Prep time: 30 mins | Cook time: 1 hour and 15 mins | Serves 4
John says: This 100% vegan dish was curated off the cuff for a quick lunch! Using celeriac, miso, and cannellini beans I was able to bring so much umami meaty flavour to this dish with fats, salt, Savory flavours and textures.
Tips and tricks: Celeriac is a delicious and under-used vegetable – which is why you might have come across it in a veg box for wonky or surplus veg! It’s the root of the celery plant, with a sweet slightly celery flavour, and a turnip-like texture. It’s got a great bite to it and goes really well with meaty, earthy flavours, making it a great base for a hearty plant-based meal.
Cannellini beans are packed with protein and a great cupboard staple, but you can swap out for any white beans you’ve got!
The artichoke crisps, radish and pomegranate are all garnishes that add some brightness and some crunch to this dish (and allow you to flex your fancy plating skills) but one or all of them can be left off and you’ll still have a delicious filling vegan lunch.
Ingredients:
Cannellini bean hummus
- 400g (one tin) Cannellini beans
- 5 garlic cloves
- 2 lemons
- 1 tbsp Tahini
- 7 tbsp neutral oil (we used rapeseed)
- 2 tbsp Water
- Salt
- Pepper
Sticky miso glazed celeriac fondants
- 2 celeriac
- 1 onion
- 1 sprig each thyme and rosemary
- 4 tbsp vinegar (we used walnut vinegar)
- 10g veg stock or kombu
- 250ml water
- 50g vegan butter
To garnish
- 1 handful chives
- 2 radishes
- 1 handful pomegranate seeds
- 1 bunch of dill
- 2 Jerusalem artichokes
Directions:
Turn your oven to 140° so it can be heating up while you prep.
Drain the cannellini beans and add to a blender with the garlic, juice of both lemons and tahini, turn on and start drizzling in the rapeseed oil. Add a touch of water, then turn the speed up to emulsify (bind it all together!). Whizz until it reaches the consistency you want - you can keep adding a dash of water at a time to thin it out – and add salt and pepper to taste.
Wash the celeriac - you’ll be using the trimmings later, and celeriacs are quite knobbly, so make sure you give it a good scrub to get rid of any dirt! Pat dry and slice it horizontally into 2cm thick slices.
Using a round cutter cut out rounds from the slices – or just cut into circles with a small knife if you don’t have one. If you want to feel extra cheffy, use a peeler trim off the sharp edges to make round, smooth cylinders but don’t throw away any of your peelings or offcuts yet!
Warm your oil in a thick bottomed pan, and sweat your chopped onions, garlic and chopped up celeriac trimmings on a medium heat. Once they’re browned and smelling delicious, deglaze the pan by pouring in your vinegar and making sure you scrape all the sticky bits up from the bottom of the pan into the liquid – this is called the fond, and it’s full of toasty umami flavours that you want to make sure you get in your sauce!
Make up your 250ml of kombu or vegetable stock according to the packet instructions and add in to the pan with a tablespoon of miso paste, the rosemary and the thyme. Bring the stock to the boil and once it’s reduced by half, strain the veg out. Put the celeriac rounds (these are your fondants!) into a roasting dish, pour over half the stock and poach in the oven set at 140° for 45 minutes. Once the timer is up, remove the fondants and allow them to cool.
If you’re making artichoke crisps, use a mandolin or a sharp knife to cut super thin rounds from the artichoke. Deep fry at 190° for 1 minute turning halfway and remove when crispy on to kitchen paper and season with salt.
Top tip! You can prep all of the above in advance and store in the fridge, then pick up from here to whip up a quick lunch or a tasty dinner for friends in just a few minutes.
In a pan bring 1 tbsp of oil to a medium heat and pop in the fondants. Once they’ve got some colour on both sides, add the vegan butter to create a foaming liquid then tilt your pan and spoon over the fondant until golden brown. Pour a good glug of the stock you made earlier all over the fondants and it will naturally reduce into a dark, sticky sauce.
Spoon your hummus in to the middle of a plate, spreading with the back of your spoon and arrange three fondants per person on top. Garnish the plate with the radish, chives, dill, artichoke crisps & pomegranate seeds, and finish by drizzling the sticky miso sauce from your pan all over the top.
Tuck in!