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| Vegetarian Roast with Swede and Celeriac chips |
Patrick and I are trying to use as many local and in season vegetables as we can while in the UK.
One reason is that is makes for greener food choices, which is in keeping with eating meat free and a low carbon footprint ethos.
The second reason is you can’t or don’t easily find these foods in South Africa. This is a wonderful opportunity to try them.
We are used to our local fare and have a pretty good idea how to prepare it. But new foods pose new challenges. We love – vegetarian haggis – and we love – Quorn – range of foods. The – Linda McCartney – range is also great.
In South Africa we have – Fry’s – vegetarian range which we use a lot. I do wish they would be trying to bring us healthier versions of their meat replacements. Their newest foods are pastry covered – pies, crumbed and battered – tenders, and – pops – which look like dough balls. Healthier? I don’t think so and very disappointing. We won’t be buying them.
Both Quorn and Linda McCartney do a vegetarian roast. See – here – and – here. I’ve been vegetarian for over 30 years so I really don’t know what meat tastes like anymore but Patrick says the taste is similar. If you are not inclined to meat substitutes or processed food then Patrick’s – Nut Roast – is delicious.
I wanted to get away from starchy potatoes but still liked the idea of roast vegetables. Sweet potatoes are rich in carotenes but they are high in carbs. Roasted root veggies like beetroot, carrots and parsnips are an improvement on the carb front but they still pack carbs.
Swede and celeriac have low carb yields which is why I decided to use them as our roast vegetables. Basically all I did was peel one large swede and one larger celeriac. I cut them as if they were chunky chips. Then tossed I them in a mix of Rapeseed oil and soy sauce. They take a while to cook so you can par boil them or give them a few minutes in the microwave first.
I pricked the packaging of the vegetarian roast and arranged the swede and celeriac on a baking tray with the vegetarian roast. It was baked at 200’C for around 50 mins. You might want to serve it with a red wine or a mushroom gravy but we were hungry and ready to eat so we skipped that step.
Visit the – recipe page – to find more low carb, low GI and vegetarian meals.
