Meating in middle ground

I’M ALWAYS up for a challenge, pretty much no matter what the issue at hand. That said, when a colleague recently suggested I should consider the idea of living a vegan existence, I got a bad case of the shivers.

I can appreciate the philosophy behind veganism, and even its inherent inclination towards healthier and animal-conscious ways of being, yet from practical, culinary, anthropological and flavour perspectives I just can’t embrace it.

At least not all the time. Perhaps there’s some middle ground?

After all, I do find myself quoting the great American writer Michael Pollan pretty much all the time, who said “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants”.

So perhaps some part of finding balance is to include a little vegan food from time to time, to offset all those lamb chops.

But what do you do when your friends want to fire up the grill? What could you possibly serve to sit alongside rib eye steak and handcrafted sausages?

Well, there’s the kind of challenge I totally love, that question of how to tease out extraordinary flavour that impresses against all odds. And yes, it can be done.

Textured vegetable protein (TVP) is available from health food stores in a powdered form, and this can be used as a bulking agent to craft the base of a great kofte. Add slow-roasted mushrooms for umami, walnut for flavour, loads of herbs and a rich blend of spices and things start to really look great.

But what can you use to bind the mixture together in place of eggs or meat? For that, some soaked (but not cooked) rice is the ideal solution.

And the result? Honestly, when I prepared these for friends last week, they went first … even before the chorizo. And if you know my carnivorous friends, that’s the greatest compliment of all.

Ingredients 330ml (1 cups) skim milk 100g cup) raw caster sugar 1 tsp vanilla bean paste 255g (3 cups) desiccated coconut 75g cup) dried cranberries 30g cup) EasiYo Unsweetened Yoghurt Base (see tips) 25g pkt freeze-dried raspberries or strawberries, roughly crushed 150g 78 per cent cocoa dark chocolate, chopped 2 tsp solidified coconut oil 1.

Grease the base and sides of a square 20cm cake pan. Line with baking paper. Combine skim milk and sugar in a medium saucepan over mediumlow heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 13-15 minutes or until reduced and thickened slightly. Remove from the heat. Stir in vanilla.

Combine the coconut, dried cranberries and yoghurt powder in a large heatproof bowl. Make a well in the centre. Pour in the milk mixture. Stir to combine. Stir in half the freezedried fruit. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and scatter

2.