Vegetables & Fruit
Asian Greens
PAK CHOY – also called Chinese cabbage, bok choy or pak choi.
Flavour: white crunch stems and dark green leaves, all edible, with a slightly mustard flavour between cabbage and spinach
Use: any dish that you would use cabbage or spinach in. I like it with Salmon. Wash plant and can be cooked whole or chopped. Use in stir fries, soups, curries filo pie filling. Young pak choy can be eaten raw in salads
Choy sum – flowering Chinese cabbage
Flavour – light sweet mustard flavour, plant is slimmer than pak choy with green leaves and stems with pale yellow flowers on tips
Use: prepare choy sum as you would broccoli. Quick cooking method. It is best to eat choy sum when the flowers are in bud rather than full bloom.
Gai laan – also known as Chinese broccoli or Chinese kale
Flavour: strong broccoli flavour, with glossy, long, crisp green stems, blue green leaves and white flowers.
Use: chop leaves roughly, Peel the stem to get rid of fibrous layer and cut into even sized pieces. Stir frying or steaming
Mai choy – Mustard cabbage or gai choy
Use: leaves are used in stir fries, pickles and soups. Usually cooked in chicken stock and served as a broth
Other Vegetables & Fruits
Apples – an apple a day keeps the doctor away
Grown: Globally
Health: it has polyphenols, mainly in the peel, so eat the whole apple and fibre. Aids weight loss as a negative calorie, and reduces cholesterol
Store:
Use: as they are, in school lunches, desserts, curries, salads
Avocado
Grown: originating in Mexico and now widely grown
Health: high in healthy monounsaturated fats as well as providing fibre, potassium, iron, niacin, vitamin B6 and folate
Store: leave out of fridge until the brown nub of the stem pluck off. Then it is ripe and you can store in fridge. If you put it in the fridge before this, it will not ripen
Use: on toast, in salads, guacamole, on crackers for snacks, in salsa
Blueberries:
Health: are rich in anthocyanins – antioxidants, believed to be important to counteract age related brain functon decline. They also are thought to have anti-cancer benefits and help lower cholesterol.
Store: Keep in fridge up to a fortnight or freeze them. I always have a container of them in the freezer.
In NZ you can pick your own and a great activity to do with the children.
Broad Beans
Grow: easy to grow and abundant crop. Pick regularly to encourage growth. From tender young beans you can eat raw pods and all to mature beans that need to be depodded and cooked. They don’t like to grow in the heat of the summer
Brussels Sprouts:
Use: they have a finer flavour when cooked in chicken stock or another favourite is to sauté in a pan with sliced almonds.
Carrots:
Use: cooke them with maple syrup roasted in the oven. Or for 4 people cook 6 medium carrots, peeled, cut in 5cm long sticks and add 2 tsp ground cumin, 2 tbsp honey, 4 tbsp chopped fresh coriander and ground black peper. cook carrots for 3 mins in boiling water, drain and toss together with other ingredients in a pan. delicious.
Cabbage:
Prepare: add a bout a tablespoon of sugar or a slice of lemon to the water when cooking cabbage, cauliflower or sprouts to kill the smell. For cabbage with a more delicate flavour and texture, poach in milk instead of boiling water. Sprinkle with nutmeg or cinnamon
Capsicums
Grown: they grown in temperature above 15 degrees, they come in a variety of colours green, purple, red, orange, and yellow. All Capsicums start out green and colour as they ripen, becoming sweeter and more nutritious (red ones are sweetest).
Use: raw or cooked – they become sweeter with cooking
Store: in fridge not with tomatoes and eat before they wrinkle. They can be frozen, I cut them up ready to use beforehand.
Nutrition: excellent source of beta-carotene and vitamin C, B1, B6 K and folic acid and zeaxanthin which can help prevent age related macular degeneration
Celery:
Celery has been used in folk medicine for centuries. In China, Egypt and Rome the plant was used as a remedy for a range of issues, including hangovers.
Store: freshen celery by standing upright in a jug of cold water
Cauliflower:
Prepare: Add a cup of milk to the water when cooking cauliflower. It improves the flavour and helps keep it white. Or a strip of lemon peel will have the same effect
Corn:
Buying: choose green husks with yellow brown tassels and plum, pale kernels. I pull back the tassels in the store to ensure the kernels have not started to dry out, that way you know the corn is fresh
Store: In fridge separate to apples, tomatoes to avoid spoiling.
