Borscht

6 medium-sized beetroots
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 teaspoon of salt
8 cups of water

3 old medium sized potatoes

3 small brown onions, cut into small cubes
1/2 teaspoon of frying oil
1 teaspoon of smoked sweet paprika

2 lemon's juice
1 tablespoon of sugar
Stock or bullion
Dill


1. Wash and trim the beetroots. Place the whole beetroots in a large pot and cover with the water. Add the bay leaves and salt and boil for about 40-60 minutes, or until the beetroots are soft enough to eat and yield to the edge of a spoon when poked.
2. When the beetroots are almost cooked, cut up the onions so they are ready for the next step.
3. Place a big bowl in the sink with a colander in it. Strain the beetroots into the bowl and retain the water.
4. Wash the potatoes and peel if desired. (Personally I can never be arsed peeling potatoes and I don't think the result suffers). Cut the potatoes into cubes and place them in a medium sized pot. Cover the potatoes with water, add a couple of big pinches of salt, and boil them for about 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft.
5. Return the large pot to the stove, add the frying oil and onions, and cook until the onions are translucent. Add paprika and stir to coat. Add the beetroot water to the pot and bring it to heat (but don't simmer it).
6. While the onions and potatoes are cooking, rinse your beetroots under cold water, or place ice cubes amonst them to make then cool enough to handle. Rub the skins off using your thumbs and discard the skins in the compost. Cut the beetroots into cubes. Return the cubed beetroot to the pot with the beetroot water. Add the lemon juice and sugar. Taste and season accordingly - personally I like to chuck a fake beef stock cube in there to darken up the flavour, make it a little more savoury and salty.
7. Strain the boiled potatoes. To serve, select a bowl suitable for soup, spoon the beetroot mixture in first. Place the boiled potatoes on top of the beetroot soup (it looks impressive for colour contrast) and put a liberal helping of dill over the top for aroma, flavour and garnishing purposes. I sometimes put a little curl of lemon zest here and there on it too.

* Although it's not compulsory, I think that this recipe hinges on the dill. If you don't have dill, I'd probably make something else instead.
* If you wish to make it ahead of time, make the beetroot soup, but don't do the potatoes until you intend to serve the soup.
*If you're not a vegan, sour cream is the best on this soup. Yummy yummy...
*When seasoning the soup, be aware that salt and pepper granules will accumulate on the bottom, giving you a weird sandy sensation when you touch the bottom with the spoon. If you can't deal with it, go easy on the grinder.
*I've always thought that picked green pepper corns would be pretty good in this dish, but I've never had an opportunity to try them.

Dhal

This recipe is one of the first recipes I learned to make. It's originally from my Mum's Woman's Weekly cookbook, but I've adapted it a bit over the years. OK, it might not be the most authentic recipe ever, but it works, it's tasty, and the lentils just collapse in your mouth. Very easy to veganate. It's not super spicy (hello, Woman's Weekly), so if you want to make it a bit more zingy, spicy, whaevery, get in there and change it. Also, if you wanted to add other vegetables to it, I'm sure you could get away with carrot, pumpkins, beans, that kind of malarky - but I kind of like it just plain, myself.

2 1/2 cups (500g) of brown lentils
30g butter or oil
2 medium-sized onions, finely chopped
2 small fresh red chilis, finely chopped
1/2 inch of grated ginger
1 teaspoon of ground coriander
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon of garam masala
1/2 teaspoon of ground cardamom (or 6 green cardamom pods)
1/2 a star ainise
2 small cloves of garlic, finely chopped
6 cups (1 1/2 litres) of stock
1 teaspoon of ground tumeric

1. Place the lentils in a large bowl. Cover them with water and stand them overnight.
2. Drain the soaked lentils. Chop your onions and chilis, grate your ginger. Melt the butter in a very large saucepan, add the onions and cook until the onions are soft and translucent.
3. Add the chilis, ginger, coriander, cumin, garam masala, caramom and anise. Stir to coat the onions. Mince the garlic, and add to the pot. Stir once or twice. Do not let the garlic brown.
4. Stir in the lentils, and coat them in the spices. Add the stock and tumeric. Bring to the boil, reduce heat, and then simmer for at least 50 minutes, or until the lentils are soft and the mixture is thick to stir.
5. Serve with papadams, rice and a pickle of some description. If you feel possessed by the garnish demon, red chili slices, fresh coriander leaves or a blob of yoghurt are all very nice.

*Dhal can be made a day ahead. It keeps best in an airtight environment in the refrigerator.
*Dhal freezes well, and makes a good lazy night dinner. Try to freeze it in smaller portions so it doesn't take forever to defrost.
*See that up there? That's a green chili. Just deal with it, guys.