Country 4: Andorra

Andorra is one of those funny teeny tiny countries pushed in the middle of two giants. Nestled in the mountains between France and Spain, I'm surprised it's a country to begin with. My partner has been snowboarding in the mountains, and apparently the hiking and trekking is supposed to be pretty fantastic.

I write this fresh after my Andorran dinner. Usually I leave the blog until the following day but I wanted to write this one with the taste of disappointment still in my mouth. Some recipes just shouldn't be made vegetarian, and this one was one of them.

The national dish of Andorra is thought to be escudella, a meat stew. While Catalan originally, the Andorran's have made it their own. It usually involves ham, chicken, sausages and a variety of vegetables.

I made it vegan. It was a bad idea. It was flavourless, and had far too much cabbage. I was following a recipe online who had adapted it to be vegan first, and while I followed the instructions exactly, I think I should have just done a completely different dish for Andorra.

Actually, that was the original plan. Late last week I walked a 4-hour round trip to Borough Market, which is still open but has strict restrictions regarding social distancing. I was on the hunt for trout, with the intent of cooking trucha a la Andorra. While Andorra is a tiny mountain nation, landlocked by it's surrounding neighbours,  trout can be found in the rivers there and is a delicacy when cooked with lemon and parsley. The trip to Borough Market was a wasted effort - trout had just sold out when I harrived. So in a panic I googled "vegetarian Andorran recipes" (again) and came up with vegan escudella.

Let's just say that I should have served vegetarian tapas instead. Or breakfast. Or skipped Andorra completely.

The heartbreaking thing is that the escudella looked delicious. It even smelt good while it was cooking. I was sceptical but I was adventurous. And I was let down.

The veges cooking in the pot

Adding vegetarian sausages

Dished up and ready to serve

The tricky thing is finding dishes that are vegetarian to begin with. Meat is such a major part of so many different cultures and cuisines. Especially for main dishes. I recall the meal I made for Afghanistan, and all elements of it are different side dishes which I just threw onto the same plate: voila, dinner.

I did also cook up a side dish for my Andorran meal: Pa Amb Tomaquet - Andorran garlic tomato toast. This is very simple. Top crusty bread with roasted garlic, rub half a tomato over it, top with olive oil and salt, and enjoy.  It's a low maintenance starter dish, and the good thing is that everyone who is eating can decide the quantities they want, as it's a 'build-it-yourself' dish. A bit like topping your own pizza. For me, I like lots of garlic, just a teeny tiny bit of tomato (you may recall from a previous post, I loathe tomato), lots of olive oil, and a dash of salt.

Gorgeous, crusty bread from Borough Market

Roasted garlic and tomatoes ready to go

Garlic smeared on and tomatoes spread across

Easy peasy

Rather than having the pa amb tomaquet as a starter, I served it alongside the escudella. We both agreed that it was the best part of the meal.

I've come to the belief that national dishes that are supposed to have meat are not worth trying to adapt to be vegetarian. Just let them be and move on. Going forwards in my exploration of global food, I think I will exclusively look for dishes that are already vegetarian in their countries. Don't be stupid and think that I'm clever by adapting it to be vegetarian. It's not worth it.

I'm not going to pretend I'm not disappointed. This was the first country that turned out completely different to how I was hoping it would be. And while it was a bit of setback, I move on with the hope that my upcoming countries will be better and more successful.