That’s right - your favourite Veg Box Recipes tips and techniques are now arriving on You Tube.
I’ll be showing you how to prepare seasonal vegetables, to make it even easier.
So if you end up with kohlrabi, celeriac or even enoki mushrooms in your box, soon there will be a mini video on You Tube for you to check out exactly what to do with them!
I’ll also be doing quick vids on basic techniques, so you’ll know the difference between chopping, slicing and dicing - to name just a few!
Check out today’s new video: how to peel and dice butternut squash. Look out for the top tips, to make the job easier and safer.
Let me know what you think!
If you’ve got any ideas for stuff we could stick up on You Tube from the website, please let me know. I’d love to hear from you!
Spring is here and it’s time to drag ourselves out from under our winter duvets, as we hope for sunshine and warmer weather.
If you’re anything like me, the daffodils’ sunny colour helps get you feeling more motivated about the year. I literally come out of hibernation!
So, how about trying something new? My challenge for you in March is to pop along to our “Rogues’ Gallery” section, check out what’s in season and try something you’ve not eaten before.
Maybe you don’t realy hate spinach, after all? Perhaps turnips aren’t as bad as they seem? Or could it be that shallots are actually worth the effort?
Whatever you try, please share your experiences via the comments.
But I was wondering whether any of you could help me on this one???
I have a pressure cooker. Got it for Christmas in 2006 and have since used it for a myriad of soups and for cooking slow-to-cook veggies like beetroot. I love it. Despite the fact I can’t stir the contents, nothing ever burns in it and it halves the traditional time taken to cook most of the recipes I use it for. I have to be a bit careful if I’m using lentils, but otherwise it’s just bung in the ingredients (with an optional saute stage), add some stock and go for it.
I also have a slow cooker - since Christmas 2007 - and I’m discovering lots of great recipes for that, too. Just saute stuff, bung it in and pretty much leave it for anywhere from 4 to 10 hours. Really useful in our house because the boys are usually in their “sweetest mood” around breakfast time, which gives me time to prepare the meals ready for dinner. Ask anyone with little ones whether it’s worth trying to chop vegetables during the pre-bedtime “witching hour” and they’ll tell you to cook toast instead…
So far so good. So why am I confused?
Because the proponents of both pressure cookers and slow cookers claim their method is the best way of cooking food. Both claim that their method preserves the highest number of nutrients and gives maximum flavour.
Can they both be right? I can see that cooking food in its own juices means you’re getting all the water soluble vitamins, which we normally throw away if we boil stuff. But is there a difference in taste / nutrition between cooking quickly, in a small amount of liquid, at high pressure, versus cooking slowly at low heat?
Though I’m an engineer by training, my logical brain is stumped on this one! Is there anybody out there who can help me?
Purple sprouting broccoli is in peak season at the moment and it’s best eaten as soon as possible after picking - so veg boxes, farm shops and farmers’ markets are a great way of getting hold of it. And it’s not just purple; you can get it in green, too.
Purple sprouting broccoli is packed with vitamins and minerals and is really good for you, particularly when it’s fresh. You eat it whole - leaves, stems, heads and all. The heads are actually immature flowers. (Useless fact for the day!).
I have to confess I had never tried sprouting broccoli until 18 months ago. My next door neighbour had a surplus on his allotment and said I could pick it any time. I politely thanked him, because until then, my only experience of this spring vegetable had been slightly limp and soggy, and it tended to gently compost itself at the back of the fridge.
When picking from Pete’s allotment, I happened to munch a bit, just as it was, and I discovered that it’s absolutely delicious! The problem previously had been that I had been keeping it for too long, before using it.
So here are some quick ideas for enjoying purple sprouting broccoli:
Eat it raw - just wash it and then eat it in salad or with a dip such as hummus, for a lovely snack.
Cook it as a side vegetable - wash and steam for 3-5 minutes, until just softening. Serve immediately.
Stir fry it - wash and dry well. Stir fry (covered) for 3-5 minutes in sesame oil. Delicious with toasted sesame seeds!
Wash it and slice finely (the stems and the heads and leaves) to add to rice for a couple of minutes or combine with a pasta sauce, for example - it’s so quick!
Coordinated by the Fairtrade Foundation, it’s 2 weeks of show-casing Fair Trade products and raising public awareness of the importance of fair pricing, contracts and working conditions for producers in developing countries.
The Fairtrade Foundation expects there to be over 10,000 events over the next two weeks, ranging from coffee mornings and wine tasting to film screenings and talks with farmers. Find out if there’s an event near you.
Certified Fair Trade products carry the Fairtrade Foundation mark. Many people think this also means the product is organic - but it doesn’t. The two classifications are independent, though extra income from fairly traded products allows many producers to invest in the growing of crops in a more sustainable way, often eventually moving to organic production.
