Veggie Casserole

Hi, this recipe is, like last week's, from SPAR's Wintertime magazine 2021/22, page 10.

Overall, I thought this recipe was okay, but wasn't particularly flavourful. It was simple and could do with some extra thought being put into it to make it taste even better. But don't worry it's not hard to do as I have got a few ideas to start you off:

• Use a stock cube - when you add the water in step 2, crumble in a veggie stock cube as well. This will add extra salt to the dish and thus improve the flavour. It will make the broth taste more broth like, than runny tomato sauce.
• Add in some cornflour - I had to simmer down a lot of water to get the sauce to thicken slightly. So, I advise after frying the onions and garlic, when you add the herbs, add in 1tbsp of flour. I suggest cornflour to keep it gluten-free, but if that's not an issue, plain flour will be fine too, even self raising. This will help to thicken the sauce.
• Add in sweetcorn - I served with sweet corn and found with its sweeter taste, it went quite nicely with the dish, also it added a different texture and shape. Add this when you add spinach, step 3.
• Use an extra can of pulses - this means that you will bulk out the 'casserole' (see below) more because of the extra ingredients and thus the sauce won't need any extra evaporating time. If you like, you could tip in the water from extra can of pulses too, this will need more time to evaporate off, but the aquafaba with thicken the sauce.
• Shred in some chicken / turkey - If you are not vegetarian or vegan or can't eat chicken / turkey for another reason, then you could try this. Any leftovers from a roast, or cook some specifically for this will help the flavour of the 'casserole'.
• Put the rice / couscous in the dish - If you do this, you may need to add extra water (I would suggest stock or another tin of tomatoes / some passata) and then decide whether you want to bake it or boil it. If doing couscous I would suggest boil on top of the hob with a lid on, if doing rice the same is fine. However, you do have another option of baking it if you wish, you will need an ovenproof dish to do this, either a casserole pot or a lasagne type dish is good, preferably with a lid or cover with tin foil.

I hope these are helpful! And, the casserole wasn't bad, but it could've been improved in my opinion and so if you stick to the original recipe that's fine too, I did.

I also have a question, in last week's blog I found out the difference between a stew (boiled on top of the hob) and a casserole (baked in the oven) and it seems to me that this dish is not a casserole as it is so labelled, but a stew! Let me know in the comments your opinion.

Enjoy!

Hazel :)

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Dietary Info:

-Vegan

-Vegetarian

-Dairy Free

-Gluten Free

{If serving with rice.}

-No Nuts

-Main Meal

Serves: 4

Prep Time: approx. 5mins

Cook Time: approx. 25mins {May need longer if you need to simmer off some of the water to get it to a thicker consistency.}

Ingredients:

-1tbsp olive oil {I used extra virgin olive oil.}

-1 large onion, finely chopped {I used a brown onion, but red should be fine too.}

-2 cloves garlic, crushed

-1tbsp mixed, dried herbs {I used a combination of thyme, basil and rosemary.}

-400g tin SPAR chopped tomatoes {Any brand is fine, mine were Grower's Harvest, from Tesco.}

-1 large carrot, thinly sliced {I peeled mine, but you don't have to. If you don't, wash thoroughly before use.}

-400g tin SPAR kidney beans, rinsed and drained {Any brand is fine, mine were Grower's Harvest, from Tesco.}

-100g green beans, chopped

-100g SPAR baby spinach, washed and roughly chopped {Any brand is fine, I used Tesco's.}

Method:

1: Heat the olive oil in a pan, then add the onion and {Cook for a few minutes and then add the} garlic and cook for a few minutes until softened. {Season with salt and pepper.} Add the herbs and cook for a minute.

2: Tip in the tomatoes and carrot, plus a cup of water {I filled the tomato can with water and tipped that in, it seemed to be slightly too much water, but I just tried to simmer it away. If you are going to add extra fillings, then this amount of water should be fine.} and simmer for 10minutes, until thickened.

3: Add all the beans {green and kidney} and cook for 5mins. Add the spinach and cook for another 5minutes.

4: Serve with rice and / or crusty bread. {I did couscous.}

While you're here...

I have a Pinterest for all my recipes, where you can save them to boards for the future and categorise them into different types of recipe e.g Sunday Dinners, picnic ideas etc. My account is @hazellikestocook, or find the link below. Also, I have a whole blog post explaining this in more detail here and https://hazelscookingandbakingblog.blogspot.com/2021/02/pinterest.html. 

https://pin.it/5xDvARk - my profile

This recipe:

https://pin.it/40385VQ