Vegetable Stew

Serves: 6+
Preparation: 20 min + 10 mins to add seasoning
Cooking: 4 hours (slow cooker)
Calories*: 2000cal (330cal per serve)

Ingredients
1/2 Butternut Pumpkin
1 Large Potato
1 Small Sweet Potato
1 Carrot
Mushrooms
1 L Vegetable Stock
1 cup Yellow Split Peas
3 tbspn Corn Flour
2 Bay Leaves
1 tsp Oregano
1 tsp Thyme
2 tsp Harissa (Middle Eastern Spices)
1/2 cup Port
1/2 cup Brown Rice*
1/2 cup Frozen Peas
1/2 cup Frozen Corn
Salt and Pepper to taste

Chop vegetables and place in slow cooker with 1L of stock. Place split peas in a bowl with hot water to soak. After 1-2 hours drain the split peas and add to the slow cooker.

After about 3 hours add the corn flour, bay leaves, oregano, thyme, salt and pepper, port and rice. Continue cooking and when you have about 10 minutes to go add the peas and corn. Ensure rice is cooked through before serving.

Note: If you are using white rice add when you have 30 minutes left of cooking instead of 1 hour.

Roast Vegetables and Rice

Serves: 2
Preparation: 15 min
Cooking: 60 min
Calories*: 750cal (325cal per serve)

Ingredients
Pumpkin
1 Carrot
1 Potato
6 Mushrooms
3 Cloves of Garlic
Salt, Pepper
Oregano

Rice
Tumeric
Cummin

Roughly chop pumpkin, carrot and potato and place on an oven tray lined with aluminium foil (for easy clean-up). You want enough to roughly cover the tray. Add a splash of oil, garlic cloves (quartered) and season with salt, pepper and oregano. Place in a moderate oven.

At the 30 minute mark, peel mushrooms and add a tiny amount of margarine to the gills then add these to the oven. You only need a tiny amount of margarine per mushroom!!

Put on your rice as normal adding tumeric and cummin - approximately 1/2 teaspoon of tumeric and 1/4 teaspoon of cumin, or to your taste.

Vegetables should be done after an hour or when inside is soft. Be careful as you remove them from the foil as some vegetables are more prone to sticking than others. Serve with a small amount of grated cheese.

Note: You can do lots of different vegetables. I love to do eggplant when we have it. Capsicum is also delicious roasted.

Mushroom Moussaka

Serves:  4
Preparation: 30 minutes
Cooking : 35 minutes (+10 minutes standing time)
Calories*: 1050cal total (260cal per serve)

Ingredients
1 Eggplant
1 large Potato
1 Onion
2 cloves of Garlic
500g Mushrooms
1 tin chopped Tomatoes

40g Margarine
1/3 Cup Plain Flour
2 Cups Milk
1 Egg
40g Cheese

Preheat Oven to 220C. Cut eggplant and potato into slices and lay on baking tray. Bake for 20 minutes (or 30-40 if you didn't preheat the oven)

Meanwhile, finely chop ontion and brown in pan. Add crushed garlic and thinly sliced mushrooms. When mushrooms begin to cook add tomato and simmer rapidly for about 8 minutes.

While the mushrooms cook make your bechamel sauce*. Melt margarine in a saucepan over low heat. Add flour and cook for 1 minute. Gradually add in milk stirring slowly and consistently until all milk is added and the mixture is combined and thickened. Add cheese and beaten egg.

All three components are now ready to assemble. Remove eggplant from oven and reduce heat to 180C.

In a greased oven dish spoon 1/3 of mushroom mixture. Layer potatoes then add 1/3 mushroom mixture. Layer eggplant then add remaining mushrooms. Cover with bechamel sauce and bake in oven for 35 minutes. Leave for 10 minutes before serving.

* Note: There are many opinions on how to make a good bechamel. If you get stuck and the mixture is lumpy and not combining you can save it by using an electric hand blender. This may leave the mixture too runny so allow to gently simmer on low heat until thickened, stirring gently and regularly.

Minestrone Soup

Serves: 4
Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking: 35 minutes
Calories*: 1200cal total (400cal per serve)

Ingredients
3 rashers of Bacon (optional)
2 Carrots
2 sticks of Celery
1 Potato
2 cloves of Garlic, crushed
1L Vegetable Stock
1 tin Red Kidney Beans
1 can Chopped Tomatoes
1/2-1 cup of Pasta
Parsley (optional)
Salt and Pepper to taste (you won't need salt if you added bacon)

Add bacon, vegetables and garlic to pot and cook for about 5 minutes. Add beans, tomatoes and stock, bring to boil and cook until vegetables stoft. If you have a pressure cooker you can speed up the cooking time here to about 30 minutes and the result is amazing!

Once vegetables are soft add pasta (I used 1 cup) and cook for a further 3-5 minutes until pasta is al dente. Sprinkle with parsley and serve with crusty bread.

Notes on Pressure Cookers:
A pressure cooker really speeds up the process with these types of meals and they're actually really easy to use. You must have a good amount of liquid for it to work properly which makes soups ideal.

Bring the ingredients to a boil, secure the pressure cooker lid and turn stove to medium. Wait until the indicators show the cooker is pressurised (refer your cookers instructions, mine is to the second line), then turn stove to low and cook for required time. The longer you cook the food the more likely the vegetables will turn to mush, so 30 minutes is good for a soup like this, but you can go longer if you want a pasta sauce for example.

Be careful when releasing the pressure from the cooker. Don't remove the lid straight away - allow the cooker to cool or run under cold water. Open the release and let all the steam escape. If you try to take off the lid too soon you may end up with the soup exploding over the counter (which happened to me lol) or worse, over you, so be patient getting that lid off!