The vegan version of chicken pie, this is the perfect winter warmer. The seitan, half tofu, half wheat, is rich in nutrients, softens in the oven as it absorbs the flavours of the spices. Mushrooms and leek wrapped in white sauce add to the succulence with a touch of clove for an added dimension.
Serves 4
Prep 1 hour
Generous drizzle oil
200g leek or onion chopped
Curry leaves, cumin, cloves, salt and pepper
250g mushrooms
Another generous drizzle oil
225g seitan, shredded by hand into 1-2” chunks
3 tsp corn flour
200ml of oat or soya milk
2 – 3 tbsp nut butter
320g pastry (or enough to cover your pyrex dish)
260g spinach, on the side
can of beans, on the side
Take a large frying pan and add the ingredients in the order listed above, from oil to seitan, over a medium heat, stirring frequently. The time is takes to cut the next veg should be enough time for the previous item to fry. Sprinkle the corn flour over the ingredients and stir. Add milk and gently stir, a thick sauce should appear after a few minutes. Stir in nut butter. Preheat oven to 180 / 160 degrees fan assisted, gas mark 4. Roll out pastry and line pyrex dish. Pour in contents of frying pan. Cover dish with pastry lid and prick holes to allow steam out when cooking. Bake on middle shelf for 45 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown. With 5 or 10 minutes to go, boil your green and beans on the hob, and serve.
I had some green beans left over, see picture, but add black beans for a nutritional medley to accompany your pie!
Inspired by a recipe in ‘Vegan Food and Living’ these garlic mushroom “mushels” are made with shitake mushrooms and plenty of garlic. Rich in B vitamins, serve with beans and kale for an extra health kick. Tarragon adds an umami dimension while white wine and lemon sets off the juice. After over a decade of being vegan, without anything like mussels, this was a real treat.
Prep time 30min
Serves 3
Drizzle of oil
One medium onion, diced
5 – 6 cloves of garlice, sliced
150g shitake mushrooms, sliced
generous sprinkle of tarragon
5 tbsp lemon juice
generous sprinkling of kelp (optional)
can of coconut milk
150ml stock
150ml wine
100g kale
can of white beans
black pepper
handful of parsley (add 5 minutes towards the end)
In a large frying pan, add the oil, onion, garlic, mushrooms, tarragon, lemon juice and kelp. Once the mushrooms and onion are lightly fried add the remaining ingredients in the order listed above, except parsley. Bring to the boil, put on lid and simmer for 10-15minutes. Stir in parsley 5 minutes towards the end. Serve with french bread.
This classic bolognese made with soya contains all nine amino acids, protein and zinc. I find myself craving the tomato-y richness of the sauce, combined with the chewy texture of the soya meat, and the nuttiness of the wholewheat spaghetti. This version is made with oregano, only, but you can add spices like cumin and cloves for a Meditarranean twist. You should have most of the ingredients in stock, so it doesn’t require much shopping.
prep time 1 hour
serves 4
generous drizzle of oil
150g onion or leek, chopped
250g mushrooms, chopped
sprinkling of oregano
250g soya mince
tinned tomatoes
3 tsp tomato puree
2 tsp garlic puree / 3 garlic cloves chopped
150ml vegetable stock
splash of vegan worcestershire sauce
250g leafy greens chopped
200g wholewheat spaghetti
Drizzle oil in a deep frying pan, on a medium heat. Add leeks/onion and fry until transluscent. Stir in the mushrooms and fry for a few minutes, adding the oregano. Pour in the soya mince and stir. Add tinned tomatoes, purees, vegan worcestershire sauce and vegetable stock. Gently bring to the boil, stirring occasionally. Add chopped greens and place lid on pan. Allow to boil for 10 minutes then turn down to alow heat. Simmer for 30-45minutes. 15 minutes before serving, boil kettle and put pasta on to cook. Serve in your favourite pasta bowl, bread and houmous optional!
N.B. The picture shows this exact same recipe made with green beans, rather than leafy greens.
