Thrifty Kiwi
Like our Facebook page
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Homesteading
  • Gardening
    • 2025 Garden
    • 2021 Garden Blog
    • 2019-2020 Garden Blog
    • 2017-2018 Garden Blog
    • 2016-2017 Garden Blog
    • Kiwi Urban Homestead 2013-2015 Garden Blog
    • Pest & Diseases
  • Recipes
    • Autoimmune Protocol
    • Meals and Snacks
    • Preserving
    • Household Cleaners
    • Health & Beauty
  • Skills
    • Menu Planning & Grocery Shopping
    • Money & Budgeting
    • Preserving How-Tos
    • Housekeeping
    • DIY
    • How to Find Stuff Free or Cheap
  • Animals
    • Critter Blog
  • About
  • Contact

Kohlrabi & Tomato

12/2/2018

0 Comments

 
This recipe is from The Cooks Garden - a wonderful NZ book that describes how to grow and use a wide range of vegetables. The book, and it's follow up, More From the Cook's Garden, are out of print, but well worth looking for in op shops and second hand book stores. 

Kohlrabi is a member of the brassica family - popular in Europe but relatively little-known here. The plant forms a fat globe at it's base, and this is the part you eat - if picked young and tender, the skin may be kept on, but otherwise it gets a bit tough and needs to be peeled. They come in green and purple varieties. Here's one in my garden this summer: 
Picture
Picture
Ordinarily, I never bother to peel tomatoes - a great deal of the phytonutrients are in the skin, and who can be bothered anyway? But for this recipe, it's worth the effort, as the result is a very creamy mixture. 
Ingredients:
4-500g prepared kohlrabi - remove leaves but snapping off, cut off the top and bottom, peel well, then cut in quarters and slice thinly. 
1 small onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed and finely chopped
2 TBSP cooking oil (I use coconut)
3-4 medium sized tomatoes, skinned and chopped
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp chopped basil
Picture
Method:
Saute onion and garlic in oil for a few minutes. Add kohlrabi, tomatoes and seasoning. Simmer for 10-20 mins (uncovered) until kohlrabi is tender and tomatoes have cooked down into a creamy sauce. Add basil and serve. 

This was especially nice with some cooked chicken mixed into it (an accidental discovery as I served it with some left over cooked chicken) - next time I might purposely add it. 

I thought this dish was absolutely delicious! But I grew the ingredients, and approached it with limited expectations, which it far exceeded. Plus I was breathing in the smell of the fresh veges and herbs as I prepared it. My husband thought it was ok. Next time I'll tell him it's average and make him smell basil before eating it. No doubt he will then be smitten. ;-) 

I used a combo of cinnamon and green basil, though any will do.
Picture
Picture
PS - this recipe inspired me to experiment with the same concept - a couple of days later, I made myself lunch by sauteing onion and carrots, adding chopped up left over roast new potatoes and left over cooked broccoli, and simmering in tomato etc as above. YUM! 
Picture
0 Comments

Vege-Nut Stuffer - Mexican Chereezo

12/2/2018

0 Comments

 
This comes from a raw food recipe book called Rejuvenate Your Life by Serene Allison, a wonderful resource for all kinds of raw food recipes. She likes this WAY hotter than I can tolerate, so I've modified it to suit. 
Ingredients:
4 large carrots, peeled and chopped up into chunks
1/2 onion - red is ideal, but use what you have - peeled and cut into about 1/8ths
1 1/2 tsp quality salt
1/4 tsp (or less) cayenne pepper
1-2 tsp cumin
1 big lemon, squeezed
Few sprigs or oregano, or 1 tsp dried
2 cups soaked nuts or seeds - or 3/4 cup not soaked. Almond and/or sunflower is best. For this batch, I used the left over frozen almond meal from making almond milk.
Picture
Method:
Place everything but nuts/seeds in the food processor and blend until smooth. Add nuts/seeds and process very well. (If using almond meal like I was, just chuck it all in together and whizz). 

​Keep covered in the fridge.