The big dilemma faced when buying is if you have to choose between Fair Trade and organic. Not many products are both.
And I was wondering what you think. If it’s a choice between Fair Trade coffee / tea / cocoa / bananas / whatever takes your fancy, or organic versions, which would you pick? And why?
My sister is famous for her attitude towards cooking: “If it takes longer to cook than it does to eat, then I’m not interested!”
She has mellowed a little these days, but for many of us, we no longer have hours to spend creating culinary delights in the kitchen.
That’s why so many people resort to ready-made food - and I can understand why!
Getting a vegetable box or eating seasonal food often requires a bit more preparation than convenience diets, but the rewards in both taste and nutrition are immense.
I don’t have a huge amount of time for cooking. Being in the kitchen usually involves letting my 3 year old help out, trying to stop him from playing with sharp objects, whilst balancing the 7 month old, climbing up my leg. Sometimes Louis will play in the lounge and Theo will sit in the high chair, which frees me up to do more complex dishes, but not always.
I had a friend (no kids) to stay recently, who told me she absolutely no way has time to cook from scratch and it’s “alright for those of you who do”. (I did manage not to spit in her coffee, as I thought about my daily routine of juggling work and the boys and having just single-handedly made the spinach and mushroom quiche with home-made coleslaw that she was enjoying, whilst she had sat in my lounge reading a book and I looked after the boys!). She doesn’t get in from work until 6:30 and “can’t be bothered” to slave in the kitchen. And I do actually sympathise - having been there myself for many years.
So I thought it might be interesting to go through some of the hundreds of recipes on the Veg Box Recipes website and check how many of them are quick and easy. And I was surprised!
I figured that almost anyone can spend 20 minutes preparing food - after all, even pre-packed supermarket stuff would probably take that long. And most people would probably consider half an hour. So I’ve created a new section on the website to make it easy to find the quickest, simplest veg box recipes.
Totally off-topic, but this is soooo gorgeous, I just had to share it with you!
C x
“Feeling Good”
Birds flying high you know how I feel
Sun in the sky you know how I feel
Breeze driftin’ on by you know how I feel
It’s a new dawn
It’s a new day
It’s a new life
For me
And I’m feeling good
Fish in the sea you know how I feel
River running free you know how I feel
Blossom on the tree you know how I feel
It’s a new dawn
It’s a new day
It’s a new life
For me
And I’m feeling good
Dragonfly out in the sun you know what I mean, don’t you
know
Butterflies all havin’ fun you know what I mean
Sleep in peace when day is done
And this old world is a new world
And a bold world
For me
Stars when you shine you know how I feel
Scent of the pine you know how I feel
Oh freedom is mine
And I know how I feel
It’s a new dawn
It’s a new day
It’s a new life
For me
And I’m feeling good
Lots of people have ipod / mp3 players in their kitchens, but not many have computers. To save trees (so you don’t have to print out the Veg Box Recipes), would you be interested in podcasts of recipes?
Would you want these to just be a clear reading of the recipe ingredients and stages, that you can easily pause? Or would you want them to be a recording of someone actually cooking, so you can hear the chopping of the onion and the bubbling of the pans in the background?
Would you want the podcasts for free or would you expect to contribute for it as a premium service?
I’d love to know what you think!
And just in case you need to check out what my voice would sound like, here’s a message from me!
No point beating around the bush. There’s not really a civilised way of asking the question.
Do cucumbers make you burp?
Surprisingly common problem, actually.
So common that there’s even a variety of cucumber called “Japanese Burpless”. And I’m happy to admit that even the tiniest slither in a sandwich has me burping for hours. So 4 o’clock cucumber sandwiches wouldn’t be a good idea for me in polite company…
Anyway, I had an interesting email from Chris today asking:
Does soaking a cucumber in water and salt for 1 hour take out the matter that makes a person burp?
And I haven’t got a clue!
I could imagine the water might make the cucumber a bit soggy for sandwiches though…
Cucumbers are 90% water, so it must be something in the remaining 10% that causes burpiness.
I have tried peeling them before using them, but I can’t remember if that helped.
Soaking aubergines and courgettes in salt (no water) does draw out the water and in aubergine it draws out the bitterness. I sometimes do the “salt soak” for grated cucumber if I’m making tzatziki (this stops it going insipid when you add the yoghurt - see How to draw water out of cucumbers). But I have no idea whether it affects the “burp factor”.
Does anyone else know? Can you help Chris? Have you tried this? Does “Japanese Burpless” really fix the issue?
I’m on a quest now to get to the bottom of this burpy business.
