Thrown Together Vegetable Chilli

Thrown Together Vegetable Chilli with Crumbled Feta

​12 May 2025  (Monday)

Richard's up early; it’s his period for getting up first and making tea… not that it's been agreed or organised, it's just happening this way at the moment with him waking up first.

It was mainly a work work day today, with a quick pop to the plot to water and check on a few things.  The squash and courgettes really need to go in, but that will have to wait for another day.

I was at a loss as to what I’d do for supper… and in the end it came down to a thrown together vegetable chilli with what we had in the fridge and cupboard.

Recipe:  Thrown Together Vegetable Chilli

I needed a rather large pan, as I had quite a few veggies that had been in the fridge long enough and needed using up, so…

In a large pan I put a tablespoon of olive oil, a roughly sliced large red onion, six decent sized peeled carrots chopped into bite size pieces, two parsnips similar, half a head of celery, chopped, and ¾ of a swede - the other ¼ had seen better days!

I let these cook on a medium heat, stirring occasionally though also leaving bits to colour (ie burn a little) on the base of the pan.

I then added two blocks of frozen garlic (I had used all the fresh from the plot - not to self… pick more!), and a block of frozen ginger.  In went a large sweet potato, well scrubbed and chopped into chunks - it will soften and sort of dissolve in the cooking, and a largeish potato that had been languishing in the fridge with the red onions.

Then the spices - with my Barrett's Esophagus I don’t have anything too spicy.  Some ground cumin, dried coriander leaf, a teaspoon or two of cumin seed, a rounded teaspoon of chipotle paste, and a tablespoon of Marigold vegetable bouillon.

Stirring this all through, I then popped in a tin of plum tomatoes, squishing them as they were whole tomatoes (we very, VERY rarely get chopped - I always feel this is the sweepings from the processing floor, unfairly I am sure), two tins of kidney beans in chilli sauce, one drained tin of kidney beans, and the same of chickpeas, and a well rounded tablespoon of miso paste.

Bubbling away for thirty minutes...

I brought this up to heat, and after a good stir left it on with the lid on over a low flame giving a slow bubble to leave it for about half an hour, stirring every five minutes.  Halfway through I remembered we had some broad beans in the freezer from last year, so three handfulls went in, frozen, then stirred through, and I left it simmer for the remaining fifteen minutes.  Tasting it, I felt it needed just a little more heat, so in went some freshly ground black pepper.

It was served with wholemeal couscous, and topped with a little crumbled feta which had been gently minding its own business in the fridge for a while.  It was rather lovely, especially with the tangy, salty feta topping, despite it being 24° outside!


Weather:  Feeling hot and sunny, around 24°.

Breakfast:  Bran Flakes, yogurt and banana
Lunch:  Egg Mayonnaise on Lidl baguette, with lettuce and cucumber
Supper:  Thrown together Vegetable Chilli