Posts Tagged With: beetroot

Salad of blood orange, beetroot, radish and goats’ cheese

Posted on September 13, 2012 by melhm

We love the arrival of blood oranges to signify the end of winter & beginning of spring! This salad is a firm favourite of ours, with its contrasting flavours and textures, and beautiful deep colours.

Our Kitchen Garden

Serves: 6 or 24 tastes
Fresh from the garden: blood oranges, radishes, beetroot, beetroot leaves, lettuce leaves, marjoram

Equipment:

  • Chopping board & knife
  • Small saucepan & lid
  • Colander
  • Paper towel
  • Measuring: tablespoon, teaspoon
  • Bowls – large, small
  • Garlic press
  • Salad spinner
  • Fork
  • Plates to serve
 Ingredients:

  • 3 or 4 baby beetroot
  • A small bunch of radishes
  • Small sprig of marjoram
  • A handful of lettuce leaves
  • 3 blood oranges
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 2 teaspoons aged balsamic vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • A small roll of goats’ cheese
  • Flaked salt and black pepper

What to do:

  • Cut the leaves from the beetroot, leaving about 2cms of stalk and reserving any small leaves. Gently scrub the beets to remove any dirt and place them in the saucepan with cold water to cover by about 5cm. Heat on high with lid on and boil for 20 minutes until soft when pierced.
  • Remove the stalks from the radishes & discard. Wash them well and then wipe dry with paper towel. Finely slice the radishes into thin discs and slide them into the big bowl.
  • Wash, dry and pick the marjoram leaves and reserve for the garnish.
  • Carefully wash and spin the lettuce and beetroot leaves dry. Break up into smaller pieces with your hands if needed, then roll up into a kitchen paper-lined tea towel & place in the fridge until needed.
  • Peel the oranges, removing any white pith and discarding it. Carefully cut the oranges into thin slices crossways and then place them into the big bowl. Scrape any juice into the bowl.
  • Squeeze the garlic through the garlic press into the small bowl.
  • Mix into the garlic the balsamic vinegar and olive oil, whisk with the fork and pour over the orange and radishes.
  • Season with salt and pepper and stir together gently. Leave to marinate for 10 minutes.
  • Meanwhile when the beetroot are soft, drain the saucepan and fill with cold water to cool the beets. When cool to handle, slide off the skins and root and thinly slice the beetroot. Add the slices to the radish and orange and combine in the dressing.
  • To finish, divide the salad leaves among your serving plates and scatter the beetroot mixture on top. Remove the wrapping from the goats’ cheese and dab chunks of cheese over each salad. Sprinkle with the marjoram and serve.

Notes: What other fruit and vegetable combinations can you think of for a salad? What other fruits can be dressed with balsamic vinegar? Why do we let the salad ‘rest’ for 10 minutes?

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Borscht – of one kind or another

Posted on August 30, 2012 by melhm

This recipe is an easy variation of the Eastern European variation. It is usually made with beef broth or stock but with a garden full of veggies we can’t go past using our rich vegetable stock!

Our Kitchen Garden

Fresh from the garden: onion, thyme, chives, beetroot

Recipe source: Melissa, kitchen specialist at Bondi PS

Equipment:

  • Chopping board and knife
  • Garlic press
  • Kitchen paper
  • Grater
  • Tablespoon measure
  • Measuring jug
  • Stockpot
  • Wooden spoon
  • Stick blender
  • Teaspoons
  • Serving bowls
 Ingredients:

  • 1 medium onion
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 4 sprigs thyme
  • Small bunch chives
  • 3 large or 6 medium beetroot
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1lt beef or rich vegetable stock
  • 1 tin chopped tomatoes
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 small tub crème fraiche or sour cream

What to do:

  • Peel and chop the onion. Peel and squeeze the garlic through the press.
  • Wash the chives and lay out on a piece of kitchen paper to dry, then snip or chop finely. Wash and dry the thyme and pick the leaves, then chop finely.
  • Wash and peel the beetroot. Chop into 1cm cubes or grate.
  • Warm olive oil in the stockpot over medium heat. Stir in the onions and garlic and cook until soft but not browned, about 5 minutes. Stir in chopped & grated beetroot and the chopped thyme and cook for 1 minute.
  • Stir in tomatoes and stock and season with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil and then cover and simmer until the beetroot is tender, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
  • Whizz the soup with the stick blender, stirring to get all the solids mixed in. Check the seasoning, then ladle into bowls and garnish with a swirl of the crème fraiche or sour cream and sprinkle of chives.

Notes: What other dishes have their original names in a different language?

 

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Rose Elliott’s warm beetroot and quinoa tabbouleh

Posted on August 11, 2012 by melhm

Rose Elliott is a British vegetarian cookery writer. She first became a vegetarian at the age of three and has since written 55 books on vegetarian cookery.

