Recipe | Green Tomato Salsa

This simple side dish adds some gentle heat and vivid colour to any meal, from barbecued fish and meats to an omelette or cheese on toast. Best eaten in the garden.

Serves 1, or 2 as a garnish

125g green tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 spring onions, finely chopped
1 small red chilli, finely chopped
1 tsp caster sugar
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Combine everything in a bowl and leave for 10 mins so the flavours can mingle before serving.

This recipe is from our Veg Patch Pantry feature in our September issue. The recipes, which use seasonal vegetables, include a Traybake of White Fish with Courgettes, Tomatoes and Peppers, Hedgerow Blondies and Thyme Buttered Plums with No-Churn Plum and Clotted Cream Ice Cream. The recipes are by Kathy Slack and the photography by Kirstie Young.

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Recipe | Summer Weekend Roast

A weekend roast lunch for lighter, brighter days

This lamb with buttered greens and herbs is a light, summery dish using lots of the season’s best veg. Delicate, pink lamb nestled among a platter of buttery, greens along with an abundance of fragrant herbs is one of our favourite summer Sunday lunches. Just add friends.

Serves 2, generously

You will need

150g broccoli, cut into small florets
450g rack of lamb
65g butter
1 tbsp sunflower oil
250g (podded weight) of peas, mange tout, green beans
100ml white wine
Generous handful leafy green herbs (such as parsley, fennel, chervil, chives and mint)

To make

1 Preheat the oven to 220C/Fan 200C/Gas 7.

2 Steam the broccoli florets over a double boiler for 2–3 mins, or until al dente, then refresh in cold water to stop them over cooking. Set aside.

3 Season the lamb well. Place 15g butter and the sunflower oil in a frying pan over a high heat. Once sizzling, sear the lamb on all sides for about 5 mins, or until nicely brown.

4 Transfer to the oven for 10–12 mins. Remove and leave to rest for at least 10 mins while you finish the greens.

5 In the pan that you seared the lamb in, melt the rest of the butter over a medium heat then add the peas/ mange tout/beans, plus the broccoli and the wine. Bubble for 2–3 mins so that the alcohol evaporates and the greens cook through. Then add the herbs and check the seasoning.

6 To serve, pile the greens and all the buttery juices onto a warm platter. Slice the lamb into single cutlets and arrange on top.

Cook’s note: Just adjust the greens to whatever you have in stock or in the garden – runner beans, green beans, sugar snaps are all welcome, in any combination that you prefer.

This recipe is from our Veg Patch Pantry pages in our June issue, in which Kathy Slack shares how to enjoy the month’s vegetables from her own garden patch. This month’s recipes also include Raw Courgette Salad with Mozzarella and Parma Ham, Cucumber Cooler Cocktails and Strawberry Ice Cream with Lemon Verbena Shortbread.

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Recipe | Spring Slaw

This Spring Slaw of mange tout, fennel, radishes, seeds and apple is delicious with dark rye toast and also goes well with something fatty like duck legs for a crisp, tart contrast. Take your time cutting matchstick-thin batons while you listen to the radio.

Serves 4 as a starter or side

Ingredients

2 tbsp pumpkin seeds
2 tbsp sunflower seeds
2 tbsp hemp seeds
150g mange tout or sugar snaps
2 small green kohl rabi
1 small fennel bulb
1 apple
3 spring onions
¼ spring cabbage
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 lemon, juiced
1 tsp honey
Handful pea shoots, to serve

How to make

1 Put the seeds in a dry frying pan set over a medium heat and toast them for 3-4 mins, or until just golden. Set aside to cool.

2 Finely shred or mandoline all the fruit and veg and toss in a large bowl.

3 Whisk together the extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice and honey with a pinch of salt and pour over the raw veg, add the cooled seeds and mix thoroughly, but gently.

4 Pile onto plates and finish with a few fronds of pea shoots.

This slaw is just one of the recipes from our monthly feature ‘Veg Patch Pantry’, in which Kathy Slack show us how to enjoy the fruits (and veg) of your May garden plot, allotment or veg box.

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Idea | Radish Slammers

Swoosh, salt and scoff – the most fun to have with a radish

Serves 4 as nibbles

1 bunch of radishes
100g salted butter, softened
3 tbsp flaky sea salt

1 Wash the radishes and pick off any soggy leaves. Pat dry – they need to be very dry otherwise the butter won’t stick to them.

2 Arrange the radishes on a board with a mound of salt next to them and a slab of softened butter. Encourage people to pick a radish, swoosh it through the butter then dunk it in the salt before tucking in.

The radish slammers are just one of the ideas from this month’s Veg Patch Pantry feature by Kathy Slack, which also includes recipes for Chard & Herb Frittata, Whole Poached Chicken with Kale & Mushroom Broth with Barley and Caramelised Radish and Feta Salad.

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Veg | In Praise of Kale

Lauded as a superfood, and loved by those who love their greens, we all know now that kale is very good for you indeed. But here are ten more facts about Kale that just make us love it that little bit more…

1. It’s practically the only vegetable you can pick in abundance right now. While lesser veg are snoozing beneath the surface of the soil, gathering strength, or are still a twinkle in Thompson and Morgan’s eye in February, hardy and stoic kale is still out there, ripe for the picking. 

2. The Ancient Greeks used it as a cure for drunkeness. They boiled up (something like) kale (though it was definitely a green-leafed brassica), and drank the water to sober themselves up. Then coffee came along and spoiled everything. 

3. Shetland has its own weather proverb about kale: “Dry sunny weather was best for maetin the corn and drying the peats; wet, misty or rainy weather grew best kale.”

4. A serving of kale has more vitamin C than an orange and more calcium than a pint of milk. 

5. Kale is part of the same family as Brussels sprouts and has been cross-bred with sprouts to create kalettes*, a sort of kale sprout. There are more than 50 varieties of kale, too. And yes, there is already a book called ‘Fifty Shades of Kale’. 

6. Kale was so ubiquitous in Scotland at one stage that the word ‘kale’ was used interchangeably with the word ‘food’. There was even a school of ‘rural life’ writing known as ‘Kailyard’. 

7. We’ve been growing kale since the 4th Century BCE but this is far from its first moment in the sun. Your parents and grandparents might remember a surge in its popularity following the Dig for Victory campaign of World War Two. 

8. The Germans have a kale festival, known as Grünkohlfahrt (Curly Kale Hike). They go on a long hike, then feast on kale and beer. Tremendous fun but perhaps avoid any participants the morning after… 

9. Unlike many veg which are ruined by a spell of cold weather, kale actually tastes sweeter when picked after a good frost. 

10. Kale enjoys a bit of pampering me-time, just like we do. If your kale is a bit chewy, give it a little massage before cooking it to relax the fibres and make it a little more tender and chilled out. 

For more inspiration on using this month’s veg well, turn to page 56 of the February issue of The Simple Things where Kathy Slack (@gluts_gluttony) shares ideas from her Veg Patch Pantry. *There’s even a recipe for green noodle broth with kalettes. 

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