This week’s mystery bluebox contained:

caulifower (medium) , collard greens, yellow beans, cucumber, beets and greens, lemons, mango (hard), plums, yellow onions, red onion

yellow bean salad

This salad is super delicious with fatty bacon, sweet prunes and crunchy yellow beans. Top it with a sharp blue cheese and have it with a chunk of bread with soft butter for lunch. 

20 yellow beans, ends trimmed

2 slices of bacon, chopped

50g chorizo, finely minced

1/2 red onion finely minced

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

2 Tbsp olive oil

6 prunes, sliced

1 Tbsp Dijon mustard

salt and pepper to taste

finishers

crumbled blue cheese

salt and pepper

PROCEDURE

This week’s mystery bluebox contained:

 caulifower (medium) , swiss chard, cilantro, collard greens, cucumber, greens, lemons (full of seeds), mango, red onion, plums, apricot

Spinachless salad

You won’t miss the spinach. The Swiss Chard doesn’t leave a squeaky spinach residue on your teeth and the hearty toothsome chew of the chard is remarkably better than most lettuces. Sauce it up with a warm dressing of mushrooms, bacon and red onion. Finish it with some grated hardboiled egg and you’ve got a salad that will fill you up and make you feel popeye strong. 

1 bunch of swiss chard

3-4 slices of thick cut bacon, chopped

10 cremini mushrooms

½ red onion, sliced thin

½ cup olive oil

¼ cup red wine vinegar

1 Tbsp Dijon mustard

salt and pepper to taste

finishers

2 hardboiled eggs

olive oil

salt and pepper

PROCEDURE

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This week’s mystery bluebox contained:

big carrots, baby carrots, caulifower (small) , chard, cilantro, cucumber, garlic, grapefruit, lemons, mango (rock hard), red onion, pear, rhubarb (big)

quickie carrot, cucumber and red onion pickles

6 carrots

1 cup white vinegar

1 cup water

large nob of ginger, sliced

2 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp salt

In a pan bring the water, vinegar, salt, sugar and ginger up to a boil. When it reaches the boil, shut off the heat and let it steep for 10 minutes. 

Meanwhile, wash and peel all your carrots and use your peeler to peel off long strips of carrot. Peel three or four off one side, then rotate and peel from another side until you are left with a skinny little carrot and a lovely pile of carrot ribbons. 

Put the ribbons in a heat proof glass container or bowl. Strain the warm pickling liquid over the carrots making sure they are fully submerged and cover with plastic wrap. Allow the carrots to cool to room temperature then transfer the carrots and liquid into a storage container and keep in the fridge for up to a month. 

Enjoy these pickles with tuna salad, roast pork or on good bread with cream cheese.

quickie cucumber pickles

1 hothouse cucumber

2 Tbsp salt

1 cup white vinegar

2 Tbsp sugar

zest and juice of 1 lemon

1/4 cup cilantro leaves

2 onions, sliced thin

1 cup red wine vinegar

1 cup water

2 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp salt

In a pan bring the water, vinegar, salt and sugar up to a boil. When it reaches the boil, shut off the heat and let it steep for 5 minutes. 

Put the sliced onion in a heat proof glass container or bowl. Pour the hot pickling liquid over the onions making sure they are fully submerged and cover with plastic wrap. Allow the onions to cool to room temperature then transfer the onions and liquid into a storage container and keep in the fridge for up to a month. 

Enjoy these pickles with cured meats, on sausages or on an egg salad sandwich.

This week’s mystery bluebox contained:

big carrots, baby carrots, caulifower (small) , chard,cilantro, cucumber, garlic, grapefruit, lemons, mango (rock hard), onion, pear, rhubarb (big)

cauliflower a la grecque

This is an ancient greek way of preserving vegetables. You heat them in a flavourful liquid with loads of olive oil. Then leave them in a container to cool and the olive oil forms a protective layer on top to lock in flavour and lock out anything that might spoil the party.

1 head of cauliflower (300g), broken down into florets

1/2 onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced 

125 ml white wine

50ml water 

juice of 1 lemon

corriander seeds

50 ml olive oil

1/4 saffron

1/2 tsp salt

10 corriander seeds

Par-cook the cauliflower florets by cooking them in rapidly boiling salted water for 10 minutes. Drain and set aside.

In a medium pot sweat the onions and garlic in the olive oil until soft and translucent. Add the white wine, water, lemon juice, corriander seeds, saffron and cauliflower.

Cook for 10 minutes and remove from the heat. Transfer immediately into a heat safe container and allow it to cool to room temperature before placing it in the fridge to chill. 

