There are more recipes for using your tenderstem broccoli on the tenderstem website.
Serves: 4
Preparation and cooking time:
less than 10 minutes
Ingredients
200g tenderstem broccoli
3 medium carrots
2 tbsp olive oil
2tbsp black mustard seeds
1 heaped tsp garam masala
1 heaped tsp ground cumin
juice of 1 lemon
chopped coriander to serve
Method
Shave the carrots lengthways into long strips using a vegetable peeler. Steam or boil the tenderstem broccoli for about 2 minutes until almost tender, then add the carrot strips for 1 minute.
While the vegetables are cooking, add the olive oil to a small frying pan and gently fry the mustard seeds until they start to pop. Once they start popping, add the garam masala and ground cumin. Give the pan a quick shake to mix and then tip into a small clean bowl before the spices start to burn. Squeeze over the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper.
Pour the dressing over the tenderstem and carrots and toss to coat evenly. Sprinkle generously with chopped coriander and serve immediately.
An upmarket version of the Scottish classic ‘bashed neeps’, taken from the Riverford Organic Vegetables website.
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Serves: 6
Ingredients
1 medium swede
½ tsp ground ginger
pinch of finely grated nutmeg
25g butter
coarsely chopped parsley or coriander
2 tbsp creme fraiche
salt and pepper
Method
Peel the swede and cut into small cubes. Boil in salted water for about 20 minutes or until tender. Drain and mash or puree in a food processor until smooth.
Stir in the butter, spices and seasoning. Return to the pan and heat through gently.
Stir in the creme fraiche, and pile the mixture in a serving dish. Sprinkle with parsley and garnish with an extra swirl of creme fraiche.
Camel Community Supported Agriculture member Gillian recommends this simple seasonal soup.
“I stumbled across this recipe when I was making baby food for my baby daughter six years ago. Frozen in ice cube trays, it was great food for Sophie, and we watered down the puree to make soup for us! Very simple and delicious.
You can eye the ingredients to adjust quantity: hold the roots in your hand and picture how many would go in a bowl!”
Ingredients
parsnips
carrots
butter
salt and pepper
water or stock
Method
1. Peel and slice the parsnips and carrots, and “fat steam” them in a pot or skillet with a lid: i.e. cook them with a generous knob of butter on medium-low heat with the lid on. This will take about 10-15 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.
2. When the roots are soft to prick with a fork, spoon them into the blender or a food processor, and add water to cover one half to three quarters. Whizz and test consistency: if it is too thick, add more water or chicken stock if you prefer. Repeat until the consistency is right.
3. Return to pot, heat through, and serve with crusty bread and cheese to share for lunch!
“A swirl of cream and snipped coriander or parsley makes a pretty garnish for this flavourful soup.”
Click here to see all the recipes that Camel CSA members have recommended so far.
This week’s seasonal recipe comes from 14-year-old Jenny Simmons, our Duke of Edinburgh’s award volunteer. She often cooks it for her family. It can be found in Joy May’s Vegetarian nosh 4 students.
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: about 25 minutes
Ingredients
1 tablespoon oil
1 onion, chopped
1 butternut squash – diced
4 large potatoes – diced
2 eating apples, cored and chopped into chunks
1 dessertspoon curry paste
2 mugs water
1 vegetable stock cube
2 tbsp raisins
Naan bread, rice and yogurt to serve
Method
1. Fry onion, squash and potatoes in the oil for 5 mins until they begin to brown.
2. Add the apple, water, stock cube, raisins and curry paste. Bring to the boil. Turn down the heat, put the lid on the pan and simmer for 15 – 20 mins until veg are cooked.
Notes
Jenny says:
“This is double the quantities in the cookbook. We like to give it a bit of a mush at the end till we get the texture we like.”
Amounts may have to be adjusted depending on the size of the squash or pumpkin!
Click here to see all the recipes that Camel CSA members have recommended so far.
