Considering taking on Veganuary? Ease yourself in to the meat-free month with three simple plant-based recipes from young chef Ali Pumfrey. Trained at Leiths, and with a CV that includes top London restaurants Andrew Edmunds, The River Café and Padella, when Pumfrey’s London-based catering business cratered almost overnight thanks to Covid-19, she took the plunge and moved to Cornwall.

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Now, she’s offering a series of online cooking classes for those seeking to start 2021 with a health kick (plant-based or otherwise) – visit her website for more information. And for those keen to get cooking immediately, here, she shares three vegan recipes with Vogue.

Red Pepper Re-Fried Bean Quesadilla
Serves two.

Ingredients

  • 1 red pepper

  • 1 shallot

  • 1 garlic clove

  • 1 tbsp ground cumin

  • 1 tbsp ground paprika

  • 1 tbsp tomato purée

  • 400g cannellini beans

  • 15g coriander

  • 1 lime (juiced)

  • 100g vegan cheese (grated)

  • 2 large tortilla wraps

  • Salt and pepper

  • Olive oil

  • For the re-fried bean filling

    Method

    Peel and dice the shallot. Add one tbsp of olive oil to a frying pan and put it on a medium heat. Fry the shallot in a large frying pan for five minutes until it is soft. Dice up the red pepper, add it to the soft shallots and cook for five minutes.

    Peel and crush the garlic clove. Once the red pepper has cooked, add the crushed garlic, spices and tomato purée to the frying pan and cook for two minutes.

    Drain the cannellini beans, keeping the liquid from the tin. Add the drained beans along with 8 tbsps of the bean liquid. Fry the beans for 10 minutes, stirring often, and until the liquid has evaporated.

    Wash and pick the leaves of the coriander and roughly chop the leaves. Add the chopped leaves to the cooked re-fried beans. Season the beans with the juice of one lime and salt and pepper.

    For the quesadilla

    Lay a white tortilla wrap on a board in front of you. On one side, add a layer of the red pepper refried beans, then top with grated cheese. Fold the tortilla wrap in half.

    Put a large frying pan on a medium heat. When it is hot, add the tortilla half and toast for 3 minutes until it has charred slightly and has become crisp. With a spatula, flip the tortilla over to toast the other side. Cook for three minutes on the flipped side.

    Serve immediately with a side salad.

    Sweet Potato, Sun-Dried Tomato and Shallot Salad

    Serves four.

    Ingredients

    3 large sweet potatoes

    3 sprigs rosemary

    3 large garlic cloves

    2 shallots

    2 tbsp olive oil

    10 sun-dried tomatoes

    75g baby spinach

    For the dressing

    2 tbsp red wine vinegar

    1 tbsp olive oil

    1⁄2 tsp caster sugar (or agave syrup)

    1⁄2 tsp whole-grain mustard

    Salt and pepper

    Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C fan/200°C/gas 6.

Wash the sweet potatoes and cut them into even sized chunks. Peel the shallots and slice them into 1⁄2 cm rounds. Add the sliced shallots to a flat baking tray and put the sweet potatoes on top.

Drizzle the chopped vegetables with olive oil and stir to evenly coat them. Pick the leaves off the rosemary sprigs and add the leaves to the baking tray. Add the whole garlic cloves (with the skin on) to the baking tray. Roast in the oven for 20-30 minutes until the sweet potato is soft and the vegetables have slightly caramelised.

Make the dressing by combining all of the ingredients and season with salt and pepper.

Add the sun-dried tomatoes and baby spinach to a large mixing bowl. Add the dressing, salt and pepper and toss the leaves in the dressing. Add the cooked sweet potato and shallot to the mixing bowl and toss to combine everything. Serve warm or cold.

 

Speedy Vegan Miso Mushroom Ramen

Serves four.

Ingredients

  • 3cm fresh ginger

  • 1 large garlic clove

  • 1 red chilli

  • 250g chestnut mushrooms

  • 1 vegetable stock cube

  • 2 tbsp miso paste

  • 200g rice noodles

  • 4 spring onions

  • 3 carrots

  • 100g fresh spinach

  • 1-2 limes (juiced)

  • 3 tbsp soy sauce (or tamari)

  • 1 tbsp sesame oil

  • Salt and pepper

Method

Peel and finely chop (or grate) the fresh ginger. Peel and crush the garlic clove. Slice the chilli in half-length ways and scrape out the seeds and finely dice the chilli. Slice the chestnut mushrooms.

Take a large saucepan and fill it up with 1.4 litres of water. Add the chopped ginger, garlic, chilli, chestnut mushrooms, vegetable stock cube and miso paste. Bring the saucepan to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the spring onions and the carrots. Remove the root end and the top green end of the spring onion and finely slice. Peel and grate the carrots.

Add the noodles to a heatproof bowl and pour boiling water over them. Leave them to sit for three minutes, using kitchen tongs to break the nests up. Once the miso mushroom saucepan has been simmering for 10 minutes, lift the cooked noodles from the heatproof bowl and transfer them into the saucepan.

Take the saucepan off the heat and stir through the chopped spring onions, grated carrot and spinach. Stir until the spinach has wilted.

Add the lime juice, soy sauce and sesame oil. Taste and season with salt and pepper until it is ready to serve.

 

 

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