Ingredients 

Small squash or pumpkin

Fennel seeds

Coriander seeds

Mustard seeds

Vegetable stock 

Yeast flakes

Cherry tomatoes (tinned) 

Salt

Pepper

Paprika

Lemon juice

Cider vinegar

Miso paste 

(Harissa paste or chilli flakes) 

Optional to add at the end:

Ground nuts

Mixed seeds

Yoghurt or kefir

Method

Start by baking a small pumpkin or squash – maybe give it a wash, but the skin can be eaten, if you wish, and even the seeds inside can be baked and eaten. Wrap it in tin foil if you want to avoid an unnessary mess and stick it on a tray.

I may also bake butternut squash in this way, as well as washed but not peeled sweet potatoes, large carrot, parsnip, onion and garlic, and of course courgettes, aubergine and tomatoes. 

Once baked you cut a lid off the squash  – it should cut, almost like butter … then scoop out the centre of the pumpkin/squash with a spoon – the seeds can be chucked, or rinsed, baked and eaten with a little salt. You can even eat the skin. I’m more likely to put it towards vegetable stock. 

I use the squash pulp as the basis for ‘smoky beans’.

Into a heavy pan I put a teaspoon each of fennel seeds, coriander seeds and mustard seeds … once heated through I add the pulp from the cooked squash.

Heat this through, perhaps adding some vegetable stock. I usually have a stash of ready made vegetable stock (into a pan of boiling water I put a roast potato, onion, carrot and parsnip, with ends of leek, leftover ends of broccoli, peppercorns, bouquet garni and bay leaves) … or a stock cube and yeast flakes.

I use tinned cherry tomatoes by default (they have more flavour than plum tomatoes). Add passata and a squeeze of tomato purée.

To this I add salt and pepper, smoked paprika, lemon juice, a little cider vinegar and some miso paste … and if I like spicy, then harissa paste or Chili flakes. 

More vegetable stock or water is added from time to time.

I use ground roasted nuts as a thickener, and taste and protein. I usually use cashew nuts, almosts, maybe broken bits of Brazil nuts or walnuts. These are possibly first baked in a dry frying pan and ground to a powder in a spice grinder. 

I add chickpeas and as I make enough ‘sauce’ in the pan to last a few days, I will gradually add a further variety of beans of many varieties (kidney beans, black beans and cannellini beans). These can be canned, or from a jar, but I use dry beans which I have soaked overnight and boiled up in the morning. 

Some of this mixture goes into the fridge, some possibly into the freezer – it is the basis of meals for days to come. 

Heated up in small portions these beans are typically eaten with Bulgar wheat and greens … or on toast. Bulgar wheat is easy to prepare from dry, cooked through in a few minutes in vegetable stock.

For breakfast several large tablespoons of this bean and tomato juice/sauce go into a pan and once heated up in goes an egg which will poach to perfection. 

Once in a bowl or on a dish the beans are often served up with mixed seeds and a large tablespoon of yoghurt or kefir. 

On very rare occasions either cooked sausages or roast chicken have ended up in this mixture turning the dish into a cassoulet.