Vegetable and lentil stew recipe

Probably better on a cold, winter night, but it was delicious in July anyway!

Ingredients – Makes enough for 4-5

Olive oil

750ml of vegetable stock

2 onions, peeled and chopped

2 carrots, peeled and diced

2 parsnips, peeled and diced

2 beetroot, peeled and diced

1 sweet potato, as big as your fist, peeled and diced

1 leek, sliced

2 sticks of celery, sliced

180g of red split lentils

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

227g tin of chopped tomatoes

Freshly ground black pepper

1 heaped teaspoon of ground coriander

1 heaped teaspoon of ground cumin

Juice of half a lemon

Method

Add a little oil to a big pan over a medium heat

Add half of the onion, all of the carrot, parsnip, beetroot, sweet potato, leek and celery.

Keep stirring and fry for about 5 minutes.

Add the garlic and the lentils, stir and cook for another 5 minutes.

Add the chopped tomatoes and stock, give it a stir and put a lid on the pan.

Let it simmer for about half an hour, until the veg is just about cooked.

In another pan, over a medium heat add a little more oil and add the remaining onion.

Add the ground coriander and cumin and fry for 10 minutes, don’t let the onion brown you just want to flavour it with the spices.

When soft, add the fried onion to the stew with the lemon juice, season with ground black pepper and give it a final stir.

Serve and nom!

Butternut squash, new potato and spinach curry recipe

Turns out we had some butternut squash and new potatoes that needed using up so I grabbed some spinach and threw some other stuff in a pan. It turned out nice!

Ingredients – Makes enough for 3

1 tablespoon of good olive oil

1 organic butternut squash, peeled and diced

6 or so new potatoes, diced

1 onion, sliced

150g of organic spinach, roughly chopped

A tin of coconut milk, I used the “light” stuff

2-3 tablespoons of Madras curry paste

Method

The potatoes take a little bit of cooking so get a pan of water on the boil and add them to it. Parboil them for about 10 minutes.

Whilst the potatoes are boiling add the olive oil to a pan, add the onion and fry until soft, with any luck the potatoes will also be ready at this point.

Drain the potatoes and set aside.

Add the Madras paste to the onions and fry for a few minutes.

About now you might want to raid the freezer for some naan bread…

Add the coconut milk, give it all a good stir and add the potatoes and butternut squash. Give it about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Keep a lid on the pan so that it doesn’t get too thick.

When the potatoes are cooked and before the squash starts to fall apart add the chopped spinach, stir through until it’s wilted.

Serve in your favourite bowl!