For the parents of young children, from newborn to school age, Nadia Lim's new cookbook "Yum!" will become an essential go-to for nutritious meals - backed by two of NZ's leading pediadiatric dietitians - that all the family will be eager to tuck into.
"Make this smooth, tomatoey sauce at the end of the week to get through miscellaneous vegetables lingering in the fridge," says Nadia. "It makes an impressive three litres for next to no effort. Just portion up and chuck in the freezer – you'll thank yourself later when you can whip up a quick pasta meal after a busy day."
Ingredients
| 500g pumpkin |
| 1 leek (discard dark green part) |
| 2 red, orange or yellow capsicums, deseeded |
| 1 red onion, peeled |
| 2 courgettes |
| 2 carrots |
| 100g mushrooms |
| 1 eggplant |
| 3 large garlic cloves |
| 3 Tbsp olive oil |
| 3 x 400g cans tomatoes (eg whole, chopped, crushed) |
| 1 large handful of spinach |
| 3 Tbsp tomato paste |
| 3 tsp balsamic vinegar |
Directions
Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a very large, lipped oven tray with baking paper.
Deseed pumpkin and discard skin. Chop all the vegetables (except spinach and canned tomatoes) into 5cm chunks. Do not separate onion and leek into individual layers; keep them in large chunks so that they cook evenly with the other vegetables.
Place chopped vegetables on the lined tray. Peel the garlic cloves and add. Add olive oil and toss well. Spread out in a thin layer.
Bake until the vegetables are starting to colour, about 50–60 minutes. Toss twice during cooking. If anything is starting to burn, pick it out and set aside to blend with the remaining vegetables later.
Allow vegetables to cool slightly, then blend with canned tomatoes, spinach, tomato paste and balsamic vinegar until almost smooth. You will need to do this in 2-3 batches.
When the sauce has cooled, transfer portions into sealable containers and freeze. You might like to freeze a mixture of larger and smaller portions.
When ready to use, gently reheat in a pot and serve on top of pasta. Season with salt and pepper to taste before serving.