Please share your comments and any recipe suggestions for cucumbers would also be gratefully received!
Here’s some information from Sarah from courses4cooks. It’s about a great course they ran for people using veg boxes. Sounds like it was lots of fun!
The Courses For Cooks Veg Box Made Easy Cookery
This course is about being creative with seasonal veg, without fuss or faff. It’s about making healthy eating quick and easy. On the day we went through the latest veg box, create an interesting menu from the contents, and then cooked it as a group.
It was aimed at people who want to eat seasonally whether they are using a veg box scheme, the local farm shop or greengrocer. For those who would like to have a veg box delivery but find the idea of being faced with a load of (possibly unusual) veg a bit daunting – I showed them how to turn the box into an easy, but tasty, menu in minutes.
For those who already have a veg box but are running out of ideas – this course provides some new recipes and a chance for guests to share their experiences and tips and have a sociable day cooking. The course is also useful for people who just want to eat more seasonal veg – without taking on a regular veg box delivery.
This is hands on cookery in a small group [maximum 6 people] in a normal kitchen – informal, sociable, fun and relaxed.
I’ve just checked our web visitor statistics and discovered that this month we had our 1 millionth visitor!
In fact, we’re averaging over 130,000 unique visitors per month, and it’s still growing, which makes us one of the UK’s leading seasonal food resources.
In the 18 months since Veg Box Recipes launched, I think that’s a fantastic achievement (if I say so myself!)
I had the idea for the site a couple of years ago, when struggling to come up with suitable seasonal recipes for the contents of our veg box, and decided I couldn’t be the only person with that problem. And the numbers confirm it!
I’m normally a part time writer / trainer and full time mum to a 3 year old and a 7 month old and I run Veg Box Recipes as a “hobby”, though I have to admit it does take up quite a bit of time… But I feel it’s worth it - especially when I get feedback from people telling me it has helped them identify mystery seasonal vegetables or work out how to cook those guiltily lurking at the back of the fridge.
And some of the emails over the last year have been really touching, with people telling me the website has helped them rekindle their interest in cooking, or widen the variety in their family’s diet.
When I set up the site, I had no idea it would be so popular, all over the world. Just today I got a lovely email from a lady in Kenya, saying she had been using the recipes for her veg box!
So a huge thank you to everyone who has supported Veg Box Recipes so far! Without you, there would be no point to the time I put in.
I’d also love to hear your ideas about what else the website could be doing. What would you like to see for the next million visitors? How would you like to get involved?
Time for a celebratory cup of tea, methinks.
Love,
Clare x
P.S. If you’re involved with a website or magazine and fancy helping spread the message about Veg Box Recipes, please feel free to tell your visitors our exciting news and check out our Press section, which includes background on veg boxes, more about the website and some photographs / logos you can download to use with your article. Thank you for your help
With Shrove Tuesday aka Pancake Day well under way, the UK is tossing pancakes galore.
And I was wondering what your favourite pancake fillings are…
At home this evening, I had freshly squeezed lemon juice with honey. Louis had chocolate and hazelnut spread on one and maple syrup on the other. So we’re a sweet-toothed pancake family.
As a kid, I used to love Sunday evenings, when mum seemed to always “accidentally” make too much Yorkshire Pudding batter at lunchtime, which translated into “impromptu” pancakes for dinner. And I was a golden syrup fan - or home made jam.
But these days I’m just as likely to use pancakes for a savoury dish. They make a great substitute for canneloni tubes or you can use them as wraps.
Here are two of my favourite savoury pancake recipes:
The nature festival of Imbolc celebrates the earliest start of spring.
So whilst it might not yet feel spring-like, the signs are there.
We’ve got snow drops, cautiously peaking their heads out from under the autumn’s leaves and even the daffodils are casually announcing their imminent arrival.
The Spanish orange season is in full swing - time to buy your Sevilles and get marmalade making! Plus some box schemes are even getting hold of the first broad beans from Spain - UK broad beans are still a while off, though.
Some of you might be lucky enough to get your hands on early rhubarb, which is one of my favourite fruits / vegetables and is definitely a sign that spring is on its way.
If you’re getting a bit bored of winter vegetables and need some inspiration, make sure you check out our latest recipes. If you’ve been getting creative in the kitchen, then please feel free to submit your favourite dishes!
The more delicious seasonal food recipes we can include on the Veg Box Recipes website, the more useful it will be!
It has to be said that, whatever you’re doing to be “green”, gas bills are going a bit mad!
I’ve just heard that British Gas put up their prices by a whopping 15% on Friday - yet they don’t even bother writing to tell us these days.
