Leek Mushroom and Salmon Bake

Here's another of my Friday night recipes, concocted from ingredients we just happened to have. It went down a storm with the family, clean plates all round and some leftovers for lunch the next day. Bonus!

Serves 4 - Preheat the oven to 180C

Filling:

• 3 leeks, sliced

• 1 punnet of mushrooms, sliced

• 4 small salmon fillets or 1 larger piece (preferably wild caught salmon)

• 2 tsp fresh or dried herbs - I used thyme

• Sprinkle of sea salt and a few grinds of black pepper

• A little non-dairy milk or white wine for poaching the salmon

• 1 tbsp olive oil

Sauce:

• 200g cashew nuts, soaked in hot water for 30 minutes

• 250ml non-dairy milk, almond or coconut

• 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard

• Juice of 1 lemon

• 3 cloves of raw garlic

• 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast (optional)

• Salt and pepper to taste

Topping:

• 1 medium sweet potato, thinly sliced (I used a mandolin to get very thin slices)

First, place the salmon in an oven proof dish, season with salt and pepper and place a few sprigs of fresh thyme on top. Pour over a little liquid (this could be a some non-dairy milk or some white wine. Cover with a lid or foil and poach in the oven until just cooked. For small pieces this will be around 20 minutes, maybe 30 minutes for a larger piece. It doesn’t matter if it is a little underdone as it will be going back in the oven later as part of the whole dish.

Whilst this is poaching, heat a saucepan over a medium heat with the olive oil, add the sliced leeks and a little water, cover and stir intermittently until the leeks are soft.

Make the dairy free white sauce by placing all the ingredients into a blender until thoroughly mixed.

In a large oven proof dish, fill the bottom with the cooked leeks, sliced mushroom and large flakes of the poached salmon. Add your herbs and roughly mix. Next add 2/3 of your sauce and gently stir through.

Place the slices of sweet potato over the top in 1-2 layers depending on how thick the slices are. (If you haven’t used a mandolin to slice them and they are quite thick you may want to lightly steam them first).

Pour over the remaining sauce and bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes until the sweet potato is cooked through and the top lightly browned.

Once cooked I sprinkled the top with some crushed kale chips, but you could use a sprinkle of seaweed flakes or chopped herbs instead.