Nae-pressure cooking

I made the first lentil soup of the season today. It marks the passage of the seasons when I dig out the pressure cooker, look it over to see if wear and tear means a trip to the hardware shop for a new gasket or other little fiddly bits. But it seems to have survived the last few months in its cupboard.

Pressure cookers are a great long term investment. This is only my second in thirty years and I can't begin to calculate how much gas and electricity I've saved by using this form of cooking in preference to boiling soups conventionally.

Its not just soups I make this way, but steamed puddings, suet puddings (using vegetable suet of course) and baked custards. My favourite is Stovies a traditional dish which is made quite differently depending where you live. There is yet another Scottish east /west divide here as some folks make it with only potatoes and onion, maybe with a little gravy; some add corned beef so that it becomes some odd Pictish version of corn beef hash, while those who grew up in the centre of the central belt do it the correct way with potatoes, onion and sausages.

This presents a challenge for a vegetarian. Most veggie sausages don't have the texture for this, so I use a combination of Linda McCartney sausages and vegetarian burgers in a ratio of 2:1. So my veggie stovies in the pressure cooker is a process of frying the sausages and burgers then cutting into pieces, chopping potatoes into cubes and chopping some onion. I only use half an onion but that is easily adjusted to taste. Put everything into the trivet with some water and cook according to the pressure cooker instructions. If doing this on the hob, it takes ages and needs a lot of stirring so nothing sticks, but creates a softer texture to the dish.

As for lentil soup, everyone has their own recipe, but mine is made with vegetarian stock, red lentils and anything I feel like putting in that day. Of the few foodstuffs that would temp me away from the veggie straight and narrow, it would be my Granny's lentil soup even though she made it with some dead beast or other - probably ham bones. I still miss her soup even after three decades.