I really love tomatoes as I think I have told you in the past. They are quite simply one of my favourite things. For months and months now I have seen other food bloggers being gifted with boxes of beautiful boxes of rich and delicious looking tomatoes from The Tomato Stall, on the Isle of Wight. . Finally I couldn't stand it anymore. lask week I decided that Todd and I deserved a bit of a splurge after being stuck in our home on lockdown for the past 10 weeks. I bit the bullet and ordered us a mixed family box.
I think it is just amazing that we live in a day and an age where something like this, grown and harvested on the Isle of Wight, can be picked on one day and then be sitting on my dining room table the next. They are absolutely beautiful, and arrived undamaged except for one which was slightly squashed. I ate that right away like an apple, lightly sprinkled with sea salt. Oh boy was it ever good!! I was not sorry I had ordered them. Not one bit.
We have both been enjoying them very much in the ensuing days. Yesterday I decided to make an Oven Roasted Tomato sauce with some of them. I am not sure what each variety of tomato is, but I think I picked the right ones for roasting and saucing anyways . . .
I used two different kinds. I think the longer one is one that would be used for cooking with. It was nice and fleshy. Not sure about the smaller ones, but they worked well in any case.
If you have never made an oven roasted tomato sauce before now, you really need to try it! This recipe is so simple and always turns out so delicious! Its a great recipe to use when you have a glut of tomatoes in the garden or when you have some anoemic tomatoes from the shops that you want to make taste better. Roasting tomatoes is always a real flavour enhancer!
Cut in half, roast in a special mixture, peel, blitz and serve. Simple.
There is nothing extraordinarily unusual in the roasting mixture. A good olive oil and some garlic . . .
Some dried basil and oregano . . .
You cut your tomatoes in half and lay them cut side down in the mixture and then roast them in a hot oven . . .
About 35 to 40 minutes in a hot oven until they are all rich and caramelised and have released their juices . . . mingling with the olive oil, garlic and herbs in the roasting tray . . .
You don't need to peel them afterwards. I always do because I don't like the feel of cooked tomato skins in my mouth.
The roasted flesh slips very easily out of the skins in any case. I just held them one at a time over the bowl of the food processor and they fell right in.
I don't bother to remove the seeds. I don't mind them. You can if you want to. I actually don't have a full size food processor anymore. It is on my wish list to get one. The lid jammed shut on mine and I cannot get it off for love nor money. I use my Cookhouse mini chopper. Its a great little tool. I bet I use it just about every second day or so!
Anyways, just blitz the sauce until smooth and you are good to go. You can leave it a bit chunky if you like it that way. I do sometimes, and other times I like it smooth.
It is perfectly flavoured, with just the right amount of garlic and herbs . . . in short perfect. Just like the tomatoes I used to make it.
Today I served it on some radiatore so that there were plenty of little pocket to hug onto that lush sauce. Seriously tasty with some grated Parmesan on top.
Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce
Yield: 4
This is the best tomato sauce. Fresh tomatoes when roasted have the most beautiful rich flavour. Simple and delicious.
Ingredients:
- 2 pounds fresh tomatoes
- 3 or 4 fat cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
- 1 tsp dried basil leaves
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano leaves
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 2 TBS really good quality extra virgin olive oil
Instructions:
- Pre-heat your oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Wipe your tomatoes off with a damp cloth, cut them into halves and set aside.
- Pour the olive oil into the bottom of a large shallow baking tray with one inch sides. Scatter in the minced garlic, basil leaves, oregano leaves, salt and pepper. Mix well. Add the tomatoes, cut side down, fitting them all into the sheet and spreading the olive oil mixture around beneath them. Roast for 30 to 40 minutes until soft, the skins are starting to peel off, and some of them are beginning to colour.
- Remove from the oven and let cool somewhat. Lift off all the peels and discard. You can then put them through a mouli to remove the seeds and puree them, but I prefer to just mash it all together with a fork. I like the extra texture and flavour of the seeds.
