Recreate the taste of summer holidays with these quick vegetarian suppers, writes DOMINI KEMP
THERE’S NOTHING THAT will put me in a bad mood quicker than being faced with bad food when I am on holiday, be it in Brittas Bay or Portugal. I’m not talking posh and fancy. But if you’re somewhere sunny, then you should be able to lay your hands on some good bread, olive oil, salt, some nice salad leaves, good cheese and lovely ripe fruit. That’s all I mean by good food. After that, everything else (such as nice, local, cheap wine) is a plus.
At least with those basics, you can eat well. If you can’t get that, then I reckon you are better off staying at home, where you can definitely get such simple delights (except for the cheap, local wine) and sunbathe beside a Kosangas on full blast.
On a recent holiday, we were faced with lovely clean beaches, but some really awful food. The local supermarket was a bicycle ride away and was pretty disappointing when we finally got there, red-faced and hungry. I was instructed by the rest of the family to get over my food grump, fast. So I embraced the only available diet of bread, tomatoes and garlic, which we lived on for the week.
Luckily, it is a pretty fantastic combination and each day as we sliced and marinated the tomatoes in lots of sea salt with a little sugar and some chopped rosemary and a good splash of olive oil, we would all fight to get the last few crusts of bread to dunk into the juice to eat.
When I came home I was flicking through a Raymond Blanc book and saw his recipe for tomato essence. He makes his over 24 hours, and with an abundance of the ripest, juiciest and priciest cherry tomatoes he can buy. Plus there’s a waiting game with some muslin while the tomatoes drip scientifically to their resting spot.
But what we did in 10 minutes on holidays, with some salt, a pinch of sugar and some herbs, essentially was the same as Raymond Blanc was recommending you do in order to make the loveliest tomato essence, which could be used for consommé or to make a stunning tomato risotto.
When you have made a simple tomato salad, toast some, in our case, really grim bread, until it is quite dry and hard, then rub it with a peeled clove of garlic, using the bread like a grater so that the garlic gets crushed and smeared along the bread. Drizzle the bread with olive oil and serve with the sliced, marinated tomatoes.
It is one of the simplest, cleanest and loveliest flavours, and is guaranteed to put everyone in holiday mode.
The tomato sauce below is not dissimilar in concept and makes a fantastic, quick veggie supper either as a no-cook pasta sauce or a simple salad.
The other recipe below is for a sweet potato dish that I’m not really sure what to call. It’s not really a stew. It’s kind of a sautéed/baked vegetable delight. Again, it is easy, tasty and very popular with everyone for dinner.
Spaghetti with no-cook tomato sauce
Serves two as a main course
400g cherry tomatoes
pinch sea salt
1 tsp caster sugar
Lots of black pepper
50ml olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 tsp rosemary leaves, finely chopped
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
50g pitted black olives, roughly chopped
Small bunch basil, roughly chopped
200g spaghetti
Cut the tomatoes in half and put them in a good-sized bowl with the salt, sugar, pepper, olive oil, garlic, rosemary and red wine vinegar. Leave it to sit and macerate for anything up to an hour at room temperature. Taste it and adjust the seasoning.
When you are ready to serve, cook the pasta in plenty of boiling water, drain and toss with a little extra olive oil and season lightly. Mix the sauce, along with the basil and olives, with the pasta in the same saucepan and the residual heat will warm the sauce through. Serve immediately.
Sweet potato, crispy onion and black bean supper
A good veggie dish, serves four
1 very large white onion, peeled and thinly sliced
60-80ml olive oil
About 10 Portobello mushrooms, sliced
3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
knob of butter
4-6 sweet potatoes cut into chunks
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 tin of black beans, drained and rinsed
200g spinach or Swiss chard
Spread the onion out on a roasting tray and drizzle with some olive oil. Roast at a hot temperature – roughly 200 degrees/gas mark six. You need to keep an eye on them, shake the pan and move them around as they may burn.
In another roasting tin, roast the sweet potato chunks, again rubbed with some olive oil and salt and pepper (you can do this at 200 degrees/gas mark six also, but feel free to drop the temperature if things are starting to burn). Once they are soft and starting to brown, they are cooked.
Sauté the mushrooms with some olive oil and a knob of butter. Season really well and when they are soft, add the garlic and let them dry out and caramelise a little. Add the tomato puree and black beans. Season and taste. Add the spinach or Swiss chard, allow it to wilt slightly and then mix with the sweet potatoes and crispy onions.
You have to mix this carefully or everything will turn into one big pile of mush. So feel free to layer it up onto plates. Just make sure each bit is well seasoned.
See also itsa.ie
