Puy lentil dish with a refreshing carrot salad

This post was first made on 26 April 2020

Today's from Spade to Plate zoom session, we even ventured outside! We had a little walk through the garden where we saw the cherry, apple, pear, and strawberries in blossom. The coriander and mint were used in the carrot salad and the Purple Sprouting Broccoli leaves were used instead of Kale in the Lentil , lentil and goat's cheese dish

Instead of the goats cheese curd, I mixed cream with goats cheese to pour over the lentils. (Big success)

What is left of this curd, will be used up in the beetroot soup tonight.

As we had 1/2 a preserved lemon left I used this in the Carrot Salad as well. 

All in all a delicious meal

Stepover apple in blossom

Cherry and stepover apple in blossom

Blueberry  in blossom and grape showing first leaves
 

Strawberries in vertical garden in blossom

Broadbean in flower

Leek, Kale and loads of raspberries

Today we harvested some leeks and kale from the allotment to turn into a gorgeous risotto. 

Whilst there, we picked some sunflowers to take home.

The tomato, basil and mozarello kebabs were made by Manami and Keiko and went well with risotto.

and the raspberries were turned into a sauce to go over our waffles. Lovely to see everyone back again.

Sauteed Kale with Lemon, Tahini and hemp seeds

Today I went to the allotment and came back with a few monsters of carrots and beautifully clean cavalo nero Kale.



So we turned them into a delicious carrot and coconut soup 
We then made savoury scones (Alice's scones adapted to a feta and spring onion recipe) which we made without the oven and came out really well. As we needed yoghurt for the scone recipe we made our own to save on buying more and creating plastic waste

We made this  Kale recipe we need curry powder, if you don't have this in house, maybe you can make it with the following ingredients
We had this Kale on a bed of lemon couscous.
A lovely quick and healthy meal.

Butternut Squash Curry with flat bread

Due to illness only 2 members turned up today,  so as a matter of precaution, I chose a menu full of vitamin C, anti oxidants and antibiotic properties,  Garlic, Nasturtiums, Tomatoes, Onions to name but a few.

We turned a lovely Butternut squash and the kale (well massaged with oil) into a curry which we had with rice and a flat bread (as per my 2nd cookery book)
   

All the vegetables from the allotment that we harvested and were left, were turned into a salad. Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Carrots, Dill, lettuces, edible flowers borage, cornflowers, marigold and to top it up nasturtium leaves and the flowers stuffed with cream cheese.  Yumm!


     

kale raviolli

Another warm day, I have decided to harvest all the kale to turn it into a filling for hand made ravioli


I found this recipe on line  which looked very nice. As I had some sundried tomatoes left I decided to add these too so the recipe is slightly altered from the original one.

Kale and Ricotta Ravioli

Kale Ravioli

Ingredients

         Makes 20 ravioli  (2cups of plain flour, 2 egg yolks, salt, 1 tbls oil, a little water to make the dough)

         1/2 bunch kale (about 1/2 pound), stems removed

         1 clove garlic, minced

         2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

         1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt, plus more for pasta water

         1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

         1/4 cup breadcrumbs

         1/4 cup ricotta

      ¼ cup sundried tomatoes

         1/2 pound fresh lasagna sheets

         1 tablespoon unsalted butter

         1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage leaves

         2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

Put a large pot of water over high heat to boil.  Blanch the kale in boiling water for 1 minute.  Drain, rinse with cold water, and let cool.  Squeeze out as much water as you can with your hands.  Finely chop kale.

Stir together the kale, garlic, 1 tablespoon olive oil, salt , sundried tomatoes and pepper in a bowl.  Set aside 1/4 cup of this mixture.  Add the breadcrumbs and ricotta to the bowl and stir until combined.  Make ravioli.

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and cook the ravioli for 4 to 5 minutes.  They should float when they’re ready.

Meanwhile, heat remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil and the butter in a sauté pan over low heat.  Add the sage and toast for 3 minutes.  Add the reserved 1/4 cup kale and garlic mixture and cook for 2 minutes. 

Drain the ravioli and toss with sage sauce.  Sprinkle with Parmesan before serving.

We had the last of the strawberries in our salad to have with the ravioli. The meal and company was excellent. Thank you Carmen, Gloria, Yumi and Tang (June) for helping clear the allotment patch and turning it in such a delightful meal.

Kale is ready

The kale is looking beautiful so thought we could make some Kale Patties with some new potatoes and a green salad with strawberries and feta cheese.
Rather than quinoa I am using couscous.

The pesto we made from rocket that was growing in the garden underneath the apricot tree. It got a little tough and has gone into flower  so a good trim gives it space to grow some tender leaves over the coming weeks.


With the Monday group we harvested new potatoes but the ones we did not need I stored in a large plant pot with soil, We dug these up and had with our Kale burger. When we harvested all the lettuces from the garden to make space for the new french beans  we noticed that the ones we sowed in March were now beginning to be ready so we shared them amongst ourselves. One each! they were worth it though.


We  also harvested the lettuce and some strawberries.  Yummy for in the salad as well as the strawberry icecream with only 2 ingredients

From Spade to Plate: Parsnip, Potato and peas

Although we have been trying to plant potatoes for a couple of weeks now, the weather has not been very favourable.  Frost is not good for our new potatoes (Charlottes) so they have been nicely chitting  inside. (we had the first harvest of these Monday 28th May)

sowing peas in the raised beds at home

potatoes chitting

In the previous years I grew a row of Early Onward Peas between the rows of potatoes and this worked very well. The peas don't grow very high and are propped up by the potato leaves. so no need for more support. They should be ready to harvest in June at the same time as the potatoes. I tend to harvest the whole bed in one go at the end of in June so it is ready to transplant the Beetroot and leeks and sow the Fennel in between.

Ingredients for the curry

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As we still have some parsnips in the allotment, we will be making a Parsnip and Chickpea curry with rice to have as our lunch.

Digging up the parsnips with Raymond

Bringing back the harvest to turn into a lovely lunch

As we had a rainy day the Wednesday group did not go  to the allotment to harvest parsnips, I harvested some this morning so we used them for the curry and the  Sweet potato and parsnip soup with some scones.  We also made another batch of parsnip and chick pea curry

As the weather was so horrible, we decided to sow  various types of french beans, mixed lettuce, beetroot and mini cucumbers  in the warmth of our kitchen.