Flicking the Vs: July 2012

When I wrote about having a vegan full English breakfast at Inspiral cafe last week, I rhapsodised about the bubble and squeak that came with it.

One of the lovely commenters who read the post - Allysia, who writes the excellent The Real Meal - said she was unfamiliar with bubble and squeak. That was all the encouragement I needed to cook some up!

For the uninitiated, bubble and squeak is a British dish that's centuries old. It was apparently invented as a way to use up the leftover bits of your Sunday lunch: roast potatoes, Brussel sprouts, parsnips, carrots, whatever you've got left, you just fry it up and that's bubble and squeak.

Pretty much anything can go into bubble and squeak, and the recipe normally goes something like this: heat a bit of oil in a pan, fry til hot, eat.

There's also a second school of thought that uses mashed potatoes and makes bubble and squeak patties (they most often seen in full English breakfasts in greasy spoons) - and that's what I thought I'd make. With no roast leftovers to hand, this is a recipe for making bubble and squeak from scratch.

Bubble and squeak

Makes six patties

Ingredients

Mashed potatoes from two large baking potatoes

One medium white onion, finely chopped

A quarter of a small white cabbage, finely sliced

Flour

Salt and white pepper

How you do it

Fry the onion in oil or margarine (be generous with the fat!) until soft, then add the cabbage and fry til that's soft.

Add the mashed potatoes to the other veggies, add salt and white pepper (and a slug of vegan

Worcestershire sauce if you fancy) and shape into patties.

Dust the patties lightly with flour.

You can now either bake or shallow fry the patties. If you're shallow frying, cook on one side til brown then flip over (be gentle with them, they're liable to fall apart); if you're baking, heat your oven to 220C and grease a baking sheet liberally with vegan margarine. Put the patties on, cook for five to ten minutes, until the bottom is brown, and then flip and cook for five to ten minutes more.