Tag: carrots

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Spaghetti Bolognese Scotty Brand Carrots

My two favourite produce providers are the reason for the fabulously speedy wolfing down of Spaghetti Bolognese for our evening meal.  It’s amazing how much difference the taste of good meat and vegetables makes to the enjoyment of what we eat.

The same Scotty Brand carrots used to make the Carrot and Orange Soup, added a lovely sweetness.  Combined with the gorgeously tasting steak mince from Andrew Gordon Butchery and Fine Foods in Aberdeen, the two ingredients made for a fantastic meal.

Feel free to use half portions.  I had three adults and four children to feed with these proportions.

Ingredients

  • 1kg Steak Mince
  • 1 Large Onion
  • 5 Large Carrots
  • Teaspoon Turmeric
  • Teaspoon Cinnamon or Nutmeg
  • 500g Carton of Passata
  • Salt & Pepper
  • Rapeseed Oil
  • 500g Spaghetti
  • 50g Butter (Optional)

Method

  1. Brown mince in a thick bottomed pan, or a good frying pan on a low heat.  I added a couple of tablespoons of Rapeseed Oil to help it along.
  2. Chop onions finely and add to the browning mince.
  3. Slice carrots and add to the  pan.
  4. Boil the kettle and add a pint of water to the mix.  Leave to simmer for 25 minutes, and top up the water if necessary.
  5. Salt and Pepper to taste.
  6. Put the pasta on to cook.
  7. Once the mince has simmered, add the tub of passata, turmeric and either cinnamon or nutmeg.
  8. Simmer the passata and mince mix for 5 minutes.
  9. Drain the pasta and use boiled water to rinse the spaghetti until it runs clear.
  10. Add the butter to the pasta if you like the taste, and mix it through.
  11. Serve immediately.
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Carrot and Orange Soup Challenge by Scotty Brand

As a Scotty Brand Blogger, I am loving the boxes of goodies arriving with instructions on how to make something that I haven’t made before.  This week, the challenge was to make Carrot and Orange soup, which I managed quite easily.  I had a couple of packs of carrots torn open and being chopped within about 10 minutes of them arriving at my door.

I didn’t read the recipe properly and thought that it only needed 600ml stock and so quadrupled the contents as my boys eat huge portions of food.  Don’t make the same mistake as I did, as I then had to up the milk quantity by four times as well – AND transfer my soup into a much bigger pot.  I’ll give you the Scotty Brand quantities and not mine, as we ended up with an obscene amount of soup which is now stored in the freezer for other cold days to come.

I also made the cardinal mistake of doing kids homework while I put the soup ingredients together, and I had put the butter in the microwave to melt.  It was after the soup was eaten that I discovered I hadn’t put it in the pot.  I have to say, the soup without the butter was delicious, so I’d say it was an optional ingredient and all in all, the recipe is fabulous and can cope well with some modifications.

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Ingredients

  • 450g Scotty Brand carrots sliced
  • 1 chopped onion
  • 65g butter
  • 65g plain flour
  • 600ml chicken or vegetable stock
  • 600ml milk
  • 1 orange (juice and rind)
  • Salt and finely ground pepper
  • 5ml nutmeg
  • 5ml parsley

Method

  1. Melt butter and add onions and carrots  (I just added the onions and carrots to the pot with the stock and flour).
  2. Cook gently, and stir in the flour and cook for a further 1/2 mins (oops, I missed this step).
  3. Add milk.
  4. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
  5. Bring to the boil, stirring constantly, then simmer for 20/30 minutes  (you really have to stir frequently because of the milk).
  6. Liquidise before adding orange juice and shredded rind (I left out the rind as one of my boys doesn’t do bits in soup).
  7. Serve sprinkled with parsley and, if you like, a dollop of fresh cream or plain yogurt.

Enjoy
Scottish Mum Blog

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My Vege Bags

My little pots are growing their leaves and flowers, and I hope, that eventually we will manage to have some lovely little flowers from the pots and containers that are full of gorgeous leaves.  Whether they actually have some fruit or not remains to be seen, but hopefully they do.     I have spent hours (ok minutes) tending these lovely pots and bags to try to turn my non gardening fingers into some semblance of a growers beginnings.

Here for your enjoyment, in all the Scottish dreary weather are some shots of my growing pot collection.

I did try to hold off until the sun showed its’ smiley face again, but I suspect that might not be anytime soon.

Ok, ok, I know these are not vegetables, but some pansies and geraniums make lovely pictures.

The strawberries are nearly ripe for picking (all three of them).  There are two more, honestly, there are.

Leeks and Onions and Lettuce are really doing well.

My potatoes are growing up a storm.

And apart from the carrots on either end, I have no idea what is growing in the  middle of my trough.

My neighbour gave me the seedlings and I planted them.  She cannot remember what they were.  If you recognise the leaves, do let me know.

Thats it for now.  I’ll post more when I start to harvest my little crop.