David Wahl

Purple Sauerkraut

Lacto-fermented sauerkraut is a great side dish for meals year-round, and goes especially well with meat and cheese. Sauerkraut is super healthy, and surely purple cabbage gives it a special nutritional kick!

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Deb Gully

Deb Gully

Autumn salad

This is a quick and easy salad. Per person:

• 1 medium orange, PURPLE or RED CARROT
• 1 medium CHOGGIA BEETROOT
• 1-2 handfuls of fresh greens, such as LETTUCE, ENDIVE, SALAD MIX, the middle part of a CHINESE CABBAGE
• Optional: some fresh HERBS
• Optional: Some of Jeremy’s sprouts – the COMBO sprouts are particularly good

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Cabbage and Apple

Throughout March we were enjoying this recipe made with Simply Good red cabbage – Red Cabbage simmered with apples and onions.

• 1 tablespoon butter or ghee
• 1 ONION
• ½ medium RED CABBAGE
• 1 bay leaf
• 5 cloves
• ¼ teaspoon sea salt
• ½ teaspoon honey
• Sprinkle of cinnamon
• ½ cup water
• 1 APPLE
• 1 tablespoon butter
• Optional: 1-2 Tbs red or white wine vinegar

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Winter warmer soup

I just logged in to post my first recipe to the blog, planning to write about the soup we’ve just been enjoying. But Judi and Sonia have beaten me to it, both with soup recipes featuring the beautiful red carrots! But then I thought, what the hell, let’s make it a trio. My version uses ginger and coconut, so gives a different flavour to the other two.

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John

Steamed Veges and Lamb

John’s simple steaming method for the cooking challenged male. Completely foolproof!

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Josje Neerincx

Puntarella With Green Anchoïade

Puntarella With Green Anchoïade

Adapted from Frédérick Grasser-Hermé

INGREDIENTS

• bunch puntarella (Italian chicory) or dandelion greens
• 5-8 anchovy fillets in oil, rinsed and patted dry
• 1 small cloves garlic
• 5-8 green olives, pitted
• 2 teaspoons extra vinegar
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• Sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 4 slices toasted bread

PREPARATION

1.

Remove the tender inner leaves of the puntarella and cut the larger green leaves in thirds. Using a mandoline, finely slice the remaining core. (If using dandelion greens, remove and discard the stems and cut the leaves into thirds.) Rinse in cold water, drain, wrap in paper towels and refrigerate for 1 hour.

2.

Prepare the anchoïade (anchovy sauce) by combining the anchovies, garlic, olives and vinegar in a food processor. With the motor running, pour in the olive oil in a thin, steady stream. Season to taste with salt and pepper and mix again.

3.

Place 3 tablespoons of the anchoïade in the bottom of a salad bowl. Add the chilled leaves and mix well. Serve with toasted bread.

Current Facts

Copied form specialty produce.com
Chicory is often erroneously called endive, a close relative, but is a completely different plant. Chicory is closely related to radicchio, the red-leafed Italian version of chicory.

Description/Taste
Appropriately named for its tapered lengthy greens, puntarella chicory’s name means, no surprise, “little pointy thing.” The very slender leaves are produced from a pale colored tight heart or stem and as they deepen in color toward the tips of the leaves, the flavor becomes more bitter. Immature puntarella offers a less bitter taste and the shoots are crunchy and crisp.

Applications
Puntarella may be eaten raw or cooked. This green’s unusual flavor is mellowed by cooking. Salads welcome raw shoots and leaves. Typically served with an anchovy, oil and garlic dressing, a bold flavored anchovy dressing enhances its bitterness to taste nearly sweet. For a subtle flavor, sprinkle some sugar into the cooking liquid. To prepare, slice leaves thinly lengthwise; soak in a generous amount of cold water two to three hours to allow the thin strips to curl. The leaves become much juicier and are much less bitter. Sardines and trout love taming robust chicory. Pair with feta cheese. For a very unique chicory dish, wash and shred the chicory shoots. Blend in a minced clove of garlic. Toss in a few anchovies. And you have an authentic Roman classic. To store, refrigerate puntarella chicory in a plastic bag.

