Delia's Vegetarian Collection

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Most of the recipes I try include an umami-rich element in homage to the original meat filling. Cheese will do that job perfectly, of course, as well as adding fat, so if you use it, fold in grated hard cheese of your choice to taste (about 50g should do, but it will vary depending on strength; you’ll need less mature cheddar than red leicester, for example). Soy sauce is a popular vegan alternative, and makes an appearance in both Elliot’s and Young’s versions, with the latter also adding miso paste for an extra hit of savoury flavour; Bosh, meanwhile, use nutritional yeast, which always reminds me, not unpleasantly, of Quavers. All of these are excellent choices, but I like to keep things simple with a spoonful of Marmite, which is something I always have in the house anyway. If you don’t care for it, choose one of the above instead. The seasoning

Courgettes and Tomatoes au Gratin | Recipes | Delia Online Courgettes and Tomatoes au Gratin | Recipes | Delia Online

First, soak the vine leaves in boiling water for 20 minutes, then drain and spread out each leaf flat – vein side uppermost. When the aubergines and peppers are cool enough to handle, scoop out the flesh of the aubergines and mash up any large pieces. Peel the peppers, remove the seeds and finely chop the flesh, then add to the aubergine. Weigh this down with a heavy object (like scale weights) and after 30 minutes quite a bit of water will have been drawn out. Dry them really thoroughly in a clean cloth and then they're ready to cook. Heat the oil in a frying pan large enough to hold the courgettes in one layer (otherwise do them in two batches), add the crushed garlic and sauté the courgette slices to a nice golden colour on each side. Next arrange layers of courgettes, cheese slices and sliced tomatoes in a heatproof gratin dish so that they overlap each other slightly like slates on a roof. You can watch how to skin tomatoes in our Cookery School Video. While they're cooking, heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large solid frying pan and fry the onions until they're soft and tinged brown at the edges (about 5 minutes), then add the chopped pepper and soften and brown that too for about another 4 minutes. Next add the garlic, cook for 1 minute more, then transfer the whole lot to a plate. Next transfer the aubergines to a clean tea cloth to squeeze them dry, then add a further 2 tablespoons of oil to the frying pan, turn the heat up to high and toss the aubergines in it so they get evenly cooked. When they're starting to brown a little, add the drained tomatoes and the onion and pepper mixture to the pan. Cover and cook gently for 6 minutes, then drain, reserving the water. Now heat the oil in a pan and fry the onion until softened. Then stir in the turmeric, coriander, cumin seeds, ginger and garlic, followed by the lentils, and stir until everything is thoroughly combined before pouring in the reserved vegetable water. Now bring to the boil, cover and cook gently for 40 minutes, or until the lentils are just tender.Delia left school at 16 with no qualifications and worked as a trainee hairdresser, then a shop assistant and later at a travel agency. At age 21, she spent time washing up in a restaurant, and this experience piqued her interest in cooking. However, she says it was when a boyfriend kept praising his former girlfriend's talents in the kitchen that she got fed up and started cooking seriously. Almost everyone suggests buying vegan puff pastry, which is certainly the easiest option, but, while all pastry is good, it’s hard to deny the fact that homemade pastry is usually better, and Smith’s flaky pastry always is. (Rhodes gives a vegetarian suet version, but that involves palm oil, so I’d prefer to steer clear.) It all depends how much time and patience you have. While we're on the subject of texture, baked pasta dishes such as lasagne are apparently not intended to be served al dente – they should tend more towards the "custardy", which is certainly not an adjective I've ever heard applied to any other kind. This is perhaps why Hazan and Stewart insist on the use of fresh pasta. When the roulade is cooked, turn it out on to the hazelnuts and carefully peel off the base paper. Spread the creamed parsnip evenly all over the sage and onion stuffing. Then roll up the roulade along the longest side, using the greaseproof paper underneath to help you pull it into a round (it's not difficult, it behaves very well). The obvious solution, of course, is to use a plant-based meat substitute, and Mob Kitchen recommends a pea, rice and soy protein-based brand for their recipe, which is mixed with sage, onion, chopped chestnuts and apricots, and nutmeg to produce something that looks much more like the fillings with which I’m familiar. The problem is that plant-based meats are incredibly low in fat, and cook to a crisp, leaving the filling sadly dry and, in this case, bland – I can’t detect much in the way of flavour from the “mince”. It might work better with another kind, but then you could also encase meat-free sausages in pastry without any guidance from me.

Lentil and Vegetable Curry | Recipes | Delia Online

Caldesi also makes a tomato sauce along with her bechamel, while Hazan, Stewart and Smith use bechamel only, and the Silver Spoon goes for a mixture of ricotta and tomato puree.Start off by preparing the courgettes and aubergine an hour ahead of time: chop them into 1½ inch (4 cm) chunks, leaving the skins on, and layer them in a colander with a sprinkling of salt between each layer. First of all cook the lentils in 2 fl oz (55 ml) water (no salt added) at a gentle simmer for about 30 minutes or until they are softened and all the water has been absorbed. Meanwhile heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a frying-pan and cook the onion and pepper together in it until they are softened – about 8-10 minutes. Then remove them to a plate, add the rest of the oil to the pan and cook the aubergine, which will also take about 10 minutes to soften. After that add the garlic, cook that for a minute then return the onion and pepper to the pan. Now mix the wine and tomato purée together with the cinnamon and parsley in a jug, then pour this into the vegetable mixture.

Vegetarian Moussaka with Ricotta Topping | Recipes - Delia Online

If you are cooking a double quantity, measure out half of them into a bowl and when they have got quite cold, cover the bowl with clingfilm and store in the fridge.) Next prepare the aubergines: place the cubes in a colander, sprinkle them with a little salt, then cover with a plate weighted down with a saucer topped with some scale-weights. Leave them to drain for 20 minutes, then squeeze them dry in a clean tea-cloth. Begin by preparing the aubergines: to do this cut them into ½ inch (1 cm) dice leaving the skins on. Roll the filling up in the pastry like a bug in a rug, as Young recommends, rather than folding over in the more traditional but also more fiddly fashion, then brush with milk or egg, sprinkle with a few seeds to make it party ready, and you’ll have a sausage roll that everyone but the dog will enjoy. Perfect vegetarian sausage rolls Delia studied English cookery books at the British Museum to find inspiration for cooking meals for family and friends, with mixed success. One of her first television experiences was as an assistant on a food advertisement. When someone dropped a pie just before filming began, she volunteered to make the replacement. The rest, as they say, is history.Having combed my bookshelves, and the internet, I’ve concluded that meat-free sausage rolls fall into a number of broad camps. The first, represented here by Christmas queen Delia Smith, though also favoured by the likes of Gary Rhodes and Prue and Peta Leith, relies on cheese. Cheddar, in Smith’s case, flavoured with grated onion and chopped herbs, bulked out with soft breadcrumbs and moistened with cream. And I can see why so many of you recommended them to me – they’re as rich and satisfyingly greasy (and I mean that in a good way) as the real thing, with an emphatically savoury flavour. My concern, however, apart from the fact that they occupy much the same party-food space as a cheese straw, is that they’re not vegan-friendly. Delia Smith’s veg sausage rolls: cheddar, breadcrumbs and cream. Thumbnails by Felicity. The ‘meat’