Carrot and Swede Crush

I seem to have a 20 pence theme running at the moment more out of coincidence rather than anything else, but I keep coming across reduced swedes at about 20pence or a little more a shot.   They are in the reduced section because of their date stamp a lot of the time but there is nothing wrong with them.  If stored properly they will keep for quite a little time afterwards. I refuse to pay a lot for swedes unless I absolutely have to especially when I seem to find them reduced on a regular basis especially when recently the price has been about 80 pence to £1.00.

As a child I absolutely hated swede but now I love it on its own or combined with carrots crushed down and served with a lovely hot meal such as some good sausages cooked as toad in the hole or served with  a meat pie or even as a side dish together with mashed potato with a stew.  Pure good food that fills a spot fills you and does you good.  Put simply good home cooking.

I like the next person am busy but when it comes to food I find a way to make the most of what comes my way and do what I can as cheaply as I can without impacting on taste or flavour but always with an eye as to getting the best quality ingredients that I can.  So I have  bit of a conundrum.  I want to eat just as well during the week as I do at the weekends; I do not want to pay £2 per tub of said Carrot and Swede Crush from Marks and Spencer, and I do not have time to mess around much during the week as I work full time.  So what do I do?

My reaction to this is to bulk buy and bulk cook where I can.  So it involves me during my leisure time putting some effort in but us ladies as Housekeepers have a choice - to put in the effort and look after our families and feed them well or not to cook at all.  I choose to cook and I also encourage non-cooks at the moment to have a go - you might find a skill you did not realise you had. It is not as complicated as you think it is.

I hate the disposable culture that we have int today's society and as a result  I do not mind sourcing containers to hold said foodstuffs in as long as I can re-use them, so I hit the Pound shop on Thursday and sourced three little plastic containers with lids for £1 per three  - I bought three sets so nine boxes.  The same size as the containers that Marks and Spencers sell their product in, which I will be able to re-use for some time to come so my initial investment will more than double its return.  I am tight on certain things too.

So I batch cook.  One week it might be Carrot and Swede crush that I prepare another roast parsnips, prepared so that they can be roasted quickly.  Its a good way of taking advantage of cheap ingredients on a waste not want not mentality and allows me to fill the freezer with what I can and make sure that for a little stash of food so that if I am on the run we can still eat well as this veggie side is cooked in about 3 1/2 minutes in the microwave.  That cooking time is precious midweek or when you are on the run.

You can put down big batches or small batches the basic ingredients you need are:

Same weight of carrots to swede so if you have 1kg swede use 1kg carrots

butter 

salt

pepper

Prepare swede and carrots peeling off outer skin and chop into dice.  Be careful with the swede it can be hard to chop.  Pop into a saucepan (with a lid on) and cook until well done.  Add to a food processor with the butter and seasoning and pulse until smooth you want texture but not lumps.  Allow to cool and then pack into suitable containers.  Freeze and then enjoy with other meals.

We have some with Sunday tea tonight.

Catch you soon

Pattypan

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