Extra Thick Pumpkin Soup

Of all the vegetables Chayne grows in the garden. her favourite is the pumpkin. In fact she enjoys growing them so much that she'd like to do it for a living - a bit like the late Ralph Upton, King of The Pumpkin World who grew 50 varieties in his garden. Pity then that she doesn't enjoy eating them quite as much as she does growing them! She only really likes pumpkin in a sweet pie or her own lovely extra thick spicy soup. It really is extra thick too. In fact, it's so comfortingly gloopy it has been compared (by me!) to baby food. Although, from what I've read about babies from the various books I've read in preparation for fatherhood, it wouldn't be advisable to feed this to a little one. It's a bit hot!

Ingredients
1 small pumpkin (about 500g)
2 cooked medium-sized floury potatoes
2 parsnips
2 red chillies, finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
Large pinch of chilli flakes
1/2 pint vegetable stock
Olive oil

recipe
1) Heat the oven to 200c. Peel the pumpkin and chop it into large chunks. Peel and chop the parsnips to the same size as the pumpkin. Sprinkle with chill flakes and drizzle with olive oil. Roast for 25 minutes or until soft. Don't worry if the edges brown - this just adds to the flavour.
2) Meanwhile peel two medium sized floury potatoes (we use Maris Pipers), cut them into quarters and boil for 10-15 minutes until cooked.
3) When the pumpkin, parsnip and potato is cooked, heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a large saucepan and fry the onions for five minutes. Then add the chillies and continue cooking for two minutes before adding the garlic and giving it a quick stir around for another minute. Next add the cooked pumpkin, potato and parsnip to the pan with the vegetable stock and bring to the boil. Take the pan off the heat and liquidise the soup in either a food processor, blender or, even better, in the pan using one of those stick blenders. Return to the heat to warm through and serve.

Bean & Potato Stew

The picture makes this look like some potatoes with some baked beans but then that's pretty much what it is. The need to get more pulses into my wife's diet is more urgent now that she's pregnant and this is one of my more successful attempts. She doesn't really do lentils unless they're mushy and she's not too keen on big beans like butter beans -even cannellini beans are probably a few millimeters too large! So I went for haricot beans and by serving them with potatoes - Chayne's food heaven - I was hoping that her attention would be diverted away from the evil pulses. It worked! We had this with a tomato and baby leaf salad and some nice bread.

Ingredients
10 Charlotte (or any waxy) potatoes
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, sliced
1 green pepper, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tsp smoked paprika
400g tin of chopped tomatoes
400g tin of haricot beans
200 ml vegetable stock
Salt and pepper

Recipe
1) Meanwhile, slice the onions, roughly chop the pepper and finely chop the garlic.
2) Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan, add the onions and fry for around three minutes before adding the peppers. Continue cooking until the onions and peppers have softened, add the garlic and stir for a minute.
3) Next add the paprika and cook for a minute before adding the tomatoes, stock and beans. Season with salt and pepper and simmer gently for 30 minutes.
4) Meanwhile, chop the potatoes in half and cook them in a pan of boiling water until they're done - around 10-12 minutes should do it. Finally, add the potatoes to the stew and stir around.