Ingredients:

1-2tbsp butter

1 large onion, chopped

2 sticks celery, sliced

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1-2 cm piece ginger, finely chopped (use dried ground ginger if you need)

6 medium carrots

2 large beetroots

500g beef, chicken and lamb mince (optional)

2 tsp coriander ground

1 tsp ground turmeric

Pinch ground fennel

2 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp chilli powder (optional)

Pinch ground fenugreek

Salt and black pepper to taste

(Instead of all these spices, you can just use a premade spice mix if you prefer)

1 cup boiled water

Taco shells

Method:

1. Heat pressure cooker on stove top. Add butter and melt.
2. Add onions and celery. Gently fry til somewhat soft.
3. Add mince meat if you are using it. Gently brown the meat and break it up.
4. Use a food processor to ‘whizz’ up the garlic, fresh ginger, carrots and beetroot. Whiz it until they are very small – 5mm pieces or less.
5. Add all the spices, stir well, and cook for 2-3 minutes.
6. Add the food processed veggies.
7. Add the water. Stir. Put on high.
8. Put the pressure cooker lid on and seal it. Bring it up to pressure.
9. Once it has reached high pressure, cook for 4 minutes.
10. Release steam carefully.
11. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 180C and cook taco shells for 5 minutes, or as per instructions on the package.
12. Place the slightly cooled taco mixture into the cooked shells and serve with a little grated cheese on top if desired.

Serves 6 without meat. Serves 10 with meat.

This is a wonderful recipe to transition adults and kids into eating more vegetables! You can cook a big batch like I do, have it for dinner, then have left over taco veggie mix for breaky or lunch the next day. You can just make smaller quantities too. I sometimes cook the vegetarian version if we’ve had enough protein for the day already.

Use whatever vegetables that are in season to your liking, I always use onions, garlic and carrots, then change the others around.  Green leafy’s can be added, or bok choy, corn, green beans, kohlrabi etc.

If you don’t have a pressure cooker, just cook the vegetables in the saucepan/ large frying pan. It will just take longer. This is how I used to do it!