​Use like a dip, to stuff cabbage or lettuce leaves etc, or spread on crackers. 
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

Cauliflower Rice

21/1/2018

0 Comments

 
Super quick and easy, this is a great substitute for rice, and an easy way to use up extra cauliflower. Can also be done with broccoli. Tonight, I used up a less-than-totally-pretty head of cauli from the garden, trimming off the dark bits from the tips of the florets with a sharp knife. 
Method:
Cut cauliflower into florets. Place in food processor, and whiz until cut into rice-sized pieces. Scrape down the side a time or two if needed. 

Heat a little coconut oil in a large frying pan. Add cauli rice, and cook for 4-5 mins over medium head, stirring, until softened and hot. 

Serve topped with anything you like - eg a casserole or stew, or balsamic shredded meat, or anything you'd normally put on rice.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

Potato & Egg Salad

14/1/2018

0 Comments

 
A super simple salad my kids always loved, and vistors raved about. 
Ingredients:
1 kg potatoes
4 hardboiled eggs (I have heaps of eggs currently, so used 6 this time)
Spring onions to taste, chopped
1 cup Budget/Value salad dressing or dressing of choice

Optional additions: 
1 stalk celery, finely diced
Small amount chives and/or parsley, finely chopped
Method:
Peel and cut potato into even chunks. Cover with water, add salt, bring to boil and simmer until just tender. Don't overcook. Remove from heat, drain, and cool. 

Once cool, slice up potato further, until all in small bite-sized pieces, or leave as chunky as you desire. Place in bowl with roughly chopped hardboiled eggs and chopped spring onions, plus optional ingredients if desired. Add salad dressing, and gently stir to mix, being careful not to mush the spuds. Cover the refrigerate for a while so dressing soaks in and flavours develop (optional). Serve. 
Picture
0 Comments

Cabbage & Cashews - super simple and yum!

11/1/2018

0 Comments

 
I had a little red cabbage left in the fridge I wanted to use, so I combined it with a few simple things, and a handful of roasted, salted cashews for a combo that is soooo yummy I could have eaten nothing but a big plate full of it quite happily! Green cabbage can be used instead. 
Picture
Ingredients:
Finely sliced cabbage - red or green, or a combo
A handful of something onion-y, chopped - I used some spring onions from the freezer. 
A dash of soy sauce
A handful of roasted, salted cashews
A little coconut oil

Method:
Heat coconut oil in frying pan. Add cabbage and spring onions, saute. Add a dash of soy sauce and stir to combine. Add cashew nuts, stir again. Place lid on frying pan and cook for a couple of minutes until cabbage soft, but don't overdo. Serve.
0 Comments

Delicious Courgette Dish (add any extra veges you like)

5/1/2018

0 Comments

 
Very quick, totally delicious!
Ingredients:
Onion, sliced. About 1/2 onion per person
1-2 courgettes per person, sliced
2 mushrooms per person (optional), sliced
1-2 tsp dried garlic flakes
​Small amount of beef stock
Dash soy sauce
Salt to taste
Optional: small handful fresh green beans and/or pea pods, or use frozen, and/or other suitable veges if you like.
A little coconut or olive oil
Method:
Heat oil in frying pan. Add onions, saute for a minute or two. Add mushrooms, if using, saute until slightly softened. Add courgettes, garlic, soy sauce and salt, as well as any other veges. Stir to coat and combine. Saute for a couple of minutes. Add beef stock. Stir to coat and combine. Place lid on pan and simmer on low for a few minutes until vegetables have softened. 

​Serve. 
Picture
0 Comments

Turn Left-over Veges into a Delicious New Vege Dish

2/1/2018

0 Comments

 
There are often small quantities of left over cooked veges in my fridge. These can be used up in various ways - in winter I generally use them in soups. Today I turned them into a yummy dinner dish. 

This description is a guide only - use what is on hand or whatever you fancy. Don't be afraid to play with your food! The main purpose when re-dressing left over cooked veges is to reheat them, fancy them up a bit, and make sure they taste great. :-) 
Today I had some left over carrots, some beans, and a small quantity of broccoli. 

In this particular case, the beans were part of a combo vege dish, so had been cooked last time with some soy sauce and beef stock, thus having extra flavour, which I took into account when putting this dish together. 

I decided to use in addition:
Some coconut oil
1 small onion, diced
2 mushrooms, halved and sliced
1 small rainbow chard (silverbeet) leaf, rougly chopped
A few naturtium leaves and flowers - leaves chopped, flowers left whole
A dash of soy sauce and a little salt

Picture
Picture
Picture
Prepare the veges that need washing/chopping etc. 
Heat a spoonful of oil in a frying pan. Saute onion for a few minutes, then add mushroom and saute until beginning to soften. Add cooked vegetables, stir. Add a dash of soy sauce and salt to taste (consider whether cooked veges were previously salted). Continue to saute, or if desired, place lid over pan and let cook for a few minutes until veges hot. Add silverbeet and stir gently for a minute or so. Add nasturium leaves and flowers. Cook until wilted. Serve. 
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

Easy Rice Salad

1/1/2018

0 Comments

 
I had some left over cooked brown rice in the fridge. There's at least four things I could do with it, but this time I decided to make rice salad, as my son who was just visiting was raving about a rice salad he'd tried at my mother's recently, and then emulated. The ingredients are flexible - use what you have - but aim for a suitable mix of colours and flavours, with a hint of tang. This turned out really delicious!
Picture
Here's what I used:
​Ingredients:
Cooked rice (about 3-4 cups)
One apple
1/2 lemon
1-2 stalks celery
1/2 carrot
Small handful of raisins
A little chopped cucumber
Small sprig mint
​Dressing of choice
Picture
Method:
Place cooked rice in a suitably large bowl. Peel* and chop apple into small chunks. Place in a small bowl, and pour over juice of half a lemon. Toss to coat. Add to rice. 

Trim and dice the celery quite small. Peel and grate carrot. Add these and raisins or sultanas to rice, along with cucumber, if using (I added at the end as I was also making natural pickles, and couldn't fit the last 4 slices in the jar). 

Finely dice a small amount of mint (I used about four leaves) and add. 

Select a dressing and pour some over. Stir everything to combine, adding more dressing if needed. Cover and refridgerate for half an hour before serving. 

​For a dressing, a used a combination of two dressings I had in the fridge - Budget salad dressing, and Salad Mate honey mustard dressing (a new one I've found with no egg, gluten or dairy). The Budget one has some egg yolk. I need to go back to making my own dressings, but meanwhile have a number to use up. My son says he used ETA original mayo.
Picture
I used about half this carrot, using the rest to make coleslaw
Picture
Before adding dressing and mixing
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
* Keep the apple peels and cores to make homemade apple cider vinegar. It's very easy! I put these ones into a jar in the freezer, which I will keep adding to until I have enough to make the vingar (will post instructions then). Because these are NOT organic apples, the resulting vinegar will be used for cleaning etc, not for consumption. But if they were organic/spray free, then it's easy to make an excellent vinegar for dressings etc. The reason I have put the peels in a jar before freezing, and to which I will add, is that you don't need to defrost them before starting the vinegar, which I want to do in a jar. Getting a frozen lump of apple scraps out of another container and into a jar would be a pain - hence freezing them in the container I will use to start with.
Picture
0 Comments

Coleslaw

1/1/2018

0 Comments

 
Just about the easiest salad in the world, coleslaw's two main ingredients are cabbage and carrots. Lots of other things can be added for additional flavour, texture and nutrition if you wish. 
Today I made a coleslaw out of the first red cabbage ready in my greenhouse. I picked it fairly small, but it's plenty big enough for a few meals for us, and better to start with the cabbages when the first reaches a useable size and keep working through them bit by bit than have 20 suddenly all in need of use at once!
Picture
Method:
Remove outer leaves of cabbage (any type). Slice in half. Remove core and discard. Cut one half in half again - the flat edge of the now quarter cabbage is the easiest place to thinly slice cabbage from. I used half this small cabbage to make the slaw. 

Slice the cabbage as thinly as you can, then cut into lengths into the opposite direction. Place in salad bowl. 

Peel and grate carrots (I used one and a half - the half being left over from making rice salad.) Add to bowl. 