Nutrition: Sweetcorn contains a range of antioxidant carotenoids including alpha and beta carotene. They also contain lutein and zeaxanthin which are beneficial for eye health. It is one of the few good sources of zeaxanthin
Cook: BBq, wrap in tinfoil. Boil in very salty water for 8 minutes(no longer) with husks on, cut into segments if you wish, serve with butter salt and pepper to taste
Daikon also known as Japanese or Chinese radish
From: a root vegetable thought to have originated in the Mediterranean and later bought to China. It can be grown as big as a large parsnip, but tastes better when harvested at a smaller size
Flavour: mild sweet flavour than red radishes
Nutrition facts: fibre, vitamin C and enzyme called myrosinase, which is essential to activate glucosinate compounds found in cruciferous vegetables. (Glucosinates are associated with cancer prevention)
Use: eat daikon raw in salads or add to stir fries. It is also tasty when pickled.
Eggplant or aubergine if you are French
Grown: actually a fruit. Common in southern Europe in dishes Moussaka (Greece) and ratatouille (France)
Food: pick heavy glossy eggplants with no brown spots on the skin.
Flavour: mild flavour that works well with tomatoes, onions, garlic and herbs. This one vege that needs to be well cooked.
Feijoas:
Buying: handle with care as they bruises easily. Ripe fruit is slightly soft and best eaten within 3 days.
Store: store fruit in the fridge or to ripen store at room temperaure in a paper bag.
Use: Just eat them, Our Grandson, eats the whole fruit like an apple. Great to have with yoghurt, or turn into a salsa, mix feijoas with red onion, avocado, tomatoes, coriander, lime juice and sweet chilli sauce.
Use in baking instead of bananas or sapple sauce.
Fennel
Grown: ancient Greeks valued this vege for its healing properties as well as its ability to curb appetite and help lose weight
Store: use fennel within five days. Refreigerate in the crisper in an airtight container. Keep separate so its aroma doesn’t affect other vegetables
Use: a member of the parsley family, its aromatic quality – raw or cooked. You can eat the bulb, stalks and leaves. Garnish meals, grate into salads. Roast caramelises this vege to enhance it sweetness and mellow its liquorice notes – 40 – 50 minutes.
Health: provides vitamin C, fibre and folate, so it aids digestion and will assist in boosting immunity.
Leeks
Baby leeks have the sweetness of baby carrots
Nutrition facts: leeks contain several antioxidants compounds
Use: baby leeks the whole plant is edible, use like spring onion in salads, or cook whole, they can be braised, steamed, roasted or wrapped in prosciutto or filo and baked
Mandarins:
Store: mandarins can be stored in or out of the fridge. Keep in cool, dark place for up to 5 days. If in the fridge – crisper section for up to 2 weeks
Health: contain a good amount of vitamin C, along with other vitamin, minerals and fibre. contain over 170 phyochemicals thought to have protectiove effect against some cancers. Eating lots of citrus fruits has also been linked to a reduced risk of coronary heart diseas and stroke.
Mushrooms portobello
Flavour: rich flavour and meaty texture
Prepare: Never salt mushrooms until they are cooked as this draws out the juice. Wipe mushrooms with a damp cloth. Soaking in water impairs the Flavour.
Nutrition facts: great way to add selenium to our diets
Olives
Delicious snack and a favourite of mine. Much better for you than chips etc.
They are high in monounsaturated fat which is good for heart health. Eating olives in their whole state won’t give you as much monounsaturated fat and antioxidants as consuming olive oil
Types of Olives are not different types they just been picked at different times. Green Olives are unripe versions of black ones.
Use: pizza, pasta, stews, tacos, wraps and sandwiches or as a snack
Onions
Spring Onions also known as scallions – these are milder in flavour and can be eaten raw or cooked
Red Onions are mild in flavour so are often eaten raw in salads. If strong, chop and soak in water for at least 10 minutes.
Brown onions are the most common variety and have a strong flavour so tend to be cooked. They are available all year
Shallots are a bit like pickling onion and have a more delicate sweeter taste than brown onions and are delicious raw or cooked
Pickling onion are small brown onions with a strong flavour, you can pickle them or use them in salads
Store in an onion bag in the dark, like a draw, where you store the potatoes.
After peeling onions get rid of the smell on hands by rubbing with salt. Or try peeling under cold running water, or freeze the onion first, or if you are like our Son in law, wear your ski or swimming googles!
Potatoes:
Store: they will keep longer by scraping off sprouts as they appear. Store in brown paper bag in a dark place. Not plastic.
