Meatless Mondays!

Meatless Mondays

We love Jamie Oliver's easy 

peasy cooking methods.  

He  makes it look so easy.

We had the pure joy of seeing Jamie Oliver in person at Massey Hall in October.
Full of beans he was as he enthalled the crowd with his adventures in food.  He is
committed to educating people on how to eat healthily and deliciously.  Jamie's
recipes are not complicated but they are flavourful with their emphasis on fresh
local ingredients (organic if possible) and lots of herbs and spices.  

We all left the gathering with a copy of his Jamie Oliver's Great Britain.
It is chocked full of 130 of his favourite British comfort foods.  Who can
resist Empire Roast Chicken, Happy Fish Pie, Toad-in-the-Hole, Charming
Eccles Cakes, Joyful Trifles and, of course, the proverbial Queen Victoria
Sponge.  The book likeJamie gives the reader a good giggle as well as
great inspiration to cook up something delicious and satisfying especially
during the long cold Canadian Winter.  We encourage you to pick up a
copy.  However, for the first Monday of the new year, we wanted to kick 

off a recipe for Meatless Monday. Since we are talking about Jamie,
we chose his recipe for  Vegetarian Chilli as a great way to take the
chill out of winter. This recipe was taken from his website, a great
source of culinary inspiration and fun.

Happy Monday!  Linda & Karen

                                                                                           

                       Vegetarian Chilli

"This is a lovely alternative to traditional chilli 
con carne. It's packed with good stuff so is a great 
choice for veggies and meat eaters alike." Jamie

• Serves4-6

Ingredients

• 2 medium-sized sweet potatoes, approximately 500g
• 1 level teaspoon cayenne pepper, plus extra for sprinkling
• 1 heaped teaspoon ground cumin, plus extra for sprinkling
• 1 level teaspoon ground cinnamon, plus extra for sprinkling
• olive oil
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 onion
• 1 red pepper
• 1 yellow pepper
• 1 bunch fresh coriander
• 1 red chilli
• 1 green chilli
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 x 400 g tinned beans, such as kidney, chickpea, pinto and cannellini
• 2 x 400 g tinned chopped tomatoes

Method

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F. Peel the potatoes and cut 

into bite-sized chunks. Sprinkle with 

a pinch each of cayenne, cumin and cinnamon, drizzle 

with olive oil and scatter with a pinch of salt and pepper. 

Toss to coat then put them on a baking tray.

Peel and roughly chop the onion. Halve, deseed and 

roughly chop the peppers. Pick the coriander leaves and 

put aside, finely chop the stalks. Deseed and finely chop 

the chillies. Peel and finely chop the garlic.

Put the tray of sweet potato in the hot oven to cook for 

40 minutes until soft and golden. Put a large pan on a 

medium-high heat and add a couple lugs of olive oil. Add 

the onion, peppers and garlic and cook for 5 minutes. Add 

the coriander stalks, chilli and spices and cook for another 

5 to 10 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes.

Drain the cans of beans, then tip them into the pan with 

the tinned tomatoes. Stir well and bring to the boil, 

then reduce to a medium-low heat and leave to tick away 

for 25 to 30 minutes. Keep an eye on it, and add a splash 

of water if it gets a bit thick.

Get the roasted sweet potato out of the oven and stir it 

through your chilli with most of the coriander leaves. 

Taste and season with sea salt and freshly ground black 

pepper, if needed. Scatter the remaining leaves over the 

top, and serve with some soured cream, guacamole and rice 

or tortillas.

Enjoy!

• Calories306kcal
• Carbs39.8g
• Sugar13.9g
• Fat9.1g
• Saturates1.3g
• Protein10.7g

A New BEEginning!

The first day of the new year brings the opportunity to begin again.   It has been many months since our last post.  We have been very busy buzzing between The Queensbridge Mill and The Village Grocer embarking on new adventures in the world of food.....we finally opened the Village Cooking School in August by hosting a Kids Culinary Camp. After that, fall was a flash; and a whirlwind of activity and events culminated in Christmas and holiday celebrations.
January 1st is a day of reflection, a day to make resolutions, a day to begin again.
When we launched our blog, we intended to share our journey.  Our role at the Village Grocer has brought us full circle back to our passion for food, entertaining and design which began when we first opened The Queen's Pantry on Main Street Unionville in 1981. (How time flies when you are having a good time!)  It has been an incredible journey so far and 2013 promises to be filled with new discoveries and adventures.  We'll keep you posted!
Wishing you all the best in 2013!
 

Linda & Karen