Minestrone/Chili Stew - 14th April 2009

I had a sack of fresh tomatoes, some celery, a courgette, and some bell peppers. Because Pete and I met a friend for lunch and had a pretty heavy meal, we wanted something light. I decided to make something like a really fresh vegetable chili, but it came out like something between a chili and a minestrone stew.

I chopped up the celery, courgette, red and yellow bell peppers up and sauteed them with in some oil. I seasoned it with cumin, paprika, a bit of curry powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper and let that cook. The I added a can of red kidney beans and a can of sweet corn and let that all cook down a little bit. Finally I added loads of chopped tomatoes and a cup of vegetable stock. When the celery softened a bit and all the vegetables were cooked, I served up. It was really simple and fast and best of all, colorful. I had a ripe avacado so I served half on top of each portion and it went really well with the dinner.

This is kind of like a lunch I make, except with everything being raw for the lunch. It's a great lunch salad. The only thing with the lunch is that I use a can of chili beans and I don't put as many spices in as it's a bit too strong without cooking with a bit of extra liquid. Depending on what I have around, the salads vary. Sometimes there are peas or radishes or sugarsnap peas in it. Sometimes some spring onion. Usually a bit of balsamic vinegar and maybe a tiny bit of oyster sauce. Basically I keep stirring and tasting and adding until I'm satisfied.