Vegetarian Chilli Beans

Sometimes,

 I don't want to waste a lot of time in the kitchen cooking dinners

but am also not in the mood for chips or frozen pizzas

and that's usually a day when we end up

having a stew, a curry or a soup. 

A "one pot wonder", as those dishes can also be called 

if you wish to give them a fancier name.

Yesterday, I was craving a hearty, healthy dinner 

and as we are going on holidays soon, 

my goal is to empty the fridge within the next few days

without dumping what's in it. 

So I had a good look through the content of the vegetable compartment of the fridge

and thought, that the carrots, sweet potatoes, a pepper, garlic and onions

would make a nice chili bean stew.

If I added one or two tins of beans, obviously. 

So I gathered the stuff I wanted to throw into a pot

and to turn into our family dinner. 

Within 10 mins the prep work was done

and another 20 mins later, dinner was ready.

If you want to make this stew,

feel free to swap ingredients around 

or add something else you think would go well with beans.

I used:

-carrots

-two sweet potatoes

-a huge green bell pepper

-one onion

-one garlic clove

-1/2 tube tomato puree

-one tin of chopped tomatoes

-one tin of cannellini beans

-one tin of kidney beans

-500ml vegetable stock

-frozen sweetcorn

-frozen quorn mince

-ground coriander

-dried leaf coriander

-ground cumin

-smoked paprika powder

-some fresh, finely chopped chili

-sugar

-salt & pepper

Method:

Preheat some oil in a large pot.

Chop the onion and add to the oil and fry over a medium heat until softened.

Finely chop or crush the garlic, add to the onion.

Peel and chop the carrots and sweet potatoes into cubes and toss into the pot.

Wash, trim and chop the bell pepper and add to the veg mixture.

Stir occasionally to avoid burning.

Add the tomato puree.

Add the chopped tomatoes.

Add the stock.

Drain and rinse the beans.

Put into the pot.

Bring to the boil, reduce the heat.

Add the spices and chilis.

Let the stew simmer for about 10 mins.

Add the sweetcorn and quorn mince and bring to the boil again.

Simmer for another 10 mins.

 And add salt, pepper and a LITTLE sugar to taste.

I topped it with a few green jalapenos and served it with some 

pizza dough rolls and fresh garlic and chive butter.

You can keep leftovers in the fridge 

and reheat them a day or two later for a quick lunch.

YUM!

Enjoy cooking and let me know what you think!

Homemade Pumpkin Butter

Normally, I get lots of inspiration for my cooking and baking

by reading food and cookery magazines.
It is one of my guilty pleasures. 

I know they're expensive and I know I also pay for the adverts in them

and I also know that I probably will NEVER look at some of them again

 after I have read them for the first time. 

But still.

I buy them. 

I LOVE THEM!

And I keep them.

All of them.

But I also love some Instagrammers and Bloggers who share their 

cake and lunch and dinner recipes and family feeding routines with their readers. 

Like Simply Homemade Nicola

or Hushabye Farm Elisabeth.

But the idea to make Pumpkin Butter

came from reading a German blog.

One of the benefits of living a bilingual life

is to be able to read more blogs in various languages.

Mary Kotter tells us how to make Pumpkin Butter

in a Thermomix. 

I don't own one, though, and I am quite certain that I never will.

But would that stop me from making the pumpkin butter from scratch?

In a conventional pot on a conventional hob?

Exactly.

No.

It still quite easy to make that way.

And it is DELICIOUS!

And the smell we had in the house while the pumpkin and spices

 bubbled in the pot was really really nice.

Autumn-y and sweet and cinnamon-y yummy.

Here we go! Get the pumpkin that you had originally bought

to turn into Halloween decorations and make 

Pumpkin Butter instead.

Well, that's what I did.

I will have to get a new pumpkin for carving now, the girl said.

Anyway.

Get your pumpkin, wash it, saw off the stem end the non-edible bits

and chop it into rather thick cubes. 

