I was going to ask a popular dish you knew for vegetarians/vegans if you had any?
Ingredients; 2 Brown Onions, 4-6 cloves garlic, 2 long red chillies, 2-3 carrots, 3-4 zucchini, 2-3 eggplants, ~500g Button mushrooms, 3 cloves, 2 bay leaves, ~10g Italian Herb mix, 1 tin diced tomato, 1 jar tomato based pasta sauce, 2 tablespoons of tomato paste, variable amount water, olive or vegetable oil, spaghetti/linguini/pasta of your choice, salt and pepper
Method: READ THE WHOLE THING BEFORE YOU START COOKING!
1. Dice your Onions (about 2-3mm), Mince your garlic (or buy minced garlic), Chop your chillies/carrot/zucchini/eggplant but keep them separate (about 5 mm), Slice your mushrooms (about 3-5 mm)
2. Put a big enough pot on the stove at medium-high heat, have a spoon/rod/stirring device ready and add a splash of oil. heat oil till just before it starts smoking then add your onions, garlic and chillies. cook, stirring often until the onions become soft and translucent and barely start to brown.
3. Add your carrots and continue cooking and stirring till the carrots start to soften, then add your tomato PASTE and cook/stir for another 1-2 minutes.
4. Add the zucchini and eggplant and cook/stir for another 3-4 minutes, then add your mushrooms and cook for a further 2-3 minutes.
5. Add the tinned tomato, pasta sauce, and water(the water measure is ~1/3 of the tomato tin and/or 1/3 of the sauce jar) then Stir in the bay leaves, cloves, salt, pepper, and Italian herb mix.
6. Turn the heat down low, and cook the mixture till it reaches the desired consistency. for best results cook for 4-5 hours stirring every 20-30 minutes adding a touch of water if it starts to get too thick.
7. Can be served with pasta, used as lasagna or jaffle filling, or just eaten straight out of a bowl. serves 5 and up depanding on portion size.
Hints and Tips:
-Turn the pot as you cook to ensure a more even cook and reduce the chances of burning, not all stoves heat evenly.
-Make sure you get into the corners of the pot when stirring
-Of you're worried about burning the food, lower the heat, but allow for longer cooking times
-most of the vegetables can be changed/removed/added to suit your personal tastes, just try to keep the amounts of Carrots/zucchini/eggplant/equivalent vegetable roughly even.
-meatatarians can easily replace the eggplant with (or just plain add) 500g of beef mince.
-this recipie can easily be frozen for up to a month and a half with little to no loss in flavour, it lasts about a week and a half in the fridge.
-don't eat the pot while it is still hot.
-Mileage may vary.
