What's Growing: February 2014

It's all go in the garden at the moment. There's hardly room to move for vege that needs harvesting or a weedy that needs pulling.



The cucumbers are in fine swing, and the corn has been doing magnificently. There is nothing better than attacking the garden for salad or dinner or lunch ingredients. It makes all the hard work worthwhile. The tomatoes are just coming along, with the first being used in some 'everything from the garden' tabouli.



Last weekend I sorted out the strawberries. With much chagrin I did in fact remove the runners, planting them in the greenhouse to strike. It was hard, normally I just let them go, but I do want more berries this year. Then they got all weeded and spread with pea straw after a jolly good watering.

The greenhouse is sooooooo hot at the moment. We have to keep opening it, and watering things so often in there. We planted a taro plant and watermelon seeds, which have germinated just over the last 2 weeks. I hope they do well,a a I would love watermelon for the effort. The strawberries are there too, and the lettuce and mescaline doing great - and they were only planted there because I needed to put them somewhere.









In my new garden bed the tops of carrots, beet root and rocket can be seen, and radishes sprung up almost overnight.



We harvested about 2 kilos of chilies the other day, so well ahead of schedule.



Soon there will be passion fruit and apples ready, and I do need to do something with the bok choi as it's doing really well.


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Summer Coleslaw

I love coleslaw, and it's one of those amazing salads that is so simple to make in winter and have something fresh on the table.

However, this year I planted mini-cabbages, which are perfect for summer. They make these gorgeous tear drop shaped vegetables and don't take up much room in the garden.



You will need:
1/2 mini-cabbage head
1 carrot
1/2 cup grated cheese
Handful of parsley
Tablespoon of mayonnaise

1. Rinse the cabbage well, then cut into slices about 3mm thick.

2. Peel and grate the carrot.

3. Chop the parsley finely

4. Combine all the vegetables in a large bowl.

5. Crack pepper and sea salt on top and mix in the mayonnaise well.

Chill until ready to serve. I love the crunchiness of the salad with a bbq on a hot day, or on top of roasted potatoes with chilli beans.


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Day 3: 5+ a Day Challenge

Well, I thought today would be chaos but, it was okay.



Breakfast
- Special K
- peaches

Lunch
- carrot
- pasta salad
- 2 kiwi fruit
- mandarin
- mixed nuts

Snacks
- yogurt
- cheese and crackers
- scroggin

Dinner
- 1 cold lasagne serving

7 servings! Yay!

More importantly, check out my lunch:


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Roasted Butternut Pumpkin Soup

Well, I did it again. It turns out that when it comes to soup, I am a genius. And I have no shame in saying it aloud. Or singing about it.... Much to the chagrin of my dogs.



Roasted Butternut Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients
1 whole butternut pumpkin
3 carrots
2 red onions
1/2 leek
1 litre vegetable stock
1 clove garlic
2 sprigs rosemary
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon garam masala
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
Knob of butter


1. Slice the pumpkin in half and remove the seeds. Place on a roasting tray. Sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Crush the garlic glove, and place half in each hole of the pumpkin. Place rosemary in the hole too, and roast at 180 degrees for about an hour. I like to do this while roasting something else.




2. After 30 minutes, throw the carrots into the roasting dish with the pumpkin. Just wash the carrots, I like leaving the skins on.



3. Roughly dice the onions and leek. Sauté in a soup pot with the butter.






4. Remove the skins from the pumpkin, and chop into large pieces. Add the carrot and pumpkin to the pot with the vegetable stock, cayenne pepper and garam masala. Discard the garlic and rosemary.



5. Allow to boil on a low heat for about 20 minutes. Blend with a stick blender. Add salt and pepper to taste.



6. Serve with sour cream and Parmesan cheese. Okay, this is optional, but I loooooove sour cream and Parmesan!



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Butternut and Carrot Soup

I love pumpkin soup.... Well, I guess it's all technically squash here in New Zealand, but I love it. Usually I make one with the ol' classic grey pumpkins. This however is butternut squash. So much easier to deal with.

Final blitzed soup in the pot

Ingredients:
- 1 butternut squash
- 1 onion
- 2 carrots
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon ground chilli
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 bay leaf
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 litre vegetable stock

Method

Peel the butternut squash. I use a simple veggie peeler. So much easier than the tough pumpkins. Cut the squash in half lengthways and scoop out the seeds. I tend to just throw these in the garden. Next year they just pop up as squash.



Peel and cut the onion and carrots. Cut up the squash into palm sized chunks. Throw all ingredients in a soup pot. Boil the whole thing on a low heat, and keep stirring. After about 30 minutes, turn the heat off, place on a lid, and rest.

I like to leave it overnight at this point because everyone knows soup gets better with age. Remove the bay leaf.  Blitz the soup with a stick blender. Boil.

You can add parsley, chives or cream at this point, or leave it as it is. I like to section some off into 2 cup baggies and freeze for a later date. Don't add cream if you are going to freeze it.

This recipe yields approximately 2 1/2 litres of soup, depending on the size if your veggies.

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Juicing for Well-Being

Since the diagnosis (the husband was diagnosed with Stage 3 Colon Cancer about 6 weeks ago, and has since undergone surgery to remove 60cm of his colon) I have been juicing up a storm.

Basically I started juicing fruit and vegetables because he didn't like to eat them... crazy!  I'm a vegetarian, so basically the idea of not eating vegetables is abhorrent to me.  Now he even likes cauliflower... oddly.  Thank goodness for a great doctor, excellent surgeon, and a series of cancer episodes on Doctor Oz.  (In other news, I have been reading and cooking from Anti-cancer cookbooks...)

Anyway, juice is awesome, and pretty darn easy to make.  I actually think it is rather affordable.  We grow a lot of vegetables and the citrus trees are doing really well at the moment.  Almost all the different juices I make have either lemons or celery in at the moment because we have them growing nicely.

Here is one of my favourites at the moment: Pineapple, Lemon and Carrot Juice.

You will need:
4 Carrots
3cm of a Pineapple
1 large Lemon

Wash the carrots, chopping off the top bit where the fronds grow from.  Wash the lemon skin.  Cut a circular round of pineapple about 3cm wide.  Cut the lemon in half and the pineapple section in quarters.  Throw all the bits of fruit, skin still on, into the juicer.  Stir the juice.

This should make about 2 large glasses of juice.  I always serve with 2 ice-cubes.  Drink as soon as possible, but the lemon should prevent discolouration if you have to refrigerate for a bit.

And the benefits... Among others of course, but the reasons I use these are...

Lemon juice is really high in Vitamin C, and is great for moving things through the bowels... as well as having loads of anti-oxidants which help fight cancer. 

Pineapple juice is really good for joint health and mobility (I struggle with my ankle after surgery last year, and basically I'm preparing for surgery next month).  Really good for dealing with disgusting nasties in the digestive and intestinal tracts.   And for sorting out constipation... as our goal here is to have nothing hanging around in the colon, this is excellent....  (you may notice I am trying not to be too specific, as it is all pretty darn gross).

And carrots, oh the super food that is the carrot!  Carrots are high in all the vitamins, especially C and E, really good for clearing the intestines and dealing with harmful bacteria.  Indian healers have been using carrots for thousands of years to help patients recover from illness, so it can't be bad.  That, and I like carrots.