Thursday 17 November 2011

Slow cooked sweet peppers with butternut squash & sweet potato

Now that the days are drawing in I have dusted off the slower cooker to create a rich, colourful and warming winter feast. If you do not have a slow cooker at home the recipe would work just as well in a long slow oven with the ingredients layered in a casserole dish.

Serves 4

Ingredients:
2 medium sweet potatoes, chopped into bite size cubes
Half a medium butternut squash, cut into small chunks
1 red, 1 green & 1 yellow pepper, sliced
2 medium onions, sliced
4 spring onions, coarsely chopped
50g grated cheddar
2 tbsp cream
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, leaves removed & roughly chopped
1 tbsp dried Italian herbs (I used Marjoram & Oregano ‘Hot & Spicy’ picked and dried from my garden earlier this year)
1 generous tbsp tomato puree
Olive oil
Milk
Salt and freshly ground black pepper for seasoning
1/2 tsp paprika or more to taste

Method:
-      Use a little amount of olive oil to lightly grease the base of the cooking pot.
-      For the first layer add the sweet potato and butter nut squash chunks. Sprinkle over the cheese, cream and rosemary. Add a little salt & pepper to taste.  
-      For the next layer add the sliced onions (leave the spring onions aside).
-      Next add the sliced peppers followed by the spring onions.
-      Sprinkle 2tbsp of milk and 2tbsp of water over the dish (This should prevent the meal from drying out as it cooks).
-      Top the meal with the tomato puree, evenly dotted over the surface.
-      Drizzle a little olive oil over the dish and sprinkle on the Italian herbs and paprika. Season with salt & pepper to taste.

-      Cook for 1 hour on the high heat setting then reduce to low and leave to cook for several hours. Approximately 1 hour before you plan to serve the dish check the moisture level, if there is too much liquid turn the pot to high heat and this should reduce the mixture nicely.
-      Try serving this strongly flavoured dish with something plain such as rice or green vegetables.

3 comments:

  1. This sounds deeply comforting and quite rich.

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  2. Thanks for the comments ladies, it's nice to know that despite the 'foodie revolution' people still like comforting home food :)

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