Plot to Plate

From plot to plate within 24 hours

I'm Claire from Plantpassion.

I spend my working life, advising, inspiring, and assisting gardeners to get more plants of the right type in their garden.

As well as the day job, of pruning, propagating, and planting,I'm also a keen fruit and vegetable  grower. In the vegetable plot in my back garden, in pots on the patio, in the vegetable patches i've created for clients, at school gardening club, and at the local community garden Grace and Flavour.

I love to make good use of my harvest whatever time of year I manage to produce it. - These are recipes that I use regularly to ensure that ripe fruit and vegetables gets used within 24 hours of picking from my garden.

I'm not a chef, and this isn't gourmet eating, - this is fresh home cooked foodie food. Used to feed my family and friends, using at least one (and usually more) ingredients picked fresh from the garden.

I hope you enjoy, and please feel free to leave me comments about any variations or other recipes you've tried along the same theme.

Pea and Tarragon soup

Pea and Tarragon Soup.

I've made this several times with frozen peas, but I can't wait to use fresh the first of the season mangetout and peas this summer.

Ingredients – 1 potato in small cubes, 1 onion chopped, teaspoon of oil, tarragon (to taste, but I use about 5/6 sprays), peas or mangetout, mint, vegetable stock, salt and pepper.

What you do – soften the onion in the oil. Add potato and stock. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 5- 10 minutes. Add peas and herbs and cook for just 5 minutes more. Liquidise, add seasoning if required, and cream (optional)

This is a very quick soup as the peas need very little cooking or they’ll loose they’re colour, so cut the potato up small

Brocolli spear quiche

I missed the pastry home economics lesson at school, and have always been afraid of pastry dishes, - but now with the help of ready made shortcrust pastry, i'm learning to use up the eggs from my chickens and the veg from the garden, and turn them in to lovely tasty meals

Ingredients for a 20cm diameter flan tin  1/2 pack of shortcrust pastry, 3 eggs, greek yogurt, milk (all the recipes i've read say cream, but i've never got that in!), pepper, brocolli spears,  flour to roll the pastry, Grated Cheddar & or Parmesan cheese

what you do - roll out the pastry and fit into the tin, - put in the fridge to cool for 1/2 hour, then blind bake for 20 minutes. I use cannaloni beans on parchment paper. Steam your vegetables until just cooked. Mix the eggs with the yogurt and the milk (you're making enough of a mixture to fill your flan case) then season.

When the case has blind baked, - put the vegetables in, and cover with the egg mixture. Top with a thick layer of the cheese. - Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes, - I use a fan oven at 190C

I'll also be trying this with asparagus, and leeks and peas. Don't underestimate how long it takes to make, - I mis timed this last night and went out to my talk hungry, - but it was delicious cold when I got back.

Summer pudding

My Mum used to make wonderful summer puddings when I was a child that would sit in the fridge with a big weight on the pudding dish to encourage the fruit juice to soak into the bread.

I've rediscovered these easy but delicious puddings and have a cheats method of getting them ready to eat the same day.

Ingredients , Mixed summer fruit, washed and prepared.(The equivalent of 3 large punnets) I usually have raspberries, blackberries and blueberries, plus some plums. But my mum always used redcurrants and blackcurrants as well. 6-8 slices of slightly stale bread, crusts off (I hate to admit it, but white bread is best for this). Caster Sugar, if you are using tart currants, or have a sweet tooth, I don't use it if the mix is mainly berries. 4 tablespoons of cassis.

what you do -Line a dish (I use a square pyrex dish) with half the bread, - ensure no gaps. Put all the fruit in a saucepan (with sugar if needed) and cassis and put it on a low heat. The fruit will gradually dissolve and breakup, - don't let it boil as you don't want to loose the juice. When the fruit is cooked through, seive, reserving the juice. Pour half the juice over the bread in the dish. Pour in the fruit. Top with the rest of the bread. Pour over the rest of the juice slowly to ensure all the bread is soaked in juice. Cover with foil and put a weight on top so that the rest of the fruit juices soak into the bread. Leave to cool, then put in the fridge until time to eat.

Serve with yogurt, cream or clotted cream, dependant on how decadent you are feeling.

Spicy Broad bean falafel

As usual, my broad beans were all ready at once.

As i'm the only one in my household that will eat more than a mouthful at each meal time, i've had to be rather inventive with getting rid of this large basketful of them.

Ingredients , Broad beans (this basketful translated into one dessert bowl full of beans), fresh coriander, fresh mint, cumin powder, chilli (I used chilli powder at this time of the year) 1 tablespoon of gram flour (this is chickpea flour, but you could use plain flour), lemon juice, oil to fry

what you do - steam the beans for a few minutes, then pop them out of their skins (this is the time consuming fiddly bit but is worth it as the inside bean is the tasty bit and bright green), put the beans in a bowl with the herbs and spices plus some lemon juice, and mash with a foodprocesser, add the flour and process again until you make a stiff patty mixture. - use your hands and a spoon to make into balls, (if you have the right consititency, the mixture will hold together well, and barely stick to your hands), - then fry in hot oil. This made 4 large falafel.

I served this with onion pakoras, and tandoori chicken, plus naan bread with yogurt

 

 

Radish Tsatsiki

If, like me, you've suddenly got a glut of ripe radishes, this is a great recipe to serve with BBQ food.

