Vegi Meals

As promised on Friday, here are the recipes for our first 2 days of vegetarian dinners.

Saturday
CHICKPEA AND SQUASH CURRY

1  red onion, diced
1 garlic clove crushed and chopped
1 can coconut milk
1 can chickpeas
500g pumpkin, chopped into chunks
2 tbsp. curry powder (tikka or garam masala)
1 tbsp. chilli powder (or more depending on how you like it)
1 tbsp. ground ginger
Method

1) fry the onions for 10 minutes until soft on a medium heat, then add the garlic and all the spices and cook for another couple of mins
2) then add the chickpeas and coconut milk.
3) finally add the pumpkin, mix together, cover with a lid and cook on a low heat for around an hour or until the pumpkin is soft and cooked.
4) check the spice of the curry, if you find it too spicy add some yogurt or add more spices.
5) once cooked, serve with rice, naan breads or poppadum's.

This was really nice, although we had ours with naan bread and chips instead of rice, because I knew we would be having rice the next day.

Sunday
VEGETABLE CHILLI

1/2 each of a red yellow and green pepper
2 carrots finely diced
2 onions finely diced
2 celery stalks finely diced
1 whole fresh red chilli de seeded and chopped
1 courgette finely diced
1 tin red kidney beans
1 tin canelleni or haricot beans
2 tins good quality chopped tomatoes
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp hot chilli powder
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp cumin
400ml water (rinsed around in the empty tomato tins)
2 cloves finely diced or minced garlic
Method

1. Fry all raw vegetables and onions in a large pan in a little oil for ten mins on a medium heat until soft. 
2. Add the garlic and fresh chilli. 
3. Next add the cinnamon cumin and chilli powder and fry for one more min. 
4. Add the drained and rinsed cans of beans and chopped tomatoes and water. Season with salt and pepper.
5.   Simmer for one to two hours on a fairly low heat until thick and delicious.
6. Stir every twenty mins to ensure it doesn't stick and burn on the bottom. 
7. Serve over rice or a jacket potato or with some nacho's.

I added a bit of tomato puree to mine and I also made double the quantities here because there were 4 of us plus 3 missionaries for dinner. This made a huge batch and there were plenty leftovers. We had nachos, rice, sour cream and crusty bread with it, and it was delicious.

And speaking of missionaries, we are saying goodbye to another missionary this week. Elder Jones is off to Paisley for Christmas (at least). We have had great fun getting to know Elder Jones, he is quite an interesting young man from Vegas, USA, but who learnt to speak Mandarin for his mission so he could teach the Gospel to Chinese people living in Scotland and Ireland.

Safe travels Elder Jones, we hope to see you again before you leave for the US.

Valerie

xxx