If I think about when I’ve worked with clients / customers, I can’t imagine being able to offer a service where I can change the price at will, without even having to let them know, and they don’t find out until I send them the next invoice…
So I gave British Gas a call today and, having thanked them heartily for their price increase, found out something they’re (officially) not publicising.
You can get their cheapest prices via an internet sign-up, which is available to existing customers, as well as new ones. It takes nearly 20% off the new prices! No wonder they’re not making a big fuss about it.
It’s officially being “passively marketed” - in other words it relies on you going to their website to find out about prices.
I’d like to share this little bit of abundance with you.
If you go to their website, simply click on “Click Energy 4″ and see if it could save you money.
I’m not a fan of British Gas, but if you’re already a customer and don’t want to move suppliers, you should at least make sure you’re on their lowest tarrif!
Just in case you need a bit of a chuckle, here’s an old joke I found whilst clearing out my email backlog today. I thought I’d share it with you. Apologies to the original author, but I guess it’s been round the block a few times now!
Here goes:
Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road?
George W Bush: We don’t care why. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road or not. There is no middle ground.
Tony Blair: I agree with George.
John Lennon: Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together - n peace and love.
Hans Blix: We have reason to believe that there is a chicken, but we have ot yet been allowed access to the other side of the road.
Grandpa: In my day, we didn’t ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody old us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.
Aristotle: It is in the nature of chickens to cross the road.
Karl Marx: It was an historic inevitability.
Sigmund Freud: The fact that you are all concerned that the chicken crossed he road reveals your underlying insecurity.
Bill Gates: echicken2008 will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file our important documents, balance your cheque book - and internet explorer is an integral part of echicken2008.
Albert Einstein: Did the chicken really cross the road or did the road move beneath the chicken?
Bill Clinton: I-Did-Not-Have-******-Relations-With-That-Chicken.
If you’re anything like me, you could have a bit of what I call my “Amazon habit”. I love books. I read all I can. There’s something about lying in bed with a book that beats my laptop screen any day.
I was recently brave (in my eyes!) and sold 50 of my books and gave away about 100 to charity. Yet my bookshelves are still groaning. I moved house in December and took more boxes of books than anything else.
“Try the local library!” I hear you cry. Well, where we used to live, the library rarely stocked anything on the topics that interested me. Whilst they could order books from other libraries, this cost me a hefty reservation fee and could take up to 6 months. We’re due to check out our new local library this week.
So I have frequently ended up online then waiting, eagerly, for the postie to call.
But it seems there is an alternative. A friend of mine recently told me about Green Metropolis. It’s a website where you can “reuse and recyecle” your old books by buying and selling, with a slice going to a green charity. Sounds like a great idea and I’ll be giving it a go soon.
I’m sure it’s not the only place doing this. Do you have any ideas or suggestions?
Are you fed up with mushy sprouts with your Christmas lunch?
Here’s a whistle-stop tour on how to cook Brussel sprouts and some great ideas for side dishes. If you’ve got any sprouts recipes of your own that you’d like to share, please feel free to comment! (I’m particularly looking for a Brussel sprouts soup recipe that I’ve heard rumours of!).
Here goes!
Sprouts Are Good For You…
Sorry! Packed with vitamin C, folic acid and more, sprouts (lightly cooked) are really nutritious. But overcooking destroys most of the vitamins…
Avoid Smelly Sprouts
Sprouts stink when you over cook them. They release sulphur, which is what overpowers whatever else is in your kitchen. So, to avoid the stench, steam them for 5-8 minutes - 10 minutes max for steaming. If they’re big, cut them in half, to reduce cooking time.
Avoid Mushy Sprouts
There are those who are rumoured to enjoy sprouts you can squash with a fork. I’m not one of them. The thought of a melt-in-your-mouth sprout does unpleasant things to my stomach… Leave your sprouts with a bit of crunch and your Christmas lunchers will be eternally grateful. The easiest way to do this is to make sure your sprouts are similar sizes - cut in half if necessary. No sprouts should need more than 8 minutes - any longer and you’re in dangerous territory!
Quick Sprout Guide If your sprouts are on their sprout top, snap them off. (See this Sprout Top Recipes post for ideas of what to do with the remains). Peel off any yellow outer leaves and discard. Trim the stems, but only to remove any brown bits. If the sprouts are large, you can cut them in half to reduce cooking times. There’s no need to cut a cross shape in the base. Although this can make them cook faster, it also makes them harder to drain, leaving a watery mess on your plate.
Steam or plunge in boiling water for about 5 minutes. The colour changes when they’re cooked, so keep an eye on them and test one, to see if they’re ready. Drain and serve immediately. Toss in a little salted butter for a luxurious taste.
