Sweet potato vermicelli! Who knew there was even such a thing? I found a packet of it in the foreign foods section of my local supermarket and brought it home to try. Every time I opened the larder door it would look challengingly back at me, daring me to come up with a good recipe to go with it.

It took a couple of weeks and a special offer on a box of oyster mushrooms at the greengrocers to dream up this recipe and the family was very pleased with me! I was also pleased because I managed to load up on a bunch of good nutrients in an inexpensive and easy to cook dish. I began with cooking the vermicelli (follow the cooking instructions on the pack but if theyre in Chinese like mine were wing it by cooking it lots of boiling water and testing every minute or so. Youll know when its cooked by the texture as it stops being chewy.)

The key ingredient here, apart from the sweet potato vermicelli, are the oyster mushrooms and Quorn, sauted in coconut oil until golden brown with two cloves of fresh garlic added once the Quorn and mushrooms were nearly done (if you over cook garlic it can taste bitter). I added some Himalayan salt and black pepper at this point with the bean sprouts (for flavour and an injection of B vitamins). Right at the end of the cooking process I also added a big handful of snow peas for crunch. Snow peas are loaded with antioxidants and anti-inflammatory nutrients. Surprisingly enough theyre also a reliable source of omega-3 fat in the form of alpha-linolenic acid. (I always imagine this fatty acid to be available in animal proteins and actively fatty foods like nuts.)

After a minute or so in the pan I added a cup full of good vegetable stock, brought it all to the boil and immediately took it off the flame (I wanted the vegetables hot but not cooked). I then added the cooked vermicelli.

Serve immediately and eat with chopsticks, heavy-duty paper napkins and a sense of humour.

Ingredients

Serves two

100g raw sweet potato vermicelli

2 cups of oyster mushrooms
1 cup of Quorn fillets sliced
2 cloves of crushed fresh garlic
1 cup bean sprouts
1 cup snow peas
1 cup good vegetable stock

Salt and pepper to taste.