As promised - even if only just! - I'm managing to squeeze this post into the month of February: the talented Leigh Drew has joined the Veganthused program for a second time (here’s the link for her first visit, in case you missed it!), bringing a tasty trio of dishes based around the one delicious flavour combination.

The base ingredients are spring onions, peas, lemons and seasoning, with a vegan mayonnaise. (My favourite store-bought mayonnaise is by Plamil but it’s fairly pricey. To show off an ‘accidentally vegan’ and accessible product, Leigh uses one that’s readily available in many supermarkets. There are also plenty of recipes around for home-made vegan mayo… hmmm that might make a good future blog post too!)

Leigh shows us how this flavour combination can then be taken in three directions by using chick peas, tofu or tempeh (each being a good protein source), leading respectively to finger food, sandwiches, or a pasta salad. Tempeh has long been my nemesis – to the point that (to my chagrin) I’ve been known to spit it out on some of the occasions I’ve been harangued into trying it, but Leigh shares a valuable tip for how to remove the ‘metallic’ taste that often mars store-bought tempeh.

At just over 13 minutes, it’s a slightly longer video than usual, but you do get three recipes out of it! Plus, you get to see the first time I ever eat a tempeh dish that doesn’t cause me to screw up my face and want to wash my mouth out!

For convenience, here are the ingredients lists for the three options (plus seasoning to taste in each case):

Chickpea dip/finger food topping

1 ½ cups chickpeas
¾ cup mayo
½ cup spring onion
½ cup peas
6 cornichons (aka baby cukes!)
1 ½ tablespoons seeded mustard
¼ cup lemon juice

Tofu sandwich filling

2 large carrots
350g firm tofu
2 tablespoons besan flour
½ cup spring onion
½ cup peas
½ cup mayo
¼ cup lemon juice

Tempeh pasta salad

300g pasta shells
375g tempeh
½ cup spring onion
1 bunch curly parsley
1 bunch continental parsley
½ bunch dill
½ cup peas
½ cup lemon juice
¾ cup mayo
Dash Tabasco

Mega thanks to both Leigh and the talented crew: the video was produced and edited by Nicole Boyd, filmed by Ella Gibbins, and with sound by Henri Navarro.

Exciting news to wrap up this post – especially if, like me, you loved Leigh’s first two cookbooks but just wanted them to be longer and have more recipes in them! – Leigh has been commissioned to write a new one! She’s currently trialling and writing up dozens of recipes – and having had the good fortune to be a taste-tester for some of them, I can tell you already it’s going to be a corker. And hopefully it’s going to be released within the year, so keep an eye out for a Veganthused review of that one! Plus, Leigh will be right back here on Veganthused soon with another scrumptious video recipe... can anyone say cherry strudel???

In the meantime though, her three-way multi-tasking flavour combo will have you all set, whether you’re wanting lunches, finger food, or something for a ‘bring a plate’ night. Get watching, get cooking and get veganthused!