Other Brussel Sprout Recipe Ideas
You can stir fry sprouts. Prepare as above, cut in half and stir fry in sesame oil for 5 minutes, tossing regularly. Dress with a little soy sauce or tamari and some sesame seeds. You could also add a teaspoon of honey.
Brussel Sprouts With Almonds
Frying Brussel Sprouts with a little garlic and then dressing them with cream and almonds puts a whole new slant on the UK’s least favourite vegetable.
Brussel Sprouts Salad
Fresh, young sprouts work well in this raw salad. The sweetness of Balsamic vinegar gives it a delicious twist and the pumpkin seeds and pine nuts give it a nutty crunch.
Let me know what you do with your Brussel Sprouts this Christmas!
Do you have any top tips for surviving Christmas stress? We’re after ideas from peeling the sprouts on Christmas Eve and storing them in a bag in the fridge through to keeping relatives under control.
Please share now! Your country needs you!
Here are our top 5 tips:
Don’t get stuck on your own in the kitchen - rope in others to help and “volunteer” someone / people to do the washing up afterwards - unless you’re a restaurant, of course
Prepare as much as you can ahead of the day. Sure, the vitamin content might deteriorate a little overnight, but that’s better for your guests’ health than putting up with your short temper at trying to juggle 15 ingredients on the “big day”
Keep kids amused - if necessary, nominate a relative to be “in charge” and spot low blood sugar / tiredness / boredom / whining - and do something about it!
Remember it’s about family, not the quality of your cooking / level of dusting / standard of present wrapping.
If you drop the turkey, burn the roast potatoes, mush the sprouts and lumpify the gravy, don’t worry. Just keep some bread in the feezer and tins of baked beans in the cupboard…
It’s that time of year again - Christmas is upon us. Where did it come from? I don’t know about you, but each year it seems to sneak up on me without me realising…
And it got me wondering - each of us has our own family traditions at Christmas - some of them sensible, others more amusing. From my childhood, there was the year that mum was so sozzled on sherry that she dropped the turkey; a fact she was reminded of for at least the following 2 decades.
With our little ones, we’re trying to create the tradition that we go for a walk Christmas morning, all help to make lunch and only open presents afterwards. That way mum (i.e. me) doesn’t get stuck in the kitchen on her own while everyone else plays with their new toys. Hopefully it means the boys will also learn that Christmas is about more than presents???
Then comes the food. How many Brussel sprouts can you force down? Do you go the whole hog with cranberry sauce and bread sauce? Roast parsnips? Turkey or goose? Christmas Pudding? (We’re doing Stilton & walnut en croute this year). Then there’s my husband’s family, who has a thing about Melton Mowberry pork pies at Christmas. And my mum cooks enough (delicious) mince pies to sink a small sleigh of elves and my secret addiction to fluffy, crunchy roast potatoes…
Do you do anything unusual each Christmas? What’s your favourite Christmas fare? What are your top Christmas survival tips? Our Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without…
Making your own cranberry sauce is simple and delicious.
And it’s a great winter immune system booster.
Getting hold of the cranberries, on the other hand, can be more of a challenge!
If you can’t find fresh cranberries, dried will work fine - just reduce the sugar a bit, as they’re usually already sweetened. We’ve included recipes here for both options.
Just bear in mind that dried cranberries are often already sweetened, so be cautious about how much extra sugar you add, or it could be overly sweet.
The point of this sauce is that it’s sweet enough to eat, whilst still being tart.
IngredientsServes 6
Grated rind and juice of 1 orange
5 tablespoons port (optional) – substitute more orange, if not using port
350g fresh / frozen / dried cranberries
150g – 200g caster sugar (to taste)
½ teaspoon grated cinnamon
1 apple, peeled and grated
Fresh / Frozen Cranberries
1.Put all the ingredients in a pan – only use 2/3 of the sugar at this stage.
2.Heat gently until the sugar has melted. Cover and simmer gently for 10-15 minutes, until the cranberries have released their juices and the sauce has started to thicken.
Note: the cranberries will probably split. This is ok.
3.Check for sweetness and add more sugar if you need to. Only cook for long enough to dissolve the sugar and thicken the sauce.
Dried Cranberries
1.Wash the cranberries in a bowl of hot water, to remove any oil coating. Drain.
2.Put the cranberries and orange juice with 100ml water in a pan. Cover and simmer very gently for 10 minutes, until the cranberries are starting to plump up.
3.Leave, covered, for an hour. This allows the cranberries to rehydrate.
4.Then add the ¼ of the sugar, cinnamon, port and apple and simmer for 15 minutes, until the sauce has thickened.
5.Check for sweetness and add more sugar, if necessary.
