Every week I get a vegetable box delivered and I find myself staring at it thinking, ‘what can I do with all this veg?’
To save myself the agony next year I’m writing down my ideas every month. It is turning into a seasonal food diary and the little bit of planning is saving me lots of stress.
This is my veg box from Chi Wholefoods at the end of April. The veg box is to feed me and my very hungry teenager for a week, although the teenager is away over the weekend so I can make things he doesn’t like. He has turned from a very picky eater into a locust and I have taken to feeding him mixing bowl sized portions. He still turns his nose up at salad but I love it.
This week I’m going to have a go at batch cooking. I love cooking and I don’t want to relinquish all chopping and sauteing but I want to be more prepared for days when the chip shop seems like a good idea. It never is, I always feel gross afterwards! I cook to wind down and I like listening to the radio while I chop up veg, it provides some punctuation to the day.
We don’t have a microwave so anything I cook now to eat later will be frozen and defrosted old style. I’m thinking sauces would be the easiest option here.
This is what’s in the box
- Leeks
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Onions
- Butternut Squash
- Aubergine
- Baking Potatoes
- White Cabbage
- Courgettes
- Fennel
- Curly Kale
- Onions
I swapped the nasty Jerusalem Artichokes for Apples. I still have a garden full of Jerusalem Artichokes, I’ve never managed to make them taste nice and all they do is take up space. They are almost impossible to get rid of since a new plant will grow from a small, accidentally sliced off bit of root.
Recipe ideas for an April veg box
My first adventure into serious batch cooking is to make enough tomato sauce to portion up and freeze. That will use up the aubergine, onions and courgette.
I recently bought a cheap mandolin so I’ll try thinly slicing the potatoes, and possibly the squash. If I get any good new recipes I’ll share them. I like the idea of a potato and leek bake so I’ll make some white sauce in bulk and freeze that too. The broccoli and cauliflower can go into a cheese sauce too.
Kale is going to be oven baked until crispy and sprinkled with a little sea salt. A big bunch of kale cooks down to delicious dust in the oven quite quickly, so it needs watching.
I’ve been enjoying fennel and leek soup recently and that uses up the dark end of the leek.
My only problem this week is a huge white cabbage. I am still thinking about it and haven’t got further than stir fry and coleslaw, probably not nice eaten at the same time.
If you have a similar April veg box I hope this has given you some ideas for things to do with it. If you have any genius ideas for using up huge white cabbages please let me know. I’m on Twitter and Facebook or you can email me at info@less-stuff.co.uk.
If you found this post useful, please share it with your friends.