Ethnic/Cultural Info
Ancient Romans would grind puntarella chicory roots and use them as an inexpensive caffeine-free coffee substitute. Puntarella chicory salad is a classic Roman dish. A traditional salad in Italy is made with puntarella drizzled with a potent anchovy dressing. Ancient Egyptians used chicory as a medicinal plant and Ancient Greeks and Romans believed it healed liver problems. For centuries, chicory has been used to cleanse blood, promote liver health and lower cholesterol.

Geography/History
A winter season chicory, puntarella, sometimes spelled puntarelle for its plural form, is an Italian variety and prized in that country. Puntarella is actually chicory shoots of Catalogna, a chicory variety also referred to as “Italian Dandelion” due to the shape of its leaves. Native to Europe, chicory was brought to North America during the eighteenth century. Its name is derived from the Greek word “kikhorion” which comes from its original Latin name “cichorium intybus” appropriately meaning “winter salad”.

Judi Miller

Judi Miller

Brilliant Beetroot Risotto

As with all things beetroot, the result of this risotto is visually stunning. Deep magenta rice contrasts with the white feta and green parsley. This recipe makes enough for two hungry people but could easily serve 3-4 along with a salad.

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Tags: beetroot, food hates, vegetarian

Quick Baked Apples

Linton was working late so I popped these baked apples into the oven while I cleaned up the kitchen. A nice treat with a blob of lemon-curd yoghurt. The proportions are just a go-by – you can’t go too far wrong with a bit more or less.

• 1 apple per person; choose a type that holds it shape when cooked like Granny Smiths
• 1 T ground almonds per apple
• 1/2 T brown sugar per apple
• 1/2 T butter per apple
• pinch cinnamon per apple
• 1 t dried fruit per apple (e.g., currants, goji berries, fruit mince)

Wash and halve the apples. Scoop out the core. Alternatively, if you have an apple corer, keep the apples whole and stuff the cavity. Put into a shallow oven-proof dish with the cavity upwards.

In a small bowl, combine the other ingredients with your finger tips into a crumbly paste. Put a tablespoon or so into each cavity. Sprinkle with liquer (e.g., apple brandy, calvados, apple schnapps) if you like.

Pour some water around the apples (no more than 1/2 cm) and bake at 180°C for 30 mins or so until the apples are soft.

Tags: apples, dessert, easy, vegetarian

Jewelled beetroot and orange salad

This colourful combination of beetroot, orange, and walnuts make a lovely winter salad. The salad oil turns the beetroot into glistening jewels.

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Tags: beetroot, food hates, oranges, salad, vegan, vegetarian

Pumpkin tagine with garlic pastry twists

Vit was staying for dinner and for a change I felt like cooking. Tagines are easy and are good dishes for entertaining. If your tagine is not stove-top proof, just cook the tagine in a pan and transfer it to the warmed tagine for serving. If the last sentence was confusing, note that “tagine” refers both to the stew and the cooking vessel.

Tempeh is fermented soybeans pressed into a cake, which is much more delicious than it sounds. It has a mild mushroom flavour and a good texture – infinitely better than tofu!

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Tags: stew, vegan, vegetarian, winter

Celeriac cauliflower soup with fresh herb and macadamia nut pesto

Having flavourful homemade chicken stock on hand, either frozen or in the fridge, enables us to have a healthy “fast-food” option on nights we don’t feel like cooking. All the hard work (such as it is)  is already done and all that’s needed is the addition of veges and a blitz with an immersion blender. Rather than provide my own recipe here, I can recommend this description on making healthful bone broths from the Weston Price website.

