Last week we enjoyed a romp through some Thai cuisine recipe testing and had a great time. Even if I did get a little tired of the chilli finger burn. Yes..I do have gloves but always forgot to wear them! In amongst these chilli filled days I got a craving for something less Thai and more simple. And I had some roots to use up so when I found this recipe..and the weather was filthy and chilling to the bone..I thought.."Why not?" Comfort food.
It was enjoyably savoury and the celeriac as a topping was unusual at first but very good, once used to the different texture and taste. It looks like fluffy potato so it's a shock to the taste buds at first! For my base I used a mix of swede, parsnip and carrot as we'd had a lot of potato lately. But it was a little too much 'root' for our usually root restricted bodies. We just simply don't eat starchy foods in great quantities but since being on the detox where they are limitless we got a little carried away with the novelty of having them. Ooops! lol.
Besides our personal issues..ahem...lol. We did enjoy this dish a lot. I found it in Linda Majzlik's A Vegan Taste of Eastern Europe
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Root Vegetable and Chickpea Casserole with Celeriac Topping
(Recipe from A Vegan Taste of Eastern Europe/Majzlik)
1lb/450g mixed vegetables (e.g carrot, swede, turnip, kohlrabi, potato) finely diced
8oz/225g leek, trimmed, cut in half lengthways and sliced
8oz/225g cooked chickpeas
1 onion, peeled and sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
12 fl oz/350ml tomato juice
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp veggie oil
1 tbsp fresh fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried
1 bay leaf
black pepper
topping:
2lb/9oog celeriac
squeeze of lemon juice
4 rounded tbsp plain soys yoghurt or drizzle of soy milk
finely chopped parsley
Fry the leek, onion and garlic in the oil for 5 minutes in a large pan. Add the mixed vegetables, tomato juice, lemon juice, thyme and bay leaf and season with black pepper. Stir well and bring to the boil. Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 15-20 minutes until the vegetables are almost tender. Remove from the heat and stir in the chickpeas.
Peel and chop the celeriac and boil it in a large pan of water to which a squeeze of lemon juice has been added. Drain and dry off over a low heat, then mash, add the yoghurt or soy milk and mix thoroughly. Spoon the vegetable and chickpea mixture into a shallow casserole dish and for the celeriac evenly over the top. Cover and bake in a preheated oven at 180'C/350'F/Gas mark 4 for 30 minutes. Garnish with chopped parsley and serve with a green vegetable accompaniment.
Enjoy!
~R~
