Only Recipes, by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Lovely colourful vegetables from the garden (except the red onions), all ready for a minestrone. From the bottom: red onions, rainbow chard, carrots, yellow beans, silverbeet stalks, celery, green beans, flat beans, kale. Just add water and salt. Wishing you all a colourful week! Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

I know that it is not season for kale, but we got quite a few seeds from the NewWorld's series  Little Garden , and now I have plenty of curly kale! I like it but not as much as  cavolo nero , but it is the best to make kale chips! I had to wash the leaves 7 times (that was my Mother's 'magic' number when I was little and my job was to wash the salad!) to remove all the little bugs from the curls! After spinning the leaves I placed them on a oven tray lined with baking paper, bushed them with olive oil and sprinkled them with salt. I baked them for about 10-15 minutes (until they looked crispy and dark green). They taste a little like roasted seaweed. A yummy snack! Garden flowers of the day: hydrangeas!   Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

Nothing beats a green green green smoothie! Kale, spinach, banana, frozen mango, and coconut water as a base.  The croquettes are zucchini (raw and grated) mixed with feta, eggs, herbs and bread (stale bread soaked and crushed) and instead of frying them, as I usually do, I just drizzled them with olive oil and place them in the oven. Turn over halfway through baking and add more oil in necessary, you will be happy for how good they taste, even if they are not fried! Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©