Me and Tesco are back celebrating all things veg. Spring greens are bang in season right now
Check out these three recipes celebrating how to use them. First up, my Speedy veggie
noodles – quick, delicious, all done in one pan... Let's get cooking. So I've put this on a heat
First job, sesame seeds. So just a little tablespoon of sesame seeds goes into a pan. We're just going
to toast those. When you toast them you get obviously a beautiful colour but you get more
flavour. Look, look at the colour of that. You can see it's dark and golden and lovely. So just put that
into a little dish. It smells amazing. So these lovely sesame seeds will be sprinkled on top
at the end for a lovely little crunch. Now if you can't have sesame seeds, you can try
peanuts, cashews crushed up. Really, really nice. So next bit of the recipe is very, very simple
I'm going to go in with 2 little nests of noodles. So a fantastic little trade up is go
for the wholewheat noodles instead of the regular white noodles. You're going to have nearly 3
times the amount of fibre, full of more flavour. I can promise you, you will not notice the difference
apart from more flavour. So in this same pan we'll go in with a kettle of boiling water
Within like 30 seconds, the noodles will start to soften. You can start pulling apart the noodles
We will season the water with some salt and then we're going to celebrate frozen veg which I am
really, really passionate about. I think frozen veg is one of the best things. Fantastic for not having
food waste, fantastic for getting more of the good stuff in your diet. So we'll go in with 160g
of these amazing frozen veg. So 160g of spring greens, lid on top. And literally get
that on full whack and boil it for like 4 minutes. That's all. That's it. So when you're
sitting there eating noodles you kind of want that silkiness, that kind of comforting, sumptuous sort
of texture so I'm gonna show you how to do it. First up, 2 tablespoons of teriyaki sauce and
you've got lots of kind of sweet and sour flavours in there that are delicious. We're gonna go in
We have a teaspoon or 2, depending on how you like it, of lovely chilli oil and then the
curveball ingredient is 2 lovely eggs, OK. So the eggs are a fantastic source of protein
So whisk up the eggs and the teriyaki and this has to be the simplest
sauce you could ever do. Now what's genius about the eggs is they cook at a very low temperature
So when I drain this, which I'll do now, the residual heat left in the noodles and the veg
is more than enough to cook the eggs and the sauce. So we're just gonna drain it like this
Steaming hot, look at that. Just beautiful. Right, into the pan
This heat goes off and this sauce goes in and then what you want to do is as soon as you've added the
sauce move it around. Don't leave it because you don't want it to scramble. You want it to be silky
and smooth and delicious. The smell is phenomenal and that egg is now cooked and it's clinging
to the veg holding that sauce and chilli oil on top. Let's plate it up. This is not supposed to be
a flashy dish but it is supposed to be something that is utterly delicious. You can see how silky
the noodles are. Look at that! Come on. Just really, really good. You know for a nice midweek meal
I think this is perfect. The lovely sesame seeds on top. I take a little bit of that
chilli oil and just go around the outside. That's the kind of grub I love to do when
I want something that makes me feel good, that's utterly quick with no effort at all and one pan,
a lid and a few bits to wash up... Easy! Time to have a little try, look at that
Wow! What a celebration of beautiful food done in a flash. That's hardly even cooking
That is kind of cheating. I'm going to show you how to make the simplest veggie curry
in no time at all. It's super quick, delicious to eat, full of the good stuff. Now it all happens
in this pan and it's so easy. It's almost like not cooking. So we start with sweet potatoes
It's a fantastic ingredient, right. Potatoes do not count as one of your 5 fruit and veg
a day. They're a starchy carb. These do count and these get picked when they're in perfect
season. They're frozen and chopped for you. 400g, right. No cooking, no cutting at all, just
straight in. So a tablespoon of olive oil goes in, shake it around and I just want to fry these off
with a pinch of salt and pepper for about 10 minutes. Now another little trick which
is brilliant is chopped frozen onions. 250g goes in. So look, here's my knife. I haven't even
picked it up. This is proper cheat's cooking. Now, look, if you're busy and if you're trying to
juggle a thousand things and you still want to have real tasty food but you are short of time, then
these bags of cut veggies are brilliant, they're brilliant! And you know what, they're picked when
they're at their best, they're snap frozen, they're full of nutrients. Great for not wasting as much
So mix in the onions and then I'm going to go in with 4 tablespoons of lovely tikka paste
In the tikka paste, you're going to get a whole myriad of layer upon layer of beautiful flavours
Really mix that in nicely and we'll let that fry away for about 15 minutes until golden
caramelised and that's what's going to amplify all the flavour to make those frozen veggies the most
delicious veggie ever. So in this dish there is 4 of your 5 fruit and veg a day, so come on!
A curry but with so much more to tell. So let that fry away and then I'll show you what to do next
So for me this is the beautiful thing about cooking, allowing it to have that 15 minutes, I
mean, look at it, you can see it's all shrunk up. You've got little caught bits, little jammy bits
It looks dark and mysterious and that, my friends, is flavour, flavour, flavour. So a beautiful tin
of chickpeas. I love chickpeas! They count as one of your 5 fruit and veg a day as well. It's
a veggie, a legume and the starchy juice that comes with it just adds to this curry. And then
I'm going to use a tin of tomatoes. I try and use the plum tomatoes. I think they just taste better
Break those up. We'll have a nice little season of salt and pepper. Then what I will do is just
add a tin's worth of water. Pour in that water and then let that simmer away for 15 minutes
until it's utterly delicious and then I've got a brilliant little twist in the tale using this
amazing seasonal spring greens. Good times. Hello Conker, have you come for some curry, me old mate?
