Spinach, chickpea and tamarind stew

It’s November, so, quite rightly, it’s cold, dark and a bit wet. I have been counterbalancing this with hot, bright, delicious food. Stews are kind of ideal November food however, veggie stews can be a bit bland and dull. Yotam Ottolenghi’s swiss chard, chickpea and tamarind stew is anything but.


The tamarind adds a sharp, sunny-ness to everything, and the colours - the green spinach, golden chickpeas, red sauce and white yoghurt - are bright and cheerful. It’s wonderfully exotic while also being fantastically warm and comforting. It is also one of those things where you can have 90% of the ingredients in the cupboard and freezer (the only things I needed to buy were yoghurt and coriander).


This is something I make fairly regularly, this time I made it with spinach, rather than swiss chard, and baked potato ,rather than rice. I then followed it up with Felicity Cloake’s Perfect Rice pudding - which is well worth a try. All the kind of food to banish the cold, miserable month on the other side of the curtains.

This makes enough for four – (or two and two portions in the freezer)

Mushroom and onion pie

I was in M&S the other day (stocking up on Vanilla Fudge bars which t-o-h buys, and eats by the dozen) and the person behind me was buying a roast mushroom and onion pie. That sounds good I thought, I reckon I could do that …so I did.

250g mushrooms, cut into mouth-sized chunks (I’ll let you decide how big that is)
2 onions, sliced
2 tbsp oil
2 small knobs butter
1 tbsp flour
400ml stock
Splash red wine
1 star anise
1 tsp marmite (or tbsp soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce)
3 largish potatoes, mashed with a little butter (i.e. ‘baked’ in the microwave, scooped out and mashed with a fork)

Start with a tablespoon of oil and knob of butter in a hot-ish pan. Throw in the mushrooms, season and leave them to get a bit of colour. When they are soft and just golden (about 5 minutes) scoop them out and put them in an oven proof dish.

Next, put the remaining oil and butter in the same pan and reduce the heat to medium-low. Add the onions and cook until golden and sticky, stirring regularly, which will take about 15-20 minutes (a pinch of sugar and salt will help everything along).

When they are golden brown add the flour and stir for a couple of minutes to cook the flour (add a drop more oil if you think it needs it). Pour in the wine and allow it to evaporate before adding the stock, marmite and star anise. Cook for 5 minutes and check for seasoning.

Remove the star anise and pour the onion mix over the mushrooms. Top with the mash, roughing up the top with a fork. Cook in a preheated 210C oven for about 25 minutes until browned and bubbling.

Dole out onto two plates and serve - with pickled onions and beetroot if you like.