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:
Buttered Leek Bruschetta
It is, as I write, snowing. And that’s just typical isn’t it? The moment COVID restrictions allowed us to meet up to 6 people outside the temperature plummets. Still, if you too are sitting around a fire pit in ski kit, I have COVID-friendly snack suggestions. They can also be eaten with wooly gloves on. Which is an unforeseen benefit…
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…
Miso Kale & Mushrooms
Kale doesn’t so much ‘glut’ as ‘persist’. In a good way. I rarely look out on the kale bed and fret about their being too much to use before it goes over. Because kale doesn’t really go over. It just sits there, through wind, frost, snow and gales, waiting until you are eat it. It’s a very obliging crop, really. Its reward is make an appearance in almost every meal over the winter…
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…
Roast Cauliflower Soup & Kale Pesto
It’s soup weather. And I’m quite fussy about soups. There is no room, in my mind, for a bland bowl of sameness just warmed and slopped into a dish. A good soup must have layers: a splash of sour, a crunch of salt, a swirl of cold against the hot foundation, so that every mouthful is alive with interest…
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…
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.
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.
Roast Cauliflower, Raisins, Pine Nuts & Capers
I get a bit evangelical about cauliflowers. Such an undervalued vegetable. They are really difficult to grow and totally unappreciated. It makes me cross that something so delicious and so troublesome to grow can be sold so cheaply in the shops and I tend to get on my soapbox when they are mentioned.
Kalette, Feta, Orange & Almond Salad
There’s renewed focus in the G&G kitchen this week. I’ve given myself the task of picking one seasonal fruit or vegetable each week and dedicating my whole week to making that plant the hero of my meals. (Basically, I’m starting a one woman veg cult.) And my subject of adoration this week is the kalette (AKA flower sprout). I’ve been busy on my Instagram and Twitter feeds posting recipes, growing tips and gratuitously lustful portraits of these little beauties…
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.
Roast Grape & Goat’s Cheese Bruschetta
A grape glut! Not mine. More’s the pity. My neighbour’s, who has a vine in her back garden, pays it almost no attention (in fact, I think it’s considered a bit of a pest) yet is swamped, literally swamped, with grapes. Now, when someone invites you to come and help yourself to their glut there’s an awkward moment of glut-pilfering etiquette that ensues.