Happy New Year! I’m full of good intentions this morning – well who isn’t? 😉
2013 was exciting, if a tad stressful – the best bit being moving house and installing not one but two kitchens – one for me and one for Hey Pesto!
Now I have no excuses so it’s time to start making plans for the year ahead……..
I want to :
- concentrate on the ‘cookery school side’ of the business – starting with my lighter cooking course on 14th January. I’ve been blown away by the feedback from my classes so far and I can’t believe how much I love doing them.
- continue to grow my catering business. I can’t believe it’s 9 years since I started Hey Pesto!
- blog more – I know, I know, I said that last year but there were far too many distractions. I also want to finally get round to creating a website (Stop laughing – yes you!)
- cook more for pleasure – now that I have a library for my cookery books I need to use them! (I shall also be looking for ‘guinea pigs’)
- enjoy lots of good food in the company of good friends and loved ones.
Another thing that I am very conscious of is the amount of food that is wasted. I tried to cut down last year but bad habits crept back in… So since Christmas I have trying to use up everything – I haven’t been food shopping since Christmas Eve and have managed to produce a number of tasty meals – ok I know we all overstock before the holidays but………
Of course I’m also going to be “super” healthy in 2014….well maybe I should start with healthier…….I even got a birthday present of gym membership (a less than subtle hint perhaps!)
So my first meal of 2014 is going to be a Vegetarian Crumble to use up all the sad vegetables still lurking in the pantry.
Spiced Vegetable Crumble
| No Servings: 4 -6 |
| Oven: 180ºC/ gas 4 |
What you need:
- 1 – 2 tbsp rapeseed oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1 tsp ground tumeric
- 1 tsp chilli powder
- 1-2 cm fresh ginger, grated
- 1/2 jar passata
- Approx 750g mixed root vegetables, chopped
- 500ml vegetable stock
- 75g flour
- 75g Kilbeggan Porridge Oats
- 50g butter
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
What you do:
- Heat the oil in a large pan and sauté the onion for approx 5 mins. Meanwhile dry fry the cumin nad coriander seeds and roughly grind in a pestle and mortar (Okay you can use a spice grinder but think of the exercise!)
- Add the garlic, spices and ginger to the onions, cook for another minute then add in 2 tbsps of passasta. Cook for another minute then add in the rest of the passata.
- Add in the chopped vegetables – I used carrots, celery(not a root veg I know but it was in the basket), sweet potato and parsnips. I also threw in the half packet of chestnuts that were languishing in the fridge since I made turkey & leek pie.
- Transfer the mix to a casserole dish and pour in your vegetable stock.
- Make the crumble topping by rubbing the butter into the flour and oats. Add in the cayenne pepper – both for colour and seasoning. You could use paprika if you prefer.
- Top the vegetables with the crumble mix and bake for 30-40 mins. until the top is golden and bubbling.
My dish is ready to go into the oven but as it has stopped raining I may even attempt to go for a walk! Looking forward to dinner later with a nice glass of red wine – well it is still Christmas ….
Happy Cooking and Happy New Year!
PS What are you planning for 2014?!
This is how the Crumble turned out and if I do say so myself it was rather tasty!
Hey Pesto! 
I love this post! And “Hey Pesto!” is the cutest name. Happy New Year!
Thank you 😊 Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!
And thanks for the yum recipe.
Many Happy Returns! Enjoy!