I have recently been re-reading Michael Pollen and his 7 word eater’s manifesto of “Eat food. Not too much. Mainly plants”. It makes sense to me. Here in the Fuss Free household we try to eat a predominately plant based diet. We both love meat, eggs and dairy, but not in large quantities. Undoubtably a mainly plant based diet is better for my wallet, waistline and for the planet, also, increasingly I am starting to think that it is either right or wrong to raise and kill animals for food, and that only choosing higher welfare is fudging the issue. The thought of being vegan slightly frightens me – I know I would eat well – but I would not want to give up my leather shoes and bags, silk, pearls and my feather duvet.
Food politics and choices is a complex issue, is it not?
My vegetable drawer was full of root vegetables, including the ever present swede which comes in my fruit and vegetable bag and languishes at the bottom of the fridge until I crack and put it in the bin. I abhor food waste, but I have no love for the humble swede, so I tried grating some into my loaf, along with carrots and parsnip. I’d made tofu the evening before – with my dislike of cow milk I drink soy, and have a soy milk machine which enables me to make fresh tofu in 30 minutes, I’d kept the whey to use in bread.
With a slow overnight rise the resulting loaf was moist, flavoursome with a dense firm crumb. Delicious oven fresh or toasted the next day. There was a hint of the vegetables, and the flecks of carrot were visible. One to be repeated.
Recipe: Root Vegetable Loaf
Makes 1 small loaf
Ingredients
250ml soy milk whey – or water
2 tsp dried yeast
350g strong white bread flour
150g wholemeal bread flour
1 tsp salt
2 tbs rapeseed oil
200g grated root vegetables – I used a mix of carrot, parsnip and swedeAdd the yeast to the whey or water and stir. Add the rest of the ingredients, mixing to a dough. Knead but had or with the dough hook of your stand mixer until smooth and elastic. Place into a bowl and cover, place in the fridge for about 12 hours or until doubled in size.
Knock the bread back, shape and place into a oiled 1lb loaf tin. Allow to rise again. Bake at GM7 / 220C for about 40 – 50 minutes.
Freezes well.
Sending this to this month’s Frugal Food Fridays – hosted by Gill at Tales of Pigling Bland.
And Breakfast Club where the theme is dairy free – hosted by Ruth at Makey Cakey
And Girlichef’s Bake Your Own Bread
And lastly to Yeastspotting.
This looks delicious – a great way to use up lingering parsnips. I hate them with a passion in their pure parsnippy form, and they always appear in our veg box, so I’m always on the lookout for way to use them up that distract me from what I’m eating. Bread sounds ideal…
You cannot taste the parsnip at all. Also somewhere on my site there is a recipe for sticky tofee pud using them!
Honestly? The thought of being vegan scares me a bit, too. Not that I’m contemplating it or anything, but… I’m loving this bread. So many ways to switch it up depending on the veggie(s) you use. And it looks so hearty and satisfying. So happy that you shared it with BYOB this month! =)
I could cope with vegan food very easily, but everything else would be a problem. No wool for starters.
Thanks for hosting BYOB.
This sounds fab… I’m always looking for ways to eat more veg! Have bookmarked to try it :) x
Nice recipe, especially since I am a cooking teacher with a lesson on root vegetables this month. I like the idea of using a variety of roots. Thanks!
Oh now bread is my downfall… I love it. Even on a diet .. I cannot resist bread!
Your poor little swede, how could you put it in the bin! It is a lovely little root and you the Frugal Food lady too, shame on you. Hee hee! Glad you managed to grate some into your lovely bread. Go find somemore lovely swede (turnip to us Scots) recipes, I challenge you!
To be fair I usually leave it at Church for the stew pot for the homeless lunches.
This is right up my street, Helen. I will be making this very soon. Thank you!
Sounds lovely – I would like to try making tofu but got stuck on buying coagulent because I remember using nigari years ago for it and can’t find it in any shops but I love the sound of fresh tofu in the house and having leftover whey.
Re swede – it is great in a veg and barley soup – or other soups and stews – or just roasted with lots of other veg – maybe some seasoning in the roast veg would help
I agree food politics is tricky. Often when I make vegan recipes, I think this will be a good one if I ever go vegan.
I use Epsom salts to coagulate which works a treat. At a pinch vinegar also works.
I souped my swede, with Thai curry paste – delicious!
Ooooh I like the look of that!!!
Hi, the FFF round up is up – http://talesofpiglingbland.wordpress.com/2012/04/01/frugal-food-fridays-march-roundup/