FOOD // A Foodie Father's Day

Falling in the middle of June - and in a week that actually had some sun! - I feel like Father's Day is typically a BBQ kind of day. But falling on a Sunday, I feel like it's also a day for a traditional roast. Conundrum! 

We had no real plans for Father's Day this year, intending to get together on Tuesday instead, but when I found myself wide awake and in need of distraction at 3:30am on Sunday, some food-filled scheming was soon had and a plan was quickly hatched! In spite of the fair-weathered temptation, I eventually opted for a roast-type meal, which was something of a relief when the heavens opened just as I reached mum and dad's house!

After a restless trip to Asda at 5:30am (side note: what a pleasant supermarket experience!), I spent the rest of the day cooking in short spells - both in the flat and at the parentals' - whipping up a vegetarian (mostly vegan), gluten-free frenzy from some entirely new-to-me recipes. 

Here's how it all progressed...

Firstly, there were blueberry "pancakes" made from gram flour and rolled oats. Admittedly, these weren't for Father's Day; these were just for me! Let's call it fuel for a day in the kitchen, okay? 

Soft, chewy, warm, gooey, these weren't traditionally-textured pancakes - more akin to the banana ones so popular with health-food fans - but they were tasty and went down a treat with some extra blueberries and agave syrup poured on top. I followed this recipe, but improvised with cornflour instead of cornmeal, and nutmeg instead of cinnamon, and threw some crushed blueberries into the batter mix. Perfect start to the day!

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Suitably fuelled, next up I prep'd my one-pot vegan pie following a recipe by Dana at Minimalist Baker. A simple dish of onions, garlic and an assortment of veg in a sauce of almond milk, cornflour and vegetable stock, I opted to cook mine in one large casserole dish instead of individual pies, swapping out the "biscuits" for some ready-rolled gluten-free pastry rounds to top off this easy but effective main course.

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To accompany, I made some carrot and sweet potato cumin mash, loosely based on this (not-particularly-well-written) recipe (read the comments!) on the BBC's Good Food website. Christy wasn't a huge fan of the cumin, but I enjoyed the way it balanced out the sweetness of the potatoes and the warmth it brought to the dish.

(What I didn't enjoy was the moment in which I "cleverly" tried to melt down some vegan butter and saw it explode ALL over my microwave instead. Lesson learned!)

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Alongside this came some stuffed onions, roasted in the oven and overflowing with filling. Gouging out the inside of an onion was something of a new and interesting experience, but worth it in the end!

For the stuffing itself I used the leftover onion along with some celery, garlic, spinach, cashew nuts and cubes of gluten-free bread (which unfortunately made my version of this dish vegetarian rather than vegan), soaked in veggie stock, according to this Akis Petretzikis recipe. There was a LOT of stuffing so the rest was baked and served up as an extra side dish.

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Last but not least were some humble greens: spinach, asparagus and Brussels sprouts (thank you, 10p Asda bargain) fried off with lots of black pepper and a tiny bit of soy sauce. Yum! 

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I must confess I didn't get as far as thinking about dessert, but dad himself saved Father's Day with some condensed milk ice-cream he'd whipped up a day or two previously (vaguely based on this recipe) because he is an ice-cream-making legend. Amazing!

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All in all, a pretty darn good day for food, if you ask me! I hope it went some small way in saying 'Thank you!' to a dad for whom I am incredibly grateful and by whom I am incredibly blessed. ♥

xo