When good things happen to bad preparation

Recently, I invited a favourite playful friend of mine round for dinner and raucous laughter. In the planning stages I pictured yummy food and merriment and looked forward to the date. I love this friend. She once suggested that rather than move out an old telly from our house that we just chucked it out the windows like rockstars. Her reasoning being that she'd always felt like a rockstar. I think you can see why we're friends.

However, on the afternoon of the planned dinner of jolity I realised I'd not thought ahead to what we would eat and what I would cook. In desperation I looked in the fridge and scrabbled in cupboards and came up with this:

It was a start. Chorizo, garlic, chopped tomatoes and cannellini beans. With more focus now I returned to rummage and added this to the equation:

Now things were looking REALLY good; onions, chillis, muscovado sugar and Worcestershire Sauce, the saviour of many store cupboard suppers.

Now full of hope and excitement I nipped to our local green grocers and added just 2 more ingredients. (I also found a Daim bar in all that rummaging and consumed it happily while plotting my dinner of jolity. Don't judge me). 

So I give you, 'The (almost) Store Cupboard Dinner of Awesome'

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil

2 onions, finely chopped

4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 large chilli, chopped and half heartedly deseeded

200g Spanish chorizo, peeled and diced

2 tins of chopped tomatoes

1 tin of Cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

1 red pepper, deseeded and chopped

2 medium to large sweet potatoes, peeled and diced.

1 tbsp dark muscovado

150ml of water

1 healthy slug or two of Worcestershire sauce

Assembly:

1. Heat the oil in a large pan and cook the onion and garlic for 5 minutes or until softened. Add the chorizo and peppers for a further minute, allowing the chorizo to release it's red juices. 

2. Add the tomatoes, sugar and pepper and water. Cover and simmer for approx 10 minutes. 

3. Add the sweet potato and Worcestershire Sauce and once again cover and simmer, this time for 45 minutes.

4. When the squash is tender, add the Cannellini beans for the last 5 minutes. Garnish with Coriander or parsley or whatever you local corner shop happens to have. 

Serve with a friend, plenty of laughter and fresh made bread.