The veg bag kept me busy this week and with the family being home for the weekend there was a demand for plenty of food.  The selection of vegetables was good and with the appearance of courgettes and a pepper, I started to feel that spring was not too far away.  The usual potatoes, onions and carrots were there, along with more celeriac and leeks. There was also a lovely big piece of broccoli and it will be nice roasted a long with some herbs  and a few bits of cauliflower that are lurking in the fridge. Unfortunately there was no recipe on this weeks newsletter as there was so much news from Derek about what was happening on the farm.

Soup featured high on the lunches list and there was plenty of veg to chose from. First was  a minestrone soup that was packed full of veg and I also added some frozen baby broad beans and 2 rinds from Parmesan cheese for extra flavour. In Summer I usually add peppers and courgettes to minestrone but this week I had other plans for these bright cheery additions.

Minestrone soup

1-2 tbsp oil

1 onion chopped

2 cloves garlic crushed

2 celery sticks chopped

1 leek chopped

3 small carrots chopped

1 large parsnip chopped

Half small celeriac chopped

400g tinned tomatoes – or any leftover fresh tomatoes

1 litre of stock – vegetable or ham works well

2 Bay leaves

Sprig thyme – use dried herbs if no fresh

Sprig Rosemary

Parmesan rind (optional, I keep the rinds for adding to soup)

Seasoning

3 oz of any pasta.

Heat the oil in a large pan, add the onion and garlic and cook gently for 5 minutes. Add the remainder of the vegetables and sweat gently for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes, stock, herbs, seasoning and Parmesan rind if using. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the pasta and cook until a la dente. Serve sprinkled with grated Parmesan.

Roasted Veg Pasta with artichoke paste

The courgettes and peppers  were chopped into bite size pieces and roasted along with  shallots and half a head of garlic before being mixed with cooked pasta and coated with a delicious artichoke paste. The paste I used, came from Soralina UK , a small independent company who source their products directly from the producer in Abruzzio, Italy. This made a really quick and economical meal and was served simply with crusty bread.

Put the vegetable in a large bowl, drizzle with olive or rapeseed oil and roast in a hot oven for 15 to 20 minutes. Cook pasta as directed, drain and mix with the roasted vegetables a paste, sauce or pesto of your choice. Serve,scattered with fresh basil leaves and grated Parmesan.

Fish pie topping

Celeriac was in the bag again this week an apart from using it in soup I tend to mash it through potatoes. Normally when I make fish pie, I make a potato and swede topping, but this week I used the celeriac, and it really worked well with potatoes on top the fish pie. Unfortunately the picture of the fish pie does not look very appetising but suffice to say it was delicious.

French Onion Soup

One of my favourite soups is French onion soup although admittedly I’ve never made it. There was no time like the present as my butcher had given me some beef bones and the vegetable basket was groaning with onions.

I simmered the bones for around 7 hours, along with carrot, onion, bay leaves and tarragon and that made a lovely rich stock. While it was cooking I was chatting with a friend and he suggested roasting the bones with some onions first as that produces a darker stock. Next time!

I found several recipes for French onion soup but decided to use James Martin’s from his book ‘Slow’. The soup was easy to make, 1.5kg of  onions were sliced and cooked for 45 minutes, producing nice soft, golden coloured onions. Garlic was added along with sherry and wine, followed by the stock and cooked for another 40 minutes The traditional way to serve the soup is topped with a bread crouton topped with Gruyere cheese but I used Ayrshire Dunlop cheese, as that’s what I had in the fridge.

Spicy food

I had been sent some spice mixes by House of Spice and I made the 2 dishes to accompany our curry on Saturday night. I’ll be writing about the mixes in a separate post but the 2 dishes, Bombay potatoes and Tarka dhal went well with the curry, using up some more potatoes and onions.

The newsletter from Bellfield Organics gives details of all the veg that will be available for the bags in the following week, and usually I’m content to take whatever is delivered.  However, for a change of flavours I’ve asked for celeriac and parsnips to be replaced with other veg such as cabbage, Beetroot, pak choi, kale, or swede.  I’ve also asked for a ‘goodie bag’ this week, meaning that there will hopefully be a few surprises for cooking up.

