Lemon & Rosemary Roast Chick'n

Remember aaaaages ago when I made chickpea nuggets and vowed to use Burmese tofu more? Well, due to being fickle and forgetful, I didn't do that. That is until now...

I was very privileged to be asked to cater the beautiful wedding of newly vegan couple Sam and Jade. As part of their evening buffet last weekend they chose to have chickpea nuggets, and I remembered how much I liked them and how versatile this chickeny flavoured base could be. This ultimately resulted in me making up a batch of Burmese tofu all for myself. Today, I decided to see what happened if I tried to roast it, and had such great success that I couldn't keep it to myself.

Jade and Sam's Buffet Choices

Struggling to give up chicken? This recipe will definitely help. So will this.

I should warn those of you with a short attention span that you will need to make up the Burmese tofu in advance. So this is a long-ish recipe, but it's still super simple and once you've made a batch up it'll do you for a fair few meals. Plus, you could always make the Burmese tofu up on a productive day and then just leave it in the fridge for a lazy dinner at a later point in the week like I did. You really can't lose.

A Di Chicken

serves loads! At least 5 people.

for the Burmese tofu

2 cups gram flour

2 cups water

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp celery salt

1 1/2 tsp onion powder
(or instead of these spices, you can use around 1 1/2 - 2 tbsp of your favourite chicken seasonings)
salt & pepper

2 more cups of water

for the marinade

75ml of rapeseed oil
a few sprigs of fresh rosemary, leaves picked
5 cloves of garlic, smashed and chopped
zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
dash of vegan Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp celery salt

1 tsp onion powder
(again the seasoning can be swapped for about 1 tbsp of your favourite chicken seasonings)

salt & pepper

1/2 yellow pepper, sliced

1. Bring 2 cups of your finest tap water to the boil.
2. Whisk all the other Burmese tofu ingredients (minus 2 of the cups of water, duh) together to form a smooth batter. Carefully pour your batter mix into the boiling water, stirring with a spatular until very thick. If you like your hands with skin, keep your fingers away from the hot batter.
3. Carefully pour the lava like batter into a lined baking tray and pop in the big, white thing that can't jump (the fridge, obvs) to set overnight. If you're short on time, pop it in the freezer for a couple of hours.
4. Preheat your oven to 200°C
5. Tear up your Burmese tofu into large, meat-like pieces and lay on a baking tray with the yellow pepper.
6. Mix all marinade ingredients together and drizzle over the chick'n pieces and pepper, then get your hands in and spread that slippery fragrant stuff around, making sure it's all fully coated - leave no piece uncovered!
7. Pop in the oven for 25 minutes, get it out, turn your pieces and then put back in the oven for a final 10 minutes.
8. Serve your fragrant oven fresh chick'n with a nice loaded salad and some celeriac chips.
9. Feel stuffed and satisfied.
10. Consider this as part of your amazing vegan and gluten free Christmas dinner menu.
11. Realise that you want to serve so much food at Christmas that afterwards you'll be able to just give your parents a wee push and they'll roll back down south.