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Summer!
It’s summer at last, and you may want to consider leaving out a cool bag or insulated box for your veg box deliveries when you’re not in. This is especially worth noting if you have milk or other dairy items on your orders. If you want to make any changes to your delivery instructions, please send an email in to us at vegboxes@locavore.scot
Also Summer!
Summer also tends to be a time when the boxes are a bit lighter, as the plentiful produce we have at this time of year tends to be leafy greens, courgettes, and tomatoes- yum- but not as substantial as winters’ root veg. You may want to consider going up a box size for a few months if you’re finding it easy to get through the box fast.
In the Veg Boxes This Week
Subject to last minute changes
Check out storage guidance for helpful tips and tricks on how to prolong the life of your fresh produce. If you’re wondering where your veg comes from, have a look at these maps. You can also join your fellow subscribers over in the Facebook group for lots of tips, tricks, and recipe ideas!
To contact us, ring 0141 378 1672 or email us at subscribers@glasgowlocavore.org
Click here for Veg Box Contents
The Nice Bit
When two pallets of veg got to us frozen, meaning much of it was damaged and unusable, I started thinking about how weird it is that just exposing a whole cauliflower to sub-zero temperatures can destroy it, but carefully preparing and freezing one can pay off wonderfully. I think it’s probably to do with water expanding and cells bursting- that sure sounds convincing, doesn’t it?
In any case, it’s worth knowing how to properly freeze vegetables. A well-stocked freezer is a wonderful thing, whether you need chips to make kale and an egg into a satisfying meal, or kale to make egg and chips into one that has a vegetable element. Freezing fresh herbs and chillies can help avoid waste and still have all the flavours you need to hand, and freezing pre-prepared veg can make dinner possible on those low-energy days. For the most part, the rule with veg is to blanch it first, but I recommend googling how to freeze whatever veg it is you don’t think you’ll get to this week.
Most often, though, I’m freezing elements of meals that take a little more effort to make so that the work I put in stretches further and feeds me twice. All I have to do next time is make the other, easy elements- boil some pasta, cook some rice, roast some veg. I thought today it might be nice to share a recent success of this kind with you.
This sauce is delicious and speckled with green, and you can serve it with anything you like. I like it over roasted cauliflower and buttery, turmeric-y rice, maybe with some fried black beans or roasted chickpeas. It freezes an absolute dream and defrosts perfectly in the microwave- plus this recipe makes sauce enough for four servings, so you can make your present self and future self dinner in one go.
Cauliflower in Spinach and Tahini Sauce
Approximate ingredients to serve two with sauce leftover
1 cauliflower
4-6 tablespoons tahini
200g spinach or chard
Oil, preferably olive
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp each ground cumin and coriander (or toast and grind the seeds)
Juice of 1 lemon
Pinch sugar
Preheat oven to 200°C
Chop the cauliflower into florets and toss with salt and pepper, half the spices, and a good glug of oil. Arrange on baking tray and roast for about half an hour, until tender and starting to caramelise at the edges.
Meanwhile, wash the chard or spinach and lightly wilt in a hot pan with some oil. Season and add the garlic. Cook for another minute, just until the garlic isn’t raw.
Add the greens and garlic to a food processor, and blitz until finely chopped (or finely chop by hand). Add tahini, lemon juice, sugar, salt and pepper, and remainder of spices and a little warm water and blitz to mix (or stir well by hand). Add more water until the desired consistency is reached. Taste and adjust seasoning- it might need more tahini, lemon, salt, or sugar- this last sounds unusual but really rounds out the flavours so don’t skip it, unless you particularly want to.