Veg Day

Just had a potting shed put up in the garden – I was ridiculously excited about it coming!  Also bought myself a little rotovator to dig over the vegetable patches and fruit patch.  We had 2 lovely days last week (Spring?) so I was out there digging and raking and planting!  I’ve put in spinach, carrots, parsnips, beetroot, broad beans, dwarf beans and peas in the ground with cucumber and courgette seeds (hopefully) sprouting in pots on the shelf in front of the shed window.  Rhubarb is going well with black and redcurrants, rapsberries and gooseberries leafing up nicely!  You can almost hear everything growing!  Had to net it all, though, as the lovely hens thought they would just scratch up everything sown!

All this got me to think about vegetarians and how I haven’t really posted much for them.  Also, most of the past Wednesday posts have been what to do with individual vegetables – so this week we are going to put them altogether!

Goulash with Horseradish Dumplings

• 1 onion
• 1 carrot
• 1 large potato (ordinary or sweet)
• 1 stick of celery
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme
• 1 teaspoon paprika (I like the smoked one but it’s up to you)
• 1 tin tomatoes – whole or chopped
• 1 vegetable stock cube
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon chilli sauce (or our favourite secret ingredient, Heinz Fiery Tomato Ketchup)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 red pepper

Chop all the vegetables.  Heat some oil in a saucepan and add the onions, garlic, thyme and paprika and fry gently for 5 minutes.  Add the carrot, potato and celery and fry for another 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, stock cube, tomato paste and chilli sauce and bay leaf.  Bring to the boil and simmer till the vegetables are soft.  Halve, deseed and slice the pepper and fry in another pan for 6 – 8 minutes till soft and charred. Add to the goulash.

Dumplings

• 50 grams Self raising flour             25 grams vegetable suet
• 1 large dessertspoon horseradish sauce (or more to taste)
• 1 teaspoon tarragon (optional)

Combine all above in a bowl, adding enough water to form a soft dough and shape into small balls

You can now either add the dumplings, cover and simmer gently for about 25 minutes for soft dumplings OR transfer the goulash to an oven dish, add the dumplings and put in the oven at 180oC uncovered for about 20 minutes if you like your dumplings crispy on the top (I do!). To serve a  spoonful of sour cream if you have any and some shredded spring onion to decorate

Sometimes, I add some spinach, shredded kale or cabbage to the goulash with the peppers to give it a little more colour and taste. You could also vary the vegetables to add parsnip, swede, leek – whatever is lurking in the bottom of your fridge!

PS My husband, a true carnivore, loves this so even non vegetarians should enjoy this! And, if you have any left over, you can whizz it all up in a blender (obviously you will have eaten the dumplings so not them) with a little more stock and have some lovely vegetable soup for another day!