Bursting with flavour and nutrition, this simple soup is one of my favourites. Lentils and beans are powerhouses of nutrition, with iron, zinc and other minerals. Coconut milk is high in calcium,as are the tinned tomatoes. I could not resist adding some seasonal squash on top, full of carotenoids, and bringing that roasted sweetness.
Prep time 45min
Serves 6
500g red lentils
boiling water
3 tsp spice (tumeric, cardamom)
one tin of tomatoes
one tin of coconut milk
200g chopped kale
two tins of black or white beans
sliced squash, roasted in a drizzle of oil, salt and pepper (45minutes on top shelf of oven at 180-200 degrees)
Preheat oven 200 degrees, slice squash into wedges, place on baking tray, drizzle with oil and season with salt and pepper. Put lentils and cover with boiling water 2:1 in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Boil for 15 minutes until most lentils are cooked through. Stir in spice. Pour in tomatoes and coconut milk, stir well. Add kale, add beans, put lid on. Leave to simmer/steam greens for 20 minutes. Stir every ten minutes to ensure lentils are not sticking. Once greens are softened, soup is ready to serve. Take squash out of oven, slice each wedge and serve on top of soup.
Inspired by a recipe in the magazine ‘Vegan Food and Living’ I decided to create a tapas style buddha bowl using roasted sweet potatoes and homemade houmous. Excited by a new addition to the pantry, I laced the potatoes with hoisin sauce. I piled on the rocket drizzled with oil, heaped on the homemade houmous and served with nutmeg couscous to create an explosion of flavours on the fork. I added superfoods broccoli and almonds to round off the bowl.
Serves 5
Houmous
160g dry chickpeas (cover with twice as much water, and leave to soak for 24 hours, then cook for 45min)
two large dollops of tahini
3 cloves garlic minced
100ml lemon juice
very generous drizzle of oil
sprinkling of oregano
Roast potatoes
3 potatoes cubed
Fresh herbs
Hoisin sauce
Drizzle of oil
5 handfuls almonds (chopped)
Medium broccoli floret, chopped
Bag of rocket
250 g couscous
Soak chickpeas overnight. Boil chickpeas while chopping potatoes, nuts and broccoli. Pre heat oven to 200 degrees. Put diced potatoes in a roasting dish, liberally dress with fresh herbs and drizzle with hoisin sauce whisked with oil, salt and pepper. Place roasting dish in oven on top shelf for 40-50 minutes. Blend all the houmous ingredients together (nutri bullet will need to be done in two batches). If dry, add more oil. Add the nuts to the potatoes with 25 minutes remaining. Put the broccoli on to boil 10-15 minutes. Prepare couscous (put grains in bowl, pour boiling water over, cover with saucer and leave for 5 minutes, drizzle with oil and stir in nutmeg). Serve all ingredients and drizzle with oil.
Made with mushrooms, black beans and watercress, these wraps are full of flavour and healthy too. The hoisin sauce complements the nut butter in a classic Asian combo brought to life by the peppery watercress and earthy tarragon.
Ingredients are per person so make as much or as little as you need!
shredded cabbage 90g each
drizzle of toasted seasame oil
small leek sliced
3 – 4 medium mushrooms finely chopped
black beans (third of a can each)
handful of sesame seeds
sprinkling of tarragon
watercress (approx 40g each)
pot of nut butter
bottle of hoisin sauce
four rice paper wraps each (see instructions on pack to serve)
Prep time 10 minutes. Cook time 15 minutes.
Fry the leek in the oil on a medium heat, add mushrooms, sprinkle with tarragon, add sesame seeds and black beans, stirring frequently. Once cooked through pour into bowl. At the same time, boil the cabbage for 5 minutes, drain, put into bowl. Put wraps, watercress, nut butter and hoisin sauce on the table with teaspoons to serve. Build your wraps in layers, wrap and serve!
The taste of summer, with squash, courgette, kale and cannellini beans all fresh from the garden. This seasonal dish has highs of roasted squash and crispy kale with undertones of earthy beans and green salad. The creaminess of the vegan cream cheese make its even more moreish. Serves 4.
