Recipes

Borscht is without a doubt my favourite beetroot dish. There are infinite variations of this wonderfully warming soup, and in Central/Eastern Europe it’s traditional to keep your household’s individual recipe a secret! You can find loads of recipes online, but in a nutshell the recipe calls for slowly simmering the beetroot (wear gloves when peeling!), other vegies like carrot and onion, and salt and spices (lots of cracked pepper), then blending it until smooth. It is perfect on a cold Autumn or Winter day!

Thanks Jules for the lovely beetroot recipe – I’d done a similar thing as a salad before but this hot crusty version is yummy!

Thanks too, for the great frozen Margarita recipe from last weeks Farmletter – I’ve been craving one of these delicious icy treats since I returned from overseas – and so easy to make.

Spinach is also wonderful in risotto, either the baked version or the stove-top stirry one. Par cook the spinach and stir through at the end with some cheese. I added it to a baked risotto made with roasted butternut squash from this weeks box.

this is a super delish and v v quick meal for all you busy foodconnecters out there. It’s not my recipe, I pinched it from a book!!

You can use the spinach and garlic from this week’s box, and could even make your own vege stock if you were so inclined from any other box leftovers. (i confess to using the shop tetrapack stuff due to being short on time).
I would post on the fb site, but am at work and they have blocked fb!!

Enjoy

Spinach and coconut soup

1kg English spinach
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, finely sliced
2cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2teaspoon ground cumin
500ml vegetable stock
400ml coconut milk

Rinse spinach under cold running water, drain and roughly chop. Heat olive oil, add onion, garlic and cumin and sauté for 5 mins or until soft and translucent. Add spinach and cover for 2-3 mins, toss so that it cooks evenly. When it is sweated down, take off heat and put spinach thru blender with half the stock, blend til smooth, place back in saucepan, add coconut milk and rest of stock. Warm thru and season to taste with sea salt and white pepper.

I sprinkle some large toasted flakes of coconut and fried onion/shallot/garlic over the top too. Super yum and the whole things takes about 10 mins. It serves about 6 as an entree, but great as a meal in itself, I reckon it would feed 4 if you served with some hot crusty bread or even with a side of potato gratin

Was very excited to find a cauliflower in my box this week. Means I can make up some super-healthy Turkey Meatballs which are easy to make, low-fat, low-carb and 100% gluten free….

500g Turkey Mince
1 head of cauliflower, chopped and steamed til soft
Seasoning of your choice – I really like Cumin, Coriander and hint of cinnamon…

Mash cauli to a fine pulp
Combine mince, cauli and seasonings together in a large bowl.
Roll into small-medium sized balls and place on lined baking trays.
Bake til golden brown (about 20 mins) in an over pre-heated to 180 degrees.

Can be frozen in batches and reheated as needed. Eat anyway you like! I sometimes eat them on their own or I mix them into a pasta sauce with tomatoes, olive, zucchini and whatever else I’ve got lying around.