So my daughter has just turned eight, and for the fourth time in my motherhood career, I decided that I was going to give the organic veg box thing a try! I have failed on three previous occasions to achieve the catalogue organic veg box image of producing veggie delights for all the family, and in fact often couldn’t make a dent in the abundance that arrived on a weekly basis at our front door, beautiful as they were. The pressure of having to create palatable offerings from ingredients that I wasn’t used to cooking with, proved more stress than I needed ..especially as I literally hate throwing away so much as a squishy tomato! But I am at home now, full time, so I I thought I would have another go!
As a family, we are not massive vegetable eaters in the grand scheme of things and so they have always had to be introduced creatively in this house both for my husband and my little girl. But I really was getting bored with spooning sweetcorn and peas on to my little girl’s plate and was also worried that a lack of variety would make her less adventurous. And I wanted to expand my repertoire and enjoy cooking! So I have gone for a fortnightly veg box because we are only a family of three – the smallest available, and just veg – no fruit!
So far, I’ve not thrown a single thing away from any of my veg boxes, but it’s not always easy to use everything, even though I am used to cooking ‘resourcefully’! I am also fortunate enough to have both chickens and guinea pigs to help me when things get really challenging! A bendy carrot or two may have been enjoyed by the furry members of the family. But generally the staples of carrots, potatoes, broccoli, etc are easy enough to use.
This week though, I seem to have stagnated! I’ve managed to use courgette and aubergine in moroccan lamb meatballs, and also snuck some courgette and broccoli into some chicken fried rice to surprisingly good reviews – spicy vegetable tarts were also easy peasy and remarkably well received. And I can knock up a broccoli and stilton soup, and many other soupy staples with my eyes shut. But ultimately, this week the veg box has defeated me!
For some reason I have accumulated an excess of red peppers – a fennel bulb has been languishing for a couple of weeks now without a purpose, and some beautiful orange beetroot turned up last week, which genuinely made my heart skip, until I realised I didn’t know what to do with it! We don’t do roast beetroot here – we’re not wild about roast root veg in general – a bit too sweet for our tastes! Personally I’m more into pickling so am going to give sauerkraut a go in the not too distant future, but in the meantime….help, I am looking for ideas!
So I am appealing to you lot… Waste Not Want Noters, to help me with my plight! Are you up for it…my Veg Box Challenge? Give my peppers some purpose, my fennel some function and my beetroot a reason to be! Ready, Steady, Cook! Your ideas will be very gratefully received and I’ll let you know how I get on!
Email us at info@wnwn.org.uk with your ideas!
Thank you so much for your help!
