The Chickpea theme

As last week I needed some aquafaba to make vegannaise, I have a lot of chickpeas to be used.

We therefore are going to make a Curried Chickweed with Chickpeas and rice with a green salad  and as a desert a chickpea brownies.

As a juice we will make a summer fruit cordial with strawberries, red and black currants and some josta berries.

What a disappointing onion harvest - Lets do something positive with it

With the leek moth very busy in our garden, it not only affected the garlic but also the onion harvest, There is no way that I can keep this onions for any length of time. It is for this reason that I decided to turn most of the onions into a delicious French Onion Soup we baked bread to top with mature cheddar cheese and put it under the grill and let it float ontop of the soup.  It turned out well and we all enjoyed the soup very much.



The rest of the onions, I prepared by taking off the outer layers and disposed of the occasional leek moth 'speck' and sliced  and froze them for use in the following weeks.











As the oven was on today, we also made bran and raisin loaves in jars.

It was a very jolly afternoon, lots of chatting and arranging to meet up for arts classes with Carmen and general socialising. So nice that the group is gelling so well.

A Vegan day

After a full day of raining, the grape vine has grown new shoots as we speak. Time to prune and turn the leaves into delicious domas.
  

I also noticed that the new potatoes are ready to be harvested so decided to turn them into a new potato salad.




Although the rain was pounding down all through the morning (and afternoon) we had a wonderful meal together.

Rhubarb last chance of the season

Last week Rozenn passed on a Rhubarb dhal recipe to me.  As the season draws to a close I decided to make this dahl and see how the group enjoys it.

First we chopped a kilogram of rhubarb to turn into a rhubarb cordial, for this we used oranges, lemons, ginger and sugar. The end result as per usual was delicious.


Asuka and Lolita whipped the double cream with the yoghurt and then blended it with the rhubarb mix to turn it into a Rhubarb fool.

            

For our main meal we had a rhubarb dahl with  rice and flat bread.
   





Whilst we were in the allotment,

  

We  picked dandelion (leaves and roots), plantain, cleaver, chickweed and nettles. Chopped them really finely and then packed this into a large jar. We covered this with apple cider vinegar and will leave this to stand for a few weeks before straining and using for salad dressings and/or 1 teaspoon per day as a mineral supplement.  This mix is great for healthy bones, hair and nails.
           



It went down a treat.

Asparagus Soup, Bulgar Wheat with roasted vegetables, Chive blossom vinegar

The gardens are looking beautiful. Flowers are showing off their amazing colours and shapes

 

. To preserve them for a little longer than this week, we turned the chive blossom into
Chive blossom vinegar. The colour was already gorgeous after 1/2 hour of making it. I can't wait what it will look and taste like in 2 weeks time, when it should be ready to strain and bottle.

The recipe for the Bulgar Wheat with honey roasted vegetables went down really well too. We used the brown bulgar wheat which was different from what Yasmin and Rozenn knew, but the chewy texture was lovely with the honey roasted vegetables.

We ventured out into the sunshine into the allotment to cut some asparagus for the cream of asparagus soup. We boiled the asparagus chopped in 1 cm pieces in stock, setting aside the tops to add later. we then made a white sauce and added it to the stock. With a hand blender we turn this into a smooth and velvety creamy soup. We added the asparagus tops and heated it through for a couple of minutes. this was then served with some flatbread and chive blossom.

We also picked  the heads of the orange calendula, which we used to dry and will turn into
Calenduala  oil in a few weeks time.

As always it was a lovely lunch we wonderful friends from all over the world.
Brasil, France, Holland, Israel, Japan and June representing the UK! W

Nutty sausages with red onion marmalade and broad bean tops

Cream of asparagus soup as we had such lovely weather the last couple of days that the asparagus have grown like mushrooms!

Melendra turning the asparagus into velvety creamy soup

Every time I buy sausages there is a lot of packaging to go with it, so when I found this recipe, I tried it for taste and think it is a winner. Let's see what the others think of it.

Shirley came over from the US to visit her daughter  and joined us today

The first vegetarian Sausage turned out well

A sausage making 'machine'

    

Meghan is in charge of frying the sausages

Mash potatoes, vegetarian sausages with red onion marmalade and broadbean tops

with red onion marmalade and broad bean tops.

Mini spinach quiche (vg) (gf) and Chick pea brownies

Mini vegan spinach quiche  great recipe for buffets or as little snacks

 

We made it with a couscous salad

and as dessert this amazing chickpea chocolate brownie

 





Finally some sunshine and a bit of warmth, so we ended up in the allotment as well as the garden, to pick our ingredients and some flowers. Currently the phacelia, calendula, love in the mist, sweetpeas, are ready to be picked.

Rain, Rain and more rain... we need it!

Waking up this morning, was a welcome sound of persistent rain. Yesterday I was working in the allotment and the need for watering was apparent. Luckily the heavens opened and for the last 12 hours it has rained and still is.

As the asparagus and artichokes needed harvesting, I decided to pick these before the group arrived.

On the menu:  Artichoke in a vinegrette sauce.

Followed by a lentil and tomato soup, topped with basil.

As a main meal  we had asparagus, with boiled potatoes and a poached egg.

Although the group today was small we had fun experimenting.

Wednesday 1st May - Dandelion Jelly, Spinach polpette with Orzo

As the orzo we did on monday was not properly made, I decided to try again and see how it turned out.
Well, it was delicious.
A few months ago Carmen gave me a recipe from Waitrose. Spinach polpette with orzo so decided to do a mixture of the lemon asparagus orzo recipe from Monday's from Spade to Plate but added the tomatoes and the spinach polpettes and topped it with finely chopped mint. It was gorgeous.

The juice today was Rhubarb cordial, with the pulp I made some lovely rhubarb crumble for the family, so not a bit of waste here.

The weather was nice and the dandelions were going to seed all over the allotment. To do the other allotment holders a favour, we picked 110gr of dandelion petals and turned them into dandelion jelly.
This time we used a sachet of pectine rather than my favourite dutch jelly sugar. I am keeping fingers crossed that it will set as everyone went home with a little jar to put on their toast as a vegan alternative to honey.

Curried Chickweed, dandelion fritters and basmati rice

Today we had a large group who went on a little foraging expedition. We were on the hunt for dandelions and chickweed.

Before we set off, David made some vegannaise using aquafaba, which we used as a dip for the Dandelion Fritters as well as a topping for the Chickweed curry.

       

The chickpeas that were left were used in the Curried Chickweed recipe which we had with a carrot and cumin seed salad

A hive of activity in this kitchen, when we prepared the carrot salad

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The Dandelions were turned into some delicate Dandelion fritters.