Sunday Baking - Winter Vegetable & Rice Stew

All I had to do for Sunday baking this week was prepare my own lunch for the week. I wanted to use some of the vegetables from last week's delivery so I lined everything up on the bench & picked out:

• 3 small carrots
  
• 1 parsnip
  
• 150g beans
  
• 4 potatoes
  
• 1 onion

I chopped everything roughly, then threw it into a large stockpot with some olive oil & garlic & sauteed for a few minutes.

I had planned to add pearl barley to this, but realised too late that I didn't have any. So I used about 1 cup of basmati rice instead, along with a 400g can crushed tomatoes & 4 cups of tomato stock. Finally, I stirred in 1 tsp ground cumin, 1 tsp ground coriander, 1/4 tsp hot paprika, 1 tsp bouquet garni mix, plus some salt & pepper. I covered this & simmered over a low heat for about 30 minutes, until the rice was cooked & the potatoes were tender.

This turned out quite tasty, it will definitely keep me going through the long winter afternoons at work!