Life

Recipes: Rachel Ama on vegan centrepieces, batch cooking and getting creative

I like to think this way of batch cooking is way more delicious. It can create a routine of people getting used to eating what they have. And planning a little bit, not too much, because no-one wants a rigid plan

Rachel Ama from One Pot: Three Ways by Rachel Ama, published by Hodder and Stoughton, priced £22
Rachel Ama from One Pot: Three Ways by Rachel Ama, published by Hodder and Stoughton, priced £22 Rachel Ama from One Pot: Three Ways by Rachel Ama, published by Hodder and Stoughton, priced £22

LIFE has changed “drastically” for food writer Rachel Ama. Alongside things becoming “very stay at home” – as they have for all of us – she also became a mum during the last year.

“I’m so much busier. I didn’t know!” she says with a laugh. “When I’d hear talk from mums about how tired they were, I don’t think I really understood it until I became her. And now I’m like, ‘Wow’.”

This new reality, and the impact on the London-based writer’s cooking, has “followed straight through in my book – it’s just making big food, lots of it, and making it last.”

The new cookbook in question is One Pot: Three Ways, in which Ama presents a main dish or “centrepiece” and then gives you three ways to eat it. Take her sticky cauliflower bites served with rice and sesame seeds, for instance: make a batch and it can then be transformed into a crunchy salad on day two, and into Chinese style pancakes with cucumber on day three.

Ama realised the concept is a response both to the busyness of mum-life, and to a question she is constantly asked: how do you maintain being vegan? Her answer? “I make a big pot of food.”

It was an ideal way of cooking during that “crazy state of new motherhood”, she remembers, “when I was super lazy, I could just literally eat that the same way for the next couple of days. Or I could refresh it with some herbs or add some potatoes, or turn my Caribbean curry into patties to be fun and make something different.”

It’s a pattern also carried over from Ama’s meat-eating days, when the leftovers from a roast chicken on a Sunday would be rolled through the week – as sandwiches, or rustled up into a brand new dinner with some new sides. Now, she makes a big vegan dish “the centrepiece that the chicken used to be.”

“I like to think this way of batch cooking is way more delicious,” says Ama, who recommends using up all your odds and ends in your centrepiece dishes too. “It can create a routine of people getting used to eating what they have. And planning a little bit, not too much, because no one wants a rigid plan. I don’t anyway – but just planning a little bit, and the more thought that goes into that, the less you run to a supermarket and are like, ‘I’m gonna buy everything because I’m starving right now and I need dinner!’

“Whereas if I’ve come home from work, I’ve got the big feast in the [fridge already]. I’m just gonna cook up some rice to go with it. That for me is a lot easier,” she adds.

Ama’s plant-based recipes also feed into and reflect the impact the pandemic has had on how we cook – the constraints and demands we’ve all had to learn to manage. “When life became pretty crazy, there was limited supply of food available,” she recalls. “But there was opportunity to be more creative in how to make food last.

“Even if people weren’t aware of how beneficial [a plant-based diet] can be for environmental impact, because of the state of everything, everyone had to learn to make food last a bit longer,” she continues, and it also meant working with what’s available. “It’s really exciting to see people cooking more seasonal food with seasonal ingredients.”

Since her debut cookbook, Rachel Ama’s Vegan Eats in 2019, she says the landscape of vegan food, and the conversations around it, have shifted quite a bit. “Everyone’s more happy to incorporate plant-based meals, whether vegan or not,” she muses. “When I did my first book, it was still very much, ‘Oh, don’t you think veganism is a trend?’ Or [people would say], ‘It’s just trying to lose weight’, or all these other crazy trend accusations and it was still a bit taboo and a bit unusual and there [were] questions about flavour.”

Now, she says, “it’s become such a staple in everyone’s life, whether they’re vegan every day, or a couple days a week, people just say, ‘I don’t want to have meat or fish’. It’s become more of a norm.” It’s quite a turnaround in a very short space of time, buy Ama is hopeful she can help people “be excited to see what they can create with legumes” and actually sustain plant-based eating, so you are “full, and meeting your taste buds’ happy places.”

Admittedly, Ama still has friends who approach vegan foods “like, ‘Oh, really?’ But I’m like, ‘Hey, hey, wake up!’ It’s so much more normal now,” she says with a laugh. “And it’s really cool.”

Most people have “moved forward” with the idea that plant-based foods are interesting and fun to eat, she says, and it’s being reflected in the amount of space vegetables are increasingly taking up in supermarkets, and the “sky high” availability of plant-based dairy alternatives. People, she says, “do want to have a vegan meal for flavour, not just nutrition or anything else – they just want to eat some good food.”

One Pot: Three Ways by Rachel Ama is published by Hodder and Stoughton on August 26, priced £22. Photography by Henry Jay Kamara. Below is a selection for you to try at home...

