VeganMoFo: Broad bean salad and soy-citrus beetroot recipes: Nigel Slater part deux

This post is part of the Vegan Month of Food - or VeganMoFo to you and me. To learn more about VeganMoFo, click here. 

After earlier convincing me that maybe risottos weren't in fact the tasteless pain in the arse they at first appear while at the same time reminding me that broad beans aren't that tasteless cardboard-sheathed taste-vacuums that I remember from being a kid, I set about working my way through the rest of the stash of Nigel Slater recipes I've accumulated.

Broad beans seemed worth another outing too, given their visit to the UK is coming to an end, so let me introduce you to a recipe it appears that I've had since 2009: Salad of peas, beans and bread.

And it's a simple one too: peas, broad beans, bit of lemon and bread fried with garlic.

To corrupt a catchphrase, you had me at fried bread.

You've got all that good, healthy greenery to convince you that you're eating A Good Thing then bam! in with the fried bread for nuggets of carby, artery-hardening joy.  The mix, it works.

The only complaint I have - and it's a tiny one - is the instruction for herbs to be left in big pieces. As a result, you get mouthfuls of peas with no flavour and then a forkful after, a huge hit of tongue-bending mint. Chop up a bit more finely and you're away.

Verdict: Ramp up the herbs, fry your bread and this recipe will please your grease-loving side and your greenery-craving healthy side too.

After cooking three tastebud-pleasing recipes from Mr Slater, I embarked on the fourth expecting another solid gold winner. What I got was a slighly queasy stomach-annoyance.

Granted, I can't put it all down to the recipe - I was massively hungover while making and eating this recipe - but considering it was based on one of my favourite veg of all time, beetroot, it was a massive letdown.

Look at it, for heaven's sake. It looks like offal. Dammit, I didn't become a vegan to cope with meat-looking shit on a hangover.

Slater, I thought we were friends and this is how you repay me? By ruining one of my favourite vegetables - it turns your wee pink, how awesome is that? - by drowning the joy of beetroot and any other flavour with an over-oranged sauce? Gah.

Here's the recipe, if you fancy trying it. I don't recommend it, unless you just follow it until the end of the first paragraph - then you'll have a load of sweetly roasted beetroot, and there is little finer than that. Just don't be tempted to put the sauce on it - your tastebuds won't thank you.

Verdict: A rate Slater bum note. Avoid.