Sprinkle in any other desired ingredients - I used 1 TBSP sunflower seeds. Popular choices are green onions, raisins, various seeds, etc. 

To make a super easy slaw dressing, spoon some Budget (now called Value) salad dressing into a glass, add the juice of half a lemon, and a splash of water. Stir until smooth, adding more water if needed - the resulting mix should pour off a spoon but not be too watery. 

​Add dressing to slaw and mix thoroughly. Cover and refigerate until ready to serve. 
Picture
Look at those beautiful colours! The more colourful and varied your food, the more nutrious!
Picture
Picture
A cabbage cut into quarters and then sliced along the long edge shown above is the easiest way to get nice thin slices.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

Brussel Sprouts with Hazelnuts, Cauliflower Mash & Steak = Delicious Dinner!

14/9/2016

0 Comments

 
A quick, easy, delicious and nutritious meal - what more could you ask? The frozen cauliflower (no prep needed) took the longest to cook, and prepping the brussel sprouts was a wee bit fiddly, but not difficult. Here's how to make this lovely meal (or choose the dishes you like and team them with something else).
Picture

Cauliflower Mash

This is an excellent alternative to mashed potatoes. And simple as! Bring a pot of water to the boil, empty one bag of frozen cauliflower into a steamer, place over the pot with lid on, and steam until hot and tender, stirring occasionally (about 20 mins).

Alternatively, prepare fresh cauliflower by cutting into even sized florets. Reduce cooking time accordingly.

Meanwhile, prepare other dishes below. If your cauli is ready before the other things, turn it off and leave it to sit above the hot water, which will keep it warm.

When you are ready to serve your meal, tip the cooked cauli into a food processor, add a spoonful of sour cream or butter or similar (to help it blend smoothly), salt if desired, and whiz until a fluffy mash. Serve. A 1kg bag of frozen cauli will make enough mash for 3-4 people.
Picture
Picture

Brussel Sprouts with Hazelnuts

Ingredients for 4 (I used half this amount and it was probably enough for 2-3 people):
600g Brussel Sprouts, trimmed
50g butter
1/4 cup water
1 lemon, juiced
1/4 cup hazelnuts, toasted and skins rubbed off, coarsely chopped

To toast hazelnuts: heat oven to 180C/350F, place raw hazelnuts in a single layer on a tray. Bake 10 mins until lightly browned. Wrap in a tea towel and leave to steam for 1m, then use towel to rub off skins. Don't worry about any that don't come off. Coarsely chop nuts.

To prepare dish: Halve sprouts, remove cores, and slice thinly. Melt 1/2 the butter in a large pan, add the sliced sprouts, stir to coat. Add water and 1/2 of the juice, combine and cook 1 min. Season with salt and pepper to taste, add rest of juice, butter and nuts. Combine well. Place in warm dish to serve. 
Picture
Because the sprouts are cooked so quickly, they retain a lot of flavour and maximum nutrition. I picked mine up from the market garden where they are grown, and there were on the plate just over an hour later. Fresh is best! Out of my own garden would have been even better. 

Cooking Steak and Serving Meal

At the same time as you are beginning to cook the sprout dish, sear steak in a hot frying pan in which you have heated a little olive oil. Sear by cooking quickly on both sides, then continue to cook, flipping halfway through, until desired level of browning is achieved. Steak is best cooked quickly, with the middle remaining at least a little pink.

To serve: Place steak, and portions of mash and brussel sprout dish on each plate. Use a spoon to drizzle drippings from steak pan over mash and steak. Serve. 
0 Comments
<<Previous

    Archives

    October 2024
    April 2020
    February 2018
    January 2018
    April 2017
    January 2017
    September 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Baking
    Basics
    Breadmaking
    Breakfast
    Dessert
    Dinner
    Dressings
    Drinks
    Fast Food
    Ferments
    Food From The Garden
    Left Overs
    Lunch
    One Dish Meals
    Quiches And Slices
    Salads
    Side Dishes
    Slow Cooker
    Snacks & Treats
    Soups
    Vege-nut Stuffer

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.