Bite Me!

People are always asking me what I eat for Christmas dinner - well, maybe not always, but fairly often around Christmas time!  So here's the answer for this year - roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, carrots, peas, honey & mustard parsnips, stuffing and veggie gravy.  OK, so it's not the most sophisticated-looking plate of food, but it's reeeaaalllly good.  And (ssh!) surprisingly healthy.

I'm especially proud of the vegetarian gravy, which has a really intense flavour and is very easy to make.  You will need:

boiling water

marigold vegetable stock

Marmite

Tabasco

red wine or sherry

Worcestershire sauce

soy sauce

porcini (optional)

Method

 Very easy - simply mix a dollop of everything together in a saucepan and gently reduce down for about ten minutes.   I haven't put amounts down since I just chuck everything in and then see how it tastes.  If using the porcini, soak them in a mug of warm water for ten minutes before you start, and then add both the mushrooms and the water to the saucepan.  Sieve the mushrooms out before serving.  If you want thicker gravy rather than a jus, add a little flour or cornflour to the mixture and whisk to get rid of lumps. 

This is so good my sister even prefers it to normal gravy...

Being in a massive hurry the other lunchtime, I nipped into a new sandwich shop called Leon which has just opened on Regent Street to get some lunch. Slightly alarmed by being the sole customer (well, it was about 3pm) and the way all six of the staff were all looking at me (albeit in a smiley, friendly way) I grabbed the nearest salad that came to hand and scarpered. What a stroke of luck – it turned out to be a Leon Superfoods Salad, containing broccoli, alfalfa, peas, feta, quinoa, cucumber and seeds, with a minty dressing. It was quite simply the best salad I have ever eaten – I was going to say, from a sandwich shop, but it occurs to me that it was probably one of the nicest salads I have ever eaten full stop. The avocado was perfectly ripe and not at all brown, the feta creamy, the broccoli of a perfect firmness. I’ll definitely be going back to try out some of their other lunches – the sweet potato falafel sound right up my street!

Leon Superfoods Salad, £3.95. For a list of all Leon restaurants (photo is of Leon Spitalfields), see www.leonrestaurants.co.uk