Best Vegetarian Recipes

Romy Gill’s chana dal with chapati

There are so many different ways of cooking chana dal. My dad worked in the steel plant in Burnpur in West Bengal – people came from different states to work there, so my growing-up years in India were spent eating the most delicious food ever.

Serves 4-6

chana dal 250g

red onions 2 medium

hot water 1 litre

ground turmeric ? tsp

salt to taste

rapeseed oil 4 tsp

black mustard seeds 1 tsp

garlic 2 tsp, grated

ginger 1 tsp, grated

tomato 1 large, finely chopped

fresh green chillies 2 tsp, chopped with seeds

ground coriander 1 tsp

ground cumin 1 tsp

garam masala ? tsp

red kashmiri chillies 2 whole

For the chapati

wholemeal or plain flour 200g

lukewarm water 75ml

oil 1 tsp

butter for spreading

Soak the chana dal in cold water for 10 minutes, then wash it in cold water so that all the starch comes out.

Finely chop the red onions and keep aside. In a deep pan, on medium heat, cook the chana dal in the hot water, adding the turmeric and salt, for 30 minutes.

In another pan, heat the oil and add the mustard seeds. When they start to pop, add the chopped onions and soften slowly, taking care to make sure all of the onions get cooked. Make sure you don’t caramelise them.

Add the grated garlic and ginger and cook for 6-7 minutes on medium heat.

Add the chopped tomato and green chillies and cook for a further 2-3 minutes. Keep stirring so that the paste doesn’t get burnt.

Add all the spices along with whole red chillies and mix well. If the paste sticks to the base of the pan then add few drops of hot water.

Add the paste to the cooked chana dal. Cover the pan and cook on a very low heat for 3-4 minutes.

To make the chapatis, make a well in the middle of the flour in a bowl and pour in the water and oil. If the dough feels a little hard, add a few drops more water.

Mix into a dough and knead for 5-8 minutes until smooth and elastic. Cover with a tea towel and rest for an hour.

Make 8-10 balls of the dough. Sprinkle flour onto a board and roll out a ball to make a thin pancake about 3mm thickness.

Place the dough on a hot pancake pan over medium heat and turn over after 30 seconds. Cook the second side for 1 minute, until small bubbles form.

Turn again and cook the first side, pressed lightly with a kitchen towel. It should start to rise. Make sure it is cooked evenly.

Smear it with butter and wrap it in a kitchen towel to keep warm before serving with the chana dal.

Romy Gill is the chef-owner of Romy’s Kitchen, in Thornbury, Gloucestershire

Peter Gordon’s mozzarella, artichokes, walnut sauce and sumac lavosh

This cooking technique for the artichokes is termed ‘à la Grecque’. I like to use the smaller pointed variety of artichoke for this – but you can use the larger globe-shaped ones if that’s what you have. Lavosh is a flatbread originating in the Middle East. It’s easy to make and you can personalise it by adding your favourite seeds and spices – here I sprinkle it with sumac. The recipe makes more than you need here as it’s hard to make a small quantity. If you don’t have time to make it, then serve with crostini or shop-bought lavosh instead.

Serves 4 as a main course or 6 as a starter

long-stemmed globe artichokes 8-10 (1kg)

lemon ?, sliced 1cm thick

cider vinegar or other white vinegar 1 tbsp

banana shallot 1, sliced into rings

carrot ?, peeled and sliced

bay leaf 1

fresh hard herbs 1 tbsp (eg thyme, rosemary, oregano, sage)

garlic 1 clove, sliced

olive oil 125ml

water 400ml, plus extra as needed

salt and black pepper

salad leaves a handful (I used pea shoots)

sumac lavosh as much as you like (see below)

For the walnut sauce

walnut halves 50g, toasted

sourdough bread 40g, sliced (crusts left on), toasted then broken into pieces

lemon juice 75ml

lemon zest ? tsp, finely grated

garlic 2 cloves, sliced

iced water 100ml

salt ? tsp

olive oil 3? tbsp

For the sumac lavosh

plain flour 170g, sieved

wholewheat flour 1 rounded tbsp

sugar 1 tsp

fine salt ? tsp

extra virgin olive oil 1 tbsp, plus 1 tsp extra for brushing

iced water 85ml, plus extra if needed

sumac 2 tsp

sea salt flakes for sprinkling

First cook the artichokes. Place the sliced lemon in a large saucepan with the cider vinegar, shallot, carrot, bay leaf, herbs and garlic clove. Add the olive oil, water, ? tsp of coarsely ground black pepper and 1? tsp of salt. Cut the stalks off the artichokes 6-8cm from the base. Remove the lower leaves until you can feel them becoming more tender – this usually means removing the outer two or three layers, using either your fingers or a small knife. Using a small sharp knife, peel the tough skin from the stalks, working from the cut end towards the head, as the stalks are edible and I hate to waste good food! Cut through the heads crossways half-way up and discard the top part. Trim any hard pieces from the head itself. Cut in half lengthways. Carefully cut out the very fine ‘choke’ hairs, or use a small teaspoon to do this. As each artichoke is ready, add it to the saucepan and stir to coat in the oil and vinegar to prevent it from discolouring. Once all the artichokes are prepared, add, if needed, just enough water to come to the top of the artichokes. Lay a paper cartouche on top, pressing it down, and poke a few holes in the paper. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a gentle boil and cook until you can easily insert a thick knife through the base and stem of the artichokes, about 12-15 minutes. Leave to cool in the cooking liquid. They can be prepared up to 4 days in advance.

