Vegan Biryani Stuffed Marrow and Spicy Potato Cakes

A bit off topic for a knitting blog, but here's a recipe I came up with the other day for a really delicious stuffed marrow with some tasty little potato cakes, and a couple of sauces and a wee kachumber salad, just because! I'm on my summer holidays at the moment, so I've got lots of time to play about with recipes that are a bit more time consuming and complex - this is really not a quick midweek dinner! And I've also got a bit of a glut of fresh produce, I've got more spinach, potatoes and marrows than I can keep up with. So this recipe will hopefully be perfect for any keen cooks with a glut from their garden, and who love to cook fancy vegan dinners.

I’m a teacher in a secondary school in Scotland, I teach Maths, but I also run the school garden. It’s a great perk – I only live a five minute walk away in a flat with no garden (although I do have 3m² of balcony, every inch of which is covered in plants) and it’s great to have a bit of outdoor space to potter about in. During the summer I pretty much use it as a private allotment, which is absolutely great if you love vegetarian cooking as much as I do! When I first took over the garden, it was totally overgrown with weeds. Nobody had done any work to it for a couple of years and horsetail was running rampant. I’ll need to write a clickbait blogpost at some point, like “10 neat tricks to transform your overgrown allotment”. I’d feel like a bit of a fraud though, since the weeds are still definitely winning! But there’s a lot of veg too, and it’s so nice to have homegrown, organic produce. I’m definitely a bit of a hippy and really love having seasonal veg that I’ve seen grow up from a little seedling, there’s something incredibly rewarding in it.

I’m vegetarian and eat a mainly plant based diet, mainly because dairy products really don’t agree with me, so I do a lot of vegan cooking. I think it’s really important in vegan food to have a good balance of textures – so often creaminess is missing but in this recipe there’s a really lovely creamy coconut sauce as well as a really tangy tomato sauce, it’s all about balance! I really love vegan food where the vegetables are the real stars, rather than relying on heavily processed “fake” versions of things from an omnivorous diet, mainly because they’re often not very tasty. This is definitely not a quick and easy vegan meal, it’s one for a quiet Sunday afternoon where you’ve got plenty of time to make a big fancy dinner – it’s 100% worth the effort though. This recipe would be great for a special occasion, if you’ve got a vegan friend coming for a dinner party this would be a real treat for them!

This is a summery recipe is perfect for veg that’s in season right now – marrows, potatoes, spinach and peas. If your garden is anything like mine, the marrows are coming thick and fast. In the last week I’ve made marrow cake, marrow curry, marrow pickle, spice crusted marrow, marrow pizza…. the list goes on. So if you’re trying to cope with a glut and think of new recipe ideas for your homegrown produce, I hope this helps!

This recipe will serve two hungry adults with leftovers, two adults and two kids, or maybe four adults if you had a big pudding afterwards!

So here’s a wee pic of today’s harvest:

And here's what I made:

Ingredients
For the stuffed marrow:
1 marrow
100g white basmati rice
½ tbsp coconut oil
½ onion finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
2cm piece ginger, grated
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1 handful mangetout peas
½ tin chopped tomatoes
½ tsp each of black mustard seeds, cumin seeds, nigella seeds, fennel seeds and fenugreek seeds
½ tsp turmeric
1 pinch saffron strands soaked in 50ml boiling water
Salt to taste
 
 
For the potato cakes:
150g potatoes
1 small bunch fresh spinach
3 spring onions, finely chopped
2cm piece ginger, grated
1 green chilli, finely chopped
2 tsps garam masala
Salt to taste
 
 
For the tomato relish:
½ tbsp coconut oil
½ tbsp black mustard seeds
1 garlic clove, crushed
2cm piece ginger, grated
1 red chilli, finely chopped
½ tin tomatoes
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp brown sugar
Salt to taste
 
 
For the coconut and coriander sauce:
150 ml coconut milk
1 bunch coriander
1 small handful mint leaves
Zest of 1 lime
Good squeeze of lime juice – you can add more to taste
Salt to taste

For the kachumber salad:
1 ripe tomato, chopped into small dice
¼ red onion, chopped into small dice
10cm piece cucumber, chopped into small dice
Good squeeze of lime juice
Salt to taste
 
To garnish:
Pea shoots, nasturtium flowers and chopped fresh coriander and mint

Method
 
Preheat your oven to 180°C. Cut the marrow in half lengthways and use a metal spoon to hollow out the inside. You still need to have around 2cm of flesh left on all sides. Reserve all the marrow that you scoop out. Rub a little olive oil over the marrow halves and sprinkle them with about half a tsp of salt, then put them cut side up in dish in the preheated oven.

Now chop your potatoes for the potato cakes into equally sized pieces and boil until tender, then set aside to cool.

For the biryani filling, heat half a tbsp of coconut oil in a pan with a tight-fitting lid. Add the mustard, cumin, nigella, fenugreek and fennel seeds and cook until they start to crackle and pop. Add the turmeric powder and stir everything for 30 seconds or so, then add the finely chopped onion. Let that cook for a minute or two then add the chilli, garlic and ginger - it should smell like absolute heaven at this point. Stir everything and cook for a minute more. Roughly chop the reserved marrow flesh and add to the pan, stirring it all up and letting it cook down for another few minutes. Add half a tin of chopped tomatoes and 100g rice and stir. Add 250ml water, the saffron strands in their soaking water, and the mangetout peas then let it all simmer for 10 mins. Keep an eye on the amount of liquid in the pan and add a little extra if it needs it. Different types of rice and different tinned tomatoes will mean that you may need to add a little more water as required. My "rule of thumb" is to level off all the veg and rice in the pan, then add boiling water until it comes 1cm above that level.
 
Meanwhile, make your tomato relish. Put ½ a tbsp of coconut oil in a pan over a medium-high heat, let it melt, then add the mustard seeds. Wait for the mustard seeds to start popping, then add the garlic, ginger and chilli. Stir for 30 seconds or so, then add the remaining chopped tomatoes. Add a tablespoon of white wine vinegar and another tablespoon of brown sugar. Season to taste with salt and pepper (and extra chilli if you want!) and let it all cook down over medium-low heat.
 
Once your tomato sauce is simmering away, have another look at your rice. Check if it’s done and season to taste, then spoon it all into the two marrow halves. Put them back in the oven and let the bake for another 15 mins or so, checking them every once in a while.
 
Now make your potato cakes. Finely chop your chilli, ginger, spring onions and fresh spinach leaves. Add to a bowl with the cooked potatoes and two tsps of garam masala powder. Mash everything together with a potato masher, season to taste and shape into little balls – about the size of a golf ball. Squash the balls into little burger shapes and fry over a medium heat in a little oil until they’re nice and crispy and golden.

As they’re frying, make the coconut and coriander sauce – just put all the ingredients in a blender and blend to a smooth paste, check the seasoning and then serve.
 
To make the kachumber salad, you just mix all the ingredients together.

Now serve up your homegrown feast! I put a good dollop of the coconut and coriander sauce on top of the marrow and then topped it all with nasturtium flowers, pea shoots and some extra chopped mint and coriander.
 
Enjoy!