It felt like I didn’t actually harvest that much from the garden this week, but I do seem to have quite a few photos…strange….and none of them are of parsley…even stranger. Actually I seem to be using more mint than parsley at the moment and I have also failed to photograph any mint at all – to be resolved next week. What I did photograph was dill:
This I used in the dill and walnut tarator sauce I mentioned in my dill post. In that post I said I didn’t think you could taste the dill but when I served it the next day, with some roast cauliflower I really enjoyed it, so I may yet post the recipe.
With the cauliflower & sauce we ate a salad containing both watercress and lettuce, amongst other things.
Actually I ate rather a lot of lettuce this week. As well as using pick and come again varieties like the oak leaf above I also harvested a few hearting lettuces like this one which was eaten alongside some barbequed haloumi.
I did eat quite a few root vegetables from the garden this week: Carrot, beetroot & radishes were all eaten in salads. I also made a nice beetroot and apple relish to go alongside the aforementioned haloumi.
I felt like my kids hadn’t eaten nearly enough vegetables so I made a minestrone, this used carrots, leeks and celery from the garden. I also added some finely shredded outer leaves from my purple cabbages that are taking too long to heart.
I’m getting really impatient with my broad beans this year – I have lovely tomato seedlings awaiting their place in the bed. A friend of mine recommended nipping off the tips of the broad beans which she thought would get the plant to send its energy into pod production. I nipped the tops off half to test the theory. These I stir fried like any other fast cooking green.
My final harvest is not really my harvest at all although I did grow the items in question. My daughter needed herbs for tea for her dolls. She also needed herbs for medicine in her herb hospital. Some were attatched to a large box, which I can’t quite remember the proposed purpose of. This is one of her harvests that her little brother was very keen to sample.
For other fabulous harvests from round the world head over to Daphne’s Dandelions.
Did you enjoy the Broad Bean tops? I usually pinch mine out to help reduce problems with Blackfly, but I have found that they can be a bit stringy, so I don’t generally eat them. I’d also have to pass off the attached Blackfly as “only some ground black pepper” I think!
Fortunately I’m untroubled by black fly but surely they would be useful in upping the protein component of a vegetable dish…well thats the excuse I use if anyone finds a stray caterpillar in their broccoli. Did I enjoy the broad beans – yes in a kind of anonymous way. Mine were tender and slightly pea like in taste – I experimented with them cooked a couple of ways and both steamed and stir fried worked well and I have to say I did particualrly enjoy them with a squeeze of lemon juice (although this did drown their flavour a little…). Having said all that would I buy them? Probably not but if I was pinching out the tips again I would eat them again.
I only recently tried broad bean tops and I reckon they’re good too. I never know what to do with dill. I often grow it and then it goes to seed. I don’t eat fish and that’s what everyone seems to recommend. But I’ve never tried roast cauli …and with dill. Sounds good.
I love dill with cucumber – tzatziki with dill instead of mint is wonderful. I really enjoy roast cauliflower – actually I find most things roast well – or is it that I get to rest instead of watching while they cook….
Those are some lovely looking greens and herbs. I had to look up haloumi, sounds like it would be a useful cheese in the kitchen.
I love haloumi – quick and easy dinner adn it goes particularly well with salad. It can be quite salty – perhaps thats why my kids like it so much…..
No parsley?! I was getting quite a kick out of your 1,001 ways to photograph yet more parsley adventure!
The headed lettuce (looks like a buttercrunch variety?) and the diced up veggies ready to go into the minestrone soup look particularly tasty.
Its been wet here this week so I didn’t do a great deal of photography – also I’ve pretty much run out of parsley (its gone to seed and my seedlings are the size of my little finger) but as you’ve asked I may attempt some strategically placed mint photos for next week…..Not sure about the lettuce variety – its from a mix packet of seed. I think I might stop buying mixes because I keep getting irritated when I don’t knwo what my fav varieties are.
What a great harvest! That head of lettuce looks fantastic! I am also completely jealous of all your herbs! So wonderful that your daughter knows that they are medicinal! Yay!!!
This was courtesy of a book we were reading where the protagonist created a herb hospital – I wish I could say I enlightened her but my only role was to furnish a library card at the appropriate time – oh and I did read the book to her. I’m glad I did though – It keeps her entertained for ages!!!!
Nice herb harvest and pretty photos.
Thanks Mac