The gluts have left the building (shed)
This is where I used to write about the gluts I get from my veg patch and the ensuing gluttony in the kitchen.
Now I write a weekly mostly-veggie recipe over on Substack, plus share tales from the veg patch and exclusive videos. You can subscribe for free by clicking on the link below and every recipe will be sent straight to your inbox. If you’d like more content (such as those videos I mentioned, interviews and printer-friendly PDFs of every recipe to collect) do consider becoming a paid subscriber. More on that here.
In the meantime, here’s an archive of my old Gluts and Gluttony blog:
Stilton & Spinach Stuffed Mushrooms
This is a recipe for those mid-week days when you absolutely positively have to write the Christmas cards tonight or it’ll never get done and are rushed off your feet. As I, and I’m sure you too, are now. So we’ll just crack on shall we? Chop chop…
Three Cheese and Chard Tart
The chard harvest is the saviour of November, for more reasons than one. Of course it is delicious: its light, slightly earthy leafiness is a creamier, softer alternative to the fibrous brassica greens which are the only other leaves on offer. But more than that, chard brings garish flashes rainbow silliness to the winter garden. Amidst the fallen leaves and drab, dying remnants of the veg patch it stands out like a clown in council office.
Parsnip Korma
The parsnip harvest continues. As explained last time, I have more than ever so am able to experiment in ways my usual meager harvest hadn’t allowed in previous years. I’m especially keen to try pairing the harvest with Indian flavours, because sweet root vegetables generally make fabulous curries. I think parsnips will be most happy with mild, creamy flavours like the almond-yogurt-spices combination of a korma and so I give it a whirl.
Parsnip gnocchi with Sage & Hazelnuts
The parsnip patch has been uncharacteristically successful this year. Normally, I sow loads of seeds in old toilet rolls and I’m pretty chuffed if a third germinate, but not so this year…
Every Flavour Vegetable Fritters
Right. We’re all busy so I’ll crack on with it. There’s a time and a place for flouncing about in the kitchen letting your imagination run riot over making supper. (Ditto for rambling on about veg on a blog.) But this time of year is certainly not it. Not for me anyway. Too much going on and too many To Do lists. Suppers need to be a hassle-free haven amidst all this fuss and bother. Enter my Every Flavour Vegetable Fritters…
Wild Garlic Frittata
The veg patch is very needy at the moment. Planting seeds, replanting seeds because the mice break into the cold frame and eat them, spreading compost on the beds, cutting back fruit canes, feeding fruit trees, potting on seedlings, watering seedlings… and all accompanied by the damp, chill of drizzle that seeps through your garden gloves and into your bones. So this week, I’ll be brief so we can all get back to shovelling compost.
Squash, Roots & Wild Mushrooms with Spelt, Feta and Kale Crisps
This week’s recipe is a last hurrah for the winter squash. They’ve had a pretty good innings. Harvested in October, they have been patiently sat in rows in the shed waiting for their moment of glory on the dinner table. The mice have only recently discovered them, burrowing tunnels through the yellow hide and leaving little trails of squash sawdust in their wake. I’m surprised I didn’t find one, Disney style, in the central seed cavity of a squash up-turned, post-gorge and rubbing his full belly.
Charred Cabbage, Chickpea Mash & Salsa Verde
If you’re an enthusiastic grower like me, you too may have got a bit over-excited about red cabbages in the summer and planted a good couple of rows only to realise, come winter, that however much you love red cabbage, a household of two cannot eat more than one red cabbage a week (not without inciting mutiny anyway). Hence why red cabbage is likely to appear on some upcoming supper club menus…
Broad Bean & Feta Frittata
A busy week calls for a simple supper. And though it has been Broad Bean Week here at G&G HQ, I have, more’s the pity, not been frittering away the hours taking idolatrous portraits of broad beans or sitting in the garden meditatively podding them. Oh no. I have been busy with supper clubs and wedding cakes. So I am grateful to this quick and simple frittata recipe which I made for supper between canapé prep and cake icing. Not only because it is a doddle to make, but also because it offers the welcome opportunity to revel in the full glory of early broad beans – sweet, young and tender.
Every Flavour Noodle Broth
Honestly, there are times when I feel like throwing the towel in and flouncing off to become a podiatrist or something. It happens on the, thankfully rare, occasions when the whole foodie scene loses its head and gets all obsessed with something completely nonsensical. January is a particularly persistent offender. Half the food world can’t get through a whole sentence without saying the word ‘vegan’ or ‘detox’ or ‘cleanse’. And the other half, as if in pointed opposition, turns into some Bacchant monster revelling in the self-destructive joys of comfort food drenched in cream and butter. Oat milk on one side, cheesy meatballs on the other. The battle lines are drawn and it’s enough to make you despair.
Chard & Goats’ Cheese Spelt Pizza
Chard. Honestly, if you grow nothing else, grow chard. It is bullet proof, prolific, long lasting, beautiful and, most importantly of all, tasty. Sow anytime between March and August in shallow drills, thin the seedlings to around 20cm apart and wait. Just wait. Untroubled by slugs, snails, gales or hail, chard will rocket skyward in a matter of weeks.