In the small and regular boxes:
Kale – I’ve been told that the key to mastering raw kale is to remove the stalks and massage the leaves with olive oil and salt for a few minutes until it becomes tender. If you prefer your kale cooked to perfection (and if you find you’ve still got leftover cabbage from last week’s box) I present to you Sabrina Ghayour’s kale and cabbage kuku, an absolutely scrumptious recipe I frequent and often use as a base for substituting a variety of greens!
Potatoes – If similarly to my mum and I, you’ve been addicted to watching Jamie Oliver’s Keep Cooking and Carry On series over the past few weeks, you might have seen his recipe for potato gnocchi. While watching it my first thought was, “he’s making it look so easy but I bet this is much more difficult, fiddly and stressful”. Nevertheless I went ahead making it for my mum’s birthday and was pleasantly surprised that it was relatively quick and easy, quite a soothing process and very rewarding to eat! Serve it with some pan-fried kale, romanesco, caramelised beets and toasted seeds and nuts.
Fennel – For a flavoursome dinner, roast the fennel in the oven with romanesco and either add it to a creamy risotto or some buttery linguine. To make an seasonal salad with a variety of fruit and veg from this week here’s an apple, beet, fennel and spinach salad.
Romanesco – This beautifully singular, nutty type of cauliflower adds sumptuousness to every meal. Its uniquely formed green spirals are ideal for pan roasting and adding to a salad with some toasted nuts (try pine nuts, hazelnuts, or almonds), raisins, crispy kale (or massaged kale!) and perfect with a tahini, lemon, honey and garlic dressing. If you’ve got some friends over for dinner, you could also have a go at baking a delicious romanesco tart.
Jerusalem Artichokes – Another vegetable renowned for its distinctive nutty flavour, jerusalem artichokes can be cooked in much the same way as potatoes. Roast them with some spices in the oven, pan fry them or puree them into a hearty jerusalem artichoke, fennel and potato soup. Recently our neighbour gave us a heap of jerusalem artichokes from his garden and I decided to finely slice them and roast them in the oven with salt, pepper and olive oil and then sprinkle the crispy pieces over the top of my risotto. However, they turned out to be so moreish that I had to bake second batch after consuming every last jerusalem artichoke chip before they had even made it to the dinner table. Very tasty!
Beetroot – Raw or cooked, beetroots are extremely versatile, delightful and nutritious and I tend to find that depending on what type of beet I have generally dictates what to make with them. Exquisitely colourful varieties such as chioggia and golden beets add vibrancy and flair finely sliced raw into a salad, while classic deep red beets are magnificent roasted and pureed into a soup, or scrumptious in one of my favourite beetroot recipes, Ottolenghi’s beet, caraway and goats cheese bread.
In the large boxes:
Spinach – One of my fondest memories of growing up and going to farmers markets, was always being treated to a freshly made spinach and feta gozleme. And though after all these years I still struggle to pronounce the word ‘gozleme’ properly, I’m keenly looking forward to recreating it at home with some lush green spinach from this week’s box!
Corn – A surefire way to cook up a cob of corn without all the fuss is to pop it on a griddle pan husks and all and let it cook until it blackens completely. When you peel away the skin the kernels will be cooked and steaming and ready to add to salads.
Carrots – A great recipe for this week’s veggies is Nigella’s carrots and fennel with harissa, a combination which she ascertains is a “perfectly balanced oomph”. If you already have a copy of her book At My Table it’s on page 6o, if not, you simply cut equal quantities of fennel and carrots into long slices and mix 2 tablespoons of harissa, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, the zest and juice of an orange and some salt and roast on a tray in the oven for 40-50 minutes.
In the fruit boxes:
Apples – An apple a day keeps the doctor away! I’m almost certain a superb apple crumble does as well.
Oranges – Add the juice and zest to dressings, finely slice to compliment fennel in salads or use to make a delectable glaze such as this crispy glazed honey orange salmon.
Limes – Brilliant in most salad dressings, cocktails or cut into wedges and served with a delicious pad thai, though one of my favourite lime recipes is Nigella’s flourless chocolate and lime cake with margarita cream. This cake is outrageously good and probably one of my favourite chocolate cakes of all time with its tangy, zesty flavour balanced with rich chocolate, and its fudgey moist texture.
Remember if you’re picking up your veggie box our farm gate is located at 1494 Stumpy Gully Road, Moorooduc and is open on Friday afternoons between 3-5pm and Saturday mornings 9am-12pm.
Or we deliver to your door on Tuesday afternoons (Mornington and Mt Martha), and Friday afternoons (Mt Eliza and Frankston), as well as our additional pick up points in Dromana and Red Hill.
Our locally sourced, organic vegetables are harvested as fresh as possible and are still subject to change depending on what’s available to our growers.
