Smokey Vegetable Pot / Bake

The ‘Pot’ version of this will be the low calorie version. The Bake is what I would add to this meal if I was making it and calories were not being counted.

I didn’t know how this was going to turn out when I made it so I didn’t take much note of timings, therefore what I’ve written are guestimates and you will have to use your own intuition a bit if you think things need longer or less time.

Also, I do not profess to be any kind of chef/cook or recipe writer so sorry in advance.

The calories are based on our exact weights of vegetables so where I have rounded up/down, I’ve put our exact weight in brackets)

Vegetable Pot

Ingredients:

• 450g cauliflower (452g), chopped into small florets
• 400g tin of peeled plum tomatoes, whizzed slightly in a food processor to chop, not liquidise
• 100g fresh baby leaf spinach
• 90g green beans (92g), cut into 1” sticks
• tbsp smoked paprika
• 50g black olives (54g), halved
• 1/2 pt of water
• 300g sweet potato (313g), boiled, drained then mashed (nothing added)

With the sweet potato as a side, our meal came to 300 calories per generous serving exactly. If you chose to do the dish with another side then the vegetable pot came to 172 calories per generous serving. In our opinion, the sweet potato was a really pleasant accompaniment as the sweetness cut through the nutty taste of the cauliflower really nicely.

To avoid using oil, I steamed the cauliflower first. We have a hob steamer so I boiled the sweet potato in the bottom pan while I steamed the cauliflower in a pan above the sweet potato. I made the mistake of not cooking the green beans first expecting they would cook quickly enough in the sauce but in hindsight, it would have been better to steam them a little first.

So, while the sweet potato and cauliflower were cooking, I poured the tomatoes into another large saucepan and added the green beans (see point above) and smoked paprika while bringing it to a simmer.

When the cauliflower was partly cooked but still ‘al dente’ I added it to the sauce with half of the water and stirred it all around ensuring the cauliflower was coated in the sauce. I then continued to simmer for another 5 minutes before adding the black olives (if getting quite dry, add some more water). I continued to simmer for a further 5 minutes, ensuring the cauliflower and beans were cooked. I didn’t at the time but next time I would season here. Finally, I stirred in the spinach and once wilted, took it off the heat and served it with the mashed sweet potato.

Here it is (presentation could do with some work but it looked lovely and colourful on the plate):

 

 

Vegetable Bake

Ingredients:

As above but with the following extra:

• oil for frying
• 1 small onion diced
• 400g tin of plum tomatoes (so a total of 2)
• 1 Tbsp of tomato purée
• 50g grated cheese
• 2 Tbsp of breadcrumbs

I would fry the onions until soft, add the cauliflower and green beans and fry for about 5 mins. Then add the tomatos, purée, smoked paprika and simmer until veg nearly cooked through. Stir in the olives and cook for another few minutes. Pour into a casserole or pyrex dish. Sprinkle with grated cheese and breadcrumbs and put it under the grill until cheese is melted and there is a golden brown top.

You could also add a splash of wine while cooking above and, if you aren’t vegetarian, I bet chorizo would be lovely in this too.