Make the walnut sauce. Place the walnuts, bread pieces, lemon juice and zest, garlic, iced water and salt in a small food processor (or use a stick or jug blender) and blitz to a puree. Add the oil and blitz again. Taste for seasoning.

To make the sumac lavosh, preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Place the flours, sugar and salt in a kitchen mixer (a stand mixer rather than a food processor) and mix together. With the motor running, add 1 tablespoon of oil and the iced water and mix together until a pliable dough is formed. If it’s too dry, add a little extra iced water; if too wet, add a little extra wholewheat flour.

Mix for 4 minutes on medium-low speed. Take the dough out, roll it on the work surface into a ball, then wrap in clingfilm and leave to rest for 30 minutes in the fridge.

Pull off walnut-sized pieces and roll out on a floured work surface as thin as you can. (At my restaurants we run it through our pasta rollers on the second thinnest setting.) Lay it on a baking sheet and leave to rest for 20 minutes (this will prevent it shrinking too much when baked). Bake until golden, turning the tray about 180 degrees after 8 minutes to colour it evenly. The lavosh is ready when it has turned dark golden, about 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven and brush with the remaining oil and sprinkle with the sumac and some flaky salt while still hot. Once cooled, store in an airtight container. The dough freezes well and will last for 4 weeks, so just roll out what you need at the time.

To serve, lay the salad leaves on your plates and top with the mozzarella then the artichokes. Add some of the carrots, lemon slices and shallots from the cooking liquor, then dollop the walnut sauce on top. Finally, tuck in the sumac lavosh, broken into large shards.

Jane Grigson’s ratatouille à la Nicoise

Ratatouille, properly made without wateriness, is an adaptable and excellent dish. The ingredients can be adjusted to availability or your own pocket and it can be eaten hot or cold.

Ratatouille is a Proven?al word, first recorded in the 18th century, though it is probably a good deal older than that. It is a cross between tatouiller and ratouiller which, as the dictionary says, are expressive forms of touller, an old verb from the Latin tudiculare, meaning to stir and crush.

Serves 8-10

aubergines 500g

courgettes 500g

salt

tomatoes 500g, skinned

sweet peppers 2-3

onions 2-3 large, sliced

olive oil 4 tbsp

garlic 2 large cloves, chopped

pepper, sugar, vinegar to taste

coriander seeds ? tsp, crushed

fresh basil or parsley leaves

Slice the aubergines and courgettes. Put them in a colander, sprinkle with a teaspoon of salt and leave for an hour to drain. Pat them dry with kitchen paper. Chop the tomatoes roughly. Remove the stalks and seeds from the peppers and cut them into strips.

Cook the onion slowly, without browning it, in the olive oil with the garlic. As it softens, add the aubergines and peppers. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Put in the tomatoes and courgettes. Season with salt, pepper, and a little sugar and vinegar if the tomatoes lack flavour as they often do. Cook steadily without covering the pan until all wateriness has disappeared – about 50 minutes. Ten minutes before the end, add the coriander. The vegetables should retain a certain identity, so do not crush them to a puree, although they should be stirred vigorously from time to time. Serve hot or cold, sprinkled with basil or parsley.

Florence Knight’s chickpea, Swiss chard and soft-poached egg

This is wholesome eating at its best. I find it hard to resist piercing the flaxen yolk over the plump pulses. Think of chard as two different vegetables as the stalks need a little more help than the leaves; cooking the stalks with the chickpeas softens their toughness.

Makes 6 small plates

dried chickpeas 300g

onions 3

extra virgin olive oil

dried chilli flakes 1 tsp

coriander seeds 2 tsp

salt

celery 2 sticks

carrot 1

garlic 3 cloves

Swiss chard 1 bunch

bay leaf 1

white wine 175ml

plum tomatoes 1 x 400g tin

malt vinegar a splash

eggs 6 medium, at room temperature

black pepper to taste

Put the chickpeas in a large bowl, cover with cold water and soak overnight.

When you are ready to cook, drain and rinse the chickpeas under cold running water. Place them in a pan and add water until it covers them by about 2.5cm. Peel and halve 1 onion and add it to the pan with a little olive oil, the chilli and the coriander seeds.

Bring the chickpeas to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer until tender, checking after 30 minutes. Once the chickpeas are cooked remove them from the heat, drain them (reserving the cooking liquor) and season to taste.