Last night, I had just enough energy to also make a fresh pesto – all that was needed was a short break in the northerly gale so I could dash into the garden and round up some soft herbs. Despite it being the middle of winter, I found a good handful of parsley, land cress, mint, baby spinach, and nasturtium leaves. And to top it off, we had a crusty baguette from La Cloche – perfect for garlic bread.

Serve this creamy soup with a dollop of fresh pesto on top and some slices of garlic bread on the side.

Soup

Makes enough for 3-4 people depending how much stock is added. Extra water can be added to make it go further.

• 1 SGF celeriac, thickly peeled and roughly chopped
• ¼ SGF cauliflower, chopped into large florets
• 2-3 small SGF agria potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
• ~500 ml homemade chicken stock
• salt and pepper to taste
• cream (optional)

Throw everything into a saucepan and gently boil for ~20 mins until the veges are soft. Soupify with an immersion blender, or cool and run through a blender, mouli, or food processor. Add cream if you wish.

Pesto

• small handful SGF macadamia or hazelnuts, or a mix
• a handful of soft herbs
• 1 clove SGF garlic (this time of year, remove the centre green sprout, which can be bitter)
• 1 T freshly grated parmesan cheese
• pinch salt and pepper
• a couple of glugs of SGF extra virgin olive oil

Roast the nuts at about 150°C for about 10mins until they start to brown, then cool. For hazelnuts, roll them in a teatowel to remove the skins. In a mini-blender or mortar&pestle, blitz or pound all the ingredients, adding more oil if necessary, until a chunky pesto forms.

Garlic bread

• 1 baguette
• soft butter
• 2-3 cloves fresh SGF garlic
• pepper
• freshly chopped herbs (optional)

Slice the baguette into rounds but don’t slice the whole way through. Peel the garlic and remove the centre green shoot. Smash the garlic on a cutting board with the heel or blade of a knife. Combine garlic, butter, pepper, and herbs with a fork. Put a nugget of butter between each slice of bread. Wrap the bread in tinfoil and heat in the oven at ~150°C for 10-15 mins until the butter has melted through.

Tags: bone broth, chicken stock, Herbs, soup, winter

Pumpkin with bacony goodness

I was after a side dish to go with some leftover silverbeet pie, and I wanted something that used pumpkin and the remains of a packet of bacon. This creation, deemed yummy by Linton, is this week’s recipe. Serves 2-3 depending how much pumpkin you add.

• About ¼ of a crown pumpkin, seeded, peeled and diced into 1cm chunks
• 3 rashers of bacon, fat removed and reserved, and meat sliced
• a couple of garlic cloves, diced
• 2 T sesame seeds
• a couple of sprigs of thyme
• slice of grapefruit

Using the reserved bacon fat, fry in a large frying pan until the fat has rendered out. Add additional oil or pour of extra fat so that there is about 1 T left in the pan. Fry the bacon meat then add the pumpkin and garlic. Sizzle gently for a few minutes, ensuring the garlic doesn’t brown. Turn the heat down, add the thyme and about ¼ C water, and cover. Cook until the pumpkin is tender, adding more water as needed so that the pumpkin doesn’t stick.

When the pumpkin has cooked, uncover the pan, add the sesame seeds, and increase the heat. Stir until any remaining water has evaporated. Serve with a generous squeeze of grapefruit juice.

Sorry no photo of the finished product – I was hungry and wanted to eat!

Tags: bacon, pumpkin, side dish, yummy

Celeriac mash with sage butter

I was a bit dubious as to whether I’d like celeriac as I don’t like strong celery flavours, but I threw caution to the wind and tried some. I was delighted to find that celeriac has a nutty mild celery flavour  that is really quite delicious. Rather than hide its flavour in soups and curries, I decided in this recipe to bring celeriac to the forefront and play on its nutty flavour by using browned butter. Browning butter is an easy trick that is worth learning. It has a fantastic hazelnut flavour that plays nicely with most vegetables. Just keep in mind that you must use butter – it won’t work with margarine or oil as it relies on the milk solids in the butter browning.