Ingredients , Radish (as many as you've got, but I used this bowl full), 1 clove of garlic, yoghurt (i've tried both greek, and low cal yogurt and both had different effects but tasted good).

what you do - wash, top and tail the radish, and chop finely (I used a food mixer). Crush the garlic. Mix both in with the yogurt. Add black peper to taste, (but mine were firey enough not to need much)

very simple. and great as a healthy dip with pitta bread and crudites.

Salad with beetroot & smoked mackeral

 

When I was weeding the veg garden at the weekend I found a lonely beetroot, that had survived the winter hidden under the spinach, - So today i've made good use of it for my supper with lots of salad leaves. I originally had this in a restuarant as a starter.

Ingredients , Salad leaves to taste (i've used, mini leaves, chervil, corianger, russian kale, and lambs lettuce here)  1 raw beetroot well washed, topped and tailed, smoked mackeral, (i love the peppered ones), salad dressing made up of yoghurt and horseradish sauce.

what you do - Grate the beetroot, arrange the leaves on the plate, put the fish on top and serve with dressing.

Yep it's as simple as that, and lovely and healthy too.

Spinach and cottage cheese pancake layer

This is a vegetarian recipe that even my meat eating husband likes. It's also great for using a lot of store cupboard ingredients, It's also wonderful for this time of year, as picking overwintered spinach will make sure that it give new lovely fresh new leaves over the next few weeks

Ingredients for 2 dinner portions, 1 large colander of spinach, well washed, Cottage cheese, 1 onion, nutmeg, pepper, 2 eggs, 100g plain flour, pinch of salt, 1/2 pint of milk and water. Grated Cheddar to garnish. Oil to cook pancakes

what you do - Make the pancakes with flour and salt seived into a bowl, - 1 egg broken into a dip in the middle of the flour, and then the milk and water whisked in to make a batter. Use a medium size frying pan, and add oil between each pancake, draining off any excess. wash the spinach and put in a saucepan without shaking off the water to wilt. Meanwhile, chop the onion and fry in a little butter, - add cottage cheese nutmeg, pepper and mix in the other egg. Stir as this cook. When the spinach is wilted, push all the water out of it with the back of a spoon over a seive or colander, and chop, then add to the cheese mixture.

Now layer the pancakes with the spinach and cheese mixture, - top with some grated cheese and put under the grill until the cheese has melted

I sometimes use up other cheese that's in the fridge,  - Feta and soft cheese's go well. Yum.

Rhubarb and Apple Charlotte

I've just harvested the first fruit of the year from the garden. My Rhubarb, which is forgotton and neglected behind my greenhouse is doing me proud again, and the stems that had the old wormery bin over them (more by mistake than design) have given me lovely strong forced Rhubarb stems

Ingredients for 4 portions, 2 Apples, 6 stems of rhubarb, sugar to taste( I use a teaspoon, just to help when it's stewing), 2 slices of wholemeal bread, made into breadcumbs, 2 tablespoons of Suet (I use vegetarian suet) 2 tablespoons of demerara sugar ( or slightly more if you have a sweet tooth.)

what you do - peel and core the apples, chop the rhubarb, and put in a ovenproof dish with sugar to taste over them. Mix the breadcrumbs, suet and sugar and pour over the fruit mixture and firm down. Put in the oven while you're eating your main course for 20 minutes. -

Serve with custard, cream or yoghurt.

 

Broccoli and Stilton Soup

This could be called leftover soup, as I usually make it with Stilton cheese that is way past being acceptable for serving up with biscuits, and by using the stem of the broccoli, you can make a small amount of vegetable go a long way.

Ingredients for 2 large portions, 1 onion, 2 cloves of garlic, teaspoon of olive oil, 1 small head of broccoli, or broccoli florets/ and kale leaves (you can use all the stem and leaves as well when washed) - peel the stem and cut into small dice, break the head into small florets. 1/2 litre of vegetable stock,  stilton cheese, seasoning

what you do - Chop the onion, and crush the garlic, add both to a hot pan with the olive oil, and soften. Add the chopped broccolli stem and stir for 3-5 mins so this is slightly softened as well. Now add the liquid stock and the rest of the florets/ leaves. Simmer for 20-30 minutes, then add the stilton and melt it onto the liquid. Use a liquidiser to make a smooth soup, and season if needed (usually depends how much Stilton you have added)

Goes well with cheese on toast for a warming lunch after a brisk walk, or leaf raking session.

(no I havn't got any photos of brocolli heads, that i've grown, they keep getting eaten by caterpillars, - here's hoping these plants survive the frost)

 

Carrot and Coriander Soup

It's Soup time of year. and there's nothing better at the weekend, than a bowl of warming broth. - This is one of my favourites

Ingredients – 4/5 carrots, scrubbed and peeled if bought then grated, 1 large onion, 2 cloves of garlic, fresh ginger grated, coriander powder (1/2 teaspoon) fresh coriander, 3 chopped spoonfuls plus for decoration. 2 pints of vegetable stock, olive oil

What you do – chop onion and garlic and soften in oil in a saucepan. Add grated ginger and coriander powder, stir to mix, - put in grated carrots, and stir, then pour stock over. – bring to boil, then simmer for 20 minutes. Add chopped fresh coriander. Liquidise to serve – adding milk or coconut milk if a creamier soup is required. – serve garnished with fresh coriander.

Can also be frozen if you havn't added milk.