A comforting, simple stew from Isa Chandra Meskowitz' Vegan With A Vengeance: over 150 delicious cheap animal-free recipes. Perfect on its own with crusty bread or served with greens.
What's in it?
2 tablespoons Cornflour (or arrowroot)
250ml Vegetable Stock
4 tablespoons Olive Oil
150g Chestnut (Cremini) Mushrooms (thinly sliced)
2 Shallots (finely chopped)
1 Large Onion (quartered and thinly sliced) [not for me - additional shallots were used!]
4 Cloves of Garlic (roughly chopped) [again, IBS friends may wish to omit this or switch to garlic infused oil for cooking to maintain the flavour profile without consequences]
1 teaspoon Fresh Thyme (chopped)
Ground Black Pepper - several dashes to taste
350ml White Wine [cooking wine - not the good stuff, a cheap £5 Pinot does the job - and depending on how long the potatoes take to cook and evaporation you may need more than 350ml]
1 tablespoon Soy Sauce
3 tablespoons Miso Paste [the recipe calls for chickpea miso, but white miso paste works fine]
450g Small Potatoes (halved, or cut into 1/4 inch cubes as needed)
450g Tofu (pressed, cut into eighths widthwise and then cut into long isosceles triangles)
Kitchen kit you'll need
One large frying pan with a lid, or crock pot
One large chopping board
Tofu press [not really - I don't have one and buy Tofoo which is super firm and just needs a good squeeze over the sink, but if you're into gadgets, or already have a press, put it to work]
Measuring jug
Chef's knife
Wooden spoon
Measuring spoons
Weighing scales
Fork
A bowl to hold set aside ingredients in
How to make it
Mix the cornflour into the vegetable stock using a fork or whisk to ensure there are no lumps. Set aside.
Heat the pan to a medium to high heat and add 2 tablespoons of oil. Sauté the mushrooms until brown and most of the water has evaporated, then remove from the pan and set aside.
Add the remaining oil to the pan and sauté the shallots (and onion if using) until slightly brown.
Add the garlic, thyme and black pepper and continue to sauté for another two minutes until the garlic is fragrant.
Stir in the white wine gradually, using your first pour to deglaze the pan if needed, then add the stock, soy sauce, and miso. Bring to a boil then lower to a simmer. Stir to ensure the miso is completely dissolved - the consistency should be a slightly thick, American-style gravy. If the consistency is too thick add more white wine to loosen it.
Add the mushrooms, potatoes and tofu, ensuring the potatoes are mostly submerged in the gravy - they can poke out a little, but we're looking for icebergs rather than islands!
Cover and simmer over a low heat until the potatoes are very tender (guidance is 25 - 30 minutes, but in reality it depends on your potatoes. Keep an eye on liquid levels and stir in more wine if needed).
The Book
Ok, so before we get into it, full disclosure: this is my absolute favourite recipe book. It's accessible, has interesting and easy to follow recipes, cleanly designed pages, easily navigable sections, and a punk vibe. So cooking a new meal from it was exciting and something I really looked forward to this week.
Vegan With A Vengeance: over 150 delicious cheap animal-free recipes by Isa Chandra Meskowitz (Fizzle) should be a staple of all vegan homes. My copy was given to me as part of my moving to university survival kit, and is one of my most treasured possessions. Why? Because at the time there were virtually no vegan ready-meals in supermarkets, vegetarian cookbooks were dairy-dominated, and I had no clue how to make good, cheap, food for myself. Everything you need to make vegan versions of classic meals (the Fettucine Alfredo is excellent), and a good range of cakes and deserts is included. The ingredients you need are simple, easy to find, and usually cheap. Faff is minimised, and where you need to do something a little more complex or technical, Fizzle gives clear, easy to follow, instructions - an example of this is her breakdown of how to prepare tofu and the different ways to cut it.
There's a particular New York swagger and attitude to the book, which brings it to life and gives it character. You won't find any frills here - just straight-up, honest, no nonsense good food.
My copy is simple, with no photographs, but somehow that's not an issue - I don't need a picture to show me how the finished product should look, because from the notes and instructions Fizzle gives you can picture in your mind what you're aiming for. Also, let's be honest, our plates never look like the professional shots taken for those fancy coffee table cookbooks anyway, and that's not why we're cooking. We're cooking for joy, and to serve up a tasty meal, not to create an Instagram masterpiece!
In 2015 the book celebrated its 10th anniversary, and there's a fresh edition on the market, which now includes full colour photos, updates and some new recipes [hint hint: this is going on my Birthday/Christmas list!].
For more content from Fizzle, check out her website: The Post Punk Kitchen – Isa Chandra Moskowitz.
Rating:
(as if you need to ask)
How it turned out
This meal reminds me of biscuits and gravy (which I've had once in my life and took a bit of effort to find a place in Florida which had a vegan option on the menu). The sauce has a rich umami flavour to it, and despite the (very large) amount of wine used during cooking, it's not at all boozy. This is a comforting, warming, American-style gravy sauce that works perfectly in the stew, or could be modified to accompany a roast.
Now, real talk, the book says the potatoes take 25 - 30 minutes to cook. I don't know what witchcraft was involved, but the miniature potatoes we got from Tesco absolutely did not take 25 - 30 minutes. It took about 90 minutes to fully cook the potatoes in the stew, and even with the pan lids on, liquid levels needed to be topped up. To avoid thinning the flavours of the sauce out we didn't use water to do this, but added more wine (my partner is a trained chef, and can probably explain the reason for this over say, more stock).
I used the smoked tofu I bought last week on the 3 for 2 offer. This gave the stew an added smoky flavour, which some people might associate with bacon. Whatever, it worked really well with the umami from the miso.
Everything was simple to prepare and put together. We also made up a chicken version (brown the chicken first, set aside, then add with the potatoes), which I'm told would be good with bacon added to it.
One of my favourite things to do with soups and stews is take a crusty bread roll, hollow the inside out, and stuff it with the soup or stew. This stew is wonderful enjoyed that way. Green beans also work as a side.
If you're looking for wine pairings, this is a meal that a lighter wine with softer tannins pairs well with, so we're in Pinot Noir territory. Alternatively, look for a dry white wine with medium acidity - think Chenin, Chardonnay, and Riesling. We didn't take the wine route with this meal, it was a gin and tonic night.
In terms of costings, we had pretty much everything we needed in the kitchen already. Your biggest expenses here will be the tofu and wine. Per portion, this meal comes in under the £3 mark, so long as your cooking wine is in the £5 a bottle range. After a more expensive meal last week, which needed a big shop and stock up, this was definitely welcome! When reheating the stew for lunch at the office, you'll need to add a little boiled water to thin the sauce as it will continue to thicken while stored.
The recipe makes up 4 portions (or two large servings depending on your appetite and what accompaniments you put with it).
Nutritional Values
(based on 4 servings, no additions or alterations to the base recipe)
Calories | 487 |
Total Fat | 19.7g |
Saturated | 2.7g |
Trans | 0g |
Polyunsaturated | 1.8g |
Monounsaturated | 10g |
Cholesterol | 0 mg |
Sodium | 900.5mg |
Total Carbohydrates | 21.4g |
Dietary Fibre | 4.4g |
Sugar | 2.7g |
Protein | 12.4g |
Calcium | 14.9% |
Iron | 16.9% |
Potassium | 174.9mg |
Vitamin A | 4% |
Vitamin C | 0.6% |
Vitamin D | 0% |
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