Mexican spiced roast potato and aubergine

I rarely post side dish recipes, for the simple reason that I rarely make them. I tend to include vegetables within dishes or prepare them very simply if served on the side (unless we are entertaining, but we rarely do that either!). Sometimes, though, I do make a specific vegetable side dish and today's is an example.

This is not the most attractive dish, but it is a tasty one. It's also not strongly Mexican but the use of paprika and dried coriander conjured up, to me, Mexican flavours. Nutritional yeast and tahini round out the flavour mix. If you were to make this truly Mexican, some chillies would be a pleasing addition.

I cheated a little with my cooking of the potato, microwaving it first before chopping and roasting. This cuts down on cooking time enormously and gives the potato a pleasing fluffy texture. If you prefer to cook fully in the oven just add extra time to the roasting stage - at least 30 minutes, or longer if using large pieces of potato.

Tweet

Leon-inspired chickpea, aubergine and mint stew

It's getting a bit embarrassing, the way you can track my recipe progression. In addition to my ongoing enjoyment of aubergine, this stew carries forward the mint theme from my last recipe and features the chickpeas that allowed me to create a vegan mousse with chickpea brine. What can I say, my kitchen activities are transparent. It may also be obvious that I don't have enough time to create surplus recipes to mask this transparency!

Whilst some of the flavours in this dish are familiar, it definitely deserves recognition in its own right. The recipe is adapted from one in the Leon cookbook, which is published by the creators of the popular UK Leon restaurants. Leon is all about real, healthy, fast food and many of the dishes draw on Mediterranean and African ingredients. This recipe epitomizes the Leon style.

Tweet

Vegan cannelloni with spiced tomatoes and aubergine

I posted two aubergine recipes in June, which (to me at least) were a logical extension of each other: vegan lasagne with aubergines and hummous, and then vegan potato and aubergine bake with tahini. This recipe drops out the creamy hummous/tahini element, but is inspired by the lasagne I enjoyed so much. In fact, the cannelloni tubes are made from lasagne sheets. And yes, aubergine is involved.

 

Tweet

Vegan potato and aubergine bake

I don't know my own taste buds at the moment. After loving lasagna with hummous and aubergine last week, I have discovered potato bake made with tahini and aubergine. This version is veganised and cheese free, but there is a definite nod to that cheesey creaminess I profess to dislike. It seems I can profess that no longer, at least when tahini (or hummous) is involved...

In contrast to the lasagna, this is a side dish rather than a main. It pairs well with bean / legume dishes and I imagine some veggie sausages would be a good match too.

Tweet

Vegan lasagne with aubergines and hummous

In a comment on my recent hummous post, Lisa of I'll Be There With a Fork mentioned using layers of hummous in lasagna type dishes. I was completely smitten with the idea and have been harbouring vegan lasagna dreams since.

Due to my general dislike of cheese, I've never really veganised savoury cheese dishes or sought them out in restaurants. As such, I haven't eaten lasagna for years. It was a novelty to try this version with pasta sheets, vegetables and hummous. I found it utterly delicious and it met Mr Bite's standards too. Given he likes cheesey pasta, I think that's a good sign.

Tweet