One of the joys of a kitchen garden is that you can get creative and inventive with wholesome, fresh as you like, tasty vegetables. I love going out on a summer's afternoon and picking a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and having the muse walk with me, formulating a plan in my head for a delicious dinner. It just takes a little understanding of what tastes might go together, and trying something different.
I also like to make the herbs feature, because they are so good for you. There's not really a herb that isn't medicinal in some way, so the title is a bit of a creative stretch, but I wanted to emphasis that we're not just eating for taste, we're eating to truly nourish ourselves. Many kitchen herbs like sage and rosemary are overlooked, but they have incredibly benefits for the body. Rosemary, for example, is great for the liver.
It's even better when you invent long winded names for the dishes, making them sound a little special.
For tonight's dinner, dear Hiveians, we have:
- Zucchini Fettucini with Oregano and Tamari Almond Pesto & Salt Preserved Lemons
- Wilted Cucumber Salad with Calendula, Soaked in a Thyme and Blackcurrant Vinegarette
- Buttery Fried Potatoes with Sage & Thyme
Sound good? Whilst my pretentious titles might sound tricky, these dishes are delicous and easy. Plant based heaven.
Oregano Pesto and Zucchini Fettucine
I love my zucchini noodler. It's a great way to get through lots and lots of zucchini, and since I have bought it, I can't get enough zucchini out of the garden. Zoodles form a basis for many toppings, both warm and cold. A substitute pasta or a salad base, they're a good way to get raw and healthy food into you. I simply set mine on the wider ribbon setting.
The oregano pesto is easy as you like. Simply strip oregano stalks (about a cup) of the leaves and pop in a food processor with a generous sploodge of olive oil, salt and pepper, a clove of garlic. Add a handful of nuts and seeds. I used pan fried pepitas and sunflower seeds, and a handful of tamari almonds. But you can use whatever nuts you like. If you like, you can add nutritional yeast or a cashew fetta.
Mix with the pesto and top with preserved lemons. If you don't have preserved lemons, you can use lemon zest, or leave out altogether. I love the citrusy contrast with the oily, garlicky herbaceous pesto.
Buttery Potatoes With Herbs
Melt a generous two tablespoons of plant based butter in a cast iron skillet and add a few tablespoons of herbs of your choice - thyme and sage are good, as are rosemary. Fry in the butter til fragrant, then add around 2 cups of cooked potatoes and fry until golden.
Cucumber Salad
My Nana used to make an amazing cucumber salad, which my sister makes every Christmas to remember her by. The trick is to leave it in the vinegairette for a couple of hours so the cucumber softens, but I often forget and leave it merely as I'm cooking everything else. Use a mandolin or really super thinly slice the cucumbers. Mix vinegar and olive oil to the tang you like and pour over the salt. Season and sprinkle with calendula flowers.
I'd had a gigantic cucumber hidden under the leaves I thought might be bitter, but I shaved off the skin and removed the seeds and it was super tasty. Store bought cucumbers are usually full of water and usually fairly tasteless, but homegrown, they're something else.
I used a oxymel as the vinegar - I've written about this before but I simply stuffed a jar with blackcurrants and thyme, covered it with apple cider vinegar and topped up with raw honey, and left for a month. So this dressing isn't just tasty, it's medicinal too.
I really believe in getting a lot of herbs into the diet in all kinds of sneaky ways. Kale salt. Pickled cabbage. Fresh fennel flowers. Calendula sprinkled on everything. Pestos. Dried and mixed with seeds as a sprinkle. They're just as an important part of the kitchen garden as tomatoes and beans might be, and there's so many ways to prepare them so you can use them in winter too. They're incredibly good for you, and it suprises me how they rarely feature in plant based dishes.
What's your favourite herb based dish?
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With Love,
https://gateway.ipfs.io/ipfs/QmcGSZxvsXD8YbSCNAo6KWc4a9RjXyRCjWupZdPXJapkXk
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This was going to have to be the recipe for this week! Three in one!!
You've been curated by @minismallholding for Natural Medicine's homesteading newsletter, supporting gardeners, permaculturalists, foragers, environmentalists and other earth centred relationships with the earth.
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I should have divided it across three posts, @minismallholding! Thanks for your comment!
!ENGAGE 50
They wouldn't have looked so good apart. And what about your restaurant quality menu, if you'd done that? 😛
ENGAGEtokens.You know, I have been UMMing & AAAHHHing about one of those spiralizer gadgets (cos i have to buy online from another country) but this post has basically SEALED the DEAL!!! Zucchinis are abundant here 9like most places and I suddenly have cravings for the spiralized zuchs with stir fried garlicky mushrooms. And a home made Thai basil pesto.
