Posted by kathryn in Vegetables and Fruit

A while ago Iona asked a really good question, about buying vegetables where she lived:

It’s a city without farmers’ markets, where fruit and vegetables are transported in lorries without refrigeration and stored in crates out in the hot sun at the city’s vegetable stands . . . as a result, fruit and vegetables often aren’t terribly fresh. Peppers are always wrinkly, carrots and cucumbers are soft and bendy, spinach is half green, half yellowish-brown in colour, asparagus has soggy, mouldy smelling tips that you have to cut off before cooking . . . It’s easy to eat healthily . . . where veggies are fresh and luscious, but what do you do when your choices are more limited?

I live in the middle of a City and there are options. I can shop at the supermarket or dedicated fruit and vegetable shops. There are weekend farmers’ markets, a central fruit and vegetable wholesale market and I can choose between organic and conventional. I’ve recently joined a box scheme. However this is not the case for everyone, so if your fruit and vegetable choices are limited, what do you do?

1. Shop on delivery days

Many shops only have fruit and vegetables delivered occasionally. This is particularly true of smaller stores, places with a limited turnover and shops in remote areas. Deliveries may be once a week, perhaps even less. I’ve been to places in country Australia where they only get fresh produce delivered once every three to four weeks. If this is true where you live, then find out when the deliveries do occur and try to shop on, or close to, that day. It means you’re going to get produce in its best possible state – the freshest available to you.

2. Buy the longer lasting vegetables

I adore leafy greens, but they don’t last. After a few days they’re tired, nutritionally depleted and looking quite sorry for themselves. You need to get them as fresh as possible and use them quickly.

However there are other vegies which survive longer. Potatoes, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, garlic, leeks, beetroot and onions all keep well and all contain good nutrition. Where choices are limited and vegetables look tired, I’d concentrate on buying these longer-lasting species. I’ve linked to this before, but it’s worthwhile taking a look at the table at the end of this article. It lists fruit and vegetables in the order of fastest to slowest spoilers. If your choices are limited, then concentrate on buying produce from the slower spoiling end of the chart.

3. Make use of frozen and tinned

Tinned and frozen fruit and vegetables are good options if your access to fresh is limited. They’re nutritionally valuable foods, which will add fibre, antioxidants, minerals and some vitamins to your body.

Tinned fruit, beetroot, tomatoes, corn, and legumes like lentils and chickpeas can be purchased relatively easy. Frozen vegetables are really good and worthwhile buying. Frozen fruit is also great, although it tends to be more expensive and choices are often limited.

Back up your fresh stuff with these longer-life options.

4. Get to know your supplier & be friendly, but a bit pushy

If you can, get to know your fruit and vegetable supplier. Some shop owners are not interested in chatting, but often they are. Be friendly, say hello, ask what’s best, show an interest. Getting to know your fruit and veg supplier is invaluable in my opinion. They will know what’s best, what’s going to last the longest and will usually give preferential treatment to their preferred customers. So you want to be a preferred customer. In my experience, this doesn’t necessarily mean spending lots of money. Instead it’s a matter of being friendly, having a joke and letting them know what you like.

On the flipside it can also help to be a little bit pushy. To ask for better produce. Tell them when the tomatoes are grotty and you can’t use them. Ask if they have anything fresher out the back. This is hard for many people, but I’d strongly advise you to stand your ground. Don’t be rude or aggressive. Be polite and remain friendly. But ask for better produce.

5. Grow what you can

When it’s hard to get good fresh fruit and vegetables, growing a few bits and pieces of your own is a good idea. A balcony, sunny window, shelf in the bathroom can all be good growing areas. You will need a bit of light, and the plants will need to be watered, but even a couple of pots can help top up what you’re getting from the shops.

I find leafy greens are particularly good to grow at home, which is useful as they’re the ones which wilt first. Herbs like parsley and basil, lettuces, rocket, amaranth and spinach are all easy to grow, don’t need a lot of space and are productive “crops”. There’s a great idea for hanging salad bowls on Life on the Balcony.

6. Form a local co-op or go direct to the farmers

If you still can’t find good produce then another option is to join forces with some friends and start buying in bulk – like these people have. Many cities have a centralised produce market, where you can get fresh fruit and vegetables in boxed quantities. Clubbing together with some friends or neighbours means you share the time and costs involved in going to the market and you can make use of the bulk quantities available.

