Brothy tempeh rice bowl & whipped tofu with roasted carrots
A vegan moment to start the year
Happy New Year!
I hope you had a good one - whatever that means for you. For me, it was a tale of two parts: traditional British food around 25 December (no surprise there), followed by traditional Moroccan food (lots of surprises here).
I spent a week around Marrakech - not for the first time; I leave half of me behind whenever I board the plane back – sampling a few old and new highlights:
Courgette fritters at NOMAD
Salads and freshly baked bread like no other at Sahbi Sahbi
Watched the souk unfold at Café des Epices
I will come back to all this in not too long, but today I’m focusing on other uses for some of the ingredients that underlined my holiday: carrots, oranges, chilli, ginger, garlic, coriander, sesame.
For this I hand over to Christina Soteriou, who joined the test kitchen last autumn. Christina is vegan and does wonders with plant-based ingredients. Where I’d add use cream to finish a soup, she’s blending in cashews, tahini, or pine nuts. Where I’d grate parmesan for depth, she’s combining nutritional yeast with miso and garlic powder.
We reach for the same jars - tahini, cashews, nut butters, nutritional yeast (slightly dusty in my pantry, if I’m honest). But she has different instincts with them…
For creaminess and body:
Tahini can go directly into soups and pasta sauces - anywhere you’d normally add cream. It thickens, enriches and adds a nutty hint.
Same principle with nuts and nut butters. Christina will blend soaked cashews with miso and water to make a pasta sauce that clings to every strand. Or fold almond butter into a curry for richness. Or blitz pine nuts into a soup base for a luxurious texture.
For savoury, cheesy flavours:
Nutritional yeast. It’s deactivated yeast with naturally nutty, cheesy flavour, fortified with B12. Melts into sauces, adds depth to soups. Blended with cashews and garlic, it’s really good. The trick: restraint. Used properly, it adds light umami rather than announcing itself.
She also makes “cheesy seasoning” - nutritional yeast, miso, garlic powder, onion powder. You can sprinkle it over roasted vegetables, stir through pasta, or dust over popcorn!
There are many reasons to cook plant-based - animal welfare, the environment, health, or just curiosity about what else is possible. You don’t need to overthink it, just follow Christina.
BTW - someone set up an Instagram dedicated to veganising Simple - @vegan_ottolenghi. Proof, if you needed it, that it’s just about a slight shift in perspective.
Shiitake and tempeh brothy rice bowl
This is a deeply savoury and warming broth, a perfect one for a cosy January night in. The charred tempeh and shiitake mince is offset by the gingery miso broth and fresh Thai basil and avocado salsa.
You can make the broth and tempeh can be made ahead of time. Sauté the tempeh on a high heat to warm through and heat up the broth in a pot. The salsa is best made fresh.
Whipped tofu with charred carrots and salsa macha
This whipped tofu is super versatile - you can use it as a base for different roasted vegetables, or even thinned down to drizzle on top of your veg, for extra protein. The salsa macha is not a traditional one, but is a twist on the Mexican condiment with orange and hazelnuts. You’ll have some left over but, it’ll keep for a week in the fridge. It’s great on sandwiches or tacos, or spooned over roasted veggies or hummus.