Trish, who is Camel CSA’s veg box packing supremo, recommends this delicious way of cooking beetroot from Jamie Oliver’s Return of the Naked Chef.
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: about 1 hour
Serves 4
Ingredients
455g fresh raw beetroots, scrubbed
10 cloves of garlic, unpeeled and squashed
1 handful fresh marjoram or sweet oregano, leaves picked
salt, freshly ground black pepper
10 tbsp balsamic vinegar
6 tbsp olive oil
Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas 6. Tear off a strip of kitchen foil big enough to hold the beets in a parcel. If the beets are large, cut in half to speed up their cooking time; if small, use them whole. Place them in the middle of the foil with the garlic and marjoram, season generously with salt and pepper and then fold the sides of the foil into the middle. Before you seal the parcel, add the vinegar and olive oil. Scrunch or fold the foil together to seal at the top. Place in the preheated oven and cook for around 1 hour, until tender. Serve in the bag at the table.
Click here to browse all the recipes that Camel CSA members have recommended so far.
There are plenty of tomatoes and courgettes in Camel CSA’s veg boxes this week. This delicious salad is a firm favourite in my household, especially when we have grown lots of basil. It comes from Jane Baxter at the Riverford Organics field kitchen.
Preparation Time: Overnight
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
Serves: 4
Ingredients
200g dried cannellini or haricot beans, soaked overnight
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 courgettes, cut into ribbons 5mm thick
a small punnet of cherry tomatoes, cut in half
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
for the dressing:
1 bunch of basil leaves
1/2 garlic clove, crushed
a pinch of salt
100ml olive oil
Method
1. Put the drained beans in a large pan, cover with fresh water and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for an hour or so, until tender. Drain, season to taste and dress with 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
2. Toss the courgettes with the remaining olive oil and grill on a ridged griddle pan (or under a hot grill) until tender and lightly charred.
3. For the dressing, put all the ingredients in a food processor or blender and whiz until smooth.
4. Gently mix the beans, tomatoes and courgettes together in a large bowl and add enough basil dressing to coat. Taste and adjust seasoning.
Notes
If you cheat and use tinned beans which have been rinsed and drained, this salad can be prepared in less than 30 minutes.
Nigel Slater makes a similar Courgette, tomato and ricotta bake, which also uses a generous amount of basil. The first time I made this dish I had a “senior” moment and used mozzarella cheese instead of ricotta. It was still very tasty! He has lots of other ideas on how to use up a bumper crop of courgettes.
Click here to see all the recipes that Camel CSA members have recommended so far.
One of the staples of the kitchen, celery is used to flavour soups, stocks and many other dishes. It is tasty on its own as a vegetable dish, gives crunch to salads especially a Waldorf salad.
This recipe is from Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Food.
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 15-20 minutes
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 head of celery
2 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, peeled and thinly sliced
2 or 3 thyme sprigs
salt
225ml chicken, beef or vegetable stock
Method
Trim the root end close to the bottom of the stalks and cut off the leafy tops. Pull of the outer stalks to expose the pale green heart. Cut the group of stalks at the heart in half lengthwise and then in half again as wedges. Line up all the stalks and cut in half crosswise.
Into a heavy pan over medium heat, pour in the oil and add the onion and thyme. Cook for 5 minutes. Add the celery. Cook for 5 to 7 minutes, until the onions and celery have browned a little. Season with salt and add the stock. Bring to the boil. Lower the heat to a simmer. Cover the pan and cook until the celery is tender. The sauce should be thick and coat the celery; if not, uncover the pan, raise the heat and reduce the liquid as much as needed. Taste for seasoning and serve.
Serve this as a side dish with curries or simply as a dip. This recipe is from Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook. Without the turmeric and with a bit more garlic and a tablespoon of olive oil, you’ll have Greek tzatziki. And the Turkish cucumber and yoghurt salad cacik is pretty much identical too.