Further info

www.bellfield-organics.com

www.soralina.com

I’ve decided to add a new section to ‘A Wee Pinch of Sugar’ – The organic veg bag. My delivery arrives on a Wednesday from Bellfield Organics and I  just love having a rummage, thinking about what I’ll be cooking  in the week ahead.  It’s all Scottish seasonal ingredients and although I usually have a general idea of what it contains,  occasionally there’s a surprise that I wasn’t expecting, maybe signalling a welcome change in the seasons.  There’s also a great wee weekly newsletter, apparently very popular with Bellfield customers, with news of what’s happening on the farm at Bellfield and  a recipe, always handy if my cooking imagination has dried up.

Root veg such as parsnips, carrots, celeriac and swede are regulars in the current Winter bags, but it’s  also great when gems such as purple sprouting broccoli, kale and beetroot make an appearance. All of these fit well with my cooking at this time of year as I tend to slow cook, meaty casseroles and lots of soups.

Last weeks bag had my regular potatoes, carrots & onions with cauliflower, leeks, celeriac, parsnips and celery as the seasonal veg. I usually make soup every day and if it’s one of those quiet  weeks of solo dining then I’ll make a few dishes for the freezer. Celeriac and parsnips are great for those dishes and I usually make a vegetable mash using parsnips, carrots and swede or celeriac and sweet potato. These freeze really well and when I’m reheating, a topping of breadcrumbs, cheese and herbs gives a great crunchy topping

Celeriac is a real favourite of mine and I like to use it for soups such as celeriac and leek, or celeriac,spinach and potato. Mashing celeriac with potatoes is a great way of adding extra flavour and an extra vegetable to a meal. This is what I did to accompany this shin of beef recipe and the additional flavour of the celeriac worked really well with the overall dish. This shin of beef recipe can be found in the first of ‘ The Whole Cow’ recipes. (Feb post)

 

Celeriac & Leek soup

2 tbsp oil

I small onion chopped

I leek chopped

1 medium celeriac chopped

1 carrot topped tailed and left whole (I leave the carrot whole as it is reported to be more nutritious)

2 bay leaves

1 litre of stock. vegetable or chicken

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Handful of parsley

Heat the oil in a medium sized pan. Add the onion and cook gently for 5 minutes.

Add the leeks and celeriac and continue cooking for 2-3 minutes. Add the carrot, bay leaves, stick and cook for about 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, allow to cool slightly and blend either in a food processor or with a hand blender.

Serve sprinkled with chopped parsley.

 The cauliflower was used to make to make Aloo Gobi, a curry dish I really like as I love the combination of spicy cauliflower and Potato. The recipe came from ‘The Hairy Bikers, Great Curries’ and although the recipe suggests evaporating most of the liquid, you can see from the photograph that I like mine with some sauce. It can be a meal in itself served with naan bread and raita.

This newsletter recipe for this week is Curly Kale & Cheese Bake. This would be a great accompaniment to meat dishes or as a vegetarian dish with some good crusty bread.

Curly Kale and Cheese Bake

2tbsp oil

1 onion chopped

1 red or green pepper, deseeded and chopped

450g  curly kale

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

175g cheddar cheese

2tbsp Parmesan cheese grated.

Pre heat oven to 180oc /Gas 4

Heat oil in pan, add onion and pepper and cook for about 5 mins.

Add the kale and cook until wilted, about 5 minutes. Season to taste.

Add the cheese, stir well and transfer to a baking dish.

Sprinkle the Parmesan over the top, cover and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes.

Uncover and bake for a further 20 minutes until the cheese is brown and bubbly.

There’s still a few parsnips leftover so depending on what’s in this weeks bag, I might blanche and freeze for roasted parsnips or make a parsnip soup or mash.

Find out more about Bellfield Organics – www.bellfield-organics.com