- Serve hot with your favourite pasta, or let cool and freeze in containers.
I could seriously eat pasta until it comes out my ears. Todd not so much. I don't mind. More for me!
A Parent's Guide to Cooking Insta Pot Vegetarian Food
It can be hard at times for parents to get kids to eat vegetables, hence the popularity of instant food. This is not ideal for growing children. Some parents also do not have enough time to prepare meals and just buy fast food on the way home.
But children need to eat vegetables because this will help them to grow healthy and strong. If you want to prepare some great vegetarian food for your children, buy the Instant Pot. It is a multi-cooker that will be very useful in the kitchen. You can use it to pressure cook, broil, steam or even bake your vegetable meals.
Feeding Your Kids Vegetarian Food
If you are finding it difficult to switch to a vegetarian diet right away, here's a tip you can try. Transform some family favorites to get your kids more used to it? For example, if your family are big pizza eaters do a vegetable pizza instead. Pick toppings that your kids normally enjoy eating in other dishes.
If it's pasta that your kids cannot gt enough of, you can try changing it from tomato sauce to pesto sauce. Instead of French Fries, try baking some sweet potato fries as an alternative for snacks.
If they actually like eating vegetables, then there are some great Instant Pot recipes to add to your growing arsenal of vegetarian meals.
6 Instant Pot Vegetable Recipes You Need to Serve Your Kids
Instant Pot Hummus
If you are looking for a good vegetarian appetizer, try this Instant Pot Hummus recipe. It's perfect to pair with chips or other vegteables like carrot sticks or even with pita bread. While you can easily buy hummus in the supermarket, bear in mind that they might contain other ingredients that may add to the calorie content of the dip.
With homemade hummus, you can be assured that your family is eating a healthy dish. This recipe just takes over an hour to cook with the Instant Pot. After the cooking process, all you need to do is run it through the food processor and you will have creamy, tasty hummus to enjoy.
Instant Pot Tomato Bisque
The Instant Pot Tomato Bisque is perfect during the winter season. While this can easily be made on your stovetop, using a multi-cooker allows you to do it at a fraction of the usual time it takes. Be sure to saute those vegetables before closing the lid so that you can really draw the flavor out of the veggies. Pair this with some bread for the perfect meal.
Instant Pot Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
Another Winter soup that you can add to your repertoire is the Instant Pot Roasted Butternut Squash Soup. This is a homey, comfort dish that will surely become everyone's favorite. But be sure to roast it in the oven first to really appreciate all this dish has to offer.
You only need 30 minutes to roast the butternut squash and another 10 minutes to cook it in the slow cooker. This soup can be a great starter for any meal. A dash of cream just before serving will elevate it so be sure to do that.
Instant Pot Sweet Potato Soup
We can never have enough soup, as this is a good way for children to eat their vegetables! This Instant Pot Sweet Potato Soup will only take 45 minutes to cook, and half of that is preparing the ingredients! So to save time, dice and mince your ingredients the night before so that you just need to cook them the next day.
Once you saute your aromatics, all you need to do is put in the rest of the ingredients and set your timer. You can use a blender to make the soup smoother, and don't forget the cream just before serving!
Instant Pot Refried Bean
Its Mexican night at home and you are looking for the perfect side dish to add to your tacos and other dishes? This Instant Pot Refried Beans is perfect! Whats even better is that it will take you less time than you normally would if you were not actually using this nifty device. And you don't even need the canned version.
With the pressure cooker feature of the Instant Pot, you can have perfectly cooked, flavour-packed refried beans in just over an hour! Make a big batch of these not only because your kids will be definitely asking for seconds, but because they can be frozen for up to three months! That way, you can just cook them on your next Mexican night.
Instant Pot Mashed Sweet Potatoes
If you are looking for a healthier alternative to mashed potatoes, this Instant Pot Mashed Sweet Potatoes is the answer to your dilemma. They have calories and carbohydrates so perfect for those who are trying to eat healthier. It's the perfect dish to serve with your main meal.