Cajun beer-battered oyster mushrooms with tartare sauce

(Makes 4 servings)

150g plain flour

½tsp baking powder

2tsp sweet paprika

½tsp cayenne pepper

1tsp ground white pepper

1tsp ground cumin

1tsp dried oregano

½tsp dried thyme

1tsp garlic powder

2tsp salt, plus extra to serve

50g cornflour

300g oyster mushrooms, torn into bite-sized pieces

Sunflower or olive oil, for frying

320ml cold lager (or soda water)

Lemon wedges, to serve

For the Tartare Sauce:

100g vegan mayonnaise

2tbsp capers, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

Freshly ground black pepper

Handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley

Method:

1. To make the tartare sauce, mix all the ingredients for it in a bowl, then set aside.

2. Mix the flour, baking powder and all the seasonings together in a large bowl. Place the cornflour in a separate bowl or on a large plate, and place the mushrooms in a third bowl.

3. Pour a 2cm depth of oil into a deep frying pan or wok and place over a high heat until it registers 180°C (356°F) on a thermometer. Alternatively, test the temperature by dipping the end of a wooden spoon in it – if it’s hot enough for frying, the oil should bubble around it. Be careful not to overheat the oil or it will begin to smoke.

4. Whisk the cold beer or soda water into the seasoned flour mixture to make a batter. Then, working quickly, take a piece of oyster mushroom and dip it in the cornflour. Shake off any excess, then dip it in the beer batter before carefully transferring it to the hot oil. Working in batches, cook for three to four minutes, or until each piece is golden and crisp. Once cooked, drain the mushrooms on a wire rack or a plate lined with kitchen paper. Season with extra salt and squeeze over a little fresh lemon.

5. The mushrooms are now ready to be used in the recipes below, or will keep in the fridge for three days.

RECIPE ONE – PART 2: Garlicky crushed new potatoes

(Serves 2)

200g new potatoes

3tbsp olive oil

2 garlic cloves, sliced

2 portions of Cajun Beer-battered Oyster Mushrooms (above)

2 portions of Tartare Sauce (above)

Squeeze of lemon juice

Handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 spring onion, finely chopped

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/425°F/gas 6.Place a pan of water over a high heat and bring to the boil. Add the potatoes and cook for 15 minutes until tender, then drain.

2. Lightly grease a baking sheet with a little of the oil, then lay out the potatoes in a single layer. Use a fork to carefully crush and flatten each potato while keeping it in one piece. Scatter over the garlic, drizzle with the remaining oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast for 20–25 minutes until golden brown.

3. Remove the potatoes from the oven, turn up the heat and quickly place the battered mushrooms on a wire rack over a baking tray and bake for five minutes, or until warmed through and crispy.

4. Serve the mushrooms with the new potatoes, a spoonful of tartare sauce, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, and a sprinkling of fresh parsley and spring onion.

American-style ‘chicken’ pickle sandwich

(Serves 2)

2 portions of Cajun Beer-battered Oyster Mushrooms (above)

2 portions of Tartare Sauce (above)

2 vegan brioche burger buns, sliced in half

2 gherkins, sliced

2tbsp sriracha or your favourite hot sauce

Handful of lettuce, shredded

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 240°C/220°C fan/475°F/gas 9.

2. Place the battered mushrooms on a wire rack over a baking tray and bake for five minutes. Check to see if they’re warmed through and crispy. If not, return them to the oven for another few minutes.

3. To build your sandwich, spread the tartare sauce on the bottom half of your brioche bun. Pile on the mushrooms, then top with the gherkins, hot sauce and lettuce. Serve immediately.

Cajun tacos with pickled red onion and tartare sauce

(Serves 2)

2 portions of Cajun Beer-battered Oyster Mushrooms (above)

4 tortilla wraps

1 avocado, peeled, stoned and sliced

Handful of lettuce leaves

Handful of fresh coriander

2 portions of Tartare Sauce (above)

4tbsp sriracha or your favourite hot sauce

For the Pickled Red Onion:

1 red onion, finely sliced

1tbsp apple cider vinegar

1tsp sea salt

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 240°C/220°C fan/475°F/gas 9.

2. Meanwhile, make the pickled onion. Place the sliced red onion in a bowl and pour over the vinegar.

3. Add the salt, stir to combine, then set aside for at least 10 minutes.

4. Place the battered mushrooms on a wire rack over a baking tray and bake for five minutes. Check to see if they’re warmed through and crispy. If not, return them to the oven for another few minutes.

5. Warm the tortillas in a frying pan over a medium heat for two minutes on each side.

6. To assemble the tacos, place each wrap on a plate and pile the battered mushrooms on them. Top with the avocado, lettuce and coriander, then drizzle over some tartare sauce and sriracha. Fold the wraps over and serve.