An anti inflammatory mung bean curry and vegan waffle

As we are inbetween crops at the moment and I only have some fruit and perpetual spinach growing in the allotment, we are making a curry including the spinach amongst other pulses, spices and bought carrots.






For desert we made these Belgium raspberry waffles with lemon raspberry syrup.

What a treat!

Terry arrived early with a freshly foraged bag of bullace plums from Wolfson College,we included them in the sauce too and tasted sweet and yummi!

 I have decided to make this Curry with rice, a dollop of greek yoghurt and coriander.

   

Chick peas to use up

As this weekend I made some lemon mousse made with aquafaba, I had rather a lot of chick peas to use up.

I therefore decided to make beetroot hummus (I added a beetroot and some feta cheese to this recipe)
I also felt that 1 cup of chick peas was not enough, I virtually doubled it not needing to adjust the spices or anything else.

We had these with the Falafel which Hiroe fried beautifully. We all agreed these were the best we have ever had.

Then we decided to make the pita bread, we all felt this recipe was the best we have ever made, and according to Simone, Much, much better than from the shops.

We went to the allotment where we harvested lettuces to go with this feast, some sunflower buds to have as an alternative to artichockes.  I harvested one this morning, but it took nearly 1 hour to cook and as I was told that the sunflower buds only take 3 minutes to cook and taste similar to artichokes, we had to give it a try. For nearly every one having a artichoke was the first time and both June and Simone, were making sure not one leaf was left untouched!  The sunflower buds were messy to prepare but very quick to cook (3 minutes). they did taste a bit like artichokes but maybe with a hint of little bitterness.  We had them with a vinegrette sauce. Good we tried and good to know that the whole floers is edible.

Rhubarb cordial, Tummeric and Pea soup. Broad Bean Orzotto, green salad

With still a bag of rhubarb in the freezer and it is time to start making space for produce from the garden, we made some Rhubarb cordial, with orange, lemon and ginger together with some fizzy water a delightful summer drink.

We went to the allotment to pick the heritage broad beans, the purple flowers were lovely in spring, but the leaves now have become spotted with rust. it did not damage the beans though so the Broad Bean Orzotto became a lovely treat.  We had this with the green salad which we decorated with flower petals (calendula yellow and orange, corn flower, and borage) some chopped walnuts and feta cheese.

The last group picked all the peas, enough to put some in the freezer, so we managed to use them for the Tummeric and Pea soup.

Lavender cordial, pea risotto and a strawberry icecream.

One of our members, Annie, contacted me if we could do a special special for her friends who came over for a couple of weeks from China.  We had a lovely time.

First we picked lavender to turn into lavender cordial to have as a drink with our lunch.

Then we harvested all the peas from the back garden and then planted some french beans.

Planting french beans

The peas were picked for the pea and broadbean  risotto  which went really well with the green salad (with a hand ful of strawberries). For afters we made the vegan strawberry and banana ice cream..

Bob my neighbour is on holiday and he contacted me to  pick the sweet peas so they would keep on flowering. What a better occasion to do this today. We all picked a bunch,  the girls gave one away to Betty and the others to some complete strangers on their way to the punts.

Look at what we have harvested!

Annie with her friends in the allotment

Karina with her new friends

Annie, Liang Lele, Wu Juan, Zhang Yu, Ma Fang

Mushroom Tartlets

Using the grey oyster mushroom  from the funguslab.com that we grew over the last month or so, we made some delicious mushroom tartlets with new potatoes,  french beans  and salad.
A very easy meal but out of this world scrumptious.

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