It’s a website where you can find out all about your local food producers, give feedback on those you’re already familiar with and read reviews of those that are new to you.
Every village, town and city has its local food stars, companies that make the extra effort to source locally or produce high quality foods for an ever more aware consumer to enjoy.
However, competition couldn’t be tougher and for the local food company, the best and sometimes the only form of promotion is through recommendation and word of mouth from their loyal customer base. Freerangereview.com aims to put this voice of local food online. A food community where people really can shout about what’s great on their doorsteps and where they can spread the word too, either by reviewing companies that are listed or suggesting those that are not.
So how about popping along and registering - so you can have your say?
Curly kale is one of those ingredients that you rarely find outside of veg boxes and farm shops.
It’s not your typical supermarket veggie.
That’s why so few of us know how to cook it.
I have to admit, it took me a while to warm to it - it used to be one of those guilt-inducing ingredients that lingered at the back of the fridge until it eventually went limply yellow and trotted to the compost bin.
But now I really enjoy it. So here are some super-quick, simple ideas for cooking kale:
Cook kale like cabbage. Wash it well. Trim the tough stalks off. Slice up the leaves. Boil or steam until tender - about 5 minutes. Really tasty. But serve immediately as it tastes grim cold.
Stir fry - trim the stalks and slice the leaves into strips. Stir fry in sesame oil in a wok for 5 minutes. Throw in a handful of sesame seeds and a little soy sauce or tamari.
Hot! Hot! Hot! Trim stalks. Slice leaves. Steam or stir fry until tender. Mix with a tablespoon of sweet chilli sauce.
Saute. Trim stalks. Slice leaves. Saute (covered) in a large pan in a little melted butter for up to 5 minutes. Stir often to prevent burning. Serve with some freshly grated nutmeg.
Creamy. Trim stalks. Slice leaves. Peel & crush 2 cloves of garlic. Cook gently in a little oil with the kale for about 5 minutes, until soft. Stir in 2 tablespoons half fat creme fraiche. Season to taste.
As with all kale recipes, serve them immediately - ideally on warmed plates (just like Grannie used to!). It goes cold really quickly and doesn’t taste so good then.
I have to say I never thought I’d enjoy this recipe, but needs must when your vegetable drawer has spare turnips lurking in its depths.
I wanted to make soup for dinner and decided to go for a real experiment, to use up some leftover veggies.
2 turnips (I’m not a mad fan), some cooked sweet potato, a couple of onions and…. wasn’t sure what to add to make the soup tasty…. an apple.
Saute, cook with a litre of water, add half a stock cube and some black pepper… and we all went back for seconds!
It was sweet, smooth, creamy and didn’t taste of turnip at all! So this recipe for turnip soup is likely to pass the test even with fussy eaters. So if you feel like a bit of experimenting, why not give it a go?!?
Enjoy!
Clare x
P.S. In the picture, the white & brown bits are halloumi cheese, fried in chilli oil. Deelish!
This delicious parsnip recipe is simple and makes a change from plain roast parsnips.
Peel the parsnips and cut them into chunks.
Put 2 tablespoons olive oil and 1 tablespoon of Balsamic vinegar in a plastic bag and add the parsnips. Shake well to coat the chunks in the oil.
Roast at 200 C for about 45 minutes, until the parsnips are soft.
The Balsamic vinegar adds to the sweetness of the parsnip and also gives them a lovely dark golden brown colour. Try serving garnished with a handful of fresh coriander leaves (chopped) for a delicious Christmas lunch treat.
I’m not really much of a parsnip fan, but I really enjoyed this recipe. We made it with carrots, mixed in with the parsnips (saves on washing up and it’s more colourful!).
Theo has finally reached the age where I can’t stop him stealing food from my plate and shoving it in his mouth, so it’s time to start weaning.
Louis was a winter baby, so weaning started with summer fruit and veg. With Theo being a summer baby, he’ll start weaning on winter delights. So it’s time to invent a whole new set of weaning recipes - and to dig out the jumbo-sized ice cube trays and industrial-strength bibs!
I was wondering whether any of you are weaning babies at the moment?
How is it going? Are you going for it with root vegetables or sticking with pears and apples? What are you doing to make swede or turnip more palatable to a little one? Or are you avoiding the issue?
I’d love to hear your experiences and maybe share some recipes.
We’re still at the pear and apple stage, but will soon move on to squashes and more adventurous vegetables.
I have a friend of a friend whose baby loved butternut squash so much, she fed it to her baby every day for months. Allegedly the baby took on a worrying orange hue…
Has anyone else got sprout tops in their veg box this week?
I knew they were on their way because I’ve started to get emails about what to do with them.
So I wasn’t surprised to get one this week.
