Only Recipes, by Alessandra Zecchini ©

I love summer and the smell of my veggie garden! It is a bit like a jungle now and we are towards the end of the season so there are more weeds than veggies, but what a joy! One of the best things for me is to make minestrone soup with whatever I can pick on the day, even when it is hot (and then you can have it warm). And I am saving some for winter in some old ice cream containers. So funny, my boy opened the freezer the other day and was excited seeing boxes and boxes of ice cream, I felt a bit mean telling him what they actually contained... Then I like to put veggies on focaccia and pizza, yellow and green zucchini slices look good and taste even better! Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

Wash and cut two small bunches of silver beet, (or a big bunch) then steam the stalks for 10 minutes and the leaves for 5 minutes. Measure the spices: 1/2 tsp ground cumin 1/2 tsp ground coriander 1 tsp turmeric 1/3 tsp ground chili Peel and roughly chop two shallots. In a heavy pot heat 2 tbsp of vegetable oil (or ghee) then add  the shallots. Stir and add the spices. Stir to coat the shallots. Add the silver beet and a little water, plus a pinch of salt, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Add a handful of chopped coriander and blend with an immersion blender. In the meantime pan fry one block of paneer, cubed, with two tbsp of vegetable oil, a pinch of salt, coriander seeds and cumin seeds. Add the hot paneer to the silver beet curry.  Stir and keep warm while cooking the rice. Use the same pot where you fried the paneer: keep the leftover cumin and coriander seeds, add a few c...

Vegetable soup with: yellow zucchini, green zucchini, plum tomatoes, parsley, chives, celery, carrot, silver beet, onions. The onion are really small but I can't grow them any bigger in the bush so I grow them in pots. Chop, add water (rain water for me, so this too is free!) and salt, then cook. You can add a bit of extra virgin olive oil at the end. Photos and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

Swiss chard (silver beet) is a vegetable that you can always find in winter, and fortunately I love it. Also it can be cooked in so many ways, as a side or as an ingredient for a main. This is a quick side, I never had it 'spicy' and I was pleasantly surprised!  Just wash the silver beet (chard), cut the white stalks and leaves into fork-size pieces (pieces that you can pick up with a fork). Heat some extra virgin olive oil in a pan, add a peeled clove of garlic or two, and some fresh chilies (I added a green and a red, chopped). When the garlic and chilies sizzle add the white stalks and stir. After a few minutes add the leaves and salt to taste. Cover and let the leaves cook in their own steam, stirring from time to time. Serve hot. Yummy, different and super easy! And for more silver beet ideas look at all the recipes below :-) Alessandra Zecchini: Pasta with  silverbeet  cream and pistachio pesto Feb 26, 2012 Pick the silverbeet from your vegg...

I have been so busy lately that I had no time for blogging, or visiting other blogs much (sorry!). And no time for taking photos of food either, or preparing photogenic dishes, for that matter. The other day I cooked some silver beet (chard), leaves and stalk separately. We had the leaves as a side, hot and dressed with some Japanese soy sauce and lemon juice, and I kept the stalks for the day after. I love lemon juice and have plenty of lemons now, this recipe is so simple that it is not even a 'recipe' but it is all I have time to post now, and I can assure you that it is magic! Lemon and Thyme Halloumi with Chards Ingredients: 2 tbsp olive oil 1 block of plain halloumi cheese A few chard stalks, boiled in salted water and drained Fresh lemon juice Fresh thyme Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and then sauté the holloumi on both sides until the edges start to colour. Remove the Halloumi from the pan and add the chard stalks. Sauté them q...

I have silver beet (Swiss Chard) in the garden, one of the easiest green leafy vegetable to grow in New Zealand! I usually pick the leaves as I need them, but two of my old winter plants are starting to grow heads so I decided to cut them before is too late. For this recipe first I washed two big bunches of silver beet and cook them. I boiled the white stalks first, and then the green leaves. To do this I put the stalks in a big pot with a little water, and a pinch of salt, then after they have simmered for 5 minutes I add the leaves but no more water: the steam is enough to cook the leaves.  Then I made a thick besciamelle: I melted 100 g salted butter, took the pan off the stove and quickly mixed in 100 g flour, then back on the stove and slowly added 1 l milk. I stirred well until thick, and then I added salt to taste, white pepper and freshly grated nutmeg. In the meantime I cooked 500 g of pasta, I drained it and dressed it with a couple of tbsp of bes...

Pick the silverbeet from your veggie garden (or buy it!), as much as you can, since it goes down a lot! I used young tender leaves of rainbow chard. Sauté with olive oil, one sliced shallot and salt. Cover and cook in its own steam (if you pick it fresh it will have enough water, otherwise you will need to add a little). Once it is cooked blend everything with an immersion blender until you get a dark green 'cream'. To make the pesto I used some basil (from the garden), garlic, salt, olive oil and this ground pistachios that a Slow Food friend gave me in Italy. I really love this product, you can put it on pasta, in sauces and dips, and desserts!   To assemble: I cooked the pasta al dente, then tossed it in the pan with the silverbeet cream, then dished it, added a slice of ricotta on top (not for Vegans, and also not necessary to the dish, but I had some to use up, also if you like the idea of something white you can use a slice of so...

My silverbeet is not big enough to be picked, but I was working in the veggie garden and I broke one entire little plant by mistake. Well, I cut it right back, and maybe it will grow again. I  saut é  the leaves with olive oil, some  onion weed  (again) and a few black olives. A pinch of salt and pepper and some grilled bread for bruschetta, and lunch for two was ready, maybe unplanned, but ready! Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

The other day I showed you my curry made with borage , ‘invented’ because I have tons of it in the garden! The other green-leaf crop that does well in Auckland is silver beet. My old plants (from last year!) got so tall that I started collecting only the little leaves from the stalks, and they look like spinach. One of my favourite Indian dishes is Palak Paneer (or Panir), spinach with panir cottage cheese, and this variation is made using my silver beet. I washed (many times!) the small silver beet leaves, and then I steamed them and drain them. In a heavy pot I heated 2 tbsp of vegetable oil (I used rice bran oil) and sautéed for 30 seconds: 1/2 tsp ground cumin 1/2 tsp ground coriander 1 tsp turmeric 1/3 tsp ground chili then I added 2 roughly chopped shallots and, after 3 minutes, a good pinch of salt and the cooked silver beet. I cooked everything on low for about 20 minutes (you may need to add just a little water if the silver beet is too dry) and then finely pureed the content ...