Cook: they will retain most of their vitamins if cooked in their skins. Any left overs, I store in the freezer for the night I’m in a rush. If you have too many potatoes, make some baked potatoes and place in Freezer. Put peeled potatoes in cold water with salt whilst waiting to be cooked and they wont turn brown.
Peas
Peas and beans will not boil over if you rub the inside top of the pot with butter
Parsnips – known as white carrot in Scotland
Grown: a member of the carrot family
Health: contain useful amounts of folate and niacin
Store in fridge
choose smooth, firm vegetables rather than really big ones which can tend to been woody in the centres. Young parsnips only need to be wash before cooking
Use; roast or cook with potatoes and mash. Cook a parsnip cake – use a carrot cake recipe and substitute the carrots for parsnip. Use in fritters and soups
Rhubarb
Every kiwi backyard had a rhubarb patch. It is a vegetable not a fruit
Use: the red pink stalks are chopped up sweetened stewed and made into pies and crumbles
Health: one of the most calcium rich vegetables, contains fibre, potassium and vitamin C
Store: rhubarb keeps best in the fridge or freezer
Beware: the leaves are toxic so don’t eat them
Swedes:
While swedes are a turnip and cabbage hybrid, unlike a turnips, the flesh is yellow orange and somewhat sweeter. Swedes can withstand a good frost and it is thought this makes them taste better
Use: they don’t need to be peeled nor cooked to be enjoyed. If they are young and fresh leave the skin on. Grate crisp swedes into a salad or eat a chunk for a snack. To cook, prepare swedes as you would boiled potatoes. Flavourings with nutmeg, parsley, coriander and black pepper. They can be stir fried, roasted, pureed, steamed, baked glazed or pickled
Tomatoes
Grown: grow in your backyard or on your patio – they are easy as.
Use: salads, stews, tomato on toast, in sandwiches, in savoury dishes, cherry tomatoes in school lunches
Health: non starchy vegetables, rich in lycopene, an antioxidant that unlike most nutrients in fresh produce, increases after cooking and processing. Study indicate a regular intake of lycopene rich tomatoes and a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, ski damage and certain cancers, including prostate cancer and may assist protect post menopausal women from breast cancer by increasing levels of adiponectin, a hormone involved in regulating blood sugar and fat
Store: Firm tomatoes are best suited to cool, dark storage, as refridgeration will flatten their flavour. At room temperature they will ripen slowly and keep about a week.
Watercress: nutrient powerhouse
Grown:
Flavour: mild tasting and flowery looking green
Use: Exposure to heat may inactivate PEITC, so best to enjoy raw in salads, sandwiches and cold-pressed juices.
Health: contains 4 times more beta carotene than an apple, lots of vitamin K, good for skin and youthful. Rich source of PEITC (Phenylethl isothiocyanate) which research suggests helps fight cancers
Store:
Yuzu fruit:
Grown: from china or Korea, but often associated with food of Japan. Refer to japanese citron or Yuja in Korea
Flavour: like a sour mandarin orange and is similar in size to a tangerine. its owerful aroma is like a honeysuckle.
Use: starts of green and is ripe when it turns a warm yellow. it has less juice than a lemon or lime. Both in Korean and Japanese cooking, from soup, sashimi to pastries. Or used the same way you use a lemon or lime such as vinaigrette, cocktail or dessert
Health: good source of vitamins, minerals Vitamin C
Zucchini: you can make noodles from zucchini by using a vegetable peeler and use instead of pasta, they are called zoodles. They are very low in fat, rich in fibre and vitamin C
Tea: White tea, Black tea and green tea all come from the same plant. Green tea is made from the leaves of the mature plant. White tea is made of leaves plucked early in development and is minimally processed. Black tea is made from the green tea leaves that are blackened through fermentation and it is this process that reduces the catechins. Green tea has more catechins are powerful antioxidants that prevent damage to cells and it is believed reduces the risk of heart disease, cognitive decline and some cancers. Green tea contains epigallocatechin gallate or EGCG another powerful. antioxidant that has been shown to boost immune function. It has also L-theanine, which helps produce more disease fighting compounds. It is unfermented and is made quickly by steaming the leaves. Oolong tea is partially fermented, the leaves are oxidised for a shorter time than for black tea
Freezer – yes organise this too
I have containers of food that I believe is essential!!
Containers of mixtures for smoothies a) peeled half bananas 2) raspberries 3) blueberries 4) pineapples 5) mango
Other contains are: a) peas b) mushrooms c) chips/baked potatoes d) prawns e)homemade ice-cream f) homemade sliced banana bread g) pizza h) cheese rolls
Small containers: a) rind of lemon b) sliced ginger c) apples quartered