#medium skill

2T oil

1 two-pack Vegusto farmhouse style sausages, halved and chopped chunky

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

2 large leeks, washed and sliced on the diagonal

2 tins of butter beans, drained and rinsed

500ml/2 cups vegetable stock

1T marmite (yeast extract)

2t cayenne pepper

1t paprika

4 slices of stale bread

1. Preheat the oven to 200C and lightly grease a large, deep baking tray

2. Heat the oil over a medium heat and fry the sausages until they are browned. Put into a dish and set aside

3. Pop a little more oil in the pan and add the leeks and half the garlic, cook for about 5 minutes. 

4. Add the beans, vegetable stock, marmite and spices, cover and cook for a further 10 minutes or until the leeks are soft.

5. Add the sausages back into the mixture, stir and pour everything into the baking tray.

6. Tear the bread into a food processor and add the remaining garlic. Blitz until you have small breadcrumbs.

Side note: when preparing the squash, don't throw away the seeds! Wash off the fleshy bits holding them together, place in a baking try with a little salt (you can also use a little oil but it's not essential) and roast for around 10 minutes on 200C. You can either snack on them while you're cooking or put them into the dish for some extra crunch.

Ingredients (serves 4)

500g squash, peeled and chopped into 2cm chunks

1T olive oil

250g wholewheat pasta

250g cashew nuts, soaked overnight

240ml vegetable broth

2-3 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped

1 medium bunch of coriander, rinsed and chopped

1 large handful of spinach leaves or kale or other greens you like

Juice of half a lime

2T nutritional yeast

0.5t asafoetida

0.5t paprika

1-2 chilis, deseeded and roughly chopped

Salt and pepper

1. Preheat your oven to 200C and boil a kettle.

2. Place your squash pieces onto a baking sheet and toss lightly in olive oil and bake in the oven for around 10-15 or until god and tender. See if you can very easily slice it with a knife. Don't let it burn!

3. Pour the boiled water into a large pan and bring back to the boil. Place in the pasta, reduce the heat and simmer for around 10 minutes (or whatever the packaging says).

4. Place the rest of the ingredients, except the spinach, into a blender so they're ready for the squash. Add a few good dashes of salt and pepper.

5. Use a steamer to steam the spinach, or you can boil it in a little water until tender, again, try not to cook it down to a goo!

6. Once the squash is roasted, pop it in the blender with the rest of the ingredients and blend everything together until you have a smooth, creamy sauce. If you find it to be a little thick, just add some more water until you get the desired consistency.

Ingredients (make 4-6 servings)

2 leeks, washed and chopped into rounds

4 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped into small chunks

2 medium or 3 small carrots, chopped into half moons

1 punnet of mushrooms, sliced

Large sprig of rosemary, chopped

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

250g pearl barley

1L vegetables broth (with optional marmite added!)

3-4 handfuls of kale

1T olive oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

Method

1. Heat the oil over a medium heat, add the leeks with a generous helping of salt and pepper and sautee until browning - takes about 5 minutes (watch they don't burn!)

2. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or so

3. Add the carrots, pepper, mushrooms and rosemary and continue to cook down for another 5-10 minutes so everything starts to go nice and soft. Make sure you stir regularly to prevent it from burning

4. Next goes in the tin of tomatoes, give a good stir then add the pealr barley and stir in again. Let this cook for  a minute or two

5. Finally add the vegetable stock. Don't pour all of the stock in at this point - just enough to cover the vegetable mix. Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 20 minutes until the barley is soft adding stock a little at a time as needed

6. Once the barley is mostly done, tear the kale into the pot and stir into the stew, Add the rest of the stock and let the whole thing cook slowly until everything is of the desired consistency

Ingredients

T of coconut oil or olive oil or soy butter

2 small onions, finely chopped

3-4 cloves garlic, chopped or crushed

300-400g mushrooms, chopped - you can mix and match

150ml dry white wine

200ml soy milk or almond milk

good dose of paprika

1t of dried thyme or 2 t of fresh thyme, chopped finely

1T dijon mustard

2-3 heaped T of nutritional yeast

salt and pepper to taste

1. Heat the oil over a medium heat and sautee the onions for about 5 mins, until transluscent. Add the mushrooms and cook down with the onions until they are nicely done, but not overcooked.

2. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or so. 

3. Now for the white wine... turn up the heat a little and pour the wine onto the vegetables. Cook for around 5-10 minutes until the liquid has reduced in the pan. This means that there should only be a small amount of liquid in the bottom of the pan and if you smell the cooking fumes, you shouldn't be able to smell alcohol.

4. Next add the soy milk, paprika and thyme and mustard and stir well. Turn down to a low heat and let this cook, covered for about 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

5. Around 5 minutes before serving, add the nutritional yeast and season with salt and pepper. 

After a bit of mooching, I used the sauce recipe from Darlene Schmidt's Vegetable stir fry and I was not disappointed. You can tinker around with this to get the flavour you like. Make up the sauce before you start to cook any of the vegetables.

What you need for the sauce

150ml coconut milk

2 tbsp soy sauce

3 tbsp fresh lime juice

1/4 - 1/2 tsp dried crushed or fresh chillies

2 tsp brown sugar

So all you need to do here is mix all the ingredients into a bowl, grab a teaspoon and have a taste. This is a good exercise in learning about flavour because if something is wrong then you're going to have to figure out what there is too much or too little of. If it's too tart (or sour) then add a little more coconut milk, if it's too sweet, add a little more lime or soy sauce (or both) and obviously, you can make it as spicy as you like. Just add things a few drops at a time and you'll quickly find the perfect mix for you. There's no right or wrong answer here, just personal taste.

Stir fry ingredients

As I said before, you can go wild here. User anything, but I would always recommend garlic and onions as a base. Try to get lots of colours in there so you know you've got a fairly balanced meal. I like to add seeds and nuts into my stir fry too. Here's a basic outline:

2 tbsp sesame/groundnut/vegetable oil

3 shallots or half a red onion, sliced

1 inch square piece of fresh ginger, sliced

2-4 cloves of garlic, sliced

1 medium carrot, shredded or cut into strips

A handful of broccoli and/or cauliflower florets

Half a red or yellow bell pepper, sliced

5 mushrooms (or more if they're button mushrooms), sliced

A few leaves of pak choi or other cabbage, sliced thickly

One pack of rice noodles - be careful! Lots of noodles are made with egg

If you are using dried noodles, cook these according to the packet's instructions and have them ready on the side to add into your dish later. If you have out-of-the-bag noodles then you can simply add these in at the end.

Once you have your vegetables chopped up then heat the oil in a wok or other large frying pan. You want it to be fairly hot, but not turned all the way up. When the oil is hot (move the pan around and see if the oil has become really runny).

First thing to add is the onion, garlic and ginger. Let these fry for a few minutes until the onions start to go translucent. Next add in the carrot, broccoli/cauliflower, pepper and mushrooms and again allow to fry for a few minutes. You don't want to vegetables to overcook in a stir fry; they should be nice and crispy. Add some of the stir fry sauce in here and mix it in quickly. Once everything in the pan is nice and covered add the pak choi or cabbage cook for another two minutes at most, mix in the prepared noodles and the rest of the sauce and take the pan off the heat. If you think your vegetables, especially the cabbage, are a bit tough, you can cover the pan with a large lid for a minute or two which will allow it to steam in itself a little.