Watercress Soup and Egg Mayo Sandwiches, Veganised

Watercress soup egg mayo sandwich recipe

My Granny was an amazing cook. She wasn’t vegan of course, but I have so many lovely food-related memories of her, from the little silver balls she used to decorate cookies with to her jam on toast cut into tiny squares. When she died almost ten years ago, I took some of her recipes and have veganised some of them. Her sister, my Auntie Eileen, also made great food – her lemon buns were the best lemon buns ever, and she’d always make delicate little egg mayo sandwiches for parties.

I’ve veganised two of their recipes here – Granny’s watercress soup, and Auntie Eileen’s egg mayo sandwiches.

Granny’s Watercress Soup

25g vegan butter

1 onion, peeled and chopped finely

2 potatoes, peeled and chopped coarsely

100g/4oz watercress with tough stems removed and discarded

900ml vegetable stock

300ml plant milk

1 bay leaf

Salt and black pepper

Vegan single cream to serve (optional)

Melt the butter in a large pan. Add the onion and cook gently, stirring from time to time until soft.

Add the potatoes and watercress – retain two or three leaves for garnishing – and cook for about 5 minutes until watercress has wilted.

Pour in the stock and milk and add the bay leaf, then season with a little salt and black pepper. Bring to the boil, cover the pan with a lid and simmer gently for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.

Remove the bay leaf and discard. Transfer the soup to a blender and blend until smooth.

At this point you can add a little single cream, and garnish the soup with a little watercress.

Serves four medium bowls.

Auntie Eileen’s Egg Mayo Sandwiches

1 block firm tofu

Vegan mayo – about half a jar

Kala namak salt – one to two teaspoons

Teaspoon turmeric

White or wholemeal bread

Handful chives

First, press the tofu using either a tofu press or by wrapping the tofu in a clean tea towel, putting it in a sieve with heavy books on top, and suspending it over a bowl to press out the moisture.

Once the tofu is pressed, mash it up to a fine consistency using either your hands or a potato masher.

Add the mayo till it is creamy – I use about half a jar of Veganaise for this.

Add the turmeric – you can use more to give a more yellow colour – and the salt till you achieve the taste you want.

Sprinkle with chives and make sandwiches – remember to cut the crusts off so they look as tiny and delicate as Auntie Eileen’s!

Recipe: Truffle oil, lemon and walnut spaghetti

Spaghetti with truffle and walnut sauce recipe

I first discovered truffle oil on a year abroad in Italy. I was having lunch in an eaterie near the Duomo in Milan called the Panino Giusto and ordered – as this was back in my pre-vegan days – a Speck and Provolone panino. It had this incredible, intense, earthy flavour I’d never experience before, and I asked the server what it was. She told me that it was ‘olio al tartufo’ – which I’d never heard of, but was hooked from that day on.

Milan visit inspired recipe for truffle and walnut spaghetti
Milan’s Piazza Duomo

This was back in 1994, so it was a rare ingredient to find in the UK, whereas now it’s pretty easy to find it in most supermarkets. This truffled spaghetti is a decadent and rich pasta dish that’s bursting with flavour, so definitely not one to make if you’re on a diet! This recipe serves four medium size bowls of spaghetti.

INGREDIENTS

  • Block silken tofu
  • 100g walnuts
  • 2 lemons
  • Salt
  • 2 tbsp truffle oil plus more for drizzling
  • 2 handfuls parsley
  • About 250g spaghetti

METHOD

  1. To prepare the sauce, you don’t need to press the tofu as you are adding water anyway and blending it. Put it in your blender (I used a Nutribullet) with the juice of a lemon, a teaspoon salt, the walnuts, 2 tbsp truffle oil, a handful of parsley plus around 100ml warm water so the sauce isn’t too thick. Add more water if it isn’t creamy enough.
  2. Then cook the spaghetti to your taste and serve topped with the rest of the parsley – you’ll probably find this dish doesn’t require much seasoning as it’s so laden with flavour already.

Maybe even enjoy it with my homemade fennel and olive rolls!

Vegan fennel and olive bread rolls

Recipe: fennel and olive homemade bread rolls

I had a fennel in my veg box recently that I wasn’t sure what to do with. I love the taste of fennel, and it has lots of health benefits, as well as the bulb being a good source of fibre, potassium and vitamin C. I didn’t fancy soup, or pesto, or eating it as part of a roast that day. So I hit on the idea of baking it into a bread recipe! I knew fennel goes beautifully with olives, so decided to make vegan fennel and olive bread rolls. They were delicious with Just Vegan butter, and also with cashew cheese, smoked Applewood and salad.

Here’s how I made them:

Recipe: fennel and olive homemade bread rolls

Ingredients

  • Medium-sized whole fennel bulb that has been roasted and liquidised in a food processor with 150ml warm water
  • 750 g strong white bread flour
  • 7g yeast
  • 300 ml warm water
  • Jar black olives, chopped
  • ½ tsp salt
  • Tbsp sugar
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • Tbsp fennel seeds
  • Rock salt

Method

Once you’ve prepared the fennel, add the flour, yeast, salt and sugar to a bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the olive oil, water, and liquidised fennel.

Mix together to form a dough, and knead for ten minutes until you can stretch the dough so it’s thin enough to see through and it springs back when you poke your finger in it.

Put the dough in a clean bowl and leave for an hour to prove.

Then divide the dough into 10 equal size strips and roll them into sausages of about 32 cm in length.

To make knotted rolls, tie the sausage of dough into a loose knot as above. Tuck one end over the top of the roll into the centre, and tuck the other end to meet it under the roll to the centre. Leave to prove again for half an hour.

Toast the fennel seeds in a dry pan for a couple of minutes and sprinkle on top of the rolls, along with a little rock salt.

Bake for 15-20 minutes in the oven until your fennel and olive bread rolls are golden and enjoy!

These are very good with our truffle oil, lemon and walnut spaghetti!