Alternatively, if you ask around, there may be a local farmer who is willing to sell direct to the public. Where my parents live there’s a farm shop which collects produce from other local smallholdings and sells it directly to the public. They’re only open a couple of days a week and for limited hours. However, apart from what dad grows in the garden, my parent’s only other option is a poorly stocked supermarket. So they make the effort to go to the farm shop, where they can buy good, fresh fruit and vegetables

7. Eat whatever vegetables you can

If finding good quality vegetables in your local area is difficult, it can feel too hard and many people give up. However, vegetables are too important. You need them to be part of the food you eat every day, to have good health both now and also into the future. So don’t give up.

Also, don’t beat yourself up if you’re not able to find the full five serves or eat a variety every single day. Do the best you can. Have fresh when you can find it, but also use tinned and frozen – these are still good options.

Just eat vegetables.

What are your tips for getting the best produce?

3 comments 17 March, 2010

Posted by kathryn in Miscellanea

I’m back after a really fun, productive and food obsessed few days in Melbourne, working with Lucy on Autumn. You’ll see some of the results come through on our Flickr group. In the meantime, here, as usual, are the Friday Quicklinks:

• Baked butterbeans: I’ve been reading a lot of Nigel Slater recently and his mustard obsession is rubbing off on me. Which means I got a tad over excited about Wendy from A Wee Bit of Cooking’s Baked butterbeans with honey and mustard. It’s such a simple idea, and looks very, very good.
• Being upsold at the deli: Piece from The Guardian asking what you do when shop assistants cut bigger pieces of cheese / meat / fish than you’ve asked for. Would you just take the piece offered?
• Using kale: I also spotted a simple recipe on the Bastyr Centre’s website for Sake-braised kale. There’s ginger and garlic in there too.
• Eggplant: I was all set to put in a link for 80 Breakfasts lovely autumnal, Spanish inspired beef stew. But then I saw the Eggplant with sumac and garlic yoghurt dip, so I’m going to include that as well.
• Leeks with greens: I am a bit of a greens fiend. Which means I couldn’t go past River Cottage’s Leeks with greens. There’s a bit of butter in there, but otherwise it’s all Greenery.

5 comments 12 March, 2010

Posted by kathryn in Miscellanea

• Iran’s minestrone: I haven’t made this soup yet, but boy it looks good. It’s Yotam Ottolenghi’s chickpea and noodle soup. He describes it as the “Iranian answer to minestrone”.
• Why do you cook? There’s an interesting series of posts on Cooking with Amy about why people cook. I particularly like Andrea Nguyen’s list.
• Salad dressings: This morning Zoe from Progressive Dinner Party via Twitter (@crazybrave) pointed me to this post on vegetable salad dressings. It includes a creamy beetroot dressing, which is wonderfully pink.
• Sweet potato balls: These are covered in chocolate, so they’re in the treat category, but I do like Anh’s recipe for chocolate covered sweet potato balls.
• Frittatas: Martha Rose Shulman has been writing about baked frittatas this week. There are about four recipes, but I particularly like the look of the green peppers and yoghurt version.
• Snacking: Dietician Leslie Beck has a useful piece in the Globe and Mail about snacking. I think snacks are one of the keys to healthy eating. As Leslie says “if you choose wisely, the right snacks can improve your diet”. Her piece contains some good, sensible, general advice.

I’m off to Melbourne tomorrow, to work with Lucy on the Autumn edition of An Honest Kitchen. So I’ll be back blogging, end of next week.

In general, if you want to see what’s going on with An Honest Kitchen, we have a Flickr group where we’re posting a selection of photos as we work through Autumn. Plus you can post your photos of food from the eMagazine.

6 comments 06 March, 2010

Posted by kathryn in Vegetables, Easier eating and Fruit

Just recently I’ve started subscribing to a weekly fruit and vegetable box. It’s a CSA scheme, where you don’t get any choice. Instead, each Monday a box of in-season fruit and vegetables, grown within 5 hours of Sydney, is delivered.

I’m loving it. The produce is fresh, each week I’m getting something new and there have even been some surprises in the box – produce I’ve never tasted.

But making the best use of a vegetable box, is a challenge which requires a slightly different approach to meal planning. Rather than starting from a recipe and then compiling a shopping list, it’s the produce which directs your cooking.

The danger is you can end up either wasting fruit and vegetables or buying a lot of extra produce to supplement your box. Thinking about this, over the last few weeks, here’s how I approach getting the most out of my fruit and vegetable delivery.

