When you’ve got home grown vegetables, they taste so good, you’ll find you don’t need all spices.  This next recipe is exactly what is says it is, from Nathe’s mum’s recipe.  Enjoy the simplicity.

Fried Cabbage and Potatoes with Peanuts

1/2 medium cabbage
2 -3 large potatoes
1 onion
A handful of raw peanut kernels
Salt and black pepper
Vegetable oil for frying

Slice the cabbage roughly into thin strips, dice the potato into 2 cm pieces and chop the onion. Put some vegetable oil into a fairly large deep pan with a lid (you’ll notice how the cabbage expands when it’s chopped up – it’ll shrink again but your pan needs to be big enough to hold everything at the beginning)

Heat the oil and throw in the chopped onion. Let it cook for a few minutes till it starts to soften and become transparent. Next, add the potatoes and peanuts along with some salt and pepper. Stir to coat everything with oil and put the cabbage on top. Jam it all into the pan and put the lid on tightly. After 5 minutes or so stir the ingredients, turn down to medium heat and replace the lid. Cook for about another 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cook until the potatoes are soft and don’t worry if the mixture starts sticking to the pan and browning – it adds to the taste. You can add a splash (no more) of water if you think it’s starting to burn.

 

There’s no shortage of greens in the garden at this time of year. Here’s a way of spicing them up for the winter.

Saag (Indian curried greens)

Ever been to an Indian restaurant and ordered a saag (or palak)? They are the bright green dishes of spiced spinach purees common in northern India. My favourite is saag paneer (saag with fresh cheese), but they also come with meats, chickpeas or potatoes.  Saag makes a delicious and nourishing meal when paired with rice, chapati or naan, papadums and if you wish, other curries.

Ingredients (for 4 servings)

  • 500g freshly picked spinach, Warrigal greens, mustard greens or silverbeet (or mixture)
  • 2 tablespoons of ghee (or four tablespoons of butter)
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 6 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon ginger, minced
  • 2 teaspons of coriander seed, ground
  • 1/2 teaspoon of tumeric
  • hot cayenne pepper to taste (approx 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon)
  • 1 cup of water
  • salt to taste
  • juice of one lemon and rind from half a lemon
  • 1 cup of yogurt

Method:

  1. In a large pot, heat the ghee to a medim heat and sautee the onion for a couple of minutes or so, until it becomes clear.
  2. Add the garlic, ginger and other spices and sautee for a couple of minutes more.
  3. Add the greens and stir them in with the water and salt.  Reduce heat.  Put a lid on (it saves energy) and leave to simmer for 15 minutes.  (If you’re using Warrigal greens we recommend you precook them first by boiling them and then tipping the water out onto the garden, then proceed to this step, otherwise there’s too much oxalic acid.)
  4. Remove from heat and puree in a food processor (in batches).
  5. Return to stove for a couple of minutes.  Turn off the heat, then stir in lemon juice rind and yoghurt (yoghurt is a living food, so it’s best not to cook it).

Enjoy!

 

There’s still a lot of pumpkin about, and some of us are harvesting beetroot.  Here’s a great roasted vegie salad.

Adam’s Roasted Vegie Salad

Ingredients:

  • 1 kilogram of pumpkin, diced
  • 2 large beetroots, diced
  • 6 cloves of garlic, with skin on
  • two handfuls of fresh garden salad greens (lettuce, baby spinach, asian greens)
  • one red onion, sliced
  • half a cup of almonds, and/or pepitas (pumpkin seed), and/or sunflower seeds
  • olive oil
  • red wine vinegar
  • fetta cheese (optional)
  • semi-dried tomatoes (optional)

Method:

  1. Brush pumpkin, beetroot and garlic with olive oil and place on a baking tray in the oven (there’s no need to preheat, it wastes energy).  Make sure the garlic is in amongst the other vegetables, not on the edge of the tray, or it may burn.  Heat oven to 180°C and leave for around one hour, checking to make sure vegetables brown and soften, but aren’t black.
  2. After 45 minutes put almonds or other seeds on a tray at the bottom of the oven.  When browned after a few minutes, remove from oven.
  3. Mix remaining olive oil and vinegar
  4. Remove vegetables from oven and remove skins from garlic, and add all ingredients except nuts and seeds to large salad bowl and mix.
  5. Serve seeds separately to sprinkle on to, to retain maximum crunch.

I like to eat it with tahini (ground sesame seeds).  A truly hearty salad, who would have thought?

 

Green smoothie time

We’ve just added a new page to iVEG: Green Smoothies, check it out.