Thompson's of Litchfield vegetables & recipes
• By Brioche of Tarth
In the new year I made one of those *resolutions* - have more vegetarian meals, maybe at least once a week? Generally to eat more vegetables. It’s well into the year and I haven’t quite been as successful yet.
Cue my heroes Thompsons of Litchfield! I love their produce but I never quite know what to get. They usually set up shop at the Malak Markets and I’ll be there pacing up and down trying to figure what I want to get then get nothing at all. Decisions, decisions.
Great news, Thompsons have started delivering to homes!
Every box is different
I love the surprise in every box, then trying to rack my brains for what I can do with the goods. Of course, raw in a salad is probably the best, but I can only have so much salads in a week before I go bonkers. TBH, there were a couple of weeks that the veges stay in the fridge… then the next lot appears and I *have* to cook them because I hate wasting good produce.
These boxes are great because it forces me to cook, and it gets me to experiment recipes I would have never thought of trying. It’s probably healthier for me and my family too. The vegetables in the small box easily feeds 2, you can find the rest of their boxes on their online store.
Recipes
If you're like me and hard pressed for ideas for dinner, here's a few of my favourites. I'm not a recipe writer nor do I cook with exact measurements, so the ingredients here is just a guess amount.
As in MasterChef, always taste test everything and adjust to your liking and what vegetables you have on hand!
Cream of Zuchinni
Roughly adapted from Taste.com creamy zucchini soup, easily serves 4.
I hear zucchini is going to always be in season, so this soup is great to use up a bunch at a time. I added bacon bones to the broth to give it that extra smoky flavour... and because, bacon :D
INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 onion, coarsely chopped
3 garlic clove, crushed
4 zucchini, roughly chopped
1 large potato, peeled, chopped
1L chicken stock
1 cup water
Bacon bones
3/4 cup cream
METHOD
Step 1
Heat oil and butter in dutch oven over medium heat. Fry onions and garlic till the onions are soft. Add zucchini and potatoes, cook for 5 minutes, stir it around so the vegetables don't brown.
Step 2
Add chicken stock, 1 cup water and bacon bones. Bring soup to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes or until potatoes are soft. Remove from heat and cool for 5 minutes.
Step 3
Remove bacon bones. Blend soup with a hand-held blender until smooth. Return soup to the heat. Add cream and bacon bones. Season with salt and pepper, serve with spring onions as garnishing and garlic bread.
Optional
Be fancy as heck and get baked prosciutto to join the party. If you can, simmer the soup with bacon bones for longer to get better flavours.
One Frypan Eggplant Pasta
One of those word of mouth recipes from a Greek aunty. She tells me to use passata in this simple recipe and let it stew so the flavours develop. This is a cheat variation of this, I use bottled pasta sauce for this.
Serves about 2, or one pasta demon (that's me).
INGREDIENTS FOR SAUCE
2 tablespoons oil
2 eggplants, sliced
5 garlic cloves, thinly sliced or chopped
Half bottle of your favourite pasta sauce
Half cup pasta water
Danish feta to garnish
METHOD
Step 1
Cook your pasta in the frypan. Yuuuup, it’s quicker and perfect for 2. Read it here.
Cold water to frypan, salt it so it tastes like the sea, and pour in your pasta. Undercook your pasta, drain it, and save a cup of pasta water for the sauce. Wipe down your pan, return to stove.
Step 2
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in fry pan and fry eggplants on both sides until browned. Set aside.
Step 3
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in fry pan (again!) and fry garlic. Add the half bottle of pasta sauce and some of the reserved pasta water. Add eggplants back into frypan and let it simmer on a low heat, covered, for about 7 minutes. Use spatula to break eggplant apart.
Step 4
Add pasta to sauce. Mix well. Loosen sauce if required with water or olive oil and let it simmer for about 5 minutes. Season with black pepper, and serve with crumbed feta.
Optional
Add chili flakes to the sauce for extra kick.
Puff Pastry Quiche or Tart
Tarts and quiches are a super versatile to all vegetables, especially if it's a little wilted. Throw in the mystery meat from the fridge in too. Serves 4.
INGREDIENTS
1 onion, finely chopped
1 spring onion, sliced
1 small capsicum, chopped
1 pattypan squash or half small zucchini, grated
1 cup of mixed cheese
Cherry tomatoes, sliced
2 sheets of premade puff pastry
INGREDIENTS FOR EGG MIX
3 eggs
200ml thickened cream or milk
Salt & pepper
METHOD
Step 1
Preheat oven to 180C.
Step 2
Prepare vegetables – chop, slice grate away. Mix in a bowl, but leave cherry tomatoes aside for decoration.
Step 3
Spray oil in pastry tin and line with puff pastry, overlapping pastry where needed, pressing gently to form a good seal and ensuring pastry goes to edge of pan. Trim excess pastry from edges. Prick the base all over with a fork but don’t pierce through the pastry.
Step 4
Meanwhile, place the eggs and cream in a large jug or bowl. Whisk together until well combined. Season to taste.
Step 5
Sprinkle vegetable mixture then pour egg mixture over vegetables. Sprinkle cheese and make a pretty pattern with sliced tomatoes. Place into oven for 30 minutes or until golden and set. Eat hot or cold with salad.
For tart: Forgo egg mix, use pesto or cottage cheese on the puff pastry and line up your choice of vegetables to roast. Drizzle some olive oil before baking.
Get your yummy vegetables at the Malak Markets or order on their online store.
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