The above picture is the same broccoli plant, as the feature image in the ‘My Garden’ section. Incredibly, the photos are taken nearly 8 weeks apart ( 23/4-24/6 ). In that time, besides at one stage a daily inspection and assassination of caterpillars by hand, some Seasol and watering, mother nature did all the work.

Day 1 of winter garden 29/3/15

It has now been 12 weeks since I planted my winter garden. In that time, I have completed five sessions of chemo and have generally felt well and maintained strength. There was a time between my 3rd and 4th treatments, where I struggled mentally with getting ‘up’ for the treatments. In retrospect, this was a similar time as protecting the broccoli from infestation. Each day, I had to review, take stock of the end result and pick away the negative thoughts and stay strong. I made it through, just like the broccoli, to now have only 1 session left!

7/5/15

However, this will only be part one of treatment crossed off. Two treatments of methotrexate and radiation still to come. So,  I am now taking full advantage of the wonderful bounty my garden has delivered to keep me well and strong. As seen on previous posts, I have started to harvest. Silver beet has been made into soup, quiches and pies. Cabbage has been used for stuffed cabbage rolls and braised with bacon. Baby beetroot has been boiled and panfried, with the leaves steamed with garlic and olive oil. Kale, also only needed to be steamed with garlic and olive oil and of course, I made some kale pesto. Celery from the garden, is replacing the store bought one in my daily juice regimen as is parsley going in. In fact, parsley is going in everything at the moment! And I even juiced the broccoli leaves today. Why not!

The well being garden 24/6/15

Grow well, eat well, be well!

Nothing beats a hearty soup during winter. It’s an easy weekend lunch for the family and a quick and cheap weekday lunch to bring to work

Here I’ve made use of a leftover roast chicken dinner, miso paste that’s always handy to have in your pantry and some silver beet and parsley from the garden again.

Soup ingredients

500 gram packet of ‘Soup mix’

1 brown onion

1 carrot

1 celery stalk

2 garlic cloves

2 bay leaves

2 sweetcorn cobs

18 grams packet of miso paste

5 large silver beet leaves

First, soak your ‘soup mix’ in cold water. The mix will contain beans, chickpeas, split peas and lentils. Soaking these helps to remove oligosaccharides, the hard to digest complex sugars, from the outer coating of beans and pulses. It will also help  with the cooking time.

Miso and chicken stock

Next, place the roast chicken carcass, bay leaves and 500 ml of water into a large pot. Bring to the boil, then simmer for an hour. Skim any fat and impurities from the surface from time to time.

Turn off heat and remove carcass. Whisk miso paste through the stock and season. Now a broth, this could be used as a soup with some noodles, fresh coriander, tofu and finely chopped ginger and chilli. Mmmm…now that is warming!

Soup base with corn kernels

Prepare the vegetable base for the soup. For this, brown onion, carrot and celery are diced into approximately 1 cm cubes. In culinary terms, this is called a mirepoix.  Remember, the larger the surface area you create, the more flavour that will be extracted. I am also adding raw corn kernels to this base. Season.

Sweat the mirepoix off. The seasoning will help draw out the flavours. Strain the soaking soup mix and give a good rinse. When the onions are translucent, combine the soup mix and vegetables, letting the pulses absorb some of the flavours. Season again.

Add the miso chicken broth, then simmer.

When the pulses and vegetables are just past ‘al dente’, add the fresh chopped silver beet leaves. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

To serve, sprinkle parmesan cheese on top, to add a power packed umami, one-two combination with the miso. Bang!

Recently, I became aware of a campaign called ‘Meatless Mondays’. It encourages us to have at least one meat free meal a week, for a variety of good reasons.http://www.meatlessmonday.com/about-us/why-meatless/ With a garden full of vegetables, it would be remiss of me to ignore. At the moment, the silver beet is ready to go, so that is where my inspiration came from.

Silver beet, flat leaf parsley & beetroot leaves

From my garden, I gathered roughly a bunch of silver beet leaves, some beetroot leaves for colour and parsley for flavour.

Cut silver beet at base of stem

When gathering your bounty, it’s wise to be careful. I have a large bowl and a pair of scissors ready, then cut the leaves off at the base of the stem. This prevents you from pulling the whole plant out and also allows the plant to keep ‘coming back’.

Pie ingredients

1 bunch of silver beet ( and beet leaves if handy ), roughly chopped

250 grams of fresh ricotta

1 brown onion, sliced

2 cloves of garlic, sliced

3 eggs

Filo pastry

Mix of ingredients

First, sweat off the onions and garlic. Cook these until they are soft and translucent. Add the chopped silver beet leaves and stems and cook these together with the onions until they are wilted. Season it with a little sea salt and pepper. Take off the heat and allow to cool.

Once cooled, drain off any excess liquid to make the silver beet as dry as possible. Put the wilted silver beet into a mixing bowl, then break the eggs into the mix and crumble the ricotta in as well. Chop the fresh parsley and combine into the mix. Using a spoon or your hands, roughly mix all the ingredients together. I would try to leave the ricotta chunky.

So now we have a basic mix. If you were feeling creative, you could add anything to this mix, from more veggies ( pumpkin, sweet potato, capsicum, etc.) to proteins such as chicken, bacon or salmon. Some spice such as cumin wouldn’t be out of place either.

Filled pie casing

Next layer about 4-5 sheets of filo pastry together. Lay one sheet down, spray with olive oil then lay the next sheet on top. Repeat this for all sheets. Spray a baking dish, then line with the filo pastry. Tuck the sheets into the sides and corners. Then place the silver beet and ricotta filling inside. You can repeat the layering of filo pastry sheets for the lid. Place the lid on and trim the edges, then pinch together the base and lid. Brush the lid with an egg wash.

Bake in the oven at 180° for 25-30 mins. Serve with a salad or sweet potato chips.