Roasted vegetable stew

I really tried to think of a better name for this dish as it doesn’t sound particularly great and that’s the infuriating part because it tastes so good! Yes, essentially it’s roasted vegetables in a tomato sauce but oh my goodness, it’s so comforting, filling and tasty that you’ll want to go back for seconds.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned that I’m taking part in National Vegetarian Week (ha, ha!) and we tend to do our weekly shop on a Thursday now, so I wanted to use up what we had left in the fridge. I’ve listed out what I’ve used, but this recipe is so versatile, you can use pretty much most vegetables.

Ingredients
You can use most vegetables here and I’m making enough for two with enough for lunch leftovers.
– Potatoes – handful of small ones
– 2 x carrots
– 1 x aubergine
– 2 x onions
– 1/2 packet of tenderstem broccoli
– Rapeseed oil
For the sauce:
– 1 x tin of chopped / plum tomatoes
– 2 x garlic cloves / 1 teaspoon of lazy garlic
– pinch of chilli flakes
– 1 x tablespoon of maple syrup (you could use honey or sugar)
– 1 x tablespoon of tomato puree
– Salt & pepper

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180C and chop up all your vegetables into small pieces.
   
2. If, like me, you’re using root veg like carrots, onions or potatoes, put these in the oven first, drizzled with some oil and salt and pepper, for 30 minutes. If you’re using other veggies, just cook accordingly.
   
3. Once the time is up, add the aubergine and broccoli for another 30 minutes, making sure that everything is mixed together and maybe adding a splash more oil and salt & pepper if needed.
   
4. Whilst that is cooking, get on with your tomato sauce. Grab a pan and add the tinned tomatoes, garlic, tomato puree, chilli flakes, maple syrup and salt & pepper, and cook over a medium heat until it starts to boil.
   
5. Bring it down to a gentle heat and let simmer for about 15 minutes, but if you can give it longer, even better.
   
6. The last thing to do, once the vegetables are cooked through, is to mix the sauce with the vegetables, squeeze some lemon over and you’re done!

I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.

A x