Aside: Al Fresco Aubergine

I’m definitely a summer person. As soon as the weather gets bearable enough to eat outside then I’ve packed up a picnic and am heading to the nearest spot of grass, or preferably beach, I can find. I’m not fussed about bees, wasps, ants or any other insect that might try and jeopardise my al fresco eating, and I’ll even deal with my other half freaking out at the slightest glimpse of anything that flies. As long as we’re eating outside. These aubergines are Ottolenghi inspired, although mostly from a recipe I found whilst trawling the Internet. Like most useful Internet searches, I now can’t seem to find it again.

It does call for a reasonable amount of oil and I had thought this might be greasy but it’s not at all, and the lemon juice, chilli and garlic combine to make it really fresh and very addictive. Plus no vampire will ever come near you again if you get the amount of garlic just right. Here’s how you make aubergine al fresco:

Ingredients (makes enough sides for 4 people)

• 2 aubergines
• olive oil (for brushing)
• sea salt and pepper

Marinade

• 5 tbspns olive oil
• 5 tbspns lemon juice
• half red chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• handful of flat-leaf parsley leaves, finely chopped
• sea salt and pepper

Do it

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 6 (200 degrees)
2. Cut the aubergine into wedges, each about the same length as your little finger. As much as possible try to ensure there is some aubergine skin on one side of each of the wedges
3. Line up on an oven tray and brush with olive oil
4. Season with salt and pepper
5. Bake in the oven for 20-25 mins, or until the wedges have browned at the edges and are soft
6. Meanwhile, make the marinade – mix the olive oil, lemon juice, chilli, garlic and parsley in a large bowl
7. Season with salt and pepper
8. Remove the aubergines from the oven when cooked and add to the marinade (whilst hot)
9. Mix thoroughly to ensure all the wedges are covered in marinade
10. Leave for in the marinade for an hour and serve

These also make a great addition to a vegetarian lentil dish to serve as a main, and can be accompanied by some crème fraîche mixed with dill and lemon to ease the chilli kick.

The Main Attraction: Sweet Potato Veggie Chilli

I’d put a sweet potato in pretty much any meal but especially roasted and thrown into this vegetable chilli it really makes a difference. This staple’s also a favourite with the washing up fairy because it’s pretty much a two-pot dish, which is just the kind of week night washing up that stops the washing up fairy from throwing soap suds around the kitchen in a huff. Here’s how you keep everyone happy mid week:

Ingredients (serves 2 with some left for lunch)

• 2 sweet potatoes
• 1 tsp paprika (alternative – cayenne pepper), plus extra for sprinkling
• 1 tsp ground cumin, plus extra for sprinkling
• 1 tsp cinnamon, plus extra for sprinkling
• olive oil
• sea salt and pepper
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 red pepper, chopped into chunks
• 1 large courgette, chopped into chunks
• 1 bunch fresh coriander
• 1 red chilli, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 400g tin red kidney beans
• 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• natural yoghurt (to serve)

Do it

• Preheat the oven to 200 degrees/ gas mark 6
• Peel the sweet potato and cut into bite-sized chunks
• Place the sweet potato in a roasting dish, add a glug of oil and sprinkle with cayenne pepper, cumin and cinnamon
• Roast the sweet potato for 40 minutes, shaking the tray occasionally to ensure even roasting
• Add the onion, garlic, peppers and courgette chunks with a glug of oil into a pan and cook for 5 minutes, stir occasionally to stop it sticking
• Separate the coriander leaves from the stalks and roughly chop the stalks
• Add the coriander stalks, finely chopped red chilli and spices to the vegetables
• Cook for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally
• Drain the kidney beans and add to the vegetable mixture with the tin of tomatoes
• Reduce to a low heat and cook for 25-30 minutes
• Remove the sweet potato from the oven and add to the vegetable chilli
• Add the roughly chopped coriander leaves 2 minutes before serving
• Serve with brown rice and a dollop of natural yoghurt

This is an adapted Jamie Oliver recipe and freezes well so makes a great ‘cheats’ dinner when time isn’t on your side, making it not all about the washing up fairy.

Snack Attack: Tomato Chilli Soup

This tomato soup is great for simple-minded people like myself who don’t like to veer too far away from a tomato when it comes their soup. I can just about cope with carrot and corriander, but anything else, broccoli and stilton for instance, now that’s just liquidised cheese and vegetable… which is wrong. I like food with a healthy chilli kick as well and so for me, here’s how you make the perfect soup:

Ingredients (makes 4 bowls)

• glug of olive oil
• 2 shallots, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 yellow pepper
• 2 good squirts of tomato purée
• 2 yellow chillies
• 8 large vine tomatoes
• 750ml of vegetable stock
• sea salt and pepper

Do it

1. Chop the stalk and seeds out of the pepper and cut into large slabs
2. Grill to burn the skin and once blackened leave to cool
3. Peel the skin off the pepper and chop the flesh into chunks (postage stamp sized)
4. Cut a cross in the bottom of each tomato
5. Plunge into a pan of boiling water and leave for a few minutes to encourage the skin to peel away
6. Remove the tomatoes from the water and leave to cool
7. Peel off the tomato skins, cut out the hard stalk area and chop into chunks
8. Add the olive oil, shallots and garlic to a large pan and fry off until the shallots have softened
9. Add the pepper chunks and cook for a few more minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking
10. Add the chunked tomatoes
11. Stew over a low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally
12. Pour the stock into the pan and turn the heat up until the mix is boiling then reduce the heat to low
13. Simmer for 25 minutes, stirring occasinally
14. Leave to cool and ladle soup into a blender
15. Blitz until the mixture is reasonably smooth
16. Reheat to serve and season to taste

The great thing about this recipe is there’s a bit of faff at the beginning but once you’re over that the work’s pretty much done. Simples. Just like me.