Europe food travel vanlife

Food with friends

January 13, 2019

Yesterday we trawled the farmer’s market in Míres and came back with a haul of veggies, herbs and teas. It’s too easy to slip into the old ways of eating as a vegetarian, which tends to consist of a wheat-based-carb (bread/pasta) with cheese and tomatoes. Working towards increasing the plant-based content of meals again this year. We do pretty well but to prevent lapses I need to be inspired.

Last night we parked up with our new friends and shared good food made from our market finds. Inez also made a feast including beetroot carpaccio with toasted seeds and garlic carrots.

photo by Andy Garside

I like food that has simple ingredients and that is easy to assemble. Here’s the recipes for some of the dishes:

home-made hummus

chick peas (soaked overnight then boiled until cooked, or drained from a tin).
Tahini paste
lemon juice
minced garlic
good olive oil
salt
Put everything into a large bowl and mash sturdily with a potato masher until soft adding water if it feels too dry. If you want to be more hi-tech you can use a blender. I need to buy one!

Turmeric roasted cauliflower with chilli sauce & tahini dressing

This is inspired by a dish we had last summer at Maray, Bold St, Liverpool. Take a whole cauliflower and break into florets. In a bowl put a good glug of sunflower oil, a teaspoon of turmeric & a teaspoon of salt. Mix together then  tumble the cauliflower in the paste until covered. Leave to one side.

The chilli sauce is chopped tomatoes, jarred peppers, dried chillies, fresh chillies, Chipotle hot sauce. Again use a blender if you have one, mine is more of a salsa because I had to just finely chop everything instead.

The tahini dressing is from the Minimalist Baker whose website I love. I haven’t changed a thing in this recipe because it’s perfectly simple and tastes wonderful. Tahini, lemon, minced garlic, maple syrup, salt. Yum.

You can then roast the cauliflower in the oven, or if you only have two gas rings like me use a good iron pan with a lid, my Netherton Foundry one is used every day in the van. It’s an essential (not an ad I just love this pan). Put a slosh of water in the bottom to stop it sticking, put on medium heat with the lid on and leave for 10mins to cook the cauliflower. Then take off the lid and turn up the heat to just brown and char the cauliflower a bit.

Serve Cauliflower, pour chilli sauce and tahini sauce over the top. Then add fresh pomegranate and some toasted seeds.

Fennel and apple salad

Mix liquid sugar (honey if not vegan) with lemon juice and olive oil in a bowl. Add thinly sliced apple and fennel.

Green herb salad

pea shoots, curly lettuce, parsley.

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