Serves: 6 | Prep: 10 mins | Cook: 30 mins
Nutritional info: 227 kcal, 35g carbs, 7g fat, 8g protein

Ingredienty:

Prep: get the stock boiling. Chop the onion, cube the tomatoes, crush and chop the garlic, break up the spaghetti, drain the chick peas, chop up the beans into 1-2cm pieces.

Get a big pan, put the oil and onion in it. Soften the onion. I have illustrated this in case you are uncertain.

Add garlic. Fry for a couple of minutes more.

Add everything that isn’t the rocket.

Bring to the boil, simmer for 15-20 minutes, until pasta is done.

When the spaghetti is cooked, stir through the rocket. Season to taste. Serve.

How easy?

Serves: 4 | Prep: 5 mins | Cook: 35-40 mins

Nutrition:  (I can’t imagine my tweaks have changed this too much) 241 kcalories, protein 9.7g, carbohydrate 39.6g, fat 6 g, saturated fat 1.6g, fibre 7.4g, salt 1.86 g

Ingredients pic: (I have been known to add a half a leek per person, too, works nicely)

add the oil to a pan and soften the onion and garlic

Then add the carrots, celery and parsnips, and continue to soften

when beginning to get tender, add the lentils, bay leaf, tomato puree, 3/4 of the stock, and a healthy dollop of marmite.

around about the same time, chunk your potatoes, put them into some salted water and start them off

the pie mix should be gently bubbling away, simmer for 25 minutes, or until lentils are tender. You can speed this recipe up by about 15 mins if you leave out the lentils, but they are worth it. Add more stock if it needs it. You want gloopy. Gloopy pie mix.

Just as the lentils are nearly cooked, hopefully your potatoes should be ready. Mash them.

To make the mash, once the potatoes are well cooked, drain, put about 1/2 a tsp of butter per person, a little seasoning, and a generous splash per person of alpro soya cream in (trust me on this, dairy consumers, its slightly vegetabley taste comes into its own in savoury dishes) and if you’re feeling posh a tiny bit of rosemary. Mash.

Then clean out that pan (or if you’re the kind of fancy person with more than 2 medium pans, just get a new one) and set some water on to boil ready for the green veg.

Hopefully your pie mix should be nice and thick now. Spoon it into a casserole dish.

And using a spoon and fork, very thinly spread the mashed potato on top, it never goes as far as you think, so be sparing to begin with. The technique I use is teaspoon of mash, and sort of spread it from the spoon onto the pie using the reverse of the fork. Leaves a nice texture, too.

Your water should be boiling now, chuck in the broccoli (and about 3 minutes later the green beans). Pop the gardener’s pie under the grill when you start the greens. Dunno what heat, mine just seems to have an ‘on’ or ‘off’ mode. Put it on ‘on’.

I totes have a gas oven now. I sort of haven’t gotten used to it yet. Much more unpredictable.

Anyway, all being well, veg and pie should be done at the same time. Drain the veg, serve with the pie which should be lovely and crispy on top. That’s it. Tasty, easy, cheap, vegan. Yes.

Prep: 10 mins | Cook: 30 mins | Serves: 4-6
Nutritional info: Per 1/4 335kcal 51g carbs 10g fat 12g protein

Ingredients:

Soften the onions and garlic for 5-10 minutes

add 3/4 of the oregano and the paprika, stir for a minute

Add the bay leaf, drained tinned beans, squash, stock, and simmer for 10-15 minutes until the squash is just getting tender

Then add the french beans and sweetcorn and simmer for 5 minutes more

Just as the green beans are ready, season very well (I used one and half tsp of salt and loads of pepper), add the last bit of oregano, and serve!

Very filling. Good stuff.

Prep Time: 5 min | Cook Time: 25 min | Makes: 2
Ingredients:  377 kcal, 58g carbs, 12g protein, 8g fat (1g saturated), 2g fibre, 1006mg salt

 Ingredients, check out the fact my porcini has ITS OWN LITTLE BOX. Oh yeah. That’s how I live.

Pop boiling water over said porcini to soak

in another pan, heat the oil, and fry the garlic in it for 10-15 seconds…

Before adding the sliced mushrooms. Chestnut for this one, think a nice mix might be better though.

Cook them for 10-15 minutes until ‘wilted’ which I took to mean ‘lovely and soft’.

Take out the porcini mushrooms from the boiling water (now all rehydrated) and keep the liquid, chop the mushrooms, and add about 100ml of the mushroom water to the mushrooms. After it’s reduced a bit, add the tomato puree, thyme, porcini, red wine and brandy. Simmer

basically you want a rich sauce, this doesn’t take very long, but the longer you cook the deeper the flavours, so I simmered for about 10-15 minutes topping up with wine or mushroom water when it got too dry.

With about 5 minute to go, chuck your french beans into boiling water, and over another medium-high heat add the salt, polenta, and 700ml water and whisk as you go to get out any lumps, a bit of garlic oil and some more thyme at this point would be nice, too. Be liberal with the salt. Just as you’re ready to serve test and alter the seasoning in the mushroom pan if necessary, then serve on a bed of the polenta, with the beans.

Comme ci.

Hannah’s Nutritional Info edit: (using wholewheat pasta) 462kcal, 75g carbs, 12g fat, 17g protein. If adding parmesan, a 30g serving adds 120 kcal, 0g carbs, 9g of fat, and 10g of protein.

Here’s what you need:

The proportions can obviously vary, and actually you can miss some stuff out – or include seasonal variations. The leeks are important for the overall flavour, though, I think.

Chop everything:

Add the butter and oil to a large (non-stick if you can) pan, and warm over a medium heat. When it starts to sizzle…

…add the courgette and carrot and sprinkle with a pinch (just a pinch!) of sugar. Fry for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the peans, beans and leeks (thanks for comment Edith!), salt and pepper, and then cover. Cook for another five minutes. Get the pasta on! (In a separate pan.)

Add the tomatoes and chopped parsley. Cook for another five minutes.

(On this particular occasion I overcooked this last stage and the tomatoes fell apart a bit more than I like – making the whole dish no less tasty, but a bit less photogenic. Pfft.)

When the pasta is done, drain and tip into the pan with the sauce. Stir:

Serve in warmed bowls, with shaved parmesan and a sprig of parsley (if you like).

Ideal with a fruity/medium Portuguese red, preferably an Alentejo.

Prep Time: 10 mins | Cook Time: 20 mins | Servings: 2

Nutritional Info including 100g beans and 200g potato worth of mash : 489 kcal, 74g carbs, 15g fat, 13 g protein

Ingredients!

Set your potatoes off at the very beginning, and chop them small, so they’re done in time

Soften the onion in the oil

Add the mushroom chunks and sweat until they’re just starting to get moist, about 5 mins.

Add the tomato puree, stir for 30 seconds and then add the wine and reduce by a half

Set your beans off (with water already boiling) now

Add the thyme and stock and simmer until the just before the beans are done, mash the mash,

drain the beans, spoon the mash onto the plate and cover with the AWESOME.