cantina.msvader.net — Plant-based

Deathstar Cantina

All dark — No meat — No compromise

Six chapters. No meat, no compromise. These are recipes built for people who take their food as seriously as their aesthetics — bold flavours, dark kitchens, and the kind of cooking that makes guests ask what is that?

01 — Small plates

Starters

6 recipes

★ House signature

Starter — Raw

Black sesame miso with charred leek & crispy shallots

A deep, umami-laden broth that opens with smoke and closes with sweetness. The kind of first course that makes everything after it feel earned.

25 minServes 4Medium
White miso — 3 tbsp
Black sesame paste — 2 tbsp
Dashi (kombu) — 1L
Leeks — 2 large
Crispy shallots — handful
Sesame oil — to finish
Togarashi — pinch

Starter — Fried

Smoked aubergine caviar on rye

Open-flame charred, dressed with tahini and lemon. Better than anything with a fish.

40 minServes 6

Starter — Raw

Watermelon radish tartare

Finely diced, dressed in soy, sesame and pickled ginger. Ludicrously pretty.

15 minServes 4

Starter — Warm

Crispy tofu skin with black garlic aioli

Paper-thin, blistered, with a sauce dark enough to match the room.

30 minServes 4

Starter — Soup

Forbidden rice congee, shiitake & crispy ginger

Black rice porridge, slow and deliberate. A bowl that demands patience.

1 hrServes 4

From the bookshelf — 8 saved recipes

"The dark side of the kitchen is not a threat — it's an invitation."

02 — Main event

Mains

5 recipes

★ Most requested

Main — Baked

Whole roasted celeriac with preserved lemon gremolata

Brought to the table whole, burnished and black at the edges, carved tableside. A centrepiece that needs no explanation and no apology. The preserved lemon gremolata cuts through everything.

2 hrsServes 4Showstopper
Celeriac — 1 whole
Olive oil — generously
Preserved lemon — 2 quarters
Flat leaf parsley — large bunch
Garlic — 3 cloves
Capers — 2 tbsp
Flaked sea salt — to finish

Main — Wok

Mapo tofu, Sichuan style

Numbing, oily, perfect. Black bean replaces the pork and loses nothing.

25 minServes 2

Main — Pasta

Black ink pasta, walnut & sage

Squid ink in the dough (vegan from the jar), finished in brown butter and sage. Dramatic and delicious.

45 minServes 2

Main — Curry

Keralan black pepper aubergine

Coconut milk tempered with a terrifying quantity of black pepper. Serve with appam.

50 minServes 4

From the bookshelf — 31 saved recipes

03 — Supporting cast

Sides

5 recipes

Side — Roasted

Burnt butter carrots, miso glaze

Roasted until the edges catch. Finished with white miso and maple.

35 minServes 4

Side — Fried

Twice-fried smashed potatoes, black garlic

The only potatoes worth eating. Smashed, rested, fried again. Non-negotiable.

50 minServes 4

Side — Charred

Charred hispi cabbage, tahini & pomegranate

Quartered, blackened on each face, dressed simply. A side that steals the show.

20 minServes 4

Side — Grain

Forbidden black rice pilaf, toasted pine nuts

Because if you're going to serve rice, make it look like it belongs here.

40 minServes 4

Side — Bread

Squid ink sourdough flatbread

Black. Charred. Served warm with whipped cashew ricotta and flaked salt.

1 hrMakes 8

From the bookshelf — 27 saved recipes

"Everything beautiful starts with good technique and ends with someone licking the plate."

04 — Sweet darkness

Desserts

5 recipes

★ Worth the effort

Dessert — No-bake

Dark chocolate & activated charcoal tart with salted caramel

So dark it barely reflects light. The charcoal is theatre but the chocolate does the real work. Vegan salted caramel that tastes like an apology from someone who was wrong about vegan food.

3 hrs + overnightServes 10Advanced
Dark chocolate 85% — 300g
Activated charcoal — 1 tsp
Coconut cream — 200ml
Medjool dates — 150g
Cashews (soaked) — 200g
Coconut sugar — 100g
Flaked sea salt — to finish

Dessert — Chilled

Black sesame panna cotta

Set with agar, the colour of deep space. Paired with a mandarin compote.

20 min + setServes 4

Dessert — Baked

Olive oil & rosemary dark chocolate brownies

Fudgy, herbed, deeply grown-up. No one guesses they're vegan.

45 minMakes 16

Dessert — Raw

Blueberry & lavender cheesecake

Raw cashew base, no bake. Purple enough to be suspicious.

30 min + overnightServes 8

From the bookshelf — 29 saved recipes

05 — The infrastructure

Sauces & Bases

5 recipes

Base — Essential

Kombu & shiitake dashi

The backbone of half this menu. Make double, freeze it in portions.

45 minMakes 2L

Sauce — Dark

Black garlic & walnut romesco

Smoky, rich, nearly black. Good on everything. No exceptions.

20 minMakes 400ml

Base — Dairy-free

Six-ingredient cashew ricotta

Whipped, lemony, spreadable. The vegan dairy product that actually works.

10 min + soakMakes 300g

Sauce — Fermented

Fermented black bean & chilli oil

Two weeks of patience for a condiment you'll put on everything for a year.

2 weeksMakes 250ml

Base — Sweet

Date & tamarind reduction

Sweet, sour, caramel-dark. Goes with almost everything in this book.

25 minMakes 300ml

From the bookshelf — 10 saved recipes

06 — At the bar

Drinks & Cocktails

5 recipes

★ Order twice

Cocktail — Shaken

The Dark Side — activated charcoal & blackberry mezcal sour

Mezcal, fresh blackberries, lemon, aquafaba foam. One drop of activated charcoal makes it black. It looks like a threat. It tastes like an event.

5 minServes 1Signature
Mezcal — 50ml
Fresh blackberries — 6
Lemon juice — 25ml
Agave syrup — 15ml
Aquafaba — 30ml
Activated charcoal — 1 drop
Ice — plenty

Cocktail — Stirred

Emperor's old fashioned

Bourbon, activated charcoal simple syrup, black walnut bitters. Imperial.

3 minServes 1

Non-alcoholic

Tamarind & ginger shrub

Tart, spiced, complex enough that no one misses the alcohol.

15 minMakes 500ml

Hot drink

Black sesame & oat milk latte

Roasted, nutty, as dark as espresso. Better than espresso.

8 minServes 1

Cocktail — Built

Cantina spritz — elderflower & activated charcoal

Light, floral, completely black. The visual contradiction is the point.

2 minServes 1

From the bookshelf — 7 saved recipes