Ingredients:

• 1 medium unpeeled beetroot
• 4 cups vegetable stock
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 ½ cups rice
• 1 tbsp grated lemon zest
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp cracked black pepper

Cook the whole, unpeeled beetroot in boiling water until tender. When cool, peel and grate the beetroot.

Heat the stock in a pan and keep at a low simmer. 
Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat, add the onion and cook for 3-5 minutes or until soft. Stir in the lemon juice and rice. 
Add ½ cup (125 ml/4 fl oz) of the hot stock and stir constantly over medium heat until the liquid has absorbed. Add more stock, ½ cup (125 ml/4 fl oz) at a time, until all the stock has been absorbed and the rice is tender and creamy. This will take about 30 minutes.

Add the beetroot, lemon zest, salt and pepper and stir for another minute to heat through.

This recipe comes from lifestylefood.com.au, and is absolutely delicious with the Brass Monkey Blue from Granite Belt Cheese (featured in next week’s cheese club).

Ingredients:

Bring a pot of boiling salted water to the boil and gently simmer the carrots until just cooked.

Roast the beetroot with their skin on in a medium oven or simply boil them with the vinegar, sugar and salt until soft, about 40 minutes. Allow to cool then peel and cut into wedges. In a bowl, place the parsley, beetroot and carrots.

Dress the vegetables with extra virgin olive oil and about 1/3 the amount of red wine vinegar. Season with the salt and pepper, then add the blue cheese and grated ginger. Gently mix to ensure the vinegar and oil coat all ingredients.

Serve in a bowl as a shared salad or on individual plates as an entrée.

Enjoy!

This recipe came from Yvonne Crosby, our pomelo farmer. She says, “Citrus works well with spinach. This salad is made from all really healthy stuff and contains five of the top twenty healthy foods”.

Ingredients:

• 1 pomelo cut into small portions
• spinach
• lettuce
• roasted almonds
• garlic
• olive oil
• broccoli, blanched and cooled
• cherry tomatoes
• Danish feta
• salt and pepper

Method:

Mix together and enjoy!

Food Connect is now such a part of our lives that I couldn’t imagine not receiving our weekly box. We love knowing we are eating sustainably and our fruit and veg tastes SO yummy and nourishing!!! Thanks to all the team and farmers xx

We call this recipe Cupboard Love Frittata as we often make it the night before our Food Connect delivery comes, and it makes extra for lunches. We use all the left over veggies that are in the cupboard, and of course ingredients for the frittata change with the seasons.

Ingredients:

• 3 tomatoes, halved
• 2 potatoes or sweet potatoes, chopped
• 2 cups pumpkin, chopped
• 2 carrots, quartered
• 2 zucchinis, quartered
• 1 capsicum, cut into 8 strips
• olive oil and sea salt for sprinkling

Frittata mix

• 8 eggs
• small carton of cream
• 1 cup of feta, cheddar or parmesan cheese, chopped or grated
• 1 handful of basil, torn, stalks included
• freshly ground pepper

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Place all veggies on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper and drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt. Bake for 40 mins or until soft and golden.

Arrange veggies in a greased non-stick baking dish. To make the frittata, whisk together the eggs, cream, cheese, basil and pepper.

Pour over the vegies in the pan and bake for 45 minutes or until the frittata is golden brown and set. Allow to stand for 5 mins before slicing and serving with a fresh green salad.

*** There’s really no right or wrong ingredient and quantity, so feel free to be creative. From time to time depending on what’s loitering around we add things like: eggplants, mushrooms, spinach, other herbs, pesto, semi sun dried tomatoes, fried onion and bacon, a drained can of tuna or cooked chicken pieces.

