A vegcentric ‘hot pot’ with Spanish flare
Here’s a belated post of one of our favourite February lockdown lunches. It’s colourful nature and bold flavours of paprika-y chorizo and white wine brought smiles to our faces in the chilly depths of winter, and now that Spring has sprung and sunnier days - touch wood! - are here to stay the recipe couldn’t feel more apt.
It’s perfect for a simple weekend lunch enjoyed in the garden served with a generous green salad, dolloped with plenty of unctuous romesco, and mopped up with fresh bread.
The romesco is an entirely integral part of the dish. Without it the hot pot may feel a bit thin and meagre… this robust red sauce adds essential ‘oomph’ both in terms of flavour and body. The blended walnuts, olive oil and roasted peppers add a wonderful richness and fattier mouthfeel when eating, which counter-balances the lighter nature of this summery hot pot.
Vegcentric.
Chorizo has been used very sparingly here - it’s a seasoning not a key ingredients in terms of volume. You can read a little more on our vegcentric philosophy here. Our red wine chickpeas & roasted peppers is another such recipe which uses meat like a seasoning.
Prep time: 15 mins
Oven time: 22 mins on the hob & 24-28 mins in the oven
This recipe serves 4
Ingredients :
4 tbsp olive oil
2 red onion
4 stalks celery
2 large cloves garlic
1 large red chilli (or more if you love heat!)
6 slices of chorizo - we love
12 sprigs thymes, leaves stripped from stalks
1 tsp falkey sea salt
generous twist balck pepper
2 glasses white wine
2 tin white beans, drained and rinsed
1 tin water
1 large bag (250 g) baby spinach
For the topping:
2-3 medium sweet potatoes
1 clove garlic
6 sprigs thyme, leaves stripped from stalks
2 tbsp olive oil
¼ tsp sea salt
Twist black pepper
To serve:
8 generous dollops of romesco
Green salad
Fresh bread
Method:
Preheat the oven to 190 degrees.
Prep the ingredients: finely dice the red onion, finely slice the celery, peel and finely slice the garlic, finely chop the red chilli (deseed if you wish - we keep the seeds in for a little extra fire!), chop or slice the chorizo, and strip the thyme leaves from their stalks.
Heat the olive oil in a medium/large heavy-based saucepan over a medium heat. Once hot, add the onion and celery. Sauté and stir for 8 minutes. Slow and thorough cooking at this stage is essential for a great overall flavour; turn the heat to low if things start to catch.
After 8 minutes add the garlic, chilli, chorizo, thyme and seasoning. Stir well, keep the heat low, and cook for a further 4 minutes.
Next add the wine. Turn the heat up to encourage the alcohol to simmer off and the wine to reduce.
Once the wine has reduced by half add the drained beans and water. Simmer things gently for 6-8 minutes until your hot pot base looks juicy and moist, but not watery.
Stir through the baby spinach and cook for 1-2 minutes only before turning off the heat and transferring your stew into a ceramic/cast iron oven-proof serving dish. You’ll notice the very retro fish dish we used while living with Joey’s mum in lockdown..! Fish shape is not essential!
Next prepare the topping. Wash and dry the sweet potatoes, then finely slice. If you have a mandolin use this to achieve slices which are as even as possible and approximately 2-3mm thick. Peel and slice the garlic.
Toss the sliced potatoes with olive oil, thyme, garlic and seasoning.
Layer your hot pot with overlapping slices of sweet potato, then bake at the top of the preheated oven for 24-28 minutes. Cooking time will largely be determined by the thickness of your potato slices. Note - you can prepare the entire hot pot in advance and only bake it before serving, but in this case the cook time will be 34-38 minutes as the dish will be starting from cold.
Serve with very generous dollops of the romesco and an extra drizzle of olive oil.