1. Use the greens first

Some vegetables are long lasters. While others wilt and start looking tired within only a couple of days. Therefore it’s important to take care with the order in which you use the vegetables. My basic rule of thumb is:

• Use the greenery first. Spinach, watercress, mixed salad leaves, Asian greens, fresh herbs, anything with a soft green leaf will start to look quite sorry after a couple of days. So use these up first.
• Potatoes, sweet potato, pumpkin, onions, garlic, leeks, even beetroot and sometimes carrots will all survive a week. Some will be good for longer than that. So I plan to use these vegetables at the end of the week.
• Use your judgement with the rest. The longevity of everything else lies somewhere between these two extremes. Use your own judgement about the produce you have. If something is starting to lose it’s freshness then use it up.
• The same is true for fruit. At the moment I’m making sure I use the ripe stonefruit first, while I’m leaving apples until later in the week.
• There’s a useful chart at the end of this post showing the fastest to slowest spoilers.

2. Talk to other people

I know a number of people who are also getting fruit and vegetable boxes. Talking to them about how they use the produce and what they’ve been cooking, has been immensely useful.

I’ve also had some useful recipe suggestions from people on Twitter. It was through a discussion about kale that @cheapdatesydney pointed me to this mashed potato with kale and olive oil recipe. While @crazybrave suggested I used my Chinese broccoli in a caramelised tofu recipe.

Find other people who are also subscribing to a vegie box and learn from them.

3. Google is your friend

I’ve also been making wide use of Google. A search engine can help you find background information and recipes for a particular food item. For example, this week’s delivery included water spinach, which I’ve never eaten before. Google led me to this recipe for water spinach with ginger.

A search engine can also help you find ways of using up large amounts of one food, or produce which is going bad. In the first week I ended up with some over-ripe stonefruit. Rather than throwing it out, I Googled “how to use over-ripe fruit” and came up with this recipe for oven poaching with cinnamon.

4. Be flexible

One of the dangers with getting a vegie box is you can end up buying a whole lot of other ingredients, to make up specific recipes and meals. Which of course means your weekly grocery bill rises. To prevent this I find it helps to be flexible with your cooking. I try to take the attitude of making do with what I have, rather than buying a whole lot of new ingredients.

An example – the original caramelised tofu recipe I listed above is made with Brussels sprouts. I made mine with Chinese broccoli and it worked just fine.

5. Roast, soup or stew the leftovers

At the end of the week there’s usually something leftover – a bit of pumpkin, a few leaves, some extra fruit. If that’s the case then I’ll try to cook it up in some way. Over the last few weeks I’ve:

• Roasted the last bits of pumpkin, with spices and then used this as a spread on toast and to make a risotto.
• Blitzed half a bunch of leftover basil with pine nuts and olive oil to make a dairy-free pesto – which I’ve used on toast, in pasta and as part of a filling for jacket potatoes.
• Used leftover apples in a crumble.
• Made the remnants of watercress into a soup and put this in the freezer.

I’m loving my weekly fruit and vegetable box and the way it’s making me think more deeply about what I’m eating and cooking. It feels like a surprise present and opening the box and rifleing through is becoming a weekly pleasure. Plus I’m eating produce grown within a five hour radius of where I live – the Australian version of “local”.

What are your tips for using up a vegie box?

19 comments 02 March, 2010

Posted by kathryn in Blogging and An Honest Kitchen

Last week I recorded a Q & A session with Shauna and Carla from Two Fit Chicks and a Microphone. The podcast is now available online and it’s all about Food Glorious Food.

We talk about Vitamin D, the importance of eating a variety of foods, grapeseed oil, whey powder and a whole lot of other things. For details about how to download see the Two Fit Chicks website.

An Honest Kitchen on Flickr and Twitter

Lucy and I have set up a Flickr group for An Honest Kitchen.

We’ll be uploading photos as we work on the next edition. But also invite you to post photos of the recipes you’ve cooked from An Honest Kitchen. We’d love to see what you’re making. Plus you can chat about the recipes and ask us any questions you want.

An Honest Kitchen also has a Twitter account: @AnHonestKitchen with updates on the next issue.

Spring / Summer bumper edition special offer ending soon

We are currently selling the Spring and Summer editions of An Honest Kitchen together, as one combined package. But this special offer only lasts until the end of February. Buying the combined edition costs A$24.95, which is a saving of A$14.95.

To find out more information, download the free extracts, or purchase a copy click here.

