SHAUN VAN DEN BERGH: You don't have to be vegan to enjoy this pretty starter

The senior sous chef of the Sofitel London Gatwick Hotel has created a delicious vegan starter. You don't have to be vegan to enjoy it, says Shaun van den Bergh, but be warned, your vegan friends might not want to share...
Beetroot hummus with coconut whip and quinoa saladBeetroot hummus with coconut whip and quinoa salad
Beetroot hummus with coconut whip and quinoa salad

Veganism is a fast-growing trend that we chefs ignore at our peril. So, we’ve been busy creating new vegan dishes for both our La Brasserie and Urban Café menus with the aim of ensuring that they have all-round appeal.

It’s a challenge to create dishes packed with flavour when you can’t include key ingredients. The trick is to use strong flavours like garlic and beautiful colours to satisfy the eye as well as the palate. I’ve also discovered how to turn coconut milk into a velvety whip that adds that cream-like luxury to the dish.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

We serve this starter with pickled baby vegetables and so far it’s flown off the menu.

Shaun van den BerghShaun van den Bergh
Shaun van den Bergh

La Brasserie is Sofitel’s two AA rosette restaurant. Call 01293 567070 or email [email protected]. Follow us on Twitter @SofitelLondonGA or share your recipes on Instagram by tagging @SofitelLondonGA.

Beetroot Hummus with Coconut Whip and Quinoa Salad

Serves 4

For the hummus:

400g can of chickpeas

2 tabs tahini paste

1 clove of garlic, crushed

Juice of one lemon

100g cooked beetroot

400ml tin of coconut milk

For the quinoa salad:

150g quinoa – 50g each of black, red and white quinoa

One vegetable stock cube

1 salad tomato, skinned, deseeded and finely chopped

¼ of large cucumber, peeled, deseeded and finely chopped

50g dates, finely chopped

One shallot, peeled and finely chopped

Two tabs of olive oil

Salt and pepper

Method

Dissolve half the vegetable stock cube in 500ml of boiling water in a saucepan (a whole stock cube makes the quinoa too salty). Add the quinoa and simmer for 10mins until the quinoa starts to shoot. Drain and leave to cool.

To make the coconut whip, pour the liquid from the tin of coconut milk into a saucepan. Bring to the boil and simmer until it is reduced to about a quarter of the volume. Leave to cool. Whip the solid part of the milk until smooth, then beat in the reduced liquid to form a smooth cream.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

To make the hummus: blitz the chickpeas, tahini paste, garlic and lemon juice in a blender until smooth. Season to taste. Blitz the beetroot separately until smooth and stir into the hummus.

Add the chopped tomato, cucumber, shallot and dates to the cooled quinoa. Stir in one to two tablespoons of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.

To serve, put a layer of beetroot hummus on each of four plates. Top with a layer of coconut whip and then pile the quinoa salad into the centre of each dish.

The beetroot hummus is also delicious as a filling for jacket potatoes.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be among the first to know what’s going on.

1 Make our website your homepage

2 Like our Facebook page

3 Follow us on Twitter

4 Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

Be part of it.

Related topics: