One pot meals – Bit of the Good Stuff

Sweet Potato, Chickpea and Peanut Butter Curry

Published on September 16, 2019 by Sharon7 Comments

* This recipe was originally posted in January 2018. The page was updated in September 2019.

In today’s post, I’m sharing a recipe for a delicious Indian curry that’s simple to prepare and ready in just 30 minutes. It’s budget friendly too, costing less than £1 per portion. It’s mild enough to serve to all family members and contains an abundance of nutrients to keep them in tip-top condition, including plenty of protein, complex carbohydrates, fibre, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. It’s proven to be a winner with my family and we hope you enjoy it too!

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Sweet Chestnut Casserole with Herb Dumplings – Comfort Food for a Snowy Weekend!

Published on January 21, 2013 by Sharon15 Comments

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend!

It’s been snowing here in Bath. Yay!

Snow is something of a novelty here. Last year it only snowed for one afternoon!

Lil’ L was so excited when he awoke on Friday and saw the snow. Not only did it mean that he got a bonus day off school, but it also meant that he would finally get to use the sledge that his grandparents had bought him two years ago!

He quickly gulped down his breakfast, threw on some warm clothes, and was out the door!

With all this freshly fallen snow, the scenery was breathtakingly beautiful!

As lunch time, M came for a spot of sledging. The boys had a huge amount of fun!

They were moving so fast that I only just managed to catch a shot of them. Can you spot them? They’re behind the tree!

I’m a big scaredy cat when it comes to things like this, so I’m very happy to watch from the sidelines.

As well as sledging, we’ve had some beautiful walks this weekend, including one along the Kennet & Avon Canal into Bath City Centre.

Upon arrival, Lil’ L suggested we warm up with a veggie pasty from our favourite pasty shop (Pasty Presto) by Bath Abbey 🙂

Back home, we’ve been warming up with lots of hot chocolate. Our current favourite blend is the Elements for Life Raw Hot Chocolate. It’s totally lush! (check out my review here). To make it into a filling, nutritious snack, I’ve been throwing a bunch of ingredients in the blender (1 cup Alpro Almond Milk, 1 tbsp raw hot chocolate powder, 1 tbsp chia seeds & 1 tbsp ground almonds per person) and blending it on high speed before gently heating it through. It’s delicious, thick, creamy and leaves you feeling totally full up 🙂

I’ve also been making lots of comfort food. For the second Sunday in a row, I’ve made a Sweet Chestnut Casserole with Herb Dumplings. We absolutely love this dish and it’s perfect for this time of year.

N.B. Recipe updated 1/3/18 to match the recipe in the Bit of the Good Stuff cookbook.

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Sweet Chestnut Casserole with Herb Dumplings
In my book, this is comfort food at its best! I’ve ‘healthified’ the dumplings as much as possible by adding in some wholegrain flour and olive oil instead of suet, but I think they taste as nice, if not nicer, than regular dumplings.

Serves: 4
Hands on time: 30 minutes Ready in: 60 minutes

Ingredients

Casserole:
1 TBSP olive oil
1 medium onion, finely diced
2 celery sticks, finely diced
1 large sweet potato (400g), peeled and chopped into small bite-size pieces
2 medium carrots (150g), sliced into thin disks
200g / 2½ cups chestnut (or crimini) mushrooms, diced
1 tsp each dried rosemary, sage, thyme
1 tsp sweet paprika
480ml / 2 cups vegetable stock (broth)
2 TBSP tomato purée (paste)
180g / 1 heaping cup cooked (ready to eat) chestnuts (I used 1 packet of Merchant Gourmet Whole Chestnuts)
3 TBSP mixed seeds (e.g. sunflower, pumpkin, shelled hemp seeds)
1 TBSP cornflour (cornstarch)
salt and ground black pepper, to taste

Dumplings:
90g / ⅔ cup fine wholemeal (whole wheat pastry) flour or chapatti flour
90g / ⅔ cup plain (all purpose) flour
1 TBSP baking powder
2 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp mustard powder
½ tsp salt
40ml / 3 TBSP olive oil
80ml / ⅓ cup soya milk

