Fresh & Natural Food

Archive for the ‘vegetable recipe’ Category

Having your own vegetable patch or fruit garden was once commonplace, but fell out of favour as the food industry become more commercial and supermarkets began to take over. In recent years however, more and more people have started explore growing their own produce again. Here we give 5 reasons why you might consider starting your own kitchen garden.

- Freshness

Fruit and vegetables taste better and are healthier if eaten as soon as possible after picking. Most fruit you buy from supermarkets and the like is picked well before it is properly ripe, to extend shelf life, and this usually has an impact on flavour. Growing your own lets you taste the freshest possible produce as it’s meant to taste.

- Quality

Commercially grown crops are often selected for their high yields, uniform appearance and long shelf lives rather than for quality and taste. When you grow your own, you can concentrate on the quality rather than the economics.

- Price

Much supermarket fresh produce is hugely overpriced, despite their advertising claims. Growing your own from seed is about as inexpensive as you can get, and even growing from small plants you buy is likely to provide you better food at a lower cost. With many plants, you can use the seed from one growing season to provide plants for the next – a self sustaining cycle that will cost you only time and effort to keep going.

- Provenance

More and more people have concerns about how our food is produced, with chemical pesticides and GM food a particular worry. With your own vegetable patch, you know exactly where your food is from and how it was grown.

- Variety

There are literally thousands of different varieties of fruit and vegetables, but supermarkets tend to concentrate on only the most profitable and easy to sell. This means that our choice is often limited to a few select varieties of apple, for example, rather than the hundreds of traditional kinds that exist. Growing your own lets you pick the varieties you like the most, and experiment to find new ones you’ll rarely see on sale.

There is of course a downside to all this – it takes time and effort. In these increasingly busy times, we might not think we have the time to spare, but starting small with a few herb plants on your windowsill, or even the odd tomato plant, will give you a taste of growing your own and might even be enough to hook you into it for life!

You do not always need meat, fish, or poultry to make soup. In fact, some of the best soups are vegetarian. Whether you are a vegetarian or simply trying to increase the amount of vegetables you eat, there is no denying that vegetables are healthy as well as very tasty, and there are lots of different herbs, spices and seasonings you can use to liven them up even more.

There are all sorts of vegetable soups you can make. You can make vegetable broth by simmering vegetables past their prime with vegetable peelings in water. Throw in some herbs and garlic and you will have a wonderful broth in a couple of hours, after you simmer the mixture and sieve it.

To make your vegetable broth into a delicious vegetable soup, you will need to add some chopped vegetables and simmer them until they are soft. Noodles, rice, potatoes, and lentils add another flavor and enough texture to make the soup satisfying and wholesome. Add these when you add the raw vegetables and they will cook together.

Vegetables Which are Good in Soup

There are lots of vegetables you can use to make soup recipes. If you are on a tight budget, just grab whatever is on special offer in the grocery store and you can make soup from it. Even if you only have vegetables, which are a bit soft and past their prime, you can make a nice soup from them.

Carrots, zucchini, eggplant, broccoli, cauliflower, turnip, parsnip, rutabaga, bell pepper, pumpkin, tomato, onion, potato, yam, and beans are just some of the vegetables you can use in soup recipes. Some ingredients are seasonal and some are available throughout the year, but there are a lot of soups you can make in bulk and freeze.

Curried Parsnip and Potato Soup

The following recipe is healthy, wholesome, easy to make and serves two people. Serve it with crusty bread for a satisfying lunch or warming supper. If you can get organic parsnip and potatoes, this soup will be even tastier.

The spices give it a subtle curry flavor and you can make double the amount and freeze half if you want to. If you are not cooking for vegetarians, you can use chicken broth instead of the vegetable broth.

Veggie Parsnip Soup Recipe with Potatoes

What you will need:

* 1 potato, peeled and chopped
* 1 onion, finely chopped
* 8 oz parsnip, peeled and sliced
* 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
* 1/4 teaspoon curry powder
* 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
* 1/8 teaspoon ground cumin
* 1/8 teaspoon ground turmeric

How to make it:

Put all the ingredients in a large saucepan and bring them to the boil. Simmer the soup for about 15 minutes, stirring it occasionally. Let the soup cool a bit, and then liquidize it in the blender in batches. You can use a potato masher if you do not have a blender. Push the soup through a sieve with a wooden spoon if you want it finer. Serve it hot with fresh, crusty bread and butter.