2 comments 23 February, 2010

Posted by kathryn in Miscellanea

• Five ingredients: Jules from Stonesoup has started a new weekly series of recipes which can be prepared in under 10 minutess and use no more than five ingredients. She kicks-off with a a lovely zucchini pasta recipe.
• Saturated fats: There has been a lot of talk about saturated fats in the last week, following the release of a new study by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Here’s Leslie Becks summary and thoughts on the research.
• Kashmiri paneer: What a cracking recipe from Mallika at Quick Indian Cooking: kashmiri paneer. It has paneer, tomatoes, yoghurt, lots of spices and some almonds. Delicious.
• Simple stews: Times Online have a great series on cooking shortcuts. They cover ingredients and basic processes. Good examples are these two on stews and red cabbage.
• Lovely mashed potatoes: It was Cheap Date Sydney who directed me to this recipe from 101 Cookbooks: mashed potatoes with olive oil and kale. I’ve posted before about how I make a healthier mash but I haven’t thought to stir green vegies through. Am loving the look of Heidi’s recipe.

5 comments 18 February, 2010

Posted by kathryn in Vegetables, Breakfast, Eggs and Summer

This is my current favourite breakfast – Indian-style scrambled eggs on toast. It’s something I’ve gradually adapted from a Madhur Jaffrey recipe. Step-by-step making it a little easier and a little more suited to my tastes.

If I get up early to exercise, this is what I have when I get back. It fills me up, keeps me going until lunch-time, while also providing lots of good, dense nutrition.

The original recipe has a few more processes and ingredients, so I’ve simplified the method. It also doesn’t have quite enough vegetable for me, so I’ve added more tomato and the handful of greenery. Fresh herbs like basil and parsley are particularly good in here. Spinach and other leafy greens also work, so I just use what I have in the fridge.

I’ve had this for breakfast so many times that I’ve stared pre-mixing the spices. I mix equal quantities of turmeric, chilli powder, cumin and garam masala in a jar. I then use about half a teaspoon of this spice mix in the eggs, rather than worrying about individual packets and pinches.

While I’ve been having this for breakfast it would also make a good lunch and easy late night supper.

Indian-style Scrambled Eggs (for one)

2 teaspoons olive oil
1/4 onion, finely chopped
2 eggs
Pinch of turmeric
Pinch of chilli powder
Pinch of ground cumin
Pinch of garam masala
1cm piece of fresh ginger, slightly finely chopped
1 medium tomato, or 5 cherry tomatoes, roughly chopped
Large handful of greenery, washed & very roughly torn

Cook the onion: Put a non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the olive oil and when this is hot, but not smoking, add the onion. Stir and fry until the onion is lightly browned at the edges. This will take between 3 and 7 minutes, depending on how finely you’ve chopped the onions.

Mix together the eggs and spices: While the onions are cooking break the eggs into a bowl. Add the spices and season with salt and pepper. Whisk together until just combined.

Add the ginger, tomato, eggs & greenery: Add the ginger and tomato to the onion. Stir and cook for a few seconds. Turn the heat down to medium-low and add the eggs. Stir the eggs gently, until they form thick, soft curds. Just before they set add in the greenery and stir through so it just wilts. Serve immediately on a slice of wholegrain toast.

What’s your current favourite breakfast?

14 comments 16 February, 2010

Posted by kathryn in Miscellanea

• Recipe formulas: Piece from Michelle of Find Your Balance on recipe formulas. It’s about taking the structure of a recipe and then changing it to suit what you have in the fridge and pantry. I find this a useful way of approaching meals in my house.
• Food labels: An article from the NY Times on how the US is encouraging food manufacturers to include nutritional information for real serving sizes on their packets. Discusses some of the problems with the current system.
• Cookies: It was Deborah on Twitter (@ddot_) who reminded me about these cookies from Heidi of 101 Cookbooks. I made a batch this week, with a few substitutions. You can see the details here. They’re tasty and great for a snack on a busy day.
• Recipes using beans and lentils: I’m new to the blog How to Shuck an Oyster but Charlotte has some lovely recipes, including a couple of simple ones with legumes. Firstly there’s this white bean with anchovies and fresh herbs and then there’s also a beautiful lentil tabbouleh
• Just eat food: Here’s Marion Nestle’s answer to conflicting nutrition studies – just eat food.

8 comments 11 February, 2010

Posted by kathryn in Vegetables and Easier eating

In January I started a series on the ingredients I use regularly. I wrote about Flavour Boosters and two of my favourite Easy Vegetables. Today I’m continuing the Easy Vegetables theme.

I’m a big fan of fresh vegetables. The range, the smell and taste, the possibilities that are opened up when you have fresh produce, are all characteristics that give me pleasure and excitement.

Despite this I don’t eat fresh all the time. Sometimes I don’t have time or energy for all the chopping involved. At other times, it’s been too long between shopping trips and we’re running low on the fresh stuff. In these instances I fall back on frozen and tinned vegetables. Which means two ingredients which feature heavily in my cooking are tinned tomatoes and tinned legumes.

