CREATIVE COOKING WITH HERBS

I recently did a cooking session with the Food Culture group at the Venus Bay Community centre using herbs from my garden, spices from my kitchen cupboard & some kindly donated herbs from Justine. I am sharing the recipes with you all as you might like to try the tasty dishes on a cool autumn day as it is here now in Melbourne.

BEETROOT SOUP

1 bunch beetroot with leaves (so you know it is freshly picked ), 1 white onion, 2 sticks of celery with leaves; fresh herbs such as dill, sage, oregano, marjoram & parsley to garnish; stock or vegetarian stock powder.
Cut beetroot into cube chunks with skin on for more nutrients, dice onion & celery. In a medium saucepan add 1-2 tbsps. olive oil or coconut oil, heat & fry onion until soft. Add beetroot, celery with enough water to cover & bring to boil. Reduce to simmer. Add roughly chopped herbs including fresh bay leaves and stock or powder & cook until tender. Add a few chopped beetroot leaves with stems & season to taste with salt & pepper. Soup if you wish can be blended but I served it as is with a dollop of sour cream & chopped parsley. This soup would be nice to serve with rye & caraway bread or sourdough bread with sprinkled seeds such as cumin or sesame with olive oil toasted in the oven.

As I had a bunch of left over beetroot leaves I made a soup last night using this in my creative way with pumpkin, carrots, celery, onion, dry dill leaves, thyme, oregano , cumin powder & seeds with a dash or two of vinegar. I cooked firstly all the vegies & beetroot stems in water to cover (except for the beetroot leaves ) until soft- then pureed & mashed this.Then I returned the mixture to the pan and added sliced beetroot leaves to cook for a few more minutes with added chicken stock & seasoning. We enjoyed it with a dash of sour cream- it was DELICIOUS & I have some left over for later.

BAKED VEGIES WITH HERBS & SPICES

We used a selection of roughly cut pumpkin, sweet potato, carrots, red onion, red capsicum and garlic cloves in their skins. Oven was preheated to 200 C. We put in all the vegies except for capsicum & garlic to add later to an pan with olive oil. After cooking for about 15 minutes I added freshly torn bay leaves, oregano & thyme. After cooking for a further 15 minutes I added 2 tsps. cumin powder, smoked paprika powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, black mustard seeds, fennel seeds & nigella (black cumin seeds). Vegies were mixed to be coated with the spices and garlic & capsicum were added. Continue baking until soft and browned. Serve hot.

MIXED AND WILD GREENS SALAD WITH FRESH HERBS

Well you can put just about everything into this lovely green salad. I used dandelion leaves, nasturtium leaves & flowers, Centella asiatica leaves and a salad mix with rocket/ lettuce varieties. I also added some quartered tomatoes for colour 7 taste.Then lots of fresh chopped herbs- salad burnet, tarragon, chives, parsley and basil. Toss with a vinaigrette dressing of olive oil, vinegar & mustard.

BAKED APPLES WITH SCENTED PELARGONIUM LEAVES

I used golden delicious apples with skins on that had the core removed but leaving some apple at the bottom. Use a baking tray  with a few cm of water in the bottom. Place each apple on a peppermint pelargonium leaf. Into each apple cavity add one tsp. of unsalted butter, a clove, sprinkle with cinnamon & nutmeg powder and a fresh nutmeg pelargonium leaf. Bake in an oven until soft. I forgot to bring raisins or sultanas to add and when I do I usually add a little juice to moisten the dried fruit. We served this with freshly whisked cream but you can use plain yoghurt or ice cream. Also finely chopped peppermint pelargonium leaves or a drop of peppermint oil added to the cream is a great taste sensation and aids digestion. Also on retrospect it may have been a good idea to cover the baking apples to permeate then more with the aroma from the scented pelargonium leaves.