In October 1574, after a siege that had lasted for months and left many people starving, a young boy climbed upon the citywalls of Leiden. He saw how the Spanish soldiers had left their campements, fearing the rising water. They left, leaving everything behind. This boy, Cornelis Joppensz, ventured outside the city walls to explore the deserted army camps. He found a pot, filled with a mixture of carrots and onions, and brought it home. Ever since that day, people in Leiden eat ‘hutspot’ on the 3rd of October. And so did we….
After an eventful day on the fairground, I cooked a large pot of hutspot to end our 3 Oktober celebration in style.
Hutspot is usually eaten together with meat, but I went for a vegan variety!
For a hungry family of four you will need:
1 kg potatoes, 750 gr carrots, 2 medium parsnips, 3 medium onions, vegetable stock, olive oil, ground black pepper.
optional: vegan ‘meatballs’.
Clean the potatoes, carrots and parsnip, chop in roughly equal cubes, cover with water and cook for about 15-20 minutes (check in between: you want to mash your veggies, not make porridge).
Chop the onions and glaze them in some olive oil, and powdered vegetable stock and pepper to taste.
Drain potatoes,carrot and parsnip, add onions and mash. You can make it as smooth or as lumpy as you like. Add some more oil and vegetable stock or pepper according to taste.
Et voila, you’re done!
Just fry some vegan meatballs or even falafel (did that last year..) to go with your hutspot and you’ve got yourself the vegan version of Leidens ‘signature dish’.
Eet smakelijk!