Recipes

Kale is full of goodness and these crispy, light chips are a quick and easy way to make use of your harvest. Jazz things up with your favourite spices and seeds to create a simple and tasty snack or starter.

• Kale, washed and dry
  
• Dash olive oil (canola is fine too)
• Pinch salt
• Your favourite seeds/spices

Cut your kale down into manageable segments and put in a bowl. Add your oil - just a touch is fine. Sprinkle over some salt and your spices and with your fingers, massage in the oil, trying to cover everything. Using your fingers like this will mean you can use a really small amount of oil which is all that is needed. Add your seeds and give them one final toss before laying out your kale in a single layer on an oven tray. Bake for 5 minutes and check. When you see just a little browning of the leaves around the edges, remove from the oven and serve. Peasy! 

Grab your leafy herbs from the garden and use this salsa to accompany meat or fish dishes, or on its own as a dip. A traditional Italian Salsa Verde is mostly made from parsley, but you can use varying combinations of parsley, corainder, basil and mint. I even snuck in a few loose leaves of spinach in mine, because why not?

I believe you'll get a better result if you chop everything by hand, but you can also use a food processor to blitz everything together.

• 2 big handfuls of herbs - mostly parsley, with some mint and basil
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 2 T capers, finely chopped
• 2 t white wine vinegar
• 1/2  t dijon mustard
• 1 - 2 fillets anchovies (optional)
• Squeeze of lemon
• 8 - 10 T good quality olive oil
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Finely chop your herbs, and place in bowl. Add remaining ingredients except the oil, combining well, add oil till you get your desired consistency, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

I love a good feijoa, even from the same tree, each fruit seems to have its own distinct flavour. A healthy tree can produce a whopping amount of fruit and despite their deliciousness, toward the end of harvest time, the exitement that comes with reaching for a feijoa tends to wane. 

Poaching is a way to extend the season and keep you enjoying this unique fruit before disenchantment sets in. Bottling will allow for your fruit to last until next harvest, or if you just want to poach a few they should be good in the fridge for 10 days to 2 weeks.

These poached feijoas can be served hot with some ice cream as an easy dessert or cut over your morning oats for a zingy start to the day.

• 2 parts water to 1 part sugar, enough to cover your fruit
• 1 white or fruit tea bag, I used Pomegranate
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 2 star anise
• 1 T Vanilla paste or vanilla essence
• 1 Orange peel
• Feijoas 
• Juice and peel of 1 Lemon

These burgers are moist and delicious and will convince even the most staunch of carnivores. The best part? They can be customized to your liking. Just swap out the spices with whatever takes your fancy.

There are a few important things to remember to create a moist vege burger that doesn't fall apart on you. The first is to remove some of the moisture from your vegetables, done by pre-roasting. Then, once everything is mixed together it is vital you let it rest in the fridge for at least 20 minutes before cooking. This allows for the wet ingredients to properly combine with the dry ones. You can tweak how much flour you put in, but don't add too much - the patty mix should stick together nicely and be firm. If you still find there is a lot of water coming out of your mix, you can bake the pattys first then fry them to crisp them up nicely.

Makes 10 pattys

• 1/2 Good sized pumpkin, cut into small cubes
• 400gm can chickpeas, rinsed, drained, and mashed
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 1/2 t smoked paprkia
• 1 1/2 t ground cumin
• 1/2 c rolled oats
• 2-3 heaped tablespoons plain flour
• 1 egg, beaten (vegans can use 1 T ground flax seed and 3 T water, combined and placed in fridge to set)
• Good handful chopped parsley and/or coriander

Roast the pumpkin on a baking tray at 180c for 15 minutes. Turn off oven and leave pumpkin inside to cool and dry out further. Prepare your spice mix. Fry onion and garlic over a medium heat in a dash of oil until the onion goes clear. Stir in spices spices and remove from heat. When pumpkin is cool, mash and combine all remaining ingredients with a generous pinch of sea salt. Place mix in the fridge for as long as possible, at least 20 minutes.

Remove from fridge and form into pattys. Shallow fry over a medium heat until golden brown. Serve on a fresh bun with your homemade relish, avocado, and other favourite home grown or seasonal goodies.