My mother always hated parsnips. She used to tell a story about how, when she was a small child and during a family meal, she had refused to eat or touch the parsnips on her plate. She simply did not like them. Her grandfather tried to tempt her by putting a nickle on the table and telling her that she could have it if she would only eat one piece of parsnip.
As you can imagine, during the Great Depression (in the early 1930's) five cents, or a nickle would have been quite a sum of money. You probably could have purchased a cup of coffee for five cents or two newspapers and a penny stamp. Eight cents would buy you a pound of beef, so five cents was quite a bit for a little girl to have.
End result, she hated parsnips so much that you could not even tempt her with five cents to eat even a tiny bite of them.
They were not something that we ever had to eat. I can remember once when I was a teenager mom buying some and frying them (as her mother had cooked them) so as to see if her tastes had changed in the intervening years. They had not. She still hated them, but I took one taste of them and fell in love with them and have been eating them ever since.
Parsnips are a root vegetable which somewhat resemble very pale carrots. They are commonly grown in cold climate regions, as they need a longer growing period to develop their sweet flavour and in fact I have been told that they are at their best after the first frost. Interesting to note that at one time this rather anoemic looking vegetable was more popular in Europe than either carrots or potatoes, and considered to be a good meat subsitute during Lent!
They are a good source of folate, potassium and vitamin C. They also contain fiber, which is beneficial for digestion.
Putting that all aside, they are a vegetable I love and one which I use frequently in soups and stews, and of course roasted along side roast dinners. A MUST for our holiday meals!
I had not tasted butter fried parsnips since my teen years however, and that one time my mother had made them. Yesterday I was longing for them.
I couldn't remember exactly how my mother had cooked them . . . if she had parboiled them first or what . . . so I decided to wing it.
Pan frying them in butter was how my great grandmother and grandmother had cooked them, and I like to think that all three of them . . . my mother, nan and great nan were standing next to me while I was cooking these yesterday.
I did nothing special to them . . . I simply peeled them and cut the larger ones into half moons and the smaller ones into rounds. I then sliced them about 1/4 inch thick.
They can act a bit like a sponge, absorbing any liquid or fat around them. So make sure your butter is foaming before you add them to the skillet, and also leave some butter to stir into them at the end.
These were seasoned simply with some fine sea salt and black pepper . . .
Try not to rush them. Cook them slowly in the hot butter, and at a low temperature so that the butter doesn't burn . . .
Flip them over when they are golden on the underside and lightly season them again . . . . continue to cook them slowly until they are soft, and lightly caramelised . . . and that is when you add a final taste touch to them . . .
One final knob of butter and a soupçon of mild flavoured honey. Perfection . . .
Butter Fried Parsnips
Yield: 4
Pan fried in butter, lightly caramelised and sweeted with just a touch of honey. Something so simple and yet so very delicious.
Ingredients:
- 2 large or 4 small to medium sized parsnips
- fine sea salt and coarsely ground black pepper to taste
- 3 TBS butter, divided
- 1 TBS of honey
Instructions:
- Peel your parsnips and then slice into rounds. If they are very large, take the largest part and cut in half down the centre and then into half moons. (About 1/4 inch thickness.) Cut the smaller parts simply into rounds.
- Melt 2 TBS of the butter in a heavy bottomed skillet over medium low heat. Once it begins to foam add the parsnip slices in a single layer. (You may need to add them in batches, moving cooked ones to the side as you go.)
- Season lightly all over to taste with salt and pepper. Cook until beginning to turn golden brown on the underside and then flip them over, seasoning the other side lightly. Cook until fork tender and golden brown.
- Add the remaining TBS of butter and the honey, stirring to coat them all.
- Remove from the heat and serve immediately. Delicious!
I really love recipes where I can feel the tug of my ancestors leading me on, inspiring me to cook well and to feed my family as they had always done, don't you? We are the sum of our roots and those who came before us. Family is everything. Its a pity not everyone "gets" that. For me, it is enough that "I" do.
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