vegetarian

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Slow Cooker Chilli Beans

This is a great recipe for using up those tins of beans you’re not sure what to do with and often find collecting dust at the back of the pantry. I used tinned Mixed Beans because that’s what I had in the pantry, but you could use tinned Kidney Beans or Cannellini Beans and it would work just fine.

Cooking at home in this season of empty supermarket shelves and limits on purchases means we need to be a little flexible with our recipes – don’t be afraid to substitute and get creative. Worst case, it won’t turn out that nice and you won’t do that again. I didn’t have chicken stock when making this, used water instead and found it to work perfectly. I didn’t have passatta, so used a jar of pasta sauce + 1 tin of crushed tomatoes and you would never know the difference.

We served ours on top of jacket sweet potatoes, layered with baby spinach and cheese. But your options are endless – serve on toasted sourdough with poached eggs for breakfast or simply enjoy a bowl of it on its own for a quick healthy lunch.

I wasn’t sure if this would be a hit with the boys – but they really loved it!

The original recipe is from ‘Slow Cooking’ by the Australian Women’s Weekly.

It made enough for dinner for the 5 of us and we had leftovers for breakfast/lunch the next day for 2 or 3.

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 6 pieces of rindless bacon, roughly chopped (leave out to make it vegetarian)
  • 1 green capsicum, seeds removed, roughly chopped OR 1 stick of celery, trimmed and roughly chopped
  • 1 onion, chopped finely
  • 2 carrots, unpeeled, roughly chopped
  • 1/4 cup tomato paste
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried chilli flakes – this gave it a nice heat but still tolerable for the kids. Put in more if you like it hotter. You can use a fresh chilli, deseeded, if you have one.
  • 1 jar of passatta OR 1 jar of pasta sauce + 1 tin tomatoes
  • 2 x 400gm tinned beans – whatever you have on hand, rinsed and drained.

Method

  • If you have a searing slow cooker, heat the oil in the slow cooker on the searing function and then add the bacon, celery or capscicum, onion, carrot and chilli and fry until onion softens. Add tomato paste and cook for a further minute. This step can also be done in a frying pan over medium heat.
  • Add remaining ingredients. Fill the empty tin of tomatoes about half way with water and add to the slow cooker. Do the same again with the empty jar of pasta sauce or passatta.
  • Give it all a big stir, put the lid on and cook on LOW for 8 hours.
  • Serving Suggestion – to make jacket potatoes, scrub potatoes or sweet potato till clean, wrap them individually in foil and place on a baking tray. Cook for an hour in a 200 degree oven, until soft when pierced with a knife.
  • Remove the foil, split the potatoes in half, scatter with baby spinach leaves, top with Chilli Beans and sprinkle with grated cheese.

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Roasted Veg Salad (vegetarian)

We all have our list of ‘lazy meals’ that we go to when we can’t really bare to think anymore about what to feed the family. 

Although this salad looks a little fancy, it has become one of my ‘what to eat when I haven’t thought about what to eat’ meals. 

The beauty of this recipe, if you can indeed call it one, is that you roast whatever you have on hand or needs using up. The day I took these photos, it was tomatoes, capsicums, potatoes and sweet potatoes, and I threw some asparagus in for the last 5 minutes of roasting time.

But the options are endless – beetroot, pumpkin, leeks, onions, carrot, zucchini – if it’s in your fridge or cupboard, wash it, chop it into even chunky sized pieces and throw it on the tray. 

Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and scatter with  some fresh or dried herbs – rosemary, thyme or oregano are often my choice for veggies like these. 

If you cut them into small-ish chunks they should only take about 30 minutes in a 200 degree oven. 

I like to let them cool for a moment, before tumbling onto a platter of mixed salad leaves. You could leave it at this and it would be fabulous, or to snaz it up a bit, add some goats cheese or fetta. 

It is such a versatile dish – eat it on it’s own or alongside some protein like chicken, red meat or fish. 

I often try to do a little extra, because a container of these veggies, cold the next day makes for a quick and yummy lunch. 

Here’s to finding new inspiration to keep feeding our families without going mad!

E x

 

 

 

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Whole Roasted Cauliflower (vegetarian)

We all know variety is the spice of life and that is so very true when it comes to feeding vegetables to your children.

Coming up with alternative ways of preparing and serving veggies that your kids have been rejecting or are unwilling to try, can sometimes help get them over the line. 

My boys are not all that excited about cauliflower, but when they walked in the door from school and this was just coming out of the oven, they asked what smelt so good. When I mentioned the word cauliflower, they looked a little stunned, but willing, to give it a go. 

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Roasting a whole cauliflower is very similar to roasting a piece of meat. You massage it with olive oil, salt and pepper and flavour or spices of choice, and then bake for 1 1/2 hours in a moderate oven.

It can be eaten straight from the oven, or at room temperature. You can leave it as is, or dress it up with lemon zest, finely chopped fresh herbs and toasted almonds. You can squeeze lemon juice, olive oil or a dressing of choice over it before serving. 

I like to picture it in the middle of the table, with everyone carving their own pieces, as a side dish to some pan-fried meat or fish. I can also see it as a part of a tasting banquet, guests carving off warm florets and dipping them in hummus. 

If we have leftovers, I will thinly slice it and put it in the fridge in an airtight container to throw in salads or on top of a homemade pizza in the coming days.

The limit is your imagination friends. 