Take 400grams of the prepared pumpkin chunks and put them into a pot.

Add 150ml apple juice and 150ml water,

1tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 3 dried cloves or a pinch of ground ones,

 a pinch of ground nutmeg and a pinch of ground allspice

and bring to the boil. 

Reduce the heat and simmer the pumpkins with the juices and the spices

until they're soft. 

Remove the cloves.

Add 150grams of sugar.

Blitz everything with a hand-held blender until it is really really smooth and lump-less. 

Now, leave it to boil at a moderate heat

until it had thickened to a spreadable consistency.

This process may take a good while. 

You need to keep stirring regularly that it does not burn 

or stick to the bottom of the pot.

When the pumpkin mousse starts to thicken, 

the bubbling will turn into a splattering.

I had covered the pot with a sieve to keep the mess around the pot at bay.

Once your Pumpkin Butter is nice and thick and sweet and "ready",

you need to fill it into a clean jar and keep it in the fridge after it has cooled down. 

It won't last as long as jam would because of the relatively low

sugar content (Haha, I know!) , but it should stay okay for a week.

If you don't eat it at the first day.

It is hard to resist. 

Oh, you can freeze the Pumpkin Butter, too.

I will use the it to make Pumpkin Butter rolls tomorrow.

And I might share that recipe here, too.

If they turn out nice. 

 We'll see.

Lena

Ingredients:

400gms prepared pumpkin meat

150ml apple juice

150ml water

150gms sugar

1tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

some ground nutmet

some ground allspice

Dampfnudeln

If I would translate this blog title directly from German to English,

the English name of this dish would be "Steam Noodle". 

But that doesn't make sense at all.

I prefer to call them 

Sweet Yeast Dumplings here.

They're not baked like bread rolls.

They're not boiled like pasta or other dumplings.

They are cooked in a steamer insert 

over a pot of boiling water. 

These dumplings are a traditional dish from

Bavaria or Austria or Tirol.

They are sweet and fluffy and really filling. 

I would not eat these as a dessert,

we eat them as dinner on their own. 

Well... with vanilla sauce and poppy seed sugar. 

Not necessarily healthy. But GOOD.

And for us, they taste a bit like childhood!

Try them!

It takes a bit of time to make them,

but you won't be disappointed.

Ingredients:

50g unsalted butter (plus some more for greasing)

2tsp easy bake dry yeast

200ml lukewarm milk

4tbsp sugar

500g plain white flour

1 egg

1 pinch of salt

Melt the butter.

Mix yeast, milk and  sugar and leave in a rather warm place for a few minutes.

Add the flour.

 Mix.

Add egg and salt.

Mix.

Add butter.

Mix.

Knead the dough thoroughly until there are no lumps left. 

We want a smooth but rather firm yeast dough.

Form a ball, but it into a bowl, cover with a tea towel and leave in a 

rather warm place and give the yeast plenty of time to work

and leave the dough to rise.

Give it at least 2 hours.

Even more, if possible.

Knead again, form 10 little balls and put them on a baking tray.

Cover with the tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place for another 30 mins.

Grease a steamer insert with a bit of butter and put 5 of your dough balls into it.

Take a pot that fits the size of your steamer,

fill with a bit of water and bring it to the boil.

Put the steamer insert on the pot and cover with a lid.

Cook the dumplings in the steam for about 15 minutes. 

DO NOT LIFT THE LID!!!!

If you do so, the dumplings will collapse!

STAY AWAY FROM THE POT SO!!!

Tidy up your kitchen instead.

Fill the dishwasher.

Read my blog. 

Whatever.

Just, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES lift that lid!

Thank you.

After 15 minutes of steaming, your dumplings will be ready.

Serve with vanilla custard or vanilla sauce

and poppy seed sugar.

Listen to German march music while eating

and pretend you are at the Oktoberfest in Munich. 

Have a bit of fun eating these!!!

Lena