Buon Appetito.
Meaghan, Bardon subscriber

Because they are back! And they are sooooo good!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups grated carrots
• 1½ cups self-raising flour, sifted
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• ½ cup sultanas
• ½ cup crushed walnuts, plus extra to decorate (or shelled pecan nuts)
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten

Cream cheese icing ingredients:

• 125g cream cheese, at room temperature
• 125g butter, at room temperature
• 2 tbsp icing sugar
• 1  tsp vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat oven to moderate, 180ºC. Lightly grease a 22cm round cake pan. Line base and sides with baking paper.
2. In a large bowl, combine carrot, flour, sugar, oil, sultanas, walnuts, eggs and cinnamon.
3. Pour mixture into prepared pan. Bake for 50-55 minutes until cooked when tested with a skewer. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely.
4. In a small bowl, using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Gradually add icing-sugar mixture and vanilla, beating until combined.
5. Spread icing over cooled cake. Sprinkle with extra nuts.

Potatoes…… Potatoes are the weekly challenge in our veggie box. After years of two pommie English parents feeding me potatoes at every meal and Darryl’s naturopath telling us potatoes were acidic, we like to avoid them. Not good with wastage we are always thinking up ways to consume our ever mounting pile of potatoes. Apparently potato skins are quite alkaline as food goes, so we trim the outer 1.5cm of our potatoes for a great soup and the chickens and worms get to work on the rest.
This is a really yummy and full-bodied soup, best eaten fresh as potatoes don’t like to be frozen. I have included the original recipe and my other favourites the Indian and Thai versions…. Indian is my favourite…..enjoy!
Rachel

Potato Skin Soup (à la natural)

Ingredients:

• 1-2 cloves of garlic (if you don’t like onion or garlic just leave out, it still works)
• 1 onion
• potato skins (as many as you need to feed the family, about 1-2 each) use outer 1.5cm skins
• vegata stock (tsp or a little more to taste)
• water
• quark/ cream (if you want some added creamyness)
• coconut oil or ghee

Method:

1. Heat oil of choice to moderate heat and add garlic and onions. Cook until clear and fragrant.
2. Add potato skins, cook in the pot for a few minutes encouraging caramelised flavours, do not let the base burn.
3. Add water, enough to cover the potato skins and feed your family, at least one cup of water each. Add stock at this stage.
4. Boil until potatoes are soft – 20-30 minutes.
5. Blend and cook for a further 10 minutes.
6. Serve as is or with a little quark……. and nice spelt sourdough………. yum!

Variation: à la turmeric – good for avoiding Alzheimer’s!

On top of the basic recipe you will need the ingredients below. (All easily available at your nearest Indian grocery store.) I don’t use onion or anything creamy at the end when I do this version.

• turmeric powder
• cumin seeds
• asafoetida
• cumin powder

Heat ghee to moderate heat and add garlic, push garlic to the side of the pan and add turmeric, cumin seeds, asafoetida, cumin powder. Stir into the ghee. When the cumin seeds dance and are fragrant you are ready to move on.
Continue with steps 2-6 above.

Variation: à la Thai – good for utilising those chillies growing in the garden)

On top of the basic recipe you will need chillis to taste. I don’t use onion or anything creamy at the end when I do this version.

Heat coconut oil to moderate heat and add chilli and garlic.
Continue with steps 2-6 above.

Ingredients:

• tamarillos (1 per person)
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 ½ cups water
• vanilla ice cream
• sugar to serve (if desired)

Score an x in the bottom of each tamarillo, blanch in boiling water for 30 seconds then refresh in a bowl of ice cold water. Peel the skin off the tamarillo, but do not remove the stem.

Add the sugar to the boiling water, stir until dissolved. Add the tamarillos and cook for about 3 minutes. Slice in half, and serve with ice cream. Sprinkle with a little sugar if desired.

This looks really amazing when you chop it in half with the red centre spilling onto the ice cream! Delicious!

Melanie

Andre Philips, one of our Dayboro City Cousins, has some great suggestions for using the custard apples that are in season right now.

She says:
‘These ideas are especially good for using up custard apples if you live in a household where no one really likes them (like ours!). We find that because the custard apples are so very sweet we really need to serve them with something acidic to cut the sweetness, otherwise they are a bit sickly.

