Spicy meatball and root vegetables

A great warming winter recipe that uses up the last of your root vegetables from the bottom of your fridge. Don't be put off by the long ingredient list, just throw in whichever ingredients you have to hand in your cupboard and spice drawer. Adapted from a lamb mince recipe in the Riverford cookbook, Everyday and Sunday.

Ingredients

1	Onion, chopped
3 cloves	Garlic, Minced
500 g	Beef mince (Main)
1	Egg
2	Red chillies, finely sliced
1 Tbsp	Breadcrumbs
1 pinch	Salt
5 dashes	Tobasco, to taste
2 Tbsp	Coriander, chopped
1 tsp	Fennel seeds
1 tsp	Coriander seeds, roughly ground
1 tsp	Cumin seeds
2 cans	Tomatoes
250 g	Potatoes, chopped into 1cm size pieces
250 g	Kumara, chopped into 1cm size pieces
250 g	Pumpkin, chopped into 1cm size pieces
1 handful	Basil, roughly torn
1 Tbsp	Standard flour

Directions

1. To make the meatballs, sweat the onion over a low heat for ten minutes in oil until soft but not coloured. Add the garlic and chilli and heat until fragrant and take off the heat. Throughly mix together the cooked onion mix, the beef mince, egg, breadcrumbs, salt, tobasco, coriander, fennel coriander and cumin seeds. You don't need to be exact with the ingredients here, just use whatever you have in the cupboard or herb garden. Feel free to experiment! Shape the mixture into golf ball sized meatballs and fry them in the rest of the oil until they are browned all over. Take them out of the pan and put to one side.
2. Pour the two tins of tomatoes into the pan and deglaze the pan. Turn the heat right down and add the root vegetables and the meatballs. Slowly simmer the sauce until the root vegetables are cooked, the meatballs are cooked through and the sauce is thickened. This should take at least 20 minutes, probably more like 35. If the sauce isn't thick enough, add a little flour to thicken. Check the seasoning and stir though a lot of fresh basil torn roughly, and serve with couscous, mashed potato or rice. Enjoy!