There’s a Delicious Vegan Menu on Offer at This Year’s BAFTA Awards
A healthy vegan menu will be on offer to celebrity guests at this year’s British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards.
Anton Manganaro, head chef at BAFTA, has created mouth-watering, animal-free dishes.
The plant-based offering will feature a mixed-grain salad with pickled vegetables, beetroot relish, and pea shoots (and you’ll find Anton’s recipe for this below). Guests will also be served a chickpea masala accompanied by a croquette and coriander cress, and dessert is a coconut panna cotta with a fresh raspberry and basil salad.
Not only is vegan food healthy and delicious, it also helps spare animals a life of misery in the meat, dairy, and egg industries. Cows, pigs, chickens, goats, and other animals are treated like nothing more than commodities by industrialised farms, and they often face cramped conditions and even abuse at the hands of workers before eventually being slaughtered.
Many people are also choosing to eat vegan in order to help combat climate change. Animal agriculture causes an estimated 18 per cent of all greenhouse-gas emissions, meaning that following a plant-based diet can dramatically cut your carbon footprint.
If you want to join the celebrities who are choosing a kinder, healthier, and more environmentally friendly diet, order a free vegan starter kit today:
Exclusive: Eat Like a Star – Try Chef Anton Manganaro’s Recipe for Yourself
Mixed-Grain Salad with Pickled Vegetables, Beetroot Relish, and Pea Shoots
Makes 4 servings
Mixed-Grain Salad
80g British quinoa
80g Sharpham Park spelt
80g pearl barley
Vegetable stock, for cooking grains
2 Tbsp chopped parsley
2 Tbsp finely chopped fennel
1 Tbsp toasted pumpkin seeds
50ml olive oil
20ml cider vinegar
Zest of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper, to taste
- Cook the grains separately in vegetable stock.
- Mix the grains and the remaining ingredients together and adjust the seasonings, to taste.
Beetroot Relish
200g roasted beetroot
200g cooked chickpeas
100g tahini
1/2 large clove fresh garlic
100ml olive oil
Pinch of cumin
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper, to taste
- Place all the ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. Adjust the seasonings, to taste.
- Place in a piping bag and chill immediately.
Pickled Vegetables
You’ll need lots of separate containers for this so that the colours don’t bleed onto the vegetables and stain them.
For the Pickle Liquor:
1 Litre water
500g caster sugar
250ml white wine vinegar
2 Tbsp dill seed
1 small dried chilli
3 cloves
1 star anise
2 tsp sea salt
2 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cracked white peppercorns
1 tsp fennel seeds
- Add all the ingredients to a large pot and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and allow to infuse for 2 hours.
- Strain and cool.
For the Vegetables:
8 baby carrots, blanched in boiling water for 30 seconds
12 3-centimetre-by-3-millimetre discs red beetroot
12 2-centimetre-by-3-millimetre discs golden beetroot
12 3/4-centimetre-by-3-millimetre discs celeriac
12 slices peeled cucumber
- Place each type of vegetable in a separate container, cover with the Pickle Liquor, and let sit for 2 hours.
- Drain.
To Serve:
- Divide the Mixed-Grain Salad among four plates. (I like to put it in a line from one side of the plate to the other.)
- Garnish the salad with the Pickled Vegetables.
- Pipe small dots of the Beetroot Relish near the grains and in between the vegetables.
- Garnish the plates with pea shoots, edible flowers, and cresses.