Tinned tomatoes

Not only are they a fabulous source of lycopene, tinned tomatoes are one of the easiest ways to add a vegetable serve or two to the meals you are cooking.

How I use tinned tomatoes

• I’m not a fan of the taste of raw tinned tomatoes, so I always add them during the cooking, usually near the beginning. I use them in soups, dishes I’m cooking on the stovetop, as well as things destined for the oven.
• For an easy one-pot sauce I saute some onion in a wide based frying pan. Add in garlic, herbs and/or spices and then a tin of tomatoes. Turn the heat up to medium-high and let the tomatoes cook vigorously for 6 – 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. The high temperature ensures the tomatoes reduce down and quickly form a sauce.
• This tomato sauce can be tossed through pasta. You could also add pieces of browned meat at the beginning of the cooking, or some tinned legumes, and I regularly stir through spinach and/or peas.
• If I’m making a soup, especially if it’s something with robust flavours, I’ll usually add at least one tin of tomatoes, to up the vegetable quota.

Tinned legumes

Legumes are one of those food groups which people often overlook. They have a reputation of being bland and / or tricky to use, but I love beans, chickpeas, lentils and so on. They are high in protein, fibre, low GI carbohydrates, while also being stacked full of wonderful health-enhancing antioxidants.

While I often have tubs of cooked-from-dried beans and lentils in the freezer, I also always have tins of legumes in the pantry. To use you just open the tin and drain off the liquid. Sometimes I give them a quick rinse, but not always and I don’t think it makes a lot of difference.

How I use tinned legumes

• Tinned legumes require no cooking, so if my dinner is looking low in vegetables, I’ll add some chickpeas or lentils, to boost that up.
• I add tinned legumes to salads to make them more interesting and varied.
• I use tinned legumes to make a meal more filling, as I’ve done with this Lentil and Haloumi Salad
• Sometimes I add tinned legumes instead of cooking a separate pot of rice, or other grain, as their low GI carbohydrates bulk up the meal and fill me up.
• I use chickpeas in the wonderful, filling and hot soup lablabi

Two recipes using Easy Vegetables

There are two great examples of how I use tinned tomatoes, tinned legumes and the other Easy Vegetables in the Winter and Spring free extracts of An Honest Kitchen.

• The Winter extract includes a recipe for Chickpea and Spinach Soup – click here to download.
• In the Spring edition there’s a recipe for Gingery Beef with Spinach. There are also instructions for making a vegetarian version of this with paneer, instead of the beef. Click here to download the free extract.

Both of these are quick to make, plus they taste great. They show two different ways of using the Easy Vegetables I’ve discussed, as both recipes include tinned tomatoes, tinned legumes, as well as fresh spinach and fresh herbs.

How do you use tinned tomatoes & legumes?

6 comments 10 February, 2010

Posted by kathryn in Miscellanea

• Wonderful stuffed capsicums: I made this recipe twice last week, both times for picnics. It’s Ganga from A Life (Time) of Cooking’s adaptation of a Nigel Slater recipe for capsicums stuffed with tomatoes. It’s good. I mean really, really, really good.
• Becoming a Selectarian: Great piece from the Redefining Diets blog on avoiding those calls from the kitchen cupboard of chocolate/chips/biscuits saying “eat me”.
• Noodles with walnuts: A gorgeous looking recipe from Ottolenghi for Udon Noodles with Miso and Walnuts. To me it’s a slighty unusual combination, but I’m intrigued and it looks delish.
• Should you sear a steak? Piece from The Guardian on whether searing a steak locks in the juices.
• Cabbage on toast: It may not sound like the most glamorous of meals, but I reckon this recipe for cabbage and bitter leaves on garlic toast is great. A combination of greens gently cooked in red wine and then served on garlic-rubbed toast. What’s not to like?
• Drinking alcohol: The Times has a good Q & A on alcohol – Two glasses a night? What’s the problem? It covers the nitty gritty about safe drinking levels and whether there’s anything you can do to offset your alcohol intake.
• Mindful eating: This article is one of the best pieces I’ve read on mindful eating. It’s from Brigham & Women’s Hospital in the US and covers the basics, along with a great exercise to get you started.
• Simple breakfast: Have to say I’m quite enamoured of this breakfast idea from Fuss Free Flavours. It’s a banana and peanut butter breakfast wrap. Particularly like the addition of pepitas.

7 comments 04 February, 2010