Posted by kathryn in Vegetables and Easier eating

In January I started a series on the ingredients I use regularly. I wrote about Flavour Boosters and two of my favourite Easy Vegetables. Today I’m continuing the Easy Vegetables theme.

I’m a big fan of fresh vegetables. The range, the smell and taste, the possibilities that are opened up when you have fresh produce, are all characteristics that give me pleasure and excitement.

Despite this I don’t eat fresh all the time. Sometimes I don’t have time or energy for all the chopping involved. At other times, it’s been too long between shopping trips and we’re running low on the fresh stuff. In these instances I fall back on frozen and tinned vegetables. Which means two ingredients which feature heavily in my cooking are tinned tomatoes and tinned legumes.

Tinned tomatoes

Not only are they a fabulous source of lycopene, tinned tomatoes are one of the easiest ways to add a vegetable serve or two to the meals you are cooking.

How I use tinned tomatoes

• I’m not a fan of the taste of raw tinned tomatoes, so I always add them during the cooking, usually near the beginning. I use them in soups, dishes I’m cooking on the stovetop, as well as things destined for the oven.
• For an easy one-pot sauce I saute some onion in a wide based frying pan. Add in garlic, herbs and/or spices and then a tin of tomatoes. Turn the heat up to medium-high and let the tomatoes cook vigorously for 6 – 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. The high temperature ensures the tomatoes reduce down and quickly form a sauce.
• This tomato sauce can be tossed through pasta. You could also add pieces of browned meat at the beginning of the cooking, or some tinned legumes, and I regularly stir through spinach and/or peas.
• If I’m making a soup, especially if it’s something with robust flavours, I’ll usually add at least one tin of tomatoes, to up the vegetable quota.

Tinned legumes

Legumes are one of those food groups which people often overlook. They have a reputation of being bland and / or tricky to use, but I love beans, chickpeas, lentils and so on. They are high in protein, fibre, low GI carbohydrates, while also being stacked full of wonderful health-enhancing antioxidants.

While I often have tubs of cooked-from-dried beans and lentils in the freezer, I also always have tins of legumes in the pantry. To use you just open the tin and drain off the liquid. Sometimes I give them a quick rinse, but not always and I don’t think it makes a lot of difference.

How I use tinned legumes

• Tinned legumes require no cooking, so if my dinner is looking low in vegetables, I’ll add some chickpeas or lentils, to boost that up.
• I add tinned legumes to salads to make them more interesting and varied.
• I use tinned legumes to make a meal more filling, as I’ve done with this Lentil and Haloumi Salad
• Sometimes I add tinned legumes instead of cooking a separate pot of rice, or other grain, as their low GI carbohydrates bulk up the meal and fill me up.
• I use chickpeas in the wonderful, filling and hot soup lablabi

Two recipes using Easy Vegetables

There are two great examples of how I use tinned tomatoes, tinned legumes and the other Easy Vegetables in the Winter and Spring free extracts of An Honest Kitchen.

• The Winter extract includes a recipe for Chickpea and Spinach Soup – click here to download.
• In the Spring edition there’s a recipe for Gingery Beef with Spinach. There are also instructions for making a vegetarian version of this with paneer, instead of the beef. Click here to download the free extract.

Both of these are quick to make, plus they taste great. They show two different ways of using the Easy Vegetables I’ve discussed, as both recipes include tinned tomatoes, tinned legumes, as well as fresh spinach and fresh herbs.

How do you use tinned tomatoes & legumes?

10 February, 2010