This is a recipe that just keeps giving, for when you are in the mood to make one meal into twenty other dfferent ones off the back of it. Think big batch, and then soups, sauces, dips, salsas, stuffings, with just a few tweeks this base is a great way to keep the costs down, and the tastes up.

Start with some onions and garlic, fennel and any other veg you have to hand. For me this was carrots, peppers, tomatoes, celery, courgettes on bigish pieces. Feel feel to expand the veg mix to include olives, mushrooms, eggplant, okra, etc.

Just be aware some veg will limit were you can go with the leftovers, as they tend to age like a smelly old sock and can mean the difference between a day or two of reuse and a week. I tend to avoid the softer veg, like mushrooms and aubergines, or very stringy things like kale if you plan to freeze.

Add your seasoning now, I went a bit North African for this one, with some Ras el Hanout meaning “Head of the Shop”, a Moroccan inspired blend of ginger, paprika, cassia, coriander, cumin, demerara suger, salt, tumeric, chilli, cardamom, nutmeg and rose petals, which I blended and then covered the veg in (or did I? I may have just bought the mix and saved myself two hours of faff). Place all into the oven for 30mins on a slow roast. Pour in a can of tomatoes and cook for another 20mins. And then eat with couscous. or potatoes, or check out my next recipe to see what I did next………Don Don DON! Evil laugh!

Also check out my ChEaton Mess Cheesecake-Warning may contain me going NUTS!