Warm barley and roasted carrot salad with parsley and dill

Lisa

Our Jess was talking about a yummy meal-in-a-bowl salad she concocted – a good prompt to get a roots-based winter salad on the recipe page. Always good to put carrots back in the spotlight, but roasted parsnips or beetroot would work too. Use feta if blue cheese is not your thing.    This dish would be pretty easy to veganize. …

Veg dumplings for Lunar New Year

Lisa

On Sunday 22 January, it’s Lunar New Year aka Chinese New Year. It’s Year of the Rabbit! If you’ve ever wanted to make your own dumplings, now is the time. There’s a lot of recipes online, but we’ve gone for one by vegan food blogger Bianca Zapatka. Her veg combo is bang-on seasonally perfect for our boxes:  cabbage, leek, mushrooms, …

West African peanut stew

Lisa

Continuing our January theme: more delicious Frugal + Vegan action this week! West African peanut stew – aka ‘maafe’ or ‘domoda’, depending on region – is super flavourful and rich. It was first served to me by my friend Kat who trained in West African dance (and is a total natural at it).  This version is fully plant based.  Recipe …

Root veg stew with Guinness

Lisa

A very happy 2023 to you all! We’re back from our break and getting busy at HQ taking delivery of lots of lovely winter produce ready for your boxes this week. Our recipe to kick off the new year is going back to basics using box stalwarts carrots, potatoes and onions, plus swede or turnips.  A vegan Irish stew, essentially. …

Mushroom and veg pie with parsnip rosti topping

Lisa

It was Regather’s prize-winning flower grower/wrangler/designer, Rachel, who recommended this dish the other day. Mushrooms, onions and winter roots in a lovely mustardy gravy and a crispy topping.  That’s a Goldilocks dish: not too heavy, not too light. Rachel tells me the recipe doesn’t suffer for having less than the full whack of mushrooms – use what you have.  And we …

Ribollita

Lisa

If there was ever a dish perfectly pitched for our veg boxes in the late autumn, it’s the Tuscan ribollita. I’ve long been a fan of this thick, rustic, ultra-nutritious soup of beans and veg, so was curious to see Felicity Cloake’s take on it for her regular column in The Guardian. This is a good recipe for batch-cooking too …

Slaw Season

Lisa

Get ready to shred.  We’re into coleslaw season now, starring so many of our lovely organic veg:  cabbages (red, green or white), carrots, beetroot, kohlrabi, celeriac, onions, fennel and winter radishes. When a rich, warming soup or stew is on the table, I really crave something fresh, raw and crunchy on the side. Coleslaw is also perfect with a burger. …

Root veg gratin

Lisa

This creamy mustardy gratin is just the ticket in this cold, bright weather and a luxurious way to treat the hearty organic roots from the veg box as they approach the end of their season.  Recipe from Nigel Slater in last weekend’s Observer food pages. Feel free to adjust the proportions of the veg in the list according to what …

Homemade sauerkraut: green cabbage and carrot

Lisa

Many of us love having versatile cabbages in the veg box, but if you want to expand your cabbage repertoire we suggest making your own delicious, nutritious, organic sauerkraut or kimchi.  The health benefits of ‘live’ fermented veg have been well documented: packed full of nutrients and good bacteria for a happy gut biome. My own sauerkraut learning curve has …

Curry roasted swede, parsnips and carrots with lime

Lisa

This week, the brief was swede: these hefty organic roots are a staple in the February veg boxes. Great as mash, either solo or in a root veg ensemble. Top a shepherd’s or cottage pie with a mixture of mashed swede and potato (and celeriac, if you have some).  For a deeply aromatic approach to swede we recommend this roasted …