We call this “Garden Sauce” because we use it to accompany so much of our food from the veggie garden. Here you see it with glorious artichokes It also goes well with asparagus, sprouting broccoli, courgettes, green beans etc. Its made with boiled eggs and lots of herbs and is kind of a riff on the classic Sauce Gribeche I usually replace the anchovies with olives to make it vegetarian but it tastes good with either and with both too!
So you’ve got blackcurrants in the freezer, you’ve made blackcurrant jam (yum) and you have started to make cassis, but there are still blackcurrants on the bushes in the garden only now they are beginning to fall off because it’s late in the season and there has been loads of rain! HELP!
Well that’s my story anyway and that’s why I made this fro-yo inspired pud You need an icecream maker and a blender or food processor but the payoff if it’s a ONE (everything blitzed in blender) TWO (chuck in icecream maker to churn) THREE (transfer to freezer) type of recipe. I was going to say “easy pleased, lemon squeezy” but no lemons are involved.
Risotto is a really adaptable dish that you can make with whatever you have to hand. In my case this meant asparagus, a few frozen peas and left over chicken from this weeks roast. What really makes a risotto though is the stock you use to flavour the rice and the herbs at the end to bring out the flavours. You can, of course, use butter and parmesan at the end to add richness, but I chose not to wanting this risotto to be clean tasting and for the parsley and tarragon that I added at the end to shine and enhance the asparagus. In fact this whole dish is layered through with herbs and that is what I wanted to highlight. I like the texture of my risotto to be soup-y but if you prefer a more solid texture then just add less liquid. Continue reading
This recipe is a bit of a cheat. It uses 6 ingredients – if you don’t count salt and pepper – is incredibly easy and I think looks quite impressive. Also, from my point of view, it uses, and showcases, asparagus and when you’ve got a glut of it growing in the garden you need ideas as to how to use it! Do be warned a big fat bunch of asparagus recipes will be coming your way. You can scale this up or down quite easily. Just bake more or less. I like it in two person sized tarts aesthetically, and so that’s the recipe I’ve given here, but it’s up to you. Continue reading
This recipe uses a bought in, ready rolled, puff pastry as its base. On top of that is an almondy frangipane and this is piled with glorious, red rhubarb glistening with apricot jam and guilded with toasted almond flakes. It tastes wonderful, particularly warm with ice-cream or cream, but it tastes equally as delicious the next day, straight from the fridge in slices and eaten as you would a danish with a cup of coffee or tea. It’s not a recipe that is complicated to make, nor does it need lots of difficult ingredients. If you have rhubarb in your (or a friends garden) it’s a wonderful way to use it as is the Rhubarb and Raspberry Crumble with Oats and Hazelnuts or, the real favourites in this household, the Rhubarb Gin and Rhubarb And Redcurrant Jam We have both of these recipes on the go at the moment – we have one for breakfast and one in the evening. I will leave you to guess which one is for when!
Rhubarb, ready for the galette, chopped into 5cm/2” pieces, then halved.
You can make this vegan by buying the green packeted puff pastry which isn’t made with butter, and making the frangipane with a vegan butter and aquafaba and that works beautifully. As Chloe isn’t staying with us at the moment I’ve gone all out with the all butter version here but don’t let that put you off if you are non dairy as those two substitutions make it so easy to adapt.
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I am quite a keen gardener and I like to use as much of the veggies I grow as I can. I read about saagu (a curry from the west coast of India) which uses whatever veggies are available and got inspired. The original uses a mildly spiced coconut sauce which I’ve adapted to use some of the glut of tomatoes I have at the moment.
I have to be honest and say this isn’t the prettiest curry to photograph, but it is absolutely delicious, and any leftovers are wonderful in a lunchbox the next day. It works well served with rice or breads – chapatis are particularly good. I also love it with a pickle on the side. The Spiced Runner Bean Piccalilli goes really well, but as I love this particular pickle I’d eat it with everything I could, so do try others!
Obviously vary the veg to what you have available – the potatoes for cubes of squash, sweet potato or beetroot for example, the chard could be swapped for spinach (or omit entirely), the beans for frozen peas or sprouting broccoli etc etc. The Joy is that as long as you have the spices to hand you can make this to suit you and your garden/larder. It is cooked in 40 mins and just happens to be vegan. You certainly get your 5 a day with this recipe! Continue reading
It’s been a wonderful year for tomatoes and aubergines and I have had a bumper crop! But, to be honest I’d make this dish at anytime of year as the flavours are somehow rich, lively and vibrant yet comforting. Just what you want in any season. Layers of soft aubergine, bright tomatoes, zingy fresh basil and unctuous, stringy mozzarella topped with a crunchy breadcrumb and parmesan topping. Yum yum pigs bum! Except there is no meat in this – pig or otherwise!
The first time I made this for Chloe (my goddaughter) was before she was vegan. She loved it so much that I now regularly make it for her using vegan mozzarella and parmesan both of which are really excellent in this dish. The brand I use is Violife. When I make if for myself I use dairy cheese. If I am making for both Chloe and me then a cocktail stick pushed in to the assembled dish stops any confusion and – in our house – leads to a chorus of “spot the vegan” sung to the cartoon tune of “stop the pigeon”. I make it in individual dishes but there is nothing to stop you making this in one large dish for a family sharing meal though you’ll need to adjust the cooking time by adding an extra 15 mins. I usually accompany the dish with either a dressed salad or green beans as a side. Continue reading
If you grow your own veg you want to get the most out of every crop you plant and this dish gives you a way of getting another meal from your broad beans from a part of the plant you may not have considered. If you don’t grow your own you can substitute with baby leaves of spinach, chard or even pea shoots that you can but nowadays at the supermarket. If you don’t want to make an omelette the broad bean tops are great used in a stir- fry
Broad bean tops are really a gardeners treat. They are delicious and taste leafy and beany both at the same time – something that will probably only make sense when you eat them! Plus which if you do pinch them out it not only decreases the chance of getting bad infestations of blackfly to which broad beans are prone in summer, but it concentrates the plants energy into the beans and pods themselves rather than struggling to grow taller. It’s a win-win! Continue reading