A few weeks ago I bought the nondescript looking ‘Vegetarian‘ cook book by Jody Vassallo in the Health for Life series from a suburban newsagency. I know these cook books aren’t all that fashionable, but I instantly liked it because it had a recipe for salt and pepper tofu, some interesting twists on simple recipes, and a focus on healthy eating.

I recently tried my first recipe from the book, roast veggies with miso jus. I am a huge fan of roast veggies, particularly potatoes (one reason why I would never survive a no carbs diet). I liked the idea of using miso flavoured jus as a alternative to gravy, and was also excited about finding an excuse to cook with verjuice, which is totally my new favourite ingredient.

The recipe

4 medium potatoes, unpeeled, scrubbed, cut into quarters
2 medium orange sweet potatoes, unpeeled, scrubbed, cut into quarters
1 medium red capsicum, cut into quarters
1 head of garlic
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon of chopped fresh thyme
1 tablespoon of sea salt
2 teaspoons of cracked black pepper
250g cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup verjuice
4 baby bok choy, quartered lengthwise
2 teaspoons grated palm sugar or brown sugar
2 cups reduced salt vegetable stock
2 teaspoons white miso

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 C

2. Put the potatoes, sweet potatoes, capsicum and garlic head into a large mixing bowl. Add the olive oil, rosemary, thyme, sea salt and cracked black pepper. Mix well to coat all the vegetables. Transfer to a large baking tray and bake for 45 minutes. Add the tomatoes and 2 tablespoons of the verjuice to the tray and bake for a further 15 minutes.

3. Put the bok choy in a steamer and cook over a pan of boiling water for two minutes.

4. To make the jus, put the remaining verjuice and palm sugar into a fry pan over medium heat and bring to the boil. Add the stock and boil until reduced by half. Remove from the heat and stir in the miso.

5. Divide the roasted vegetables and steamed bok choy among the plates. Drizzle with the jus and serve immediately. Serves 4.

What I actually did

So, you know what they say about best laid plans. I reckon that applies doubly in the kitchen.

First off, it turned out that 5pm on a weekend night was not a great time to track down white miso. So I substituted normal miso paste. The flavour was interesting, but quite strong and didn’t meld with the verjuice or complement the roast veggies quite as well as I expected. Next time I’d try the white miso or go a bit easier on the miso paste.

Also, making roast veggies got me feeling nostalgic, so I couldn’t help but throw in a couple of parsnips and a swede. As we were only two, and the original recipe was for four, things got a little out of hand. So I didn’t add the bok choy. Next time I’ll try to temper my impulse to add in every vegetable I like, and use the steamed bok choy to offset the richer, oily flavour of the roast veggies.

I loved the verjuice and can’t believe it’s taken me so long to start using it. It’s made from the juice of young, unfermented grapes, so it has acidity but is much sweeter than lemon juice or vinegar. It made a lovely glaze for the vegetables, and I’m sure it will be great in salad vinegarettes as well.

I used the Maggie Beer brand of verjuice. She has plenty of recipes using verjuice on her site. Vegetarians may feel wary about a product that comes from a place called Pheasant Farm; however, I paid a visit to the Maggie Beer farm shop in the Barossa Valley at Easter and was pleasantly surprised at how many of her products, in the shop and on the menu, were vegetarian. Best of all, Maggie Beer was at the shop, running around and getting her hands dirty amongst the busy Easter crowd. What an awesome lady.

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