My front garden has to be cleared for new planting and so I pulled up the last of the rainbow chard and spinach and placed them in my trug. I cut chives, which I swear weren't there a week ago. I found lemon thyme in a pot and some pea shoots which I planted with my three year old next door neighbour Tilly and her mum, Emma. They are now a few inches tall with tendrils that wind around anything close. My trug filled up with possibilities and supper began to look good. It's a hybrid concoction somewhere between a soufflé and a fritatta studded with vegetables and a little cheese.
I did get a help with the salad from M&S who supplied the purple sprouting broccoli which I teamed up, with strips of red cabbage, tiny ripe figs (how do they find ripe figs at this time of the year?) and dark skinned grapes. The salad was dressed simply with olive oil, lemon, salt and a little elderberry syrup made in the autumn. It was all looking very purple and green (think Siberian purple amethyst, tourmaline and emerald.)
I feel guilty buying figs and grapes with such a hefty carbon footprint. I vow to make amends somehow.
I have more good news this week (it keeps stacking up). I am joining my friends Jill Turton and Amanda Wragg at
, Yorkshire's best independent review of restaurants and accommodation to contribute recipes and photographs to their wonderful website. I am delighted. Those girls know a good place to eat when they see one so if you come to the gorgeous, dramatic county of Yorkshire, check out their recommendations
Chard and Parmesan soufflé with buckwheat and ground sunflower seeds
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, sliced
large bunch chard or spinach, shredded
12 cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 tsp thyme leaves, finely chopped
1/2 tsp chives, snipped up into
1/2 cm lengths
1 tbsp parsley, finely chopped
6 eggs
500ml milk
60g ground sunflower seeds or any other nuts
60g buckwheat flour
25g Parmesan cheese grated, and extra for dusting
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
10g butter
Method
Preheat the oven to 200C or Gas mark 6.
Pour the oil into a frying pan and sweat the onion until soft. Stir in the shredded chard (or spinach), tomatoes, thyme and parsley and continue to cook for a couple of minutes. Remove from the heat. Place the eggs in a bowl or jug and whisk with an electric beater until frothy. Stir in the milk flour, ground nuts and Parmesan cheese. Season with a little salt and pepper and stir through the cooked vegetables. Butter a 25 X 20cm baking dish and pour in the egg and vegetable mixture. Cook for approximately 30 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oven and dust with Parmesan cheese before serving.
NB You can vary the vegetables and herbs depending what you have available. Adding buckwheat flour and ground nuts takes the place of potato in a fritatta and makes the dish more substantial because you are adding some extra unprocessed carbohydrate, fibre and beneficial oils from the nuts.
Purple and green salad
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
200g purple sprouting broccoli
100g red cabbage, finely shredded
1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
50g grapes and/or fresh figs
1/2 lemon
pinch sea salt
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp honey, pomegranate molasses (I used home made elderberry syrup)
Pea shoots (optional)
Method
Steam the broccoli for 3 minutes, and rinse in cold water. Allow to dry. Arrange on a plate with the other ingredients. Mix together lemon juice, salt, olive oil and syrup. Drizzle over the salad and serve. Garnish with pea shoots if you have them
