Recipies

Serves up to four

• An onion

• A carrot

• A stick of celery

• Oil

• Salt and pepper

• A tin of tomatoes

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If you want to add:

• Tomato purée

• Herbs fresh or dried

• Veggies such as chopped peppers, mushrooms, courgette, aubergine

• Beans such as chickpeas, kidney bean, pinto beans

• Spices like cumin, coriander, chilli, garlic

• Some kind of meat like minced beef or lamb

• A tin of tuna
  
  

As you can see this is adaptable. Where do your taste buds want to go today?

Here’s what you do:​

1. Chop the onion, carrot and celery roughly the size of a large pea. If you want to turn this into more of a stew, then cut the veg quite chunky as stews take longer to cook.

2. Heat the oil in a pan, once it’s hot add the veg. You want to hear a sizzle. Add some salt. If you want to go down a spicy route, now is the time to add your spices. You’re cooking your veg to soften them, to break down the fibres and for them to start to release their flavour. It’s a balance between developing flavour and patience. I normally go for 5 to 7 minutes on a medium high heat.

3. If you want to use some meat add now and cook it to get some colour for a couple of minutes. Same if you want to add different veg, add now and cook for a couple of minutes to start the cooking process.

4. If you want to add tomato purée add it now, and cook it for and couple of minutes. Tomato purée adds depth of flavour and it also thickens the sauce.

5. Open a tin of tomatoes and add them to the rest of the ingredients in the pan. Then fill the tin about half full of water rinsing out the rest of the juice and add this to the sauce.

6. Now is a great time to add some dried herbs. You can use some mixed herbs, or if there’s a herb you really like the taste of then go for it.

7. Once the sauce is bubbling then turn down the heat to medium low. Here you can add things such as tinned beans or fish, frozen veg is a good addition at this point because it doesn’t need cooking as long as some fresh veg and is a great way to up the veggie quota. So something like frozen sweet corn is an excellent choice.

8. After about 10 minutes, start to taste your sauce. What does it need? More salt or pepper? Does it need to pop more and taste brighter? You could then add some red wine vinegar or lemon juice. Does it need more herbs or spice? Here you can really pamper your taste buds and give them what they want.

9. Now it’s a question of how much do you want your sauce cooked? I would suggest another 10 minutes, if you used fresh meat at the start, maybe another 15 to 20.

10. Whilst the sauce is happy bubbling away put a pan of water on to boil and cook some pasta or rice to have with your lovely tomato sauce.

11. When it’s all cooked, drain the rice or pasta, put it on a plate add some sauce and ENJOY!