Veganomicon – Chickpeas Romesco with saffron rice and more

My Father-in-Law was visiting at the weekend. He’s really laid back about most things and in theory he’s not at all difficult to feed. He’s not quite vegetarian but is very supportive, and extremely knowledgeable about nutrition. He’s been very helpful to me in my transition to veganism. Like everyone though, there are certain things he dislikes, including pasta, soya in any form, and several vegetables. Now several times a week I cook without spinach, or tofu, or pasta… but blow me if I could think of anything which didn’t involve those ingredients.

So I did something I’d never think of doing – tried new recipes with guests – non vegan guests at that! It’s a measure of the respect I have for Isa that I just knew that something from Veganomicon would be safe. I made the Romesco chickpeas with saffron rice, and served it with some fresh bread and sprouting broccoli. It went down really well with us and with my Father-in-law. He not only asked for the recipe, but when I showed him the book, he asked for it for Christmas!!

I also made two other Veganomicon dishes while he was here, but didn’t photograph them. Broccoli and potato soup was lunch on Sunday. It was tasty but certainly needed the fresh herbs (dill and mint). It was very like the asparagus potato soup from VWAV.

Then on Sunday evening I’d planned to do a fennel, aubergine and potato stew from Denis Cotter, but was thwarted by not being able to find any fennel anywhere. The weather was so bad I didn’t want to go out so I used what I had in and created quite a feast. The Veganomicon dish was lemon roasted Greek potatoes, which were very good. (I did a roast aubergine sort of Imam Bayaldi, a cumin and olive white bean dish, bread and salad as the rest of the meal.

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