Having left London to live in China, it’s not always easy finding your common grocery store goods and condiments so it can be a bit of a mission prepping in my kitchen! But it’s been a real adventure discovering new (and some very weird!) ingredients which I can now say are familiar entities within my kitchen cupboards- the experiments have been somewhat challenging yet oodles of fun!

I can safely say, I made it through the Steemit Iron chef Contest hosted by the splendid @progressivechef. But now that the 2017 SIC is over, I find myself addicted to Steemit food posts and discovered this awesome sandwich contest from @jaybird, so here I am today and what a coincidence, it’s vegan week. You see, I was asked to do a vegan lunch for some friends in my Chinese city of Changde (Hunan) and being vegan in China is not always so easy (thank goodness I’m not one!).

I don’t consider myself vegan or vegetarian, however, I do tend to stick with plant-based foods, mainly for health reasons, but who doesn’t love a good cream cake and a steak every so often (apart from vegans and vegetarians of course!)?!

Anyway, without much ado, my sandwich components for week 22 (sad that I joined so late in the game actually!) are:

Spaghetti donut-bun stuffed with crispy tofu, aubergine discs, sesame roasted peppers, baked mushrooms, red onion marmalade and pickled ginger

Spaghetti donut-bun

After finally ticking off 'American road trip' from my bucket list last summer, my visit to the big apple introduced me to the world’s biggest and bestest bagels…and spaghetti donuts! Yes a donut made of spaghetti! So that’s my influence for the carby part in this MOFO. Most recipes tend to use eggs, cheese and milk so I thought I’d experiment with my soya milk and nutmeg sauce...it actually worked! I assumed that the buns wouldn’t stick, but thank goodness they did- I didn’t fancy experimenting with another batch since my radiators decide to screw me over during the coldest month of the year, sod’s law!

So to make this donut-bun (not quite sure what I should call it so to play it safe, I’ll stick between both, the donut and the bun, just so people have a choice!), boil 500g spaghetti until al dente and leave aside.

Make the white sauce by combining 50g flour with 50ml vegetable oil into a doughy paste in a saucepan and then whisking in 450ml soya milk until all lumps have disappeared. Stir slowly with a wooden spoon until thickened and season with salt and nutmeg.

Stir the sauce into the cooked spaghetti, lay into a baking tray and leave to cool. Once firm (I stuck mine in the fridge to speed up the process), use a round pastry cutter to cut out circles, place onto a greased baking tray and bake for 30 minutes at 200C. Done!

Crispy tofu

One of the advantages of living in China is the endless variety of tofu- some even taste like meat and cheese- crazy shit! I’ve been a little mediocre in that I’ve only used firm tofu for this recipe, but it’s seriously the bees knees when lightly pan fried until golden brown and crispy in some oil in big fat meaty hunks and then piled into the sandwich, yum!

Aubergine discs

Simply slice an aubergine into disc shapes, coat lightly in oil and bake at 210C for 25 minutes, turning halfway through.

Sesame roasted peppers

Slice some red bell peppers into chunky strips, brush with sesame oil and bake for 25 minutes at 200C until soft, with almost a caramelised surface. These can then be sprinkled with black and white sesame seeds (optional) and preserved in the sesame oil in a jar and refrigerated until needed.

Baked spicy mushrooms

Hunan, the province in which I currently reside, is known all around China for its super spicy food, and I mean some serious spice! So having lived here for over a year, I’ve become accustomed to chillies in pretty much everything I eat so to these mushrooms which I cut into quarters, I added rapeseed oil, chilli powder and a pinch of salt. I then baked these at 210C for 20 minutes and viola, done. Perfect as a side, filling or appetiser with a dipping sauce.

Red onion marmalade

I would say it really doesn’t matter whether you use white or red onions, but in my rather small city, I only have red onions available so I have no choice! So to make this marmalade with your sliced red or white onions (using 2-3 large onions), pan fry in some rapeseed oil until they start to brown and then add 3tbsp sugar, ½ tsp salt and 2tbsp vinegar. Leave to simmer on a low heat for 30 minutes until a rich dark brown and caramelised and store in a sterilised jar.

Pickled ginger

Such a simple thing to make, but I have a confession…I indulge in a weekly sushi lunch and last week took a heap of my leftover pickled ginger back home with me. I hate wasting so I thought, why not serve it up with this spaghetti sandwich- and as strange as the combination sounds, the ginger compliments the filling surprisingly well that I’ll definitely be using up my leftover ginger pickles in sandwiches! Albeit, it was a bit of a risk, so I served it on the side rather than inside!

Once each component is finished, pile up like there’s no tomorrow, followed sharply by engulfment!