750g squash
500g courgette
drizzle syrup
2 – 3 teaspoon spice
1 can cannelini beans
250g kale, boiled
sprig of tarragon
pasta x 4 portions
vegan cream cheese
green salad
dice squash and courgette, put in roasting dish and dust with spice, drizzle with syrup. Preheat oven to 180C. Set oven timer for 45minutes. Boil kale for 8 minutes. After 30 minutes add can of beans to roasting dish, add kale on top with sprig of tarrgon buried. Roast for further 15minutes. Cook pasta in a large pan. Drain pasta and put back in hot pan. Add vegan cream cheese to pasta. Add roasted vegetables to pasta, and stir until cream cheese coats veggies and pasta. Serve with salad.
I am pleased to announce the release of my new book, which I’m releasing as a free e-book today, Earth Day! 10,000BC – Ancient Lessons in Agroecology and Low Carbon Economics is an all you need to know about agroecology, what was wrong with the green revolution and why we don’t want another. Follow the link to download your free copywww.10000bc.org.
What is agroecology? What is low carbon economics? As we transition to net zero what do we ‘the people’ need to do to make organic food for all a reality? There are a multitude of solutions to the climate crisis being offered in the farming world today, but not all of them are organic. As COP28 recognises the need to sustainable agriculture1, what does that mean for a country like Britain where 83% of its citizens live in the city and less than 1% of us are farmers? The emerging theory supported by a number of stakeholders, farmers, and policy makers, is that we need a smallholder revolution: a million new farmers to work the land. How practical is this suggestion? Even if we recruited enough farmers, can agrocecological solutions feed the world?
10,000BC: Ancient Lessons in Agroecology and Low Carbon Economics takes the reader on a journey back in time to the dawn of farming. What made us start farming in the first place? As we face a farming crisis today, what can we learn from our prehistoric ancestors? In the last 12,000 years, the population has grown exponentially, and materialism ballooned; what are the underlying cultural implications of these changes? How have we historically reacted to global food pressures? Do we need a new economic focus; an alternative to high growth economics?
Agroecology is a method of sustainable agriculture that cares about the lives of the farmers, the consumers and the land. It aims for equality, justice and diversity so that good food is not only grown, but also distributed to everybody. 10,000BC introduces the idea of agroecology, alongside low carbon economics, with an action plan to grow real food for all. It aims to be a practical and accessible text on agroecology introducing the concept to new audiences that are interested to know more about the solutions to the current industrial farming model.
The text introduces the idea of ‘panic farming’. Historically, short termist solutions that create more problems in the long term have been touted as panaceas, but it is the slow and steady approach that will win the race. First it was population growth, now it is climate change. Do we really need to resort to panic farming when agroecology offers solutions to these crises?
115,000 words with over 850 references, 10,000BC weaves prehistory into the modern story of agriculture. Throwing light on the alternative to the modern industrial paradigm, the book explores the cultural and economic shifts required to challenge it. The text aims to question the industrialism that dominates popular opinion and decision making in agriculture.
My journey as a food and farming campaigner started in Uganda in 2010 when I worked as an accountant for a charity trying to raise money for polycultural homesteads. The smalholdings were considered the most efficent use of land, as they are climate change resilient and connect peasants with enough resource to supply themselves and the home market with food. My journey into agriculture continued in India that year, when I stayed in Auroville, performing a systems analysis of the food and farming units supplying the spiritual community. When I returned to the UK, I lived on mixed ecological farm Church Farm Ardeley working as an intern for the Oxford Real Farming Conference (ORFC) and then the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Agroecology. Following that I founded Farm the City London connecting urbanites with food growing spaces and running an annual festival.
Before taking time out to write this book, I spent over a decade as a chartered accountant. I qualified with top 5 firm BDO LLP in 2009, then went on to work as Financial Controller for various Small Enterprises (SMEs). I have an English Literature and Cultural Criticism BA (Hons) from Cardiff University.
I wrote a poem inspired by my recent outing with XR Salisbury. We were protest outside insurance brokers Howden to ‘Insure our survival’ by changing their policy to exclude fossil fuel projects and instead focus on green and renewable projects.
Sarasvati Flow 