 Fresh from the garden: lemon, beetroot, onions, parsley

 

Equipment:

  • Scales
  • Sieve
  • Saucepans & lids – med, large
  • Chopping board & knife
  • Peelers
  • Bowls – 2 large
  • Grater
  • Salad spinner
  • Citrus juicer
  • Measures – tablespoon
  • Serving bowls
 Ingredients:

  • 125g quinoa
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 large red onions
  • 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • ½ a lemon
  • 2 small raw beetroot & any small leaves
  • A handful flat-leaf parsley
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper

What to do:

  • Put the quinoa in a sieve and rinse thoroughly under the cold tap, then put into a saucepan with 300ml water and bring to the boil. Cover and leave to cook slowly for 18 minutes. Remove from the heat and leave to stand, still lidded, for 5 minutes.
  • Meanwhile peel, halve and finely slice the onions. Warm the olive oil in a roomy saucepan, put in the onions, stir to coat with the oil, then cover and leave to cook gently for 10 minutes, or until very tender.
  • Wash, peel and chop off the beetroot leaves. Carefully grate the beetroot to yield about 200g. Wash and spin-dry the small beetroot leaves & parsley and chop the leaves coarsely. Juice the half lemon.
  • Stir the balsamic vinegar into the onion, let it bubble, then remove from the heat and add the quinoa, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, beetroot, parsley and plenty of salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

 Notes: What is quinoa? Are beetroot leaves edible? What is balsamic vinegar? Where does the name tabbouleh come from?

 

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November 9th 2011

Posted on April 24, 2012 by melhm

Midterm and only five more weeks til the big holiday but we’re cooking on four burners here in the cottage: last week we gorged on house-made beetroot pasta with garlic and herbs; a luscious beetroot soup; Colcannon for Halloween; our braised spinach and silverbeet take on the North Bondi Italian favourite; the classes sampling the globe artichokes and of course our gorgeous spring salad made even more springy with juicy fat strawberries and late broad beans…

This week we’re celebrating our season with parmesan and polenta torte and ragout of artichokes, broad beans and peas; a stir-fry of bok choy, garlic and ginger; and inspired by Ligia, some pao de queijo – Brazilian cheese balls – dunked in creamy spinach soup with crispy kale. If this sounds like your kind of food, come along and volunteer and you too will get to eat it!

For all those asking about recipes, I will forward them to Emma this week for the blog bondikitchengarden.com and my apologies for not getting them to her before now…

The Big Ask: Volunteers for both kitchen and garden! We only need a few, and there are ONLY 5 weeks left! Do it for the team!

Tuesdays             1.30 = 2 or 3        garden & kitchen (alternating weeks)

Wednesdays      11am = 2 or 3     garden & kitchen (alternating weeks)

                                1.30 = 1 or 2        garden & kitchen (alternating weeks)

Thursdays           1.30 = 2 or 3        garden every week (alternating class)

Cheers all! Melissa

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October 26th 2011

Posted on April 23, 2012 by melhm

First newsletter back and already it’s week 3 – how did that happen?! This week we’ve seen it all: summer heat & humidity; wintry storms & sleeting rain…  the garden is bursting with life and we’ve loads of great produce to inspire us!

The globe artichokes have been a massive hit with the children! Not only have the plants been astonishing to look at, the flower buds that we know as the artichokes have been a source of much surprise: in how bitter the stalks taste (rub your finger over one at the grocer’s and lick it – you will be amazed and revolted!) and by how delicious the nibbled petals are, dribbled in our lemon vinaigrette – and of course the wonderful surprise of the artichoke heart once the choke has been scraped off. I’d forgotten how totally yummy it is and have been almost begrudgingly handing the cleaned up and garlicky hearts over to the children…!

We’ve made some fabulous salads using up the broad beans that have been springing up, Jack and the Beanstalk-like, in the last weeks, with shaved radish and the skinny leaves of wild rocket… the normal rocket has grown crazily and the large leaves are now too spicy for our salads so we’ve made a sauce by wilting them with a little garlic, mixing in some ricotta mixed with lemon zest and tossing it in our hand-rolled rustic spinach ‘corzetti’ coin pasta…

The garden beds have been bursting with beetroot so we’ve been a bit cheeky and made treats of beetroot and chocolate cupcakes dotted with whipped cream and edible flowers – delicious and beautiful too!

So, for the next menu I think borscht will be the go – steaming hot if this crazy cold weather continues or chilled if we get the summer heat back (!) made with our own carrots, leeks & veg stock – loads of silverbeet and spinach for some spanakopita… and hopefully some more artichokes for the classes that haven’t yet had!

The Big Ask: we’re on the lookout for large colourful side-plates to use as our share plates so if you’re thinking of updating your own or you see any going op-shop cheap, please think of us & drop ‘em in!  Also I must say a big thanks to all the volunteers who have seamlessly slipped over to us in term 4 but as always, we do need a few more saviours who are able to commit to a term’s worth of sessions… Wednesdays 11am & 1.30pm and Thursdays 1.30pm are most in need so please send along anyone that is vaguely interested!

Cheers & buon appetito! Melissa

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