-hot chilli powder

Makes 500ml (18fl oz)

Place all the ingredients except the ‘to cook’ ones in a blender and blend together until you have a fairly smooth paste. This is your uncooked chalé sauce.

For cooked chalé sauce, heat the oil in a heavy-based saucepan, add the onion and sauté over a medium heat for a few minutes until softened. Then add the curry powder and chilli powder and stir thoroughly to coat the onion evenly. Add the blended tomato mixture and simmer gently for 35–40 minutes.

Use straight away, or leave to cool then store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days, or freeze for future use.

What to drink: Zoe has a number of delicious-sounding drink recipes in the book - I'm liking the sound of Sobolo or sorrel juice with this dish. Otherwise you could go for something like a dandelion and burdock or even a lager but I don't think it's a wine kind of dish.

Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen by Zoe Adjonyoh, is published by Mitchell Beazley £25 www.octopusbooks.co.uk

Image credit: Nassima Rothacker

Creamy cannellini and fennel pasta

A clever little recipe from Jack Monroe's brilliant new book Cooking on a Bootstrap which would be perfect for a shared student house or anyone on a tight budget.

Jack - a celebrated anti-poverty campaigner has first hand experience of living on the breadline but she also has the ingenuity to create delicious food out of simple, cheap ingredients - this one is particularly impressive as it makes a creamy carbonara-style sauce out of a can of cannellini beans.

Jack writes: This pasta dish is packed with protein, but also a very good healthy substitute for cream-packed pasta dishes. As with all bean-based dishes, they benefit from a long, slow cook, so the more time you have to give this, the better the results.

Creamy cannellini and fennel pasta

Serves 3-4

1 large onion (about 200g), finely sliced

2–4 fat garlic cloves (depending on how much of a fan you are), minced or finely chopped

2 tbsp oil

a pinch of salt

¼ tsp fennel seeds

1 x 400g tin of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed (240g drained weight)

2 tbsp lemon juice

a few sprigs of parsley or herb of your choice, to finish

cooked pasta of your choice, to serve (I'd suggest about 300g dried weight)

1 Pop the onion and garlic into a large saucepan with the oil. Bring to gentle heat, add a pinch of salt and the fennel seeds and stir lovingly. There’s a lot of love going into this dish along the way, it’s got the subtle soothing nature of a risotto, so clear the decks and use it as a de-stresser while you stand and stir.

2 Toss the cannellini beans into the pan, squeeze the lemon juice over the top, and cook on low heat for 10 minutes to soften the onions.

3 Add 200ml cold water, then turn up the heat and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, stir, and leave to cook for another 10 minutes. The cannellinis should start to break down and self-purée, thickening the sauce. Stir well and gradually add another 200ml water (you might not need all of it) until most of the beans have broken down and you’re left with a soft, creamy, sweet, garlicky, comforting gorgeous sauce. Stir through the herbs.

4 Stir through your pasta, or allow to cool, spoon into jars or other containers, label and pop in the fridge until dinner time.

TIP

• Fennel seeds are not essential if they aren’t the sort of thing you have lying around but I’m a Big Fan of them – as a store-cupboard spice, a couple of little fennel seeds go a long, long way.

What to drink: Keeping to the budget theme get in the habit of replacing white wine with dry cider. Much cheaper and better than most cheap whites on the market.

Extracted from Cooking on a Bootstrap by Jack Monroe published by Bluebird Books at £15.99. You can get 40% off this price if you order it through her blog and/or order one for a foodbank (again with a 40% discount) by entering the code FBNK2808 on this site.