Winter Warmer #1 - Pumpkin and Parsnip Cassoulet

I first came across this recipe in an email from Sutton Community Farm. They are a great organisation which gives people the opportunity to take part in some community farming. I would love to say that I have been and helped out, but the best I have done so far is signed up for their emails. One day, one day I hope to get there and lend a hand...

So, I thought the recipe looked great, made it and it was delicious and then I promptly lost the recipe, but thank goodness I found it again online on the BBC Good Food website. A link to the recipe is here: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2924/pumpkin-and-parsnip-cassoulet

This recipe is of course vegetarian, except I served it with sausages and it was the perfect delicious winter warming recipe. This would be just a lovely with veggie sausages or with garlic bread. I made some changes to the linked recipe of course ;o) I will put my changes in italics next to the 'proper' ingredient list (as usual).

Ingredients           (Serves 6)

2 tbsp olive oil       I usually use less olive oil...
2 large onions , chopped     I had these ..
500g pumpkins , deseeded, peeled and diced  I substituted courgette (yes, still got 'em!)
500g parsnips , diced  I had these too !
3 garlic cloves , crushed  .. and these !
2 x 425g cans mixed beans , drained I had to do a bit of a substitution here.. simply making sure that my bean blend totalled 950gr or thereabouts. You will see from the image below that I used 2 small cans of baked beans and one larger tin of cannellini beans
780g can tomatoes  I used 'cheap' passata and 4 fresh tomatoes
225ml red wine I had this
300ml vegetable stock  .. and this
2 large sprigs fresh thyme    .. and this
1 tbsp sugar         ..and this !
75g fresh breadcrumbs  I  didn't want breadcrumbs
25g vegetarian parmesan -style cheese, grated .. or parmesan, vegetarian or otherwise..

Method
 
Here's what I did:
 
Preheat the oven to 200 deg.

1. Start by sauteing the oil, garlic and onions in a large pot until nice and soft.

2. Add the chopped pumpkin/courgette and parsnips saute some more. All this chopping takes quite a while, so I recommend making this recipe when in a 'chopping mood'.

3. Add your beans, thyme and chopped fresh tomatoes.

4. Mix briefly, and then add the rest of the ingredients and it will look like this:

Yum huh ?

5. Bring this to the boil and then tip it into a suitable receptacle for the oven and bake for 40 minutes at 200 deg.

It looked like this:

As you can see I cheated and used a tin foil tray  - perfect for the lazy cook that either doesn't want to wash up, or wants to freeze and then defrost and stick straight in the oven - perfect for busy days..


NOTE:
The good food recipe web site says the following if you are using the breadcrumbs and cheese concerning the crumble topping :

Sprinkle the top with breadcrumbs and grated cheese. Cover, then cook for 40 mins. Uncover, stir well and cook for a further 40 mins. Serve with garlic bread and stir-fried cabbage