Whole Roasted Cauliflower
Serves 6
A whole cauliflower, rubbed with olive oil and cumin, roasted in the oven.
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Prep Time
5 min
Cook Time
1 hr 30 min
Total Time
1 hr 35 min
Prep Time
5 min
Cook Time
1 hr 30 min
Total Time
1 hr 35 min
Ingredients
  1. 1 whole cauliflower, outer leaves removed
  2. 2 tablespoons olive oil
  3. 1 tablespoon dried cumin
  4. salt
  5. pepper
  6. fresh herbs, lemon zest and toasted flaked almonds to serve (optional)
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.
  2. After removing the outer leaves of the cauliflower, turn the cauliflower upside down and cut through the base, slightly hollowing out the stem, so the cauliflower sits flat on a dish. Score a cross pattern into the remaining stem.
  3. Massage the oil, cumin, salt and pepper to taste, around the entire cauliflower.
  4. Place in a lightly greased baking dish.
  5. Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour.
  6. Remove the foil and bake for 30 minutes more.
  7. Serve it straight from the oven just as it is, or garnish with fresh herbs, lemon zest and almonds.
Notes
  1. It can also be enjoyed at room temperature.
  2. If you are going to eat it at room temp, wait to put the garnish on right before you serve.
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Scrambled Eggs with Goats Cheese (what to cook when you’re too tired to cook)

I feel a little sorry for the humble egg.

It’s been given a hard time for so long. The good old cholesterol drama of the last 20 years or so had many believing that the yolk was bad for you and we were encouraged to only eat eggs sparingly. Remember egg white omelettes? Seriously…what were we thinking people?

The yolk actually contains most of the important nutrients and the white is mostly protein. ALL of it is good for you. 

One of God’s greatest gifts to us is the egg. It’s such a powerhouse of nutrition, it’s inexpensive and can be cooked quickly and in a million different ways.

Here is a link to an easy-to-understand article about HOW amazing eggs actually are. It’s a must read.

My new favourite breakfast, lunch or dinner dish is this Scrambled Eggs with Goats Cheese and Rosemary. 

I first read about the combination in a beautiful book by Shauna Niequist called Bread and Wine, a love letter to life around the table (my kind of book).

This is one of those ideas that is hard to put in a recipe format. 

Basically, choose as many eggs as you wish to eat or according to how many you are feeding. This is very personal. I would eat 2 if I was making this for myself, my eldest son has been having 5 on his own lately….you see what I mean!

Pour your lightly beaten eggs into a cold non-stick frying pan and then turn on the heat. Gently, start moving the eggs around in ribbons with a spatula or whisk. I like to think of it as a gentle scramble. We all know how awful tough and chewy scrambled eggs can taste. That’s usually from too much over zealous beating and too long on the heat. 

The whole thing takes only a few minutes. When the egg is starting to look almost finished, i.e. just set, crumble in as much goats cheese (feta works well too) as you like, sprinkle in some finely chopped fresh rosemary and season with pepper. 

And there you have it. 3 ingredients, ready in about 3 minutes. 

Who said eating well had to be complicated? 

 

 

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Pick-me-up Pumpkin & Ginger Soup (vegetarian)

It seems like our extended summer in Sydney has finally come to an end.

As I type this I am looking out to my front yard where leaves of many colours and sticks of many sizes are dropping to the ground, covering our lawn and driveway. The wind is strong and cold and it looks like winter might well and truly be here.

I don’t know many who love this season we are about to enter, but dear friends, it’s coming anyway, so we may as well get out our scarves and hats, throw some extra blankets on the beds and start making soup. 

It’s days like these that make me happy to be at home, on the couch holding a mug of this Pumpkin Soup. 

Made in the slow cooker, it’s a little more ‘pumped up’ than your normal pumpkin soup. 

There is a beautiful sweetness from the fennel and apples, and a gentle heat from the ginger and turmeric. A mixture of sweet potato and pumpkin add the rich earthiness that brings it all together.

Turmeric is such a super spice that actually belongs to the ginger family. It is considered to be one of nature’s most powerful anti-inflammatory’s, while also being an anti-oxidant and an infection fighter. 

Including ginger and turmeric in your diet over the winter months will help in keeping your immune system strong.

Weekends are a perfect time to bung these ingredients in the slow cooker, let it bubble away and then you’ll be set up for lunches or dinner the following week. 

Stay warm friends x

Pick-me-up Pumpkin & Ginger Soup (vegetarian)
Serves 5
A slow-cooked soup made from pumpkin, sweet potato, fennel, apple and spices.
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Prep Time
10 min
Cook Time
5 hr
Total Time
5 hr 10 min
Prep Time
10 min
Cook Time
5 hr
Total Time
5 hr 10 min
Ingredients
  1. 800gm pumpkin, peeled and chopped into large chunks
  2. 400gm sweet potato, peeled and chopped into large chunks
  3. 2 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped
  4. 1 small fennel bulb, white part, chopped into large chunks
  5. 1 teaspoon turmeric
  6. 1 tablespoon peeled and grated fresh ginger
  7. 1 vegetable or chicken stock cube
  8. 5 cups water (or 5 cups of ready made stock)
Instructions
  1. Place all ingredients in the slow cooker, put the lid on and cook for 5 hours, (or on low for 6 or high for 3)
  2. When all the vegetables are soft it is ready.
  3. Allow to cool slightly before pureeing with a stick blender or in batches in a food processor.
  4. Serve on it's own or with greek yoghurt, sour cream or cream fraiche and fennel fronds.
Notes
  1. If you don't own a slow cooker, you can use a large soup pot and gently boil it till all the vegetables are soft.
  2. It will freeze well without the toppings.
  3. It will keep in the fridge, covered for 5 days.
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