Recipe Me: 7 Day Vegan Challenge by Bettina Campolucci Bordi
Recipe Me is a new series on Pasghetti & Momatoes trying out recipes from top restaurants and chefs - usually from their lovely cookbooks - using only the limited confines of my kitchen and the even more limited confines of my cooking talents.
I love brown food. Brown indicates the presence of carbs at the least, and a combination of fat and heat at the very best. Brown is the signal that, while this bite may not be the prettiest, it’s likely to provide your other senses with such scintillating hedonism that your eyes may as well have the night off.
But while brown might tickle the tastebuds and crackle in the eardrums, it’s not always what our stomach wants to see. As much as I’d love to bathe in brownness, I find it difficult to eat a meal that doesn’t come with a spattering of green. It’s not particularly intentional on my part, and if it was some great, subliminal calling towards veganism, I would have thought it would be a little more vocal. I think it’s just my body telling me not to be an idiot.
This is when I have to confess that ditching meat for January has not been as simple as I initially hoped. Without going into the gory details, the last week has seen my digestive system resemble an angry riot organised by an Alabama truck driver named Brick. The mob built barricades in ill-defined protest, before angrily storming them a few days later in the name of free speech, all the while yelling at me to “Make Dinner Meat Again”. My constitution stood strong, but it is well and truly baffled.
Before things got too chaotic, however, I was lucky enough to receive delivery of not one, but two aids to my meat-free personal record attempt. The first, a copy of Bettina Campolucci Bordi’s latest cookbook, 7 Day Vegan Challenge, which arrived alongside the second, a box filled with the most wonderfully colourful fruit and vegetables from Boxxfresh, a fresh produce supplier that also delivers vegan-friendly store cupboard heroes and plant-based dairy alternatives.
Taste the rainbow: Fresh produce from Boxxfresh (no Skittles included)
Cracking, I thought, as I hungrily flicked through Campolucci Bordi’s book, with absolutely no intention of being vegan for a full seven days. The book did, however, make it seem pretty damn possible, once I’d juiced a few cashews. From an entire section dedicated to sandwiches to satisfy my brown-predilection – including a Faux Tuna Melt Toastie made with artichokes that I could very much get behind – to more than enough fodder for my green necessities, I was fairly well convinced.
And then, I stared at the box for a bloody long time. Dinner plans needed to be made, and I was experiencing vegetal overload. There were carrots and a swede, two of the biggest leeks I’d ever seen in my life, glossy red peppers, bulging courgettes, fat sweet potatoes and a frankly colossal savoy cabbage. It was an excellent problem to have, so I found myself scouring the book for a recipe that would allow me to try as many of these rainbow veggies as possible, stat.
Bright and vibrant would be the obvious way to go, but I wanted brown food. While January is the month we all hope we’re going to engage in detoxing salads and juice plans, the harsh reality is that it’s winter, bloody cold, pretty boring and what we actually want from dinner is a cuddle. Luckily, Campolucci Bordi had just the remedy – a veggie crumble.
There was concern in the household until I explained I wasn’t about to dust a turnip with sugar, but top a medley of stewed vegetables with a crumble topping made with blitzed walnuts, oats and pumpkin seeds. The recipe was as easy as pie: the filling consisted of carrots, celery, courgettes, sweet potatoes, mushrooms and onions fried until soft before being mixed with a whizzed-up sauce of tomato and red pepper. The fragrant result was akin to a rustic, gutsy take on ratatouille (filled with lots of things that aren’t usually in ratatouille, I know), smelling sweet and alluring. My only reservation was I didn’t see any signal to season the filling at all in the recipe – I dutifully ignored that and chucked in what I thought best.
Bake it to make it: Bettina Campolucci Bordi’s veggie crumble
The topping was ready in about five minutes courtesy of the food processor (the second of its three outings in this recipe, so be prepared to do some washing up), and smelt sublime with the addition of the fresh thyme that also turned up in the box. In hindsight, I would have run a little olive oil through it for a little extra browning on top – because I am who I am and will never change.
Campolucci Bordi also suggests making a jar of pumpkin seed pesto for drizzling. Basil and plenty of olive oil go into the food processor once again, but no parmesan – I was skeptical, and almost reached for the cheese on numerous occasions. My abstention was rewarded, however, when the dairy-free sauce made a perfectly fresh pairing for the autumnal bake.
Me being of little faith and in fear of underfeeding my bubble, I also made some potatoes on the side: a family recipe of crunchy, diced skin-on roasties that we call ‘nice potatoes’ (because they’re, err, nice). These were largely unnecessary. In the veggie crumble, the caramel sweetness of the onions mixed with the fruity sugar of the tomato and pepper, enveloping plump sweet potatoes, earthy mushrooms and chunky courgettes, while the crumble on top added just enough crunch with much-appreciated nuttiness in place of butter.
It didn’t look pretty. I added some green salad on the side. I love brown food, but I’ll take it with a hint of rainbow now and then.
The Boxxfresh produce box and the copy of 7 Day Vegan Challenge were supplied as complimentary press samples.
For more information, visit boxxfresh.com and bettinaskitchen.com