Great food has always been a way of life in our household and having lots of different easy recipes to choose from is very important. After all, between work and the kids’ activities it seems there is hardly any time left to think about eating let alone eating health. I mean who has time to make a full fledge sit-down meal in today’s rat race? We know this all too well with our family of six time is preciously short!

Vegetable soup might not sound like a substantial, filling meal but it really is! Also, vegetable soup is a great dish to make in bulk because it freezes so well, meaning you can thaw portions out for an ultra quick lunch or supper. Try an easy canned pumpkin soup recipe for a speedy, nutritious meal.

Pumpkin is a wonderful ingredient for soup at any time of the year and the crockpot is a great way to cook pumpkin soup recipes. If you are looking for a creamy pumpkin soup recipe, a canned pumpkin soup recipe, a spicy pumpkin soup recipe or some other kind, you will love the comprehensive soup recipe collection we have for you at PumpkinSoup.org

Grow your own

The cheapest method has got to be to grow your own. The great thing is that it doesn’t require you to have much garden space, or even a garden at all! Fresh & Natural Food
We grow tomatoes, and strawberries in containers and the extra benefit is that you get total control over the growing conditions.

The best combination is to have organic soil together with organically produced seeds or plants, that way you ensure you get the full flavour and benefit.

Containers can be placed anywhere that receives a reasonable amount of daylight, which means that you can use them on balconies or other hard surfaces.

Look for your local suppliers

One of the most satisfying things to do is to buy organic food locally. That way you get the freshest ingredients for your kitchen and also get to support local businesses. With no transportation costs for the supplier too you should get very competitive prices.

Don’t forget that these same businesses will be employing local staff so you are also helping the local economy, everybody wins in this scenario.

Local markets

We visit a big monthly market held on a disused airstrip. Organic food is just one of the variety of items sold there but the prices are very, very good indeed. Of course they are all local suppliers and with several of them in one place we benefit from healthy competition and get to sample a lot of fruit!

Local box schemes

If you are unable to get out of your house or are too busy working to select your groceries by hand then why not subscribe to an organic box scheme?

You will receive, delivered to your door, a weekly selection of fruit and vegetables in season.

Farm shops

Finally, investigate whether any farms near you are operating an organic farm shop. Our local one is operated on an open farm so that you can go and see where the animals are being kept and take a look at the crops being grown.

They actually have a well-designed walking route around the farm which makes a nice day out for the kids too.

If you investigate the options above you should be able to make considerable savings whilst you and your family sample the delights and advantages of organic food

Any way you slice it, nothing tastes as fresh as a juicy, ripe tomato. Now fresh-from-the-vine flavor is available year-round in Campari tomatoes, a new variety that is changing the way people think about tomatoes.

Perfectly round, about the size of a golf ball and deep red in color, the Campari is greenhouse-grown and is quickly becoming America’s favorite tomato.

The tomatoes are sold in clusters on the vine to ensure peak freshness and flavor; their smaller size also make them an ideal snacking tomato.

To ensure maximum flavor, leave tomatoes on the vine after purchase and always store at room temperature; refrigeration permanently alters tomato flavor.

It’s easy to add fresh flavor to your favorite foods. Toss diced Campari tomatoes with cubes of mozzarella, fresh basil and balsamic vinegar. Or finish an egg scramble with sliced Campari tomatoes for an extra burst of lycopene in the morning.

The following salad is perfect to bring to any casual gathering:

Campari Tomato Penne Salad with Gorgonzola

Preparation Time: 20 minutes Serves: 6

8 oz. penne pasta

1 pkg. (6 oz.) baby spinach leaves

6 Campari tomatoes, seeded and diced

1 pkg. (4 oz.) crumbled Gorgonzola cheese

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar

1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted

1. Cook and drain pasta according to package directions.

2. Place hot pasta, spinach, tomatoes, cheese, salt and pepper in large mixing bowl; drizzle with oil and vinegar.

3. Toss gently until combined; sprinkle with pine nuts just before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature.