Coronation chick peas: Vegan Mofo

With a lot of the dishes I've been experimenting with this MoFo, their origins have been lost in the mists of time - they're foods that have been cooked so long, no one knows who first invented them.

Not so with a staple of British sandwich fillings called coronation chicken, whose creation story is embedded in its name.

Coronation chicken was dreamt up - yes, you guessed it - for the Queen's coronation in 1952.

Here's the story behind it, as told by Buckingham Palace:

Coronation Chicken was invented for the foreign guests who were to be entertained after the Coronation. The food had to be prepared in advance, and Constance Spry, who also helped with floral arrangements on the day, proposed a recipe of cold chicken in a curry cream sauce with a well-seasoned dressed salad of rice, green peas and mixed herbs. Constance Spry's recipe won the approval of the Minister of Works and has since been known as Coronation Chicken.

So when it came to veganising this dish, there was only one option for me: swap out chicken for chick peas. Not only does it keep with the dish's Anglo-Indian heritage, it also sounds kind of cool.

I'll be truthful here: this is actually my second attempt at veganising coronation chicken. When it was the queen's jubilee earlier this year, I gave it a crack, based on a high-falooting Mark Hix recipe. It wasn't too good.

This one that follows is a mix of the original Spry and Hume recipe, and various other cornonation wotsit recipes that litter the internet. I was surprised how good it turned out: even my mayonnaise-phobic other half loved it.

It's not quite enough to persuade me out of my republican views, but as monarchy-themed dishes go, it's a pretty good one!

Coronation chick pea
Makes one large bowl

Ingredients

one banana shallot, diced

1 and a half teaspoons garam masala

half a teaspoon of turmeric

half a teaspoon of chilli flakes

one can of chick peas, drained

100ml water

100ml red or white wine

bay leaf

2Tbps mango puree (a few chunks of mango whizzed in the blender)

Mayonnaise, or mix of mayonnaise and silken tofu/vegan yoghurt

A spring onion, chopped

Coriander leaf, chopped

How you do it

Fry the shallot in a little oil til soft.

Once it's softened, add in the garam masala, turmeric, and chilli flakes (omit the chilli if you'd prefer things a little milder) and cook for a couple of minutes more.

Then add the wine, water, bay leaf and drained chick peas and simmer until the liquid has all but gone.

Turn off the heat and leave to cool. 

Remove bay leaf, then add in mango puree and mix. 

Add mayonnaise to taste (a couple of healthy dessertspoons should do it).

Add a pinch of salt and mix again.

Top with chopped spring onion and coriander leaf.