• 1-2 celeriac
• 1-2 T butter
• 5-10 sage leaves

Using a knife (rather than a peeler) thickly peel the celeriac and cut into large dice. Boil in salted water or steam until very tender.

Meanwhile, using a small pan, melt the butter and fry the sage leaves gently until the leaves are crispy and the butter turns brown. Keep a very close eye on it as the butter will brown suddenly. As soon as the butter has browned, take it off the heat and reserve some of the sage leaves for decoration.

Drain the celeriac, then mash with the butter and sage. Serve as a side dish (as you would mashed potato), with the reserved sage leaves as garnish.

Links

• Weston A Price Foundation on the case for butter
• See photos of browned butter: too little, just right, and too much
• Wikipedia entry on celeriac

Tags: celeriac, easy, food hates, Herbs, root, side dish, vegetarian

Black as a wintery night mushroom soup

Mushroom soup is usually an unappetizing gray, but if you don’t use cream you get a beautiful black soup that looks gorgeous with a sprinkle of greenery or a swirl of something creamy if you must.

• ~300g flat mushrooms, chopped or torn into pieces (old opened ones are especially good)
• 1 T butter
• 1 shallot, finely diced
• 2-3 garlic cloves, smushed
• a sploosh of marsala, vermouth, or sherry
• ~500 ml home-made chicken stock
• 1 T fresh herbs like tarragon or thyme, finely chopped; or ½-1 t dried herbs, if it’s a howling southerly and you don’t want to venture outside
• lots and lots and lots more again of freshly ground pepper
• salt to taste

In a saucepan, saute the shallot and garlic in the butter until translucent (don’t brown), then add the mushrooms and stir until the mushrooms start giving up some of their moisture. Add the sploosh of grog and the chicken stock, and bring to the boil, scrapping the bottom of the pan to bring up the mushroomy goodness. Reduce heat and simmer until mushrooms have softened – about 15 mins. As it’s cooking, add the herbs and pepper.

Take off the heat and use an immersion blender to liquefy (or cool a bit before using a blender, food processor, or mouli). Reheat if necessary and add salt to taste. Pour into warmed bowls and serve with crusty, buttery, bread (or chips made from left-over polenta, which is what we had lurking in the fridge last night).

Tags: garlic, Herbs, mushrooms, soup

Kefir and spinach pasta bake

There is always something fermenting in my kitchen – from yoghurt and bread to sauerkraut and olives – so I was delighted to see SGF offer kefir grains. Kefir is fermented milk, similar to yoghurt and buttermilk. It is simple to make kefir from the grains – the only thing I’m having any difficulty with is the timing. Twice I’ve let it go to long and have ended up with a more sour and grainy result (not quite curds and whey, but close). Fortunately this is not a failure because the result can still be used as as substitute for buttermilk in baking (think bread and muffins). Here I’ve modified my quiche recipe to use kefir in a pasta bake with spanikopita flavours. If you don’t have kefir, substitute plain yoghurt or buttermilk.

• ~100 g pasta, cooked and well drained (I used rigatoni because I like how the custard fills the tube)
• 300 g SGF spinach, well washed and de-stemmed
• 4 Wairarapa Eco eggs (3 if large)
• 1¼ C SGF kefir
• ¼ t nutmeg, freshly ground
• pinch salt and a grind of pepper
• dill (optional – I didn’t have any to hand but it would be a nice addition)
• ~100 g chevre or feta, cubed
• 1 clove SGF garlic
• 1 slice wholemeal bread (preferably home-made with SGF wholemeal flour as it crumbles nicely)
• 1 t butter

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Cook the pasta according to the directions on the packet. Use a slotted spoon to remove the pasta in to a colander to drain, then place into a greased baking dish. Prepare the spinach, then put it into the boiling pasta water. Boil until bright green and wilted. Drain well in a colander, pressing the water out with a spoon.

Whisk the eggs, kefir, salt, pepper, and nutmeg together.

