Supermarket Vegetrian: Part VIII
I can’t believe I am eight recipes into my SUPERMARKET VEGETARIAN series and I haven’t offered a breakfast recipe. This series is a collection of recipes using supermarket ingredients only to make meatless food more accessible – and this week I chose Lidl. They’ve really upped their game lately with their product offer and by the grace of God, there’s one two seconds from my apartment so a last minute decent breakfast like this is always covered.
Don’t get me wrong, a decent breakfast is something of a mystique in my life. It can range for a lavish full English (smothered in Ketchup) right down to some buttered toast and a coffee that I eat at red lights in my car. But sometimes, when you filthily lather some toast in butter and pour over a deeply flavoured concoction, that’s when you can really experience the best your morning Kitchen can offer.
I loves a hash. A pan full of salted and spiced ingredients being shmushed around. It’s the best way to start a day. A hash is also extremely permissive and can incorporate a whole bunch of pantry items you have leftover, don’t know what to do with and/or want to get rid of.
And my favourite part about a hash is that it only takes the length of time a potato takes to soften. So you could let it sizzle away on the pan gently while you do whatever other nonsense your morning requires (mine usually just means looking for something decent on TV).
This sweet potato version gives an interesting layer to the hash whereby it gives a decent amount of sweetness before being rounded out by the mellow earthiness of the mushrooms (which aren’t even chopped). You could substitute this with normal potatoes if you’re desperate but cook them for a little longer.
Melt a little butter in a pan and finely chop an onion. Chuck it in the pan when the butters melted, salt them lightly and let them cook. Slice a sweet potato into small chunks (peel it if you’ve got time) and throw it into the pan. Stir with the onions before adding a finely chopped garlic clove. Cook this until the sweet potato starts to soften.
Once the potato starts to soften, grab a few mushrooms (I go with four for two people) and rip them up in your hand. This is such a weird but strangely enjoyable part of the process for me. I just crunch the mushroom in my palm and let it tear itself into little shards and fall into the pan. It gives it a very rustic look, plus means I don’t have to do any extra chopping. Cook these until they soften a little with the potato.
Add a little pinch of paprika, a little shake of dry chili and crunch over a lot of fresh pepper. Add a quick dash of balsamic vinegar and stir everything together as it sizzles. Lower the heat and keep it gently sizzling.
Pop some bread in the toaster (I used the Low GI brown bread from Lidl for this… so good and toasts beautifully). Once the toast pops, you can serve up. Layer some butter on the toast, cover it in the hash and sprinkle over some freshly chopped parsley. I also serve this with ice coffee, just for some coolness against the throat warming spike of the hash.
MIKEY AND THE KITCHEN. 