Crockpot Ratatouille, Chickpea Patties With Sauce

I'm a little behind with a couple of items for this blog, so some of these entries today will be a bit, er, disordered. But here goes! My husband and I decided to make Ratatoille again the other day (Thursday? Yes, it was.) - it's such a useful way of eating all one's favourite veggies at once and having wonderful leftovers to use for something else. It works fine chilled or at room temp too, if it lasts that long :)

Anyway, this time I made a double amount and added some lovely basil to the mix. I was going to be busy so popped it into my slow cooker for around three hours on high. It quite filled up my cooker, but by the time the veggies were tender, it had shrunk down nicely, as you see here.

The addition I made was a small can of tomato paste (mine says 5.5 ounces) which I stired in at that point. It looked great and smelled even better.

Of course, that left me with a slight problem of what to put with it - so I raided the refrigerator and found some cooked chickpeas left over from a batch of hummous. Hmmmmm. chickpeas with - what? I mashed the chickpeas with a potato masher (just over a cup of the little honeys), zapped some wholewheat bread in the mini-processor to produce around 3 Tbsp crumbs, ditto a chunk of zucchini to produce ca. 3 Tbsp grated zucchini. I added two finely chopped green onions, a dash of hot sauce, a spritz of Braggs, a sprinkle of sage, a grind of black pepper and bound it all together with a flax 'egg'. I think that was it. [EDIT: I forgot to say I added a sprinkle of raisins! Sorry.]

Formed into patties they browned in my cast-iron pan (with just a quick spray of cooking oil/Pam). I thought they looked a little naked, so I heated up a few tablespoons of the last of my Roasted Red Pepper Pasta Sauce from Wednesday.

By the time the flavour of the tomato paste had melded nicely with the ratatouille, thickening it nicely, the go-withs were ready. A quick green salad quickly thrown together, and we were ready to eat. Somehow, however, the plates didn't get a chance to get photographed!

My husband didn't think the sauce on the patties was needed, though, and I agree. Overkill.

CURRIED BEAN, TOMATO & MUSHROOM SOUP

Keeping to the chosen theme, here's a soup we had last evening from the freezer. We enjoy this soup as a start to a meal or, with homemade bread or a salad, as a light meal in itself.

CURRIED BEAN, TOMATO AND MUSHROOM SOUP

1 cup of a mix of beans (kidney, garbanzos, turtle), cooked and drained
1 small carrot, grated
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/4 lb (125 g) small mushrooms, sliced
1 can tomatoes, crushed
2 cups vegetable stock
1 tsp (or to taste) commercial curry powder (or better still use your own homemade mix)
2 or 3 Tbsp chopped parsley or herbs of choice

Combine all ingredients in a large pan and cook until done, around 40
minutes, add more water and reheat if soup has become too thick, adjust
seasonings (salt and pepper), and stir in herbs. Soup freezes well.

GREEN BEAN AND POTATO CURRY

OK, this was for lunch yesterday - served with a side salad only - made from scratch. I didn't have green beans in the fridge after all, so I substituted yellow wax beans and it turned out just fine :)

This is an easy fix, although it does take a few minutes for those vegetables to cook. It reheats very nicely the following day.

(If you’re really really in a hurry, you can use canned tomatoes (although they won’t look as pretty as the fresh sliced ones), canned or frozen green beans, and ginger and garlic out of a jar. The vegetables will take less time to cook, especdially if you cut the potatoes into a smaller dice. Making it from scratch, obviously, tastes nicer.)

GREEN BEAN AND POTATO CURRY (INDIA)

1 Tbsp canola oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp brown mustard seeds
1 tsp crushed red chilies - or use whole fresh ones, to taste
3 or 4 fresh tomatoes, sliced
1 tsp salt or to taste
1-1/2 tsp fresh gingerroot, finely chopped
1 tsp crushed garlic
1 tsp cayenne pepper - or to taste
1/2 lb fresh green beans, cut in 1-inch lengths
2 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and diced
1-1/4 cups water
Garnish: chopped cilantro leaves, finely chopped fresh green chilies

Heat the oil in a large pan, add the cumin seeds and mustard seds together with the chilies, stirring well. The seeds will start to pop - stand back! Quickly add the tomatoes (which will stop those seeds from flying out of the pan) and stir for about 3 minutes or so.

Add the rest of the ingredients, except for water and garnish, to the pan, stirring well for about five minutes.

Add the water and reduce the heat, simmering for 12 to 15 minutes or until everything is nicely tender but not mushy.

Turn out onto a platter, garnish, and serve with hot boiled rice.

Very easy and very good.