The first idea is to pick out the seeds of the custard apple, pull it into small chunks and use it as a flavouring for natural yoghurt. The sour taste of the yoghurt breaks up the sweetness.

The second idea is to serve the custard apple in small chunks with chunks of lemonade fruit (these are also in season right now). They are delicious together! We have this as a simple fruit salad for dessert after dinner and everyone likes it, even people who don’t like custard apples.

As made by head chef and conversation team member Jyssica, and assistant chef Christine for Food Connect lunch.

This recipe made about 2½ litres – enough to feed a hungry office and all the drivers returning from their deliveries on a cold Tuesday arvo.

Ingredients:

• olive oil
• 2 to 3 litres of water or low salt veggie stock
• 7 large potatoes chopped into same sized chunks
• 3 very long leeks (not the leaves) cut in half lengthwise and fairly finely sliced
• 200g tub of Barambah sour cream and extra to serve (or cream if you prefer)
• 2 large bulbs of garlic finely chopped (or less if you’re not fussed on garlic)
• handful of fresh dill, roughly chopped and extra to serve (or any other herb really but we used dill)
• Barambah marinated feta to serve
• salt and pepper

Method:

In a very large pot, heat about ½ cup of olive oil over medium heat (you may need a little more). Add to the pot the leeks, garlic and half the dill, and sauté until just cooked through. Add the chopped potatoes and give them a good stir. Let them cook for about 10 minutes or until slightly soft, stirring occasionally so they don’t burn.

When they become slightly soft add the rest of the chopped dill, a good pinch or two of salt and fresh cracked black pepper. Give it all a good stir.

Add to the pot enough water to cover the potato mixture by about 2cm (depending on how thick you want your soup). Give it a good stir. Let it come to the boil and boil for about 10 minutes then turn down the heat slightly. Let the soup cook until the potatoes are soft, almost mushy (about 40mins or so), stirring occasionally.

Add most of the sour cream and mix well (using a potato masher is the best way). Have a taste and add any other flavours or more salt & pepper. Once you’re happy with the flavour, you can either use a blender or electric hand blender or potato masher to break up the large chunks (or leave it chunky if you prefer).

Serve in a bowl or very large cup with a little chunk of Barambah marinated feta, topped with a dollop of Barambah Sour cream and a sprinkle of chopped dill.
Enjoy!

Yum Yummmmo!

Thanks to Suzanna, who picks up from the Homestead for sharing this recipe. The recipe was from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book by Melissa Murphy. The original recipe said to use canned sweet potatoes – I adapted it to use fresh ones. I think it could also be good using apple sauce instead of the oil. I didn’t try the glaze (I was too hungry to wait) but it was delicious anyway!

Ingredients:

• 3 large roast sweet potatoes
• 2 cups sugar
• 2/3 cup of vegetable or canola oil
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• ¾ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ¾ tsp  ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground cloves
• ½ tsp freshly ground nutmeg
• a pinch of salt
• 2/3 cup of pecan nuts, coarsely chopped

Ingredients for the Cinnamon-Rum-Orange Glaze:

• ¼ cup fresh orange juice
• ¼ cup rum
• 2 cinnamon sticks

Method:

Preheat oven to 175ºC. Butter and flour a 10-cup bundt pan.

In the bowl of an electric mixer mash the sweet potatoes until smooth (this will make about 2 cups). Add the sugar and oil and mix to combine. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt. Add the flour mixture into the sweet potato mixture in three batches, mixing well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Do no over mix. Stir in the pecans.

Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan. Spin the pan to level the batter. Bake for about 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes before inverting onto the rack for glazing.

For the glaze. Combine the orange juice, rum, sugar, and cinnamon sticks in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer over low heat and reduce by half. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool slightly before glazing. Using a pastry brush, brush the glaze generously over the still-warm bread. Wait for 10 minutes, and glaze again.