Vegetarian Sunday Roast - Baked Celeriac & Mushroom Gravy

The thing I miss the most about Mr going veggie is the roast dinners. I love putting lots of herbs and butter on a chicken and roasting it for a while before adding all the necessary trimmings. Poussin is not the same before you ask.

Sainsbury's got in touch to ask if I wanted to take part in their 'Love your Leftovers' campaign, and come up with a dish to use up Sunday Lunch leftovers. Thinking that I wanted to change up our usual sad poussin plus a few baked mushrooms I took up the challenge to think up a robust vegetarian Sunday roast that would also provide leftovers for Monday.

Inspired by the fantastic celeriac Mr had at Morston Hall I decided to bake a whole one, with lots of garlic, sage and butter (olive in the week, butter at the weekend!) and serve it with roast potatoes, green veg and a killer vegetarian gravy (gravy is important).

It really couldn't be simpler to prep, much like a slow roasted piece of pork or lamb, but without the basting. You wrap it in foil, and leave it in the oven for 2 hours, and for the last hour make your spuds and get your gravy on.

Baked Celeriac - serves 2 with leftovers 
adapted from BBC Good Food

1 medium celeriac, approx 500g
3-4 cloves of garlic, crushed with a knife, but with skin on.
large bunch of sage
2 knobs of butter
seasoning

Preheat your oven to 160c fan / 180c electric. Wash your celeriac, and if it comes with any frondy bits (technical term) trim those off. Prick with a knife, around 1cm in to ensure it cooks, and the flavour gets into the celeriac. Place a large piece of foil on to a baking tray and pop your celeriac on and tuck the herbs, garlic cloves and butter around, season and wrap in 3 layers of foil.

Bake for 2 hours, check about 2/3 way through to see if it is cooking through. When you're ready to serve simply cut into wedges, and keep the garlic to serve on the side. Depending on your celeriac, you can eat the skin if it isn't too tough.

Mushroom Gravy, enough for 2
adapted from Food 52

I made this gravy at Christmas, to serve alongside a vegetarian wellington, it's made with dried mushrooms, shallots and a secret ingredient, soy sauce. The soy gives the deep savoury flavour that you'd otherwise get from meat.

2 shallots, finely diced
knob of butter
1 tbsp flour
50g of dried mushrooms
1 stock cube dissolved in 250ml of water.
sage or thyme, small handful chopped.
1 tbsp dark soy sauce

1. Fry your shallots in a small pan with the butter til they are translucent.
2. Soak your mushrooms in a jug, in 75ml of boiling water.
3. Once your onions are soft add in the flour and stir quickly on a medium heat.
4. Drain your mushrooms and add the mushroom stock to your vegetable stock. Pour this into your onion roux and whisk to combine and thicken.
5. Add in the herbs and let the whole thing simmer gently, stirring regularly, til it starts to thicken up.
6. Add in your soy sauce, and check for seasoning.

You can now serve your gravy, or if you want it to be smooth pass through a sieve and warm up again when you're ready to eat.

Thanks to Sainsbury's for sending me vouchers for our Sunday Roast challenge! Coming up next, how to use the leftovers - Celeriac & Potato Cakes, Aloo Tikki style. 

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