Sometimes a meal comes together very haphazardly and not at all how it had been planned. This is one such example….

I will admit I am solely to blame for this scenario since labelling the leftovers to go into my freezer is not always my strong point. I often make the mistake of thinking ‘well it will be obvious what it is, I won’t need to write a label on the bag’. Hmmm, once frozen solid with ice fuzzing up the outside it isn’t always quite that obvious!

You see, I had thought that I had taken out a portion of soup from the freezer and the plan was to serve this along with a salad and homemade bread rolls, however upon investigation it turned out to be a portion of vegetable chilli… quick rethink, so instead we have an alternative meal for two:

A dish of vegetable chilli

A dish of roasted veg (in this case parsnip, pepper and carrots)

A serving of toasted pittas cut into pockets

A quick and easy DIY fill-your-pittas experience…. the soup can wait for another day!

Recipe: Vegetable chili

Serves 4

Ingredients

Large glug of olive oil
1 onion- diced
2 peppers- cut into chunks
1tsp mild chilli powder, 1tsp cumin seeds, 2 cloves of garlic
2 medium sweet potatoes- peeled and cut into chunks
1 large carrot- peeled and cut up
400g tinned tomatoes
150g red lentils (pre-soaked)
200ml hot vegetable stock
400g can red kidney beans
50g green beans
1 courgette- cut into chunks
100g frozen peas
Tomato puree and hot water- if needed
(Other vegetables can be added or substituted)

Method

Pre-soak red lentils in hot water for approx. 20 mins. Fry onion in oil for 5 mins, add the peppers, garlic and spices and cook for 2 mins. Stir in the carrot and sweet potato then add the tomatoes, lentils, and vegetable stock. Simmer for 15 mins. Add remaining ingredients- kidney beans, green beans, courgette and frozen peas, and simmer for approx. 10 mins until all vegetable are tender. Addtomato puree with extra water if more sauce is needed. Serve with wholegrain rice or pasta if desired.

Note- in this recipe I served one portion size of chilli with some extra roasted veggies- I simple cut the veg into batons drizzled over a little olive oil and some salt and pepper then roasted for approx. 20 mins. Warm the pittas in the oven right at the end.

Freeze left over portions in individual bags- label them up (don’t say I didn’t warn you!)