Draining time: 30 minutes
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
½ cucumber
¼ teaspoon fine salt
200g mild natural yoghurt
small bunch of mint
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
small pinch of ground turmeric or paprika
Method
Grate the cucumber – you don’t need to skin – and put it in a sieve over a bowl. Sprinkle it with the fine salt and leave it to drain for half an hour. Pat the cucumber dry with kitchen paper. Mix with the yoghurt, mint, garlic and just enough water to give you the consistency you want, usually in the region of 100ml. Add a pinch of turmeric for extra flavour and pale yellow colouring or sprinkle paprika over the top.
Notes
I didn’t find it necessary to add water! There are many variations on this recipe: Delia Smith slices rather than grates the cucumber and adds a finely chopped spring onion, 2 pinches cayenne pepper and 1 pinch cumin seeds; Madhur Jaffrey doesn’t bother with draining the cucumber and uses 1 pinch roasted cumin seeds. But whichever way you make it, it’s a refreshing and cooling dish.
Click here to see all the recipes that Camel CSA members have recommended so far.
Bulgar wheat salad has an earthy taste and uses an abundance of parsley, which features in Camel Community Supported Agriculture’s veg boxes this week. This well-tried version of tabbouleh comes from Claudia Roden’s classic A Book of Middle Eastern Food.
Soaking time: 30 minutes
Preparation time: about 15 minutes
Serves 6
Ingredients
250g fine bulgar wheat
3 tablespoons finely chopped spring onions
Salt and black pepper
About one and a half teacups finely chopped flat-leaved parsley
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint
4 tablespoons olive oil
4 tablespoons lemon juice
Cooked vine leaves, raw lettuce or tender cabbage leaves (to serve)
Method
Soak the bulgar wheat in water for about half an hour before preparing the salad. It will expand enormously. Drain and squeeze out as much moisture as possible with your hands. Spread out to dry further on a cloth.
Mix the bulgar wheat with the chopped onions, squeezing with your hands to crush the onions so that their juices penetrate the wheat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add the parsley, mint, olive oil and lemon juice, and mix well. Taste to see if more salt, pepper or lemon are required. The salad should be distinctly lemony.
Tabbouleh is traditionally served in individual plates lined with boiled vine leaves, or raw lettuce or cabbage leaves. People scoop the salad up with more leaves, served in a separate bowl beside it.
Notes
Claudia Roden adds: “As with most dishes, the preparation is highly individual. Quantities of ingredients vary with every family, but parsley is always used abundantly. This is a great Lebanese favourite.” More about Claudia Roden.
Compare her relaxed approach to Yotam Ottolenghi, chef/patron at Ottolenghi in London. He insists there’s a right way and a wrong way to make this refreshing summer salad. Click here to find out what he claims is the right way to do it.
Click here to see all the recipes that Camel CSA members have recommended so far.
A quick and easy recipe from Patience Gray’s Honey from a Weed. Tasty too!
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: about 20 minutes
Serves 2
Ingredients
3 or 4 courgettes
1 small onion
olive oil
4 eggs
parsley
1 dessertspoon pane grattugiato (crushed crumbs from oven-dried bread)
1 dessertspoon grated parmesan
salt, pepper
Method
Wash, dry and dice the courgettes and chop the onion. Pour a little olive oil into an omelette pan, and fry the courgettes and onion on a quick fire until they brown, tossing them often, adding a minimum of salt.
Beat the eggs in a bowl with a little salt, pepper, some finely chopped parsley, and add the pane grattugiato and the grated parmesan. Pour the egg mixture over the browned contents of the pan and reduce the heat.
When the frittata is almost set, take a large plate, lid or board, cover the pan with it and reverse the frittata on to it. Then slide it back into the pan. Both sides should be brown. Serve at once, or let it cool and eat it on a picnic.
Notes
You can make a quantity of pane grattugiato (a good way of using up odd bits of bread) and it will keep well in a jam jar.
Have a look at these recipe suggestions on the eat the seasons website.
