When I was living in Scotland, the food prices suddenly went up and an eat-out became rather like a birthday treat. Especially where I lived, on the isle of Knoydart, where the nearest grocery shop was about a 30 minute boat ride away and the local shop offered almost no variety and on a tourist price, and I had no income – I had to be creative. I decided that every once in a while I will treat ourselves for a home made restaurant style dish.
And finally I had the chance to be creative as we swapped our teepee tent and the camping cooker to a fully furnished kitchen, luxury! Well, in some ways cooking daily on a camping cooker requires more creativity because it’s rather limited – you can’t cook whatever you want on it. But when I got the chance to house and cat sit for a 2x BAFTA winner producer, Janey de Nordwall, I had the channel another type of creativity in the kitchen. And girl, I went wild!
It wasn’t difficult tho as I got to play Sir Kenneth (Janey’s lovely cat) that released a lot of energy in me, and I got lost in Janey’s book that I found on one of the shelves in the guest room. Janey’s book and the story of her insane life path inspired me to the fullest. She portrays an image of a wild woman in my eyes. (And it also created the perfect background for me to energetically get away from my then-partner and his emotional manipulations and start to connect back to myself. But this story isn’t about that.)
So when I got back to the mainland and got my hands on some smoked vegan cheese, delicious fat walnuts and some soy granuls, I knew immediately that I have to make something special from these ingredients. This potato bake turned out to be an umami punch and totally competes with any restaurant style bolognese bake I tried so far. I only wish I had some toasted pine nuts and tahini to drizzle it on top, would be perfection.
Best part of the dish is that is very versatile. I can already see myself making the same over and over again with different ingredients, depending on what I can hunt down: spinach to replace kale from our gardens, hazelnut instead of walnuts, red lentils when I can’t get soy granuls or even foraged mushrooms to get my daily protein boost. Other veggies could go in it, too – like aubergines, zucchini, sweet potato or any other kind of root veggies instead of potatoes.
Ingredients:
- 750g new potatoes
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 ts garlic powder
- 1 ts Himalaya rock salt
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 2-3 garlic, minced
- 2 tbs olive oil
- 1/2 red pepper, chopped
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp thyme
- 1-2 tsp smoked paprika
- 2-3 large leaves kale, chopped
- 75g walnuts toasted and chopped
- 1 can tomatoes
- 4 sundried tomatoes chopped finely
- 150g soy granuls
- 400ml veggie broth
- 1 tbs tomato paste
- 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
- salt, pepper to taste
- 1-2 tsp Italian herb seasoning
- smoked vegan cheese
- baby tomatoes, sliced
Directions:
- Chop the potatoes and boil them in water until tender.
- Meanwhile pre-heat your oven grill to 200C degree.
- When done, transfer potatoes to a roasting tray, toss to coat them on olive oil, garlic powder & salt. Roast until crispy on the outside.
- Heat the remaining olive oil in a large pan over medium heat.
- Add the chopped onion and sauté until fragrant.
- Then add in garlic and cook for about 2-3 minutes.
- Mix in red peppers and fry for another 3 minutes.
- Stir in chopped walnuts and stir until walnuts look slightly toasted.
- Stir in the sun dried tomatoes, canned tomatoes, veggie broth, tomato paste, kale and soy granuls.
- Season with herbs, smoked paprika, salt, pepper and balsamic vinegar and simmer the mixture until soy granuls are cooked.
- Once done, transfer the potatoes to a glass baking dish, pour the sauce over it.
- Grate some smoked vegan cheese on top and place some sliced tomatoes over it.
- Put the tray back in the oven under the grill and leave it there until cheese melts and turns golden brown.
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