Recipe: Vegetable stew

I’ve been collecting together photos of some of our staple meals to start a new recipe series – ones I really like, ones Chris really likes and ones Rosemary really likes (not always the same thing). Eleanor? She’ll eat anything. As will the dog – unless it contains egg or mustard.

The first one was going to be my veggie lasagne, which is one of my absolute favourite meals. Rosemary, though? Not overly keen. The recipe will come soon, but having had such an enthusiastic response when I dished this stew up, I had to change my mind.

Vegetable stew

This is an incredibly simple one-pot meal and perfect for autumn and winter evenings.

2-3 tbsp of very good olive oil (we get a great one from our local market on a Saturday)
1 onion
½ tube of tomato puree
3 vegetable stock cubes (I use Kallo Organic by preference)
1½ litres of boiling water
2-3 carrots
1 medium parsnip
3-4 large potatoes
1 large sweet potato
1 courgette
1 tin of plum tomatoes
1 tin of beans (e.g. haricot or cannelini

Prepare all the vegetables – peel the carrots, potatoes and sweet potatoes and wash the courgette.

Heat the oil (in a large saucepan, casserole or similar) and chop the onion into largish chunks (maybe 3cm x 3cm). Sauté the onion until softened.

Boil the kettle and add the stock cubes and tomato puree to a measuring jug (or a heat-proof bowl or similar).

Meanwhile, chop the carrot into large slices (maybe 2-3cm thick). Add them to the pan and stir – place a lid on the pan.

Chop the parsnip, potatoes and sweet potatoes into similar sized chunks and add them to the pan and stir (replace lid).

Pour the boiling water into the jug (or other container) and stir.

Chop the courgette and add it to the pan and stir.

Add the tin of tomatoes and tin of beans to the pan and stir (replace lid).

Lower the heat to a low medium and let the vegetables cook for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the stock to the pan and turn the heat down to low. Simmer for anything upwards of 20 minutes – the flavour tends to grow the longer you leave it.

If you can, serve with thick crusty granary bread, spread generously with butter (or Lurpak spreadable, if you can’t be bothered to wait for it to soften). But a seeded batch and Flora Buttery will do. You can also add grated cheddar on top for a slightly different taste (though probably not if you’re dieting!).

You can vary the vegetables as you wish, or according to what’s in season/cheap/in this week’s veg box. For example, we frequently put beetroot in (gives it a beautiful colour – needs to be cooked for a bit longer) and sometimes have swede, butternut squash and others in there.

This usually lasts us two days and, if the children (or you) are bored of it, you can add some pasta in and turn it into a tasty pasta dish instead.

Rosemary’s verdict: “Mmm, mmm, mmm and mmm again”

BLW notes: Take chunks of vegetable out a little earlier and put on a plate to cool. Give them to baby like that and they can explore/eat/throw on the floor as they wish. Dunk some bread in the juices and give to baby. Kallo also do a low salt stock cube, which is useful when the baby’s under a year (or if you need low salt for other reasons).

Dieting notes: You could probably do a low-GI version without the potato. You could leave out the oil and just cook in the stock. Obviously, leave out the lashings of butter and grated cheese!