Spur of the Moment recipes &trade;

Food from Living Under One Sun

I tend not to follow recipes, so my cooking is usually spur of the moment recipes ™ and whatever is already available in the house (fridge or cupboard).

Volunteering at Living Under One Sun (LUOS) means bringing home different fresh food to experiment with and savour. Last week's fresh food crop included:

Spinach
Ruby Chard
Broad-Leaved Parsley
Curly-Leaved Parsley
Sprouting Broccoli
Fennel Leaf
Mint
Parsnip
Rhubarb

This blog is about my spur of moment recipes™ using some freshly picked crops from LUOS.

Spinach and Chard Soup (SACS)

Wash the spinach and chard. See (NOTE SACS 1)
Sauté a small onion and 1 large capscicum (bell pepper) in a little water with cooking oil. See (NOTE SACS 2, 3, 4 and 5).
Add the spinach and chard, stir into the sautéed onion and capscicum, making sure the leaves are covered.
Season, cover and leave to simmer for a few minutes.
Serve hot

NOTES
SACS 1: Kale can be added to the spinach and chard.
Kale however, has a stronger flavour than chard and spinach. Spinach is the mildest of the three.

While spinach and chard can be added to cook at the same time. Kale, because of its stronger flavour, needs longer cooking time, otherwise its flavour will overwhelm the taste of the chard and spinach.

SACS 2: Leek and spring onions can replace the onion.

SACS 3:I use quality olive oil or pure coconut oil (Holland and Barrett sell pure coconut oil). I hear walnut oil is good and probably less fattening.

SACS 4: This recipe's end product can also be served as a side dish, depending on the amount of water added for the sauté. Constituent wise - you should be able to eat the side dish with a fork; the soup with a spoon.

This recipe can also be used as a base for spinach, spinach and chard or spinach, chard and kale peppery soup or side dish. Sauté the onion and capscicum with fresh chillies for the peppery version.

SACS 5: Capscicum (bell pepper) - red or orange capscicum work best for me in this recipe. If kale is included in the recipe, I suggest using only red capscicum. The stronger flavour of the red capscicum will go well with kale.

Roast Parsnips and Potatoes with fennel and mint. (RPAPWFAM)

I had never used fennel in cooking before and was unsure as to the best way of using fennel with last weeks's food crops from LOUS.

I decided to :

Wash the fennel and mint. Strip off their leaves, cover and leave aside.
Dice the parsnips and potatoes. See (NOTE RPAPWFAM 1)
Sprinkle the fennel and mint leaves on top.
Springle some flaked coconut oil on top.
Cover with foil and cook in the middle of the oven with whatever else is being roasted at the same time. Should be ready within 20 - 25 minutes.
Serve hot (best eaten while still hot)

Living Under One Sun - The Blog