Cornucopia Recipes Cosy Autumnal Recipes

autumn’s cornucopia

INDULGENT MEAT-FREE MEALS.

We welcome back our friends Cornucopia. They have shared something wonderful from their book of recipes. Published in 2019, The Green Cookbook is the latest vegan cookbook from their famous vegan and vegetarian restaurant.

The ultimate, autumnal plant-based meal – this dish has loads of flavour. Cornucopia have used some clever substitutes to create this delicious meatless and dairy-free meal, perfect for any day of the week.

SPANAKOPITA -Recipe by Tony Keogh

Serves 6-8 This classic Greek dish is as elegant as it is simple. It is traditionally made with spinach, sheep cheese, scallions and egg, all bound in crispy flaky filo pastry; This version is a plant-based Spanakopita that features crumbled tofu to mimic the feta and sauerkraut for that lactic acid flavour.

Ingredients 1 large aubergine, cubed 2 onions, finely sliced 5 garlic cloves, minced 1 tablespoon ground cumin 1 whole cinnamon stick 3 bay leaves 600g firm tofu, crumbled 100g sauerkraut, roughly chopped 4 tablespoons (20g) nutritional yeast 2 heaped teaspoons (20g) Dijon mustard 2 tablespoons cider vinegar 2 tablespoons apple concentrate or agave syrup juice of 1 lemon 200g spinach 1 small bunch each of parsley, dill, basil and mint, picked 1 packet of filo pastry (6 sheets), thawed overnight in the fridge salt and cracked black pepper extra virgin olive oil rapeseed oil

You will need • parchment-lined tray • 25cm springform tin • high-speed blender • pastry brush Method; 1 Preheat the oven to 190ºC.

Toss the aubergine in a good glug of olive oil and bake on a parchment-lined tray for 15–20 minutes.

2 Meanwhile, heat a little sunflower oil in a large heavy-based pot and, when hot, add the sliced onion, garlic, cumin, cinnamon, bay leaves and a half cup of water (100ml). Stir briskly over a high heat for a minute or two, cover with a lid and leave to soften over a medium heat for about 8–10 minutes, checking every couple of minutes to ensure it is not catching.

Once everything is soft, add the crumbled tofu, sauerkraut, nutritional yeast, mustard, cider vinegar, apple concentrate and lemon juice. Remove from heat and set aside to cool, but add the aubergine once it’s baked. (Leave the oven on at 190ºC.)

3 Blanch the spinach in a large pot of boiling water for 30 seconds. Drain, rinse under cold water and squeeze most out most of the liquid. In a high-speed blender, purée the spinach, adding a tablespoon of water if needed to loosen. Add the herbs and purée until velvet smooth. Set aside until the tofu mixture is fully cooled, and then fold in the puree and season to taste.

4 Clear a generous work space and construct the pie; Remove the filo sheets from the packet, unfurl each one and cut each in half lengthways to create 12 thinner strips.

5 Brush the inside of a springform tin with a little olive oil and place on the worktop. Imagine that the curve farthest from you is north, the curve closest to you is south, left is west and right is east.

6 Brush a strip of pastry with oil and lay it north to south, gently pressing into the base and inner walls of the tin and leaving two flaps overhanging either side. Brush another strip and lay it west to east, then another north-west to south-east, and another north-east to south-west. Repeat this process with another four strips. Fill the pastry-lined tin with the cooled filling.

7 Cut the remaining four strips of pastry in half widthways to give eight rough squares of filo.

Brush four of these, stack them centrally onto the spinach mixture and loosely draw in the overhanging sides to cover the pie. Brush the remaining squares, slice into strips and scatter decoratively over the pie.

8 Once constructed, top the pie generously with cracked black pepper, cover with parchment or foil and bake in a preheated oven for 40 minutes covered and a further 20 minutes uncovered to brown. Remove from the oven and leave to sit for five minutes before carefully removing the mould, using a knife to loosen the edges if needed.

cornucopia.ie

“delicious meatless and dairy-free meal, perfect for any day of the week”

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