Jamie Oliver - A Modern Way to Eat - Over 200 satisfying, everyday vegetarian recipes

2 tablespoons soy sauce or tamari

juice of 2 limes

Pour the coconut milk into a large pan and add a canful of water and the stock cube or powder. Bash the lemongrass with a rolling pin until it’s smashed, to help release the flavours more quickly. Add to the pan with the lime leaves (if using), shallot, garlic, chilli and sugar. Cut the roots off the coriander and add these too.

Push all the aromatics into the liquid so they are covered and turn the heat on under the pan. Bring to a gentle simmer, then allow to bubble for 15 minutes, until you have an intensely flavoured coconut broth.

Take the pan off the heat and sieve the broth into a bowl, discarding all the aromatics (they have done their work now). Then pour the broth back into the pan. Add the shredded greens and mushrooms, and warm through for 2–3 minutes. Then take off the heat and add the soy sauce and lime juice.

Ladle the soup into bowls and top with the roughly chopped coriander leaves. I like the neatness of this simple, soothing soup on its own, but if you are hungry, try adding some cooked soba noodles.

Sweet tomato and black bean tortilla bowls

I love Mexican food for its attention to different textures and its layers of flavour, crunch, softness, creaminess, citrus punch and chilli heat, and that’s what I like about this bowl.

The soupy-stew is great on its own, but when you top it with popping roasted tomatoes, buttery avocado and even a perfectly poached egg it becomes a serious team of flavours in a bowl. Don’t be fooled by the title – this is not one of those sketchy bowls made from a baked tortilla that you see in dodgy Mexican restaurants.

Smoked paprika is a good friend – if I can find any excuse to shake some of the sweet smoky stuff on to my food, I will. Last year I visited my holy grail: the chilli fields of La Vera in Spain. Over the years I have been lucky enough to tour a bunch of different artisans and producers, but this was my favourite one of all – fields and fields of brave red chillies, picked by hand and carted to huge kilns in a beautiful old smokery in the middle of the fields, where fires were lit below ceilings made of wire racks holding thousands of chillies, to smoke them and get that wonderful taste.

SERVES 4

1 medium sweet potato, washed and chopped into little pieces

20 cherry tomatoes, halved

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

olive or rapeseed oil

a bunch of spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced

1 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 × 400g tin of chopped tomatoes

750ml hot vegetable stock

1 × 400g tin of black beans, drained

6 corn tortillas (see here)

optional: a few organic or free-range eggs, for poaching

optional: 1 avocado, peeled and cut into chunks

a small bunch of fresh coriander, leaves picked

Preheat your oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/gas 6.

Place the sweet potatoes on one side of a baking tray and the halved cherry tomatoes on the other, then sprinkle the whole lot with a good amount of salt and pepper, drizzle with a little oil and roast for 20–25 minutes.

Heat a little oil in a large pan over a medium heat. Add the spring onions and garlic and sizzle for a few minutes, until the garlic has just started to brown, then add all the spices and stir round a couple of times. Add the tinned tomatoes and simmer for 5 minutes, until all the flavours have come together.

Add the stock and bring to the boil, then simmer for another 5 minutes. I like to blitz the broth now, but feel free to skip this if you like it with more texture. After simmering, add the beans.

By now the tomatoes and sweet potatoes should be roasted. Take the tray out of the oven and add the sweet potatoes to the broth, then keep it ticking over on a low heat. Set the roasted tomatoes aside – they will go in later.

Cut the tortillas into 0.5cm wide strips and put them on another baking tray. Season with a little salt, drizzle over some oil, toss to coat and bake in the oven for 4–5 minutes until crisp and lightly golden.

I like to serve poached eggs on top of my soup, so if you like the idea poach 1 egg per person (see herefor my method).

Once the tortilla strips are golden, take them out of the oven. Ladle the soup into bowls, top with the roasted tomatoes and crunchy tortilla strips, a poached egg, some chopped avocado, if you like, and a scattering of coriander.

Charred pepper and halloumi stew

There seems to be a blanket fascination with halloumi, especially among vegetarians. Every barbecue in the summer seems to include a couple of blocks. While I like the squeaky cheese, I think it needs a bit of help in the flavour department. Here it sits in a warm blanket of blackened peppers and a flash-cooked tomato stew that coats the just-crisped halloumi in its balmy juices. Somewhere between a warm salad and a fresh herby stew.

SERVES 4

3 red peppers

500g mixed cherry and vine tomatoes, halved

2 handfuls of Kalamata olives (about 20), pitted

2 tablespoons little capers

grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon

3 tablespoons good olive oil

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 × 250g pack of halloumi cheese, cut into 12 slices

½ a bunch of fresh mint, leaves picked and chopped

½ a bunch of fresh parsley, leaves picked and chopped

½ a bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked and chopped

If you have a gas stove, turn on the hob and use tongs to balance all 3 peppers around the naked flame, turning them every few minutes until they are charred all over. This will take 10 minutes or so. They are done when they are almost completely black and they have softened and lost their rawness. If you don’t have a gas hob, use a really hot griddle pan to char them in the same way instead, or put them under a very hot grill. Once black and charred all over, put the peppers into a bowl and cover with clingfilm. Leave to sit for 5 minutes.

Put the tomatoes into a bowl with the pitted olives, capers, lemon zest and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Season well with salt and pepper and leave to mingle while you get on with peeling the peppers. Take the peppers out of the bowl and use your fingers to peel the blackened skin into the bowl, cleaning off as much of the skin as you can. Don’t be tempted to rinse them under the tap, as this will wash away all the flavour. Deseed the peppers, cut them into 1cm strips and add them to the bowl of tomatoes.

Now heat a frying pan on a medium heat. Add the rest of the olive oil and allow to heat up, then add the slices of halloumi and fry for 30 seconds or so on each side, until they have just turned golden. Place the halloumi on a plate, then tip the tomato mixture into the hot pan and pop back on the heat for a couple of minutes to warm through and release some juices.

Finally, add the chopped herbs and halloumi to the pan and serve straight away, warm, with some good bread and spritely greens.

Celeriac soup with hazelnuts and crispy sage

Celeriac is an under-used star. I love it and champion it in my kitchen. Sometimes it’s simply roasted with salt and pepper, other times it’s smashed with lemon and thyme or just eaten raw, finely sliced in a remoulade.

Here it’s the centrepiece of a comforting soup. Apples are the perfect foil for adding sweetness, while the butter beans bring creaminess, so no need for cream or crème fraîche here. The soup can be eaten simply as it is, but have a go at the brown butter – it amps it up and makes this soup a real winner. If you haven’t made brown butter before, it’s got a deep nutty flavour which melds with the crispy sage and toasted hazelnuts to send this soup to a different dimension.