Aubergine, spinach and tomato casserole

I invented this dish in Trinidad, where one of the shops had a very limited supply of fresh vegetables, but they nearly always included wonderful aubergines and beautiful, local spinach. You had to buy large quantities of both, so I would cook half the spinach in a recipe one day, followed by spinach and aubergine the next day, finishing up with aubergine alone on the third. This is the recipe I invented for day two!

I can’t really give a measurement for spinach. So often you have to buy it as is: by the bunch, already tied up, or by the bag, which frequently doesn’t mention the weight. If it includes the roots, there will be more wastage than, say, baby spinach. Put it this way: a huge amount of spinach disappears into very little. For two people you would probably want as much as would fit in a 3 litre (3 quart) bowl, before it’s washed and chopped. If the spinach still has its roots on, it will want very thorough washing. Sea water is fine for this, as long as it’s clean. Give the spinach a really good shake and wait until the meal is just about cooked before adding any more salt.

Serves 2

Ingredients

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

2 tbsp olive oil

1 aubergine

1 tsp oregano

6 juniper berries

400 g/14 oz can tomatoes

spinach, well washed

grated cheese

• Chop the onion, dice the garlic and fry them in the olive oil for five minutes.
• Meanwhile, chop the aubergine into chunky pieces.
• When the onion is softened, add the aubergine and stir it round until most of it is coated in oil. (Aubergine is like blotting paper, so don’t worry too much about getting it evenly distributed.) Turn down the heat, cover and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the aubergine is soft.
• Add the oregano; crush or chop the juniper berries and add these. Pour in the tomatoes, roughly chopping them with your spoon. Roughly chop the spinach and add this. Cover and cook for a further 5 minutes.
• Take the lid off and stir everything around so that it’s all mixed together. Smooth the top and sprinkle with the grated cheese. Turn the heat right down, insert a flame tamer and cook gently until the cheese has melted.

Serve with pasta or potatoes.

Notes:

• If you can lay hands on it, vegan cheese is fine for this. It’s also good with my 'Parmegan cheese', even though that doesn’t melt. Either put it on before serving, or add it at the table. Or both! 
• A green such as chard would substitute for the spinach, but kale and cabbage would take too much cooking. If you don’t have soft greens, serve a vegetable on the side.

 

Vegan "scrambled eggs'

 

No tofu; no chickpea flour

Blender Alert (but there is a possible suggestion in the Notes if you don’t have one).

I really love scrambled eggs for breakfast, and since I became vegan, they are something I miss.  However, there are many reasons for the ethical vegetarian not to eat eggs, so I rarely buy them.  I have been working on this recipe for scramblers for some time.  What I wanted to achieve is something with a similar appearance, colour and texture as the Real Thing, which to my mind is soft and barely set.  All the vegan recipes I’ve tried produce a very dry, rather rubbery result.  I’ve never tried making it with silky tofu – I can’t buy it locally, and when I get to a larger town where it’s available, it comes in packs that are too big for me to use.  I’m prepared to eat a lot of failed experiments in search of the Ideal Recipe, but I’m not prepared to waste food!  Besides, how many voyagers are going easily to be able to buy silky tofu or are likely to have it on board? This recipe comes from ingredients that you are likely to have in your lockers.

Veganism is still a fringe way of living, especially away from the Western world (although of course many people are vegan without even thinking about it!), so in all these recipes, I am trying to avoid branded or really weird ingredients, which might well be expensive and/or unavailable to the average voyager.  If you’re interested, see the notes below for a discussion as to how and why I’ve chosen these particular ingredients and some substitutes.  I am sure this recipe can be improved, so please leave a comment if you have a suggestion.

 

I can see an argument for mixing all the dry ingredients together in quantity and keeping a supply in a jar, so that you can make this more quickly: just add water!

Serves 2

1/2 cup blanched peanuts

1 cup water, divided

4 tsp tapioca flour

2 tsp nutritional yeast

1/4 tsp black salt

1/4 tsp turmeric

1/4 tsp garlic granules OR 1 large clove, roughly chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper

• Put the peanuts into the blender and whizz them into a coarse meal. 
• Now add 1/2 cup water, the flour, nutritional yeast, black salt, turmeric, garlic and olive oil.   
• Blend quickly - you don’t want to pulverise the peanuts: this gives the scramblers some texture.
• Scrape the contents into a small saucepan and rinse out the blender with another 1/2 cup of water (put it back together and give it a good shake) and pour this into the pan. This is the easiest way to make sure everything goes in the pan!
• Heat the mixture over a moderate flame and stir regularly until the mix is hot and starting to thicken. Turn the heat right down, continue stirring occasionally, taste and season with a generous amount of black pepper and more salt if you think it needs it.    Add some more water if it is getting too thick.

Serve hot on fried bread or toast, or with fried tomatoes, mushrooms, etc as part of a cooked breakfast.

Notes:

• Blanched peanuts are cheap; they are also better for both workers and the planet than cashews, which would be most people’s choice.  Peanuts require much less water than most nuts, they are nitrogen-fixing and their preparation doesn’t generally exploit low wage-people working in poor conditions.  I don’t understand why they aren’t used more often. However, use cashews if you prefer them or can’t get peanuts.
• Tapioca flour doesn’t seem to need cooking the same way as cornflour, once it starts to thicken, which is why I suggest it.  Uncooked cornflour has a definite taste and sensation to it.  Using a little flour creates a more convincing texture as does the slight ‘stretchiness’ of the tapioca flour.
• The small amount of nutritional yeast does, I think, improve the flavour, but you could leave it out if you don’t have any.
• The black salt is to give the sulphur scent that eggs have.  Don’t use it with a heavy hand and if you like your scramblers more salty than the recipe, add some more normal salt. Again, you could leave it out, but the result will be a less convincing substitute for eggs.
• The turmeric is necessary for colour: again, use a light touch – it’s a powerful dye! This amount makes the scramblers a light yellow.
• I love a little bit of garlic in my scramblers. Leave it out or substitute 1/2 tsp onion powder if you can’t face garlic at breakfast. Neither is crucial.
• If you don’t have a blender, this might work with 1/2 cup ground almonds, but they have a much stronger flavour than peanuts.