Cooking with herbs from your own garden is such an amazing thing to do. Me?? after the last garden debacle, I am keeping my herbs in pots.
Oh yeah the spiralisers are fantastic!!!! That sounds like a delicious recipe! I love them, even if they are just doused in a vinegareitte aka oxymel! I don't know why - once I discovered how good zucc were raw I've been so into them! I used to plant 2 plants and couldn't get rid of them, now I plant 4 and never have enough!! Even just sliced paper thin, they're like cucumbers!
Oh yes I'd highly recommend putting your plants in pots haha!!!
I think I have planted herbs in every single house I have ever lived in. I used to raid them from Mum's garden and transplant them - and I lived in a lot of share houses! I could never understand those floral English gardens - pretty, but what can you use out of them, really? All the goodness was growing wild in the woods! And I guess they give up on kitchen herbs when they die off in the winter? Idk. Here, they grow all year around, and in your climate - wow. What's your favourite asian culinary herb? I planted lots of thai basil this year - yum - and tulsi too.
What an amazing recipe! :) :)
Thanks, I had fun with it. the oregano pesto is particularly handy for all kinds of things.
Flowers in salads - love the way it looks
Actually, they all look so good
Yes, I put calendula on EVERYTHING - it is so good for you.
Seriously, is there anything you can't do? I just want to stand new next to you and absorb your knowledge and creativity.
Please, do tell me more.... :P
Blush.
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Yum, yum, yum! Sounds like a perfect meal to me! Our herbs are at a sad state right now, but they'll bounce back in not to long and start overtaking everything again. :)
They do come out in abundance, hey? I have SO much oregano, I'm going to make and freeze pesto for winter to add to soups and things.
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Stay creative & hive on!
Absolutely delightful. I really can't wait until summer when I can get my hands on fresh oregano and make oregano pesto. I have never done that. Thanks for reminding me about zoodling. I bought a used one and stuck it in the cupboard.
I totally love it - you just have to use it a few times to see the worth. Great to ladle a coconut curry over or a pasta sauce, no cooking required. Does necessitate a lot of zucc though!
I had a chef boyfriend once who told me pesto could be made out of anything. Whta a revelation - blew my mind! Oregano and kale, kale and basil, ... yum.
Great composition! I can almost smell the wonderful aromas. Mouth watering. Nicely done, @riverflows!
Thanks @litguru! Every now and then I have fun getting my creative kitchen cook out of the closet.
That reads like a restaurant menu! They look so good too.
I'd love to make this, but I'd spend hours doing it and I guarantee Shaun and Izzy either wouldn't like it, or they'd say, "I'm still hungry" and raid the cupboards for junk food.
Hahaha it's a woman's lot.
Hi riverflows,
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Great pictures of the food, I got hungry just looking at them! And very grateful for the data you share, very interesting.
You have some scrumptious dishes here ... A zucchini noodler? What will they think of next?
Salt preserved lemons I am very interested in... have never heard of that before and one thing we get in our climate is PLENTY lemons.
<Mix vinegar and olive oil to the tang you like and pour over the salt.
What do you mean by pour over the salt? I keep a ramikin of very thinly sliced cucumbers in rice wine vinegar, water and small amount of sugar and dried dill in a ramikin in the fridge. Use it as snack, on sandwiches on burgers and with salad. Is very tasty, cheap and convenient.
I shall search your blog for the 'oxymel' post as that also sounds super interesting.
These recipes are great @riverflows and you are right, when you grow your food the taste is a thousand times better than when you shop at a store. In my case, the topochos are an exceptional thing, which causes eating and eating without stopping how delicious they are. Of the dishes you present, I really liked the oregano pesto and the zucchini fettuccine. Also buttery potatoes, because the potato is a vegetable that I love and it is very versatile. What good recipes! A great greeting.
Estas recetas están geniales @riverflows y tienes razón, cuando uno cultiva la comida, el sabor es mil veces mejor que cuando uno compra en una tienda. En mi caso, los topochos son una cosa excepcional, que provoca comer y comer sin parar de lo deliciosos que quedan. De los platos que presentas, me gustó mucho el pesto de orégano y los fetuchinis de calabacín. También las papas mantecosas, porque la papa es una verdura que me encanta y es muy versátil. ¡Que buenas recetas! Un gran saludo.