The good thing about “sprout tops” is that the Brussels Sprouts on them seem to keep fresh longer than “picked” sprouts - so don’t complain if you get one. You’re less likely to be eating wilted, yellowing sprouts. Bags of picked sprouts only keep a few days. A sprouts top will keep (usually) for a week or more.
The easiest thing to do is snap off the sprouts you need and leave the rest for later in the week.
I’ve also been asked a lot what you can do with the “top”, once you’ve eaten the sprouts. My honest answer is: I’ve not yet tried anything with it. So far I’ve always composted them! So here’s the challenge:
Have you found out anything you can do with sprouts tops? Have you used them for soup? For stock? Or even chopped, cooked and eaten them?
If you’ve been getting creative with sprout tops, please let us know
What’s in your veg box this week? Which bits are you looking forward to and which are you dreading using?
I’m looking forward to the courgettes and tomatoes - they may be the last we get this year. I’m not so sure about the turnip. I’m still not the world’s greatest fan… But I’m getting better at enjoying them!
The seasons are upside down this year. We’re still getting UK-grown courgettes and tomatoes in our veg box, yet it’s December this weekend!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining - I love the summer veggies, but it feels weird contemplating recipes for courgettes and swedes at the same time!
I guess we’re in the last few weeks of the late summer veg and the abundance of root vegetables in veg boxes shows that we’re now in “late autumn”, so it’s time to think soups, bakes, casseroles, mashes and all sorts of other comfort food
So I was wondering: what’s your favourite winter vegetable - and why?
I’m going to cheat and opt for two - beetroot and butternut squash (though probably not together).
Butternut squashes stay in season for months and their bright orange flesh adds a wonderfully sweet, creamy flavour to winter dishes.
Beetroot is just so colourful, packed with vitamins and has a sweet, earthy flavour, that makes a lovely change from the pungent flavour of turnips and celeriac. I’m a late starter with beetroot, having only discovered I like it in the last 18 months. So it’s just as well we’ve got lots of beetroot recipes to enjoy.
So what’s your favourite winter vegetable and why???
Are any of you out there a little less swede-phobic than me? Do you have any great ideas on how to use them???
I have to resign myself to the fact that, having had so much swede in our veg box already this season, we could be on for a swede-heavy season. So I’d better get to like it.
And I know I can do this - because I overcame my fear of spiders recently by sharing my lounge with a hairy mammoth variety for 3 weeks last month. And I was actually sad when the cat ate it (This comes from the girl who screamed the place down when her best mate Lottie chucked a spider under the toilet door at school when she was 9!).
So swedes should be easy, in comparison!
Please could you help by sending your favourite swede recipes to me? Not only will you help ease my conscience, but you’ll also be sparing Louis from a childhood of “oh no mum, not swede again…!”
Here’s what we’ve just had for dinner: Purple Cauliflower & Romanesco with blue cheese sauce. Scrum!
I’ve discovered that steaming the purple cauliflower, rather than boiling it, means it keeps its colour - it goes really deep purple. Also cuttung the Romanesco in half means you can steam it almost intact, so it looks really impressive on the plate.
The blue cheese sauce was a case of “bung it all in a pan and melt gently” and the breadcrumbs were whizzed in the blender from a slice of bread that had been waiting to tempt Louis (the nearly-3-year-old) all day. Shove it under the grill for 5 minutes and dinner’s done!
We had it with quinoa, which has a lovely, nutty flavour, strong enough to stand up to the blue cheese. Absolutely delicious.
If you fancy giving this one a go, we’ve just uploaded the recipe and more pics.
Ok, it’s not often I give in and ask for help… but we’re at the end of our tether!
Louis (nearly 3) has decided bed time is for wimps and won’t go to sleep. At least, not until past 9 pm.
With both parents being engineers by training, we’ve obviously tried various experiments - changing what he eats, different bed time routines, trying to spot how we’re contributing. We think we’ve tried the lot.
But we know we haven’t.
We’d love him to go down for the night at his previous 7:30 bed time. With the exclusion of controlled crying or shutting him in his room, has anyone else been through this? We’re getting desperate! It might not sound bad that a not-long-past-toddler won’t go to sleep till 9 or 10, but it means he’s exhausted and ratty the next day and I (Clare) am getting very tired, as I’m also looking after Theo, the 4-month-old, as well as running Veg Box Recipes!!!
Can you help?
Are you the secret solution to our problem with your wonderful magic wand?!?
Seriously, most suggestions (humane and ethical!) would now be considered.
Hugs,
Clare x
P.S. It’s ironic, but on Thursdays (one of his 2 child minder days) Louis goes to a play group called Little Angels. Pity it only lasts for the afternoon.
