No-shopping-required vegetable cobbler

The fridge was almost empty this evening - tomorrow the FJ takes its first Abel & Cole veg box delivery and there was no way I was going to Tesco as well. But it made dinner tricky: after eating a whole lotta cheese for the past few days, I didn't fancy my usual go-to dinner, pasta. For pasta without cheese is like caramel without salt.. not the same.

Normally I trawl blogs or Google for cooking ideas when I'm all out of them, but this one came from my dad. In response to my moan "I don't have any meat, I don't want cheese, the fridge is pretty much empty, any ideas for dinner?" he suggested a cobbler.

I had no idea what one was but the result - which I made up as a mishmash of various recipes - consisted of frozen/fridge vegetables in a tomatoey sauce and delicious savoury scones. It's definitely one I'll be repeating - maybe even when the fridge is fuller.

Here is the recipe- but remember you can basically mix in any veg that you have, or fancy:

Ingredients

2 teaspoons olive oil

2 crushed garlic cloves

1 finely-chopped onion

3 finely-chopped/grated carrots

4 frozen spinach florets

half a tin of black beans (drained)

small tin of sweetcorn (drained)

2 handfuls of frozen peas

400g can chopped tomatoes or passata

4 tablespoons cornflour

pint vegetable stock

fresh or dried mixed herbs 

For the topping:150g self-raising flour

60g margarine

1 egg, beaten

4 tablespoons milk

Method

Fry the olive oil, garlic and onion until soft. Add the carrots, followed by the rest of the veg for about five minutes, then stir in the chopped tomatoes, stock and cornflour, herbs and salt and pepper to taste.

Bring to the boil to thicken, then pour it into an oven dish (the more surface area, the better), cover with tin foil, and bake at 180 degrees for 15 minutes. 

Now it's time to make the savoury scones: just mix the flour, marg, egg and 3 tablespoons of the milk. Roll out on a floured surface, until it's the thickness of two £1 coins; and cut into circles using a small cookie cutter.

Add the scones to the bubbling mixture from the oven, brush with the remaining milk, then return to the oven to bake (with the foil removed)for another 20 minutes or until the scones have risen and taken on some colour.