Make soft, garlicky, breadcrumbs by blitzing the bread, garlic clove, and butter in a mini-blender.

Assemble the pasta bake by putting the drained spinach on top of the pasta, dotting the feta about, and pouring over the egg mix. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs on top.

Bake until the centre is set. Start testing by inserting a knife into the centre to check for liquid after 35 minutes. Be patient – don’t be tempted to increase the temperature if it’s not setting. Just set the timer for another 5-10 minutes.

Serves 4 with some roast pumpkin or a salad on the side.

Tags: eggs, kefir, spinach, vegetarian

Hints and ideas for making the most of your SGF veges

Rather than a recipe this week, I’m rounding up helpful hints and ideas. Please jump on in and add to the list in the comments.

• Most vegetables are delicious steamed until tender and served with a dab of butter and maybe a squeeze of lemon. If you’re not sure how to deal with an unfamiliar vege, this is a good way to appreciate it without competition from other flavours.
• As soon as possible, pick through salad mixes to remove yellowed or damaged leaves, wash well in a couple of changes of water, and spin dry in salad spinner or pat dry with a clean tea towel. Then store in an airtight container or bag in the fridge. If the salad mix is all ready for eating, it’s more likely to get eaten. It will last longer too.
• Beetroot leaves are delicious. Cook like silverbeet.
• Cut the leafy tops off carrots before putting in the fridge. Otherwise the leaves can pull moisture out of the carrots. Apparently you can use them for soup, but I’ve not tried that yet.
• For fewer tears, store onions in the fridge.
• Invest in a quality paring knife, chef’s knife, vege peeler, and chopping board. Prepping veges from scratch is a pleasant job with the right tools. Youtube has lots of examples on how to use knives safely and efficiently.
• Use a compost bin, bokashi bin, or worm bin so that all the vege peelings go back to the earth and not the landfill.
• Every couple of weeks, challenge yourself and try an unfamiliar vegetable. Google is your friend.
• Ordered too much? Stew fruit with a little water and honey or sugar until tender, and freeze in small containers – handy for breakfast toppings or desserts. Steam greens, squeeze out water, and freeze for future soups. Make soup and freeze in small containers. Juice apples, carrots, beetroot, oranges. Invite friends round for an impromptu meal of steaming hot vege soup or a cheesy vegetable gratin.
• Trying to increase your daily vegetable intake? When cooking a meal, ask yourself: can I serve another vegetable? Carrot sticks on the side are quick and nutritious.

Tags: fruit, hints, Vegetables

Oven-baked heritage potato chips

I’m a sucker for oven-baked chips – especially when made from heritage potato varieties like kowiniwini or the surreal purple urenika. These old varieties have a depth of flavour missing from modern varieties. If I can be bothered, I parboil them first, but it’s not essential.

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Tags: easy, Herbs, heritage varieties, kowiniwini, Maori potatoes, Potatoes, urenika, vegan, vegetarian, yummy

My Mum’s bacon and vegetable soup

When I left home, this was one of the first recipes I asked my Mum for. She got it from her Mum so I guess that makes it a family heirloom. With kind permission, here is Mum’s recipe (with a few tweaks from me) for a wonderful winter-warming soup. It’s also the only way I’ll eat swede!

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Tags: bacon, food hates, root vegetables, soup

Dandelion chicory quiche

Like many NZers, I not so keen on bitter flavours (unless it’s coffee) but I know bitter greens are nutritious and want to include them in my diet. Frank supplies many types of bitter greens and I have been experimenting with some of them. This week it was dandelion chicory, which is not actually a dandelion (a bitter green in its own right) but a chicory with dandelion-like leaves and beautiful bright red stems. You may have found some in the salad mixes.

My aim when cooking with bitter greens is to not mask the bitterness entirely, but to balance it with other flavours: salty, sour, sweet, and savory (umami). Bacon is an excellent choice! I also use yoghurt rather than cream for the custard – not as many calories and it gives a nice tang. This medium sized quiche serves 4-6.