Serve alongside chicken and fish mains or with other vegetables as an antipasto snack.

This week’s mystery bluebox contained:

Carrots (big), carrots (baby), beets, grapefruit, rainbow chard, arugula, lemons, a mango and some collard greens  

composed salad of carrot, beet, arugula, grapefruit, stewed raisins and sunflower seeds

1/4 cup olive oil

2 Tbsp hazelnut oil

pinch of salt

grapefruit juice

Use the graperuit juice from the left over grapefruit carcass once you have cut out the supremes. Whisk all dressing ingredients and  set aside until needed. 

stewed raisins — recipe

grapefruit supremes (peel and cut out meat chunks between connective membrane)

fresh arugula

carrots, boiled until just tender and chilled

beets, boiled until tender and chilled

sunflower seeds

cracked pepper

nice finishing salt

Be the artist within. Use this palate of elements to arrange on a plate for an artful lunch and enjoy in the sun with a glass of chilled white wine.

Make sure to dress each element with some of the dressing.

This week’s mystery bluebox contained:

big carrots, baby carrots, caulifower (small) , chard, cilantro, cucumber,garlic, grapefruit, lemons, mango (rock hard), onion, pear, rhubarb (big)

chicken with lemon juice and cilantro served on a bed of sauteed swiss chard  with a pear and chard slawlad and honey/mustard/grapefruit vinaigrette

honey, mustard and grapefruit vinaigrette

1 Tbsp Grainy mustard

1 Tbsp runny honey

1/2 cup olive oil

2 Tbsp hazelnut oil (if you got it, otherwise don’t sweat it)

juice of 1 grapefruit

salt to taste

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and whisk to combine. Divide dressing in half and combine half with 2 Tbsp of mayonnaise. 

Half will be used to flavour the swiss chard, the other half (with mayonaise) will dress the slawlad.

pear, chard and rhubarb slaw and sauteed swiss chard

8 small swiss chard leaves

1 pear

1 rib of rhubarb

The swiss chard stems will be finely julienned for the slawlad, while the leaves will be tossed in vinaigrette and sauteed. 

Remove the swiss chard stems and very finely slice them (julienne), set aside in a medium bowl. Stack the leaves, roll into a cigar shape and finely slice the leave (chiffonade). Place leaves in their own bowl and dress them with the half of the vinaigrette that does not contain mayonnaise. 

Slice the pear and the rhubarb into match sticks (julienne), add to the julienned swiss chard stems. Dress this slaw with the dressing that has mayonnaise. 

Set both aside in their own bowls or containers.

sauteed chicken

2 chicken breast with the skin on

salt and pepper

1/4 cup fresh chopped cilantro

juice of 1 lemon

Get a large pan over medium heat. Rub down the chicken breast with some olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Place the chicken breasts skin side down in the hot pan (pan must be hot!). When the skin is crispy, about 6 minutes, flip it over, drop heat to medium low and continue cooking for 6 more minutes. Toss on some chopped cilantro and squeeze on some lemon juice and toss in a little nob of butter cook for 4 more minutes. Take out the chicken and set it aside to rest.

Fire up your pan to full tilt and when it’s hot, toss in the marinated swiss chard leaves. They only take a couple minutes to wilt down nicely and now it’s time to plate. 

On a nice big plate, pile up a nice stack of the slawlad, lay down some of the sauteed swiss chard and top it with the sliced chicken breast.

Serves two quite happily. 

This week’s mystery bluebox contained:

2 arugula, a bunch of carrots, 4 lemons, 3 pears, 1 mango, some rhubarb, a cucumber and 2 red onions.

creamy cucumber, mango and red onion salad with a rhubarb relish

1/4 cup mayonnaise

zest and juice of 1 lemon

pinch salt

1 tsp cayenne or 1 chili, finely minced

1 whole cucumber, diced

1 mango, diced

1/4 red onion, finely minced

2 ribs of rhubarb, julienned

big pinch salt

big pinch sugar

splash white wine vinegar

glug olive oil

Julienne rhubarb, and plap it in a bowl. Sprinkle on some sugar and salt, drizzle on some vinegar and oil and give it a quick toss. Let it hang out an marinate while you pre the rest of the salad. 

Meanwhile combine all the salad dressing ingredients in a large bowl. 

Dice the whole cucumber and the mango. Do a nice fine mince (Brunnoise) for the red onion and toss all the ingredients in the dressing, stirring to combine.

Serve up the salad. Hint: it sets up nicely in a mold if you’re into that sort of thing. 

Top with some of the rhubarb relish, it should be super yummy after a quick marinade.