Method

1 Gently heat the oil in a large casserole or heavy-bottomed pan. Add the vegetables, dried herbs and paprika. Cover with a lid and leave to sweat for five minutes. Stir in the vegetable stock and tomato purée. (To begin with, it may look like you have too many vegetables, but they will reduce down). Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat, cover with a lid and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2 Meanwhile, prepare the dumplings: Place the flours, baking powder, herbs, mustard powder and salt in a bowl and mix well. Add the oil and milk and stir with a fork until it starts to come together. Finish bringing the dough together by hand. It should be a soft, slightly sticky dough, so add a touch more liquid or flour if needed to attain the right consistency. Divide the mixture into 12-16 equal pieces and roll into balls.

3 Slice the chestnuts in half and add them to the casserole, along with the seeds. Mix the cornflour with 1 TBSP water until smooth, then stir it into the casserole. Add salt and pepper, to taste. Arrange the dumplings on top, cover with a lid and simmer for 15 minutes.

4 Ladle into warm bowls and serve. Any leftovers can be stored in the fridge for three days.

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For a Gluten Free version, you could serve the casserole with a root veg mash or add an oaty crumble topping.

Have a great week everyone! Stay warm!

Is it snowing where you are?
What are your favourite Winter warming comfort foods?

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Spanish Veggie Paella (Easy, Low Cost, One Pot Dinner)

Published on January 15, 2013 by Sharon9 Comments

This month I promised I’d share some of all-time favourite one pot meals. After all that meal prepping, cooking and pot washing in December, I need a few weeks of simple meals. Easy, quick prep, cheap, healthy meals that leave only one pot to wash up. Now we’re talking 😉

I’m going to begin with one of my absolute favourite one pot meals – Veggie Paella. This dish is typically made with shellfish, but I’ve used colourful veggies and nutrient-rich nuts instead 🙂

Here’s how I make it…

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Serves 4 Hands-on time: 15 minutes Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients
1 TBSP olive oil
1 large onion, finely diced
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
1 red bell pepper, deseeded and diced
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp sweet paprika
300g / 10½ oz / 1⅓ cups Spanish Paella rice
pinch of saffron*
1 medium tomato, diced
1 litre / 34 fl oz / 4 cups hot vegetable stock (broth)
handful fine green beans, trimmed and halved (use fresh or frozen)
6-8 baby corn
80g / ½ cup cashews
salt, to taste
ground black or cayenne pepper, to taste
16 black pitted olives
sprinkling of green nori flakes or dried parsley
35g / ¼ cup toasted flaked almonds

* Saffron is the spice that gives Paella its distinctive yellow colour and creamy, nutty flavour. It is very expensive though. For a budget-friendly alternative, use ground turmeric (½ tsp)

Method

Infuse the saffron in a little hot water and prepare the vegetable stock.
Gently heat the oil in a large heavy-bottomed frying pan (skillet) and cook the onion until it starts to soften. Meanwhile chop the remaining vegetables.
Add the garlic, bell pepper, cumin and paprika to the pan, and cook for a minute or so. If it starts to stick, add a splash of water to loosen it. Stir in the rice and saffron (or turmeric). Add the tomato and vegetable stock to the pan. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes, uncovered.
Add the beans, baby corn and cashews, and cook for a further 10 minutes. Stir regularly towards the end of the cooking time. If the pan starts to dry out, add a little more stock or water.
When the rice is tender yet retains a bite, remove the pan from the heat. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Serve on warm plates with a sprinkling of olives, nori flakes/dried parsley and toasted flaked almonds.
Any leftovers can be stored in the fridge for 24 hours. As with any rice dish, make sure the leftover rice is cooled quickly and refrigerated within an hour.
This paella is delicious served on its own, however Lil’ L suggested that children may prefer it served with segments of toasted tortilla (like he does 😉 ) When the paella is nearly ready, simply place the tortillas under the grill and lightly brown on both sides. This makes them nice and crunchy!

N.B. For a super child-friendly paella, use frozen peas and sweet corn instead of green beans and baby corn. Simply add them to the pan 5 minutes before the end of the cooking time.

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Enjoy! xx

This recipe has been submitted to Ricki Heller’s #WellnessWeekend