I don’t normallly get overly excited about recipes I invent - I’ve been doing it for a couple of decades and am kind of used to it But this one is something special.
Actually, I can only take half the credit for it ‘cos it was partly Andy’s idea, too.
We had a bit of a glut of oranges from our fruit box and were left with the choices:
Juice ‘em
Cook ‘em
Compost ‘em
Fed up of juicing them, and feeling guilty at the idea of composting them, we decided to cook them.
So we made a spiced syrup to soak them in, along with a pink grapefruit and a couple of sad-looking satsumas, and here’s the result.
Topped with some highly decadent (organic!) whipped cream, it’s simply …. well… I’ll let you be the judge of that!
We’re still raising money for Action Against Hunger, so I’m afraid it’s gone into the exclusive section, but you only have to donate whatever you can afford to get your hands on this absolutely lovely, lovely, lovely recipe.
Did you know…? I’m now writing a seasonal recipes column each month for Tastes of Britain magazine.
Tastes of Britain is all about British regional specialities, the producers, food heroes, and the stories behind the best food that Britain has to offer.
As their marketing spiel says: “From Land’s End to John O’ Groats; from pheasant to fish and chips; pumpkins to puddings – if it’s available on British shores it can be found in Tastes of Britain. “
Or is it… after all, it’s only scientific research, so can you really expect the experts to agree…???
Anyway, here’s the story:
Researchers at the University Of Newcastle have concluded, after 4 years and £12 million of EU-wide research, that organic food contains more nutrients than intensively-farmed food.
Some of the headline-grabbing statistics are:
Organic milk contains 50 - 80% more antioxidants than non-organic milk
(Antioxidants fight nasties in the body, so they’re pretty useful)
Organic veggies had between 20 and 40% more nutrients than their non-organic counterparts.
The government watchdog, the Food Standards Agency, has stated, in response, that the balance of current scientific evidence does not support the view that organic food is safer and more nutritious than non-organic food.
The Soil Association has said that the findings of the EU project show the FSA should change its stance on this.
I know where I stand on the discussion - what are your views…???
I still have memories of mum telling us about Hallowe’en in her childhood, when they had to carve swedes, rather than pumpkins (I’m a bit nervous around sharp knives, so I think I’ll stick with the pumpkins…). And I also remember the amazing Hallowe’en party we had at school the year we lived in Texas.
So what am I doing with my little ones this year? Well, Theo is far too young to understand it all, but with Louis I’m following the child minder’s lead. She’s been teaching the kids all about skeletons -
Today sees the start of Fair Trade Fortnight.
My sister is famous for her attitude towards cooking: “If it takes longer to cook than it does to eat, then I’m not interested!”
I was wondering…
I’ve just checked our web visitor statistics and discovered that this month we had our 1 millionth visitor!
I’ve just heard that British Gas put up their prices by a whopping 15% on Friday - yet they don’t even bother writing to tell us these days.
Just in case you need a bit of a chuckle, here’s an old joke I found whilst clearing out my email backlog today. I thought I’d share it with you. Apologies to the original author, but I guess it’s been round the block a few times now!
If you’re anything like me, you could have a bit of what I call my “Amazon habit”. I love books. I read all I can. There’s something about lying in bed with a book that beats my laptop screen any day.
Are you fed up with mushy sprouts with your Christmas lunch?
Are you fed up with the “same old” Christmas menu each year? Only so much turkey, boiled sprouts and roast parsnip a person can eat?
Do you have any top tips for surviving Christmas stress? We’re after ideas from peeling the sprouts on Christmas Eve and storing them in a bag in the fridge through to keeping relatives under control.
It’s that time of year again - Christmas is upon us. Where did it come from? I don’t know about you, but each year it seems to sneak up on me without me realising…
I have to say I never thought I’d enjoy this recipe, but needs must when your vegetable drawer has spare turnips lurking in its depths.
This week we’ll be munching our way through:
Theo has finally reached the age where I can’t stop him stealing food from my plate and shoving it in his mouth, so it’s time to start weaning.
(This comes from the girl who screamed the place down when her best mate Lottie chucked a spider under the toilet door at school when she was 9!).
But what to do with them…?
Here’s what we’ve just had for dinner: Purple Cauliflower & Romanesco with blue cheese sauce. Scrum!
Ok, it’s not often I give in and ask for help… but we’re at the end of our tether!
But this one is something special.
Did you know…? I’m now writing a seasonal recipes column each month for Tastes of Britain magazine.
Researchers at the University Of Newcastle have concluded, after 4 years and £12 million of EU-wide research, that organic food contains more nutrients than intensively-farmed food.
The pumpkin and squash section of VegBox-Recipes is going bonkers.