OK so this has had 15 minutes. You can see the texture and the consistency is just beautiful. You
can just chop up the cabbage and throw it through, mix it up, happy days. Or, I like to angle the pan
and create this space here and then I'll take the beautiful greens and almost do like a little kind
of yin and yang. Then pop the lid on and then in 3 or 4 minutes you're gonna steam these
greens in the most beautiful way. It's gonna retain so much more of the nutrition and the colour. It
will look gorgeous then you can either serve them separately or you can fold it through at the last
minute but, more than anything, it'll be full of more colour and I like that. Time to serve up, so
if you have a look here it's not grey and dull and boring, you know. It's not that vibe. It's full of
life. Ahh... And you can keep them separate if you want or, if you want, you can fold it through or have a
bit of both. So I've got some nice little naans here I'm just going to tear onto the plate. Look
at that. I'm going to take a nice little portion of our veggie curry. Look at that. Lovely colours,
absolutely beautiful. And then I like to have it just with a little spoon of yoghurt
So good. A little mango chutney maybe as an optional. I love a bit of mango chutney
Beautiful bit of pepper. So there you go. A really easy curry full of the good stuff
Then I'm in there with the hands getting some of that sweet potato
Yum. Wow! Absolutely delicious. You know it's got lovely layers of spices in there but
it's not hot, it's not chilli hot and, of course, you can make it that if you want,
but I could serve this to my whole family and they would absolutely love it
so happy days. I'm going to show you how to make the most beautiful spring green bean soup with
the most amazing croutons that I know is going to blow your mind, so let me show you how to make it
This is a classic vegetable base mix, it's brilliant. So we're going to go in the pan with
300g. Go in with a nice little lug of olive oil. We'll hit it up with a pinch of pepper and
salt. So some thyme goes in there, beautiful smell. A few little sprigs will make all the difference
so mix that in. Let's get it frying and what I want to do for about 15 minutes is concentrate
on getting this sweet, golden and caramelised and then I can show you what to do next
So these veggie bases are absolutely brilliant. You can use them in soups, sauces, stews, curries,
chillis. Like the list is endless. Of course it's all done for you so you just shake it in there
but really the benefit is that one product can give you 3 ingredients – the celery, the onions
and the carrot – but also you can just take what you want so if you want a little bit, a shake shake
It saves you making a lot of mess so I think you know for midweek cooking, if you're busy, if you're
juggling a load of things, those little freezer hacks, this is what modern-day life is all about. So
while that's doing its thing, let me show you how to make croutons but not as you know it
It's going to be epic. So I want 4 nice slices of bread. I've got a little tray here
Just pop that there. Just slice at an angle about just over a centimetre thick. If you've
got any stale bread this is a great thing to use as well. We're going to bring this
to life with some nice grated Cheddar on each one. Now we know that that's going to be good,
but the thickening agent for my soup is white beans. You can use any beans. If you look in
the supermarket there's all kinds of tins and different colours and flavours. But if you just steal
a few of these beans and just plop it on the top like this, when you put those in the oven they
go crispy and almost puff up a little bit like popcorn, right. Real nice texture. So beans on top
One other little tip, chilli and beans and cheese. These croutons are gonna have attitude and flavour
and be oozy and crispy and cheesy and gorgeous. In the pan, have a look here. It's getting dark. That
is flavour, my friends. Then we go in with the rest of the beans, juice and all. So now we're going to
go in with the lovely spring greens, 300g. 800ml of stock. In you go. So lid goes on and
we will cook that for no more than 5 minutes. I want to keep the colour in the greens and as
far as these beautiful croutons are concerned, put them in a hot oven until golden and crisp
So just under 5 minutes cooking and if you try the greens they're tender, they're
sweet. You could have this soup very chunky and actually my missus loves to have chunky soup, but
I want to turn this into a really elegant soup and for that the liquidiser is absolutely
brilliant. But of course you can do half and half so get them in there, beautiful. Pour in the rest
Look at that. I'm gonna add a nice pinch of seasoning and I'll tweak it later. Get the lid on
Look at the colour. Absolutely beautiful. Let's have a little
taste. Really important to get the seasoning right
Lovely soup. This will be enough to make 4 hearty bowls of soup for sure and what I
love about this soup it comes from really humble ingredients. Look at that, beautiful
Croutons... Aha, look at that! So look how the beans have just popped. Crunchy, sticky
oozy, cheesy, little bit of spice. Just lay these
over the top like that. It's a little kiss of olive oil. The crispy bits of cheese, we'll have that
Putting a little bit of thyme on here like that. So look, there you go. The beautiful spring soup
with those amazing spring greens, beans, all those veggies. Super healthy. Let's have a little try
Delicious. Look at this crouton. Because that's not a normal crouton, is it?
Naughty but nice. So there you go, lovely people. Enjoy