Meanwhile peel, halve and dice the remaining 2 onions. Put the onions in a heavy-bottomed pan with a glug of olive oil and a good pinch of salt, cover with the lid and cook slowly over a low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

While the onions are cooking, peel, halve and dice the celery and carrot. Submerge the garlic cloves in warm water and leave for a few minutes – this will help the skin to pop off easily. Then cross-chop or use a pestle and mortar to mash the garlic with a good pinch of salt until it becomes paste-like.

Rinse the chard under cold running water and trim the ragged stalk ends. Using a small knife, remove the stalks from the leaves following their natural shape. Roughly chop the stalks into thin strips.

After the onions have been cooking for 10 minutes and are soft and tender, stir through the celery, carrot, garlic and chard stalks and add the bay leaf. Stir through and combine and cook for a further 15 minutes.

Pour over the wine and leave to reduce by half over a medium heat. Add the tomatoes and 300ml of the chickpea cooking liquor followed by the drained chickpeas. Give the mixture a good stir through and simmer for about 20 minutes until almost all the juices have been absorbed into the chickpeas. Season well while still warm, then fold through the chard leaves and cover with a pan lid to help them wilt into the mixture.

Place a pan of water with a splash of malt vinegar in it over a medium heat and bring to a simmer. Crack an egg into a glass or cup. Swirl the water around in a circular motion and once the water settles slightly and there is a tornado effect in the centre, lower the cup into the middle of the swirl so that it almost touches the water and tip the egg out in a quick fluid motion. Lightly poach for 3 minutes or until the white is just set. Remove the egg with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen roll before placing on a plate. Repeat the poaching process with the remaining eggs. If you’re confident, poach 2 at a time.

Ladle the chickpeas into bowls. Place a poached egg on top of each serving of chickpeas and finish with a little extra virgin olive oil, a pinch of salt and some black pepper.

Alice Hart’s spiced turmeric broth with roast vegetables

I find this very special bowl, a fragrant curry of sorts, is the vegetarian equivalent of a chicken noodle soup, both for comfort and health benefits. Add more coconut cream or milk if you would like more of a soup-y feel; the recipe here provides more of a sauce at the base of the bowl. Curry leaves can be tricky to find fresh, but are transformative: try Asian food shops, large supermarkets and the internet.

Serves 4

carrots 6 small, scrubbed and thickly sliced if on the larger side

parsnips 2, scrubbed and thickly sliced

celeriac 1 small, peeled and roughly chopped

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

coconut oil 3 tbsp

root ginger a thumb

fresh turmeric a thumb

coriander with roots a small handful

shallots 2, finely sliced

black mustard seeds 1 tsp

garlic 1 clove, finely chopped

fresh curry leaves 1 sprig

green cardamom pods 3, lightly crushed

dried red chilli 1

coconut cream 200ml

water 200ml

lime juice of ?

cooked wild rice 200g

red amaranth or Thai basil to serve (optional)

Preheat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6. Spread the root vegetables out in a large roasting tin, season well and crumble 2 tablespoons of the coconut oil over them (or pour, if it is warm and liquid). Roast for 15 minutes, then use a spatula to toss the vegetables, distributing the melted oil evenly. Return to the oven for a further 15 minutes or so, until soft and caramelised.

Meanwhile, peel and finely chop the ginger and turmeric. Finely chop the coriander roots and stalks. Set the coriander leaves aside.

Put the remaining tablespoon of coconut oil in a deep frying pan or medium saucepan and set it over a medium-low heat. Add the shallots with a pinch of salt and fry gently for a few minutes, stirring now and then.

Increase the heat and cook until they are beginning to catch at the edges, then add the mustard seeds and cook for a minute or two; they should pop and sizzle. Add the ginger, turmeric, coriander roots and stalks, garlic, curry leaves, cardamom and dried chilli, sauteing for 2-3 minutes. Stir in the coconut cream with the water, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer gently for 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and add the lime juice to brighten the flavours.

Divide the roast vegetables between serving bowls with the cooked wild rice. Ladle the broth over the top and finish with the coriander leaves and any other Asian herbs you have, such as red amaranth or Thai basil.

Since you're here...

… we have a small favour to ask. More people, like you, are reading and supporting the Guardian’s independent, investigative journalism than ever before. And unlike many news organisations, we made the choice to keep our reporting open for all, regardless of where they live or what they can afford to pay.

The Guardian will engage with the most critical issues of our time – from the escalating climate catastrophe to widespread inequality to the influence of big tech on our lives. At a time when factual information is a necessity, we believe that each of us, around the world, deserves access to accurate reporting with integrity at its heart.

Our editorial independence means we set our own agenda and voice our own opinions. Guardian journalism is free from commercial and political bias and not influenced by billionaire owners or shareholders. This means we can give a voice to those less heard, explore where others turn away, and rigorously challenge those in power.

You’ve read 5 articles in the last four months. We need your support to keep delivering quality journalism that’s open and independent. Every reader contribution, however big or small, is so valuable.

Source: ??? ???? ??????????