Comforting Braised Vegetables In Gravy With Cheesy Mash
A hearty, homely dish made from just glorious veggies!
Equipment
- Oven proof braising pot or Dutch oven with lid
- Chopping board
- Chopping knife
- Large saucepan
Ingredients
For your braised vegetables
- 8 whole carrots Skinned
- 1 large red onion
- 2 large white onions
- 6-8 celery sticks
- 1 red pepper
- 1 green pepper
- ¾ pint hot veggie stock
- 1 heaped tbsp corn flour or chickpea flour
- 1 heaped tbsp nutritional yeast
For your mashed potatoes
- 6 fist sized fluffy potatoes with skins on Try to use potatoes that are specific for mashing for best results. Use organic where possible.
- 3 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 150 ml plant milk You can make your own hemp or oat milk by blending with 1 part hemp seeds or oats to 5 parts water. Or, supermarket organic soy or almond milk work too so long as there are no added sugars or sweeteners.
- 1 tsp garlic powder
Instructions
For the braised vegetables
- Put your oven on a high heat at roughly 220C (428F).
- Now get your vegetables ready by chopping into very large pieces. For instance, peel and chop our onions into about 6 chunks per onion. For your carrots, peel the skins off but keep them whole if they're not too thick. If they are super thick, cut them in half lengthways. For your peppers, chop in half, remove middle and seeds, then slice into around 6 thick pieces each. The celery can be washed kept whole, but also sliced up smaller if you prefer. Some people don't like big hunks of celery in their food, so cut it to your liking.
- Add all your vegetables to a large braising pot with a lid. You will need to use the heavy, oven proof type dishes. It doesn't matter if your vegetables stick up higher than your pot, so long as you can get the lid fully on to create heat and steam.
- Next, mix your chickpea or corn flour with a dash of water into a paste. Be sure to use a big receptacle as you will also need to add your stock. Once your thickening agent has been mixed to a smooth paste, add your hot stock to it stirring continuously to prevent clumping. Also add your nutritional yeast at this point and stir.
- Pour your creamy gravy mix over your veggies. The liquid should come around half way up or so and this is what you want.
- Cover and cook on a high shelf in oven for around 1 - 1hr 15 minutes or until the vegetables are fully cooked and soft.
For the mashed potatoes
- Meanwhile, cut your potatoes with skins on into smallish, even chunks and bring to a simmer on the hob. Allow to cook fully before taking off the heat and draining as thoroughly as possible. It's important to get as much water out as possible if you want them to be creamy. Another trick to evaporate water is to turn the heat off, drain thoroughly, then add potatoes back to the saucepan, put the lid on and leave for a couple of minutes for the remainder of the water to steam off. When you remove the lid it may be very watery on the underside, so try not to let it drip back onto the potatoes.
- Now you are ready to mash. Add your plant milk of choice, nutritional yeast, garlic powder (optional) and salt and pepper to taste. Mash until as smooth as you like them and serve with your braised veggies on top.