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Tags: bacon, bitter greens, chicory, eggs, endive, food hates, yoghurt

Oingle-boingle pasta with magic sprinkles

A nearly-vegan friend and toddler came to dinner last night. What better to serve than oingle-boingle pasta, which is a riff on the classic dish pasta primavera.

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Tags: anise, fennel, kid friendly, vegan, vegetarian

Red curly kale with goodies

I do struggle with eating enough leafy greens, with silverbeet still being a nemesis. My parents may remember the “silverbeet revolution” when my brother and I took Mum’s freshly-harvested silverbeet, chucked it over the hedge, and refused to ever eat it again. I was devastated when I found out my brother had started eating it again (traitor!). But eventually, I started including it in my diet too, mainly because silverbeet seeds seemed to be in every mesclun mix I tried so it was always growing lushly in my garden.

I don’t remember ever having kale as a kid – I’m guessing my parents didn’t much care for it either. Kale was reputed to be so vile that it was worse than silverbeet. I was amazed when as an adult I finally tried some and found that it’s reputation was entirely unfounded.

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Tags: brassica, food hates, kale

Wholemeal Pita Breads

Homemade wholemeal pita breads are easy to make, delicious, and versatile. They are infinitely better than the cardboardy pita sold at the stupid-market.

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Tags: bread, pita bread, vegan, vegetarian, wholegrains, wholemeal flour

Thai-style red curry for all the little bits and bobs in your fridge and garden

A stand-by meal for us, and one of our favourites, is a Thai-style red curry. It’s best made with a wide variety of vegetables. So I take a stroll around the garden and pick some leafy greens, and maybe some broadbeans, sugar-snap peas, and coriander. I then spelunk through the fridge and haul out the little bits of leftover SGF veges like cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, and mung-bean sprouts that never quite made it into another meal. 

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Tags: bottom-of-the-fridge suprise, coconut cream, curry, easy, food hates, mixed veges

Pumpkin Pecan Muffins

I had a chunk of pumpkin left over and was intending to make pumpkin pie, but more immediate gratification was needed to reward a hard-working father-in-law. So I turned to pumpkin muffins instead. Keeping with the pie theme, I combined flavours from two classic American pies: pumpkin pie and pecan pie.

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Tags: muffins, pecans, pumpkin, vegetarian, yummy

Chioggia beetroot chips and dip with a kick

For most of my life I have hated beetroot, as has Linton. But after eating grated raw beetroot one day, I had the revelation that it wasn’t all evil. Since then I have experimented with various recipes and found that beetroot can not just be made palatable but can actually be quite nice. Who knew!?

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Tags: beetroot, food hates, vegetarain, yoghurt

Golden Autumnal Soup

The parental units came down from Waikanae for a visit on Sunday. Being an overcast autumnal day, I decided on vege soup and home-made bread for lunch. The soup, made with SGF onions, red carrots, crown pumpkin, and leeks looked beautiful in the bowl – the red carrots hold their colour well and contrasted nicely with the orange pumpkin.

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Tags: leeks, onions, pumpkin, red carrots, soup

Nina Selwood

Nina Selwood

“Cebollas Al Horno” – Spanish Baked Onions

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Glazzed Carrots

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Crunchy Sprouts on Toast

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Sonia Corbett

Sonia Corbett

Simply Good Carrot Soup

Ingredients

- 2 onions

- 500g carrots (use red carrots for a really ” carrotty” tasting soup)

- 4 tbs ghee or clarified butter (or oil)

- curry powder (or cumin or nutmeg or any other seasoning you prefer)

- 6 cups stock

- sea salt and pepper to taste

- cultured cream or yoghurt

Chop onions and carrots, and saute slowly in ghee until just tender.

Stir in seasonings, cook for a minute, then add stock.

Simmer for 10 – 15 minutes.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Puree (or mash) soup, and serve with cultured cream or yoghurt.

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