Our Garden Progress - February

How to freeze courgettes - Courgette Soup!

If you have ever grown courgettes, then you know that you end up with a lot of courgettes in a very small amount of time. And recently we have ended up with a lot of courgettes! And a few surprise marrows!

And there is only so much grilled courgette you can eat until you start to get a little sick of it. So we were looking for some ways to preserve (or freeze) courgette, so that we don't have to eat it all now, and so that we can have some at a later date. And most importantly, we don't waste any of the delicious veggies from our garden!! 

So I set out to do a bit of research on the best way to preserve (or freeze courgette). I don't have a lot of spare time at the moment, so I was looking for something that meant I didn't have to put a lot of effort in, and wouldn't mean I had to slave for hours. What I found from my research is that you can blanch and then freeze courgette, but many people didn't recommend doing that, as when the courgette is reheated, its rubbery and not that nice. I didn't want to cut up nicely, then blanch, then freeze my courgette babies, only for in a few months to reheat it and then avoid it in my meal. Someone suggested that it is better to create a meal with courgette in it first, and then freeze it, such as chocolate courgette cake (not technically a meal, but I could eat a lot of it in one sitting!), or a courgette soup! I had never tried courgette soup before, so I thought I would give it a go, because soup in winter is divine and so easy to reheat! And the best part of this courgette soup (in terms of preparation) was that the hardest part was cutting the courgette and that was it. Easy! Just what I needed!

COURGETTE SOUP

The great thing about soup is that you can basically make it up, so just judge how much you need, based on how much courgette you have!

Ingredients:

-Oil

-Garlic

-Onion

-Courgette

-Beef, chicken or veggie stock

-Chili flakes

-Pepper

1. In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion cut into quarters (as much as you like), and then add as much garlic as you like. I used one onion, and 1 tsp of crushed garlic. Sauté for a couple of minutes until the onion starts to brown a little.

2. Add the sliced courgette to the pot. I had about 7 to 8 cups of sliced courgette, but just use as much as you have!

3. Add chili flakes to the courgette. I used about 1 1/2 tsps. Saute the courgette with the chili flakes until the courgette starts to brown.

4. Add enough stock to cover the courgette. I needed 2L of stock, and I used a combination of chicken and beef stock.

5. Crack as much pepper into the pot as you like, and then increase the heat until the stock comes to a boil.

6. Once the soup is boiling, reduce the heat and then simmer. I just left the pot for an hour (to be honest I forgot I had the pot on the stove! Oops!), but you can just leave it to simmer until the courgette starts to break apart easily.

7. Take off the heat, and allow to cool.

8. Once cool, liquidize the stock. You can do this with a stick blender, or transfer in batches to a normal blender.

9. Either eat the soup straight away, or transfer to plastic containers in serving sizes, so that reheating it is very easy!

10. Place in the freezer!

11. To reheat at a later date, put the soup in a saucepan, or in a microwave proof bowl and stir at regular intervals to reheat it well.

Courgette soup is one of our new favourites!! Didn't even know it existed a week ago, and now we have 6 servings of it frozen to eat in winter!! YAY!

"Whats ready in the vegetable garden" Soup

Sometimes you just feel like a dinner you can whip together in seconds. No need to go to the grocery store to get ingredients. Or spend hours slaving and chopping away. "Whats ready in the vegetable garden" soup is one of my new favourites. This was also combined with "What do we have in the fridge that we need to use up" soup last night.

So here is my Monday night dinner - an extremely versatile soup that literally will be ready once the veggies are chopped and the soup is boiling. Basically, use as much as you like, of what you like, and adjust the ingredients based on how much you need, and how much you have!

INGREDIENTS:

-Canola oil

-Bacon

-Swiss chard stems

-Corn

-Courgette

-Carrot

-Frozen spinach

-Chicken stock

-Noodles

-Pepper

METHOD:

1. Heat the oil in a medium sized saucepan, and add the bacon.

2. Cook until the bacon starts to brown, and then add all the chopped vegetables that you want.

3. Stir and continue to cook until the vegetables begin to colour a little. This colouring will be some yummy flavour!

4. Add enough chicken stock to cover the vegetables, and then bring to the boil.

5. Once the soup is boiling, reduce the heat and let it simmer for a couple of minutes.

6. Bring soup back to the boil and add the noodles.

7. Boil until the noodles are cooked.

8. Taste and then season with pepper.

9. Serve and enjoy!!!

Our first baby! (GROWING COURGETTES) - December 3 2012

Our 9 month wedding anniversary was the 3rd of December, and on that day, we harvested our first courgette baby! Its amazing how different home grown vegetables are to shop bought vegetables! Our courgettes are so fat!

The crazy thing about courgettes is that one day they are small and the next they are a marrow! Literally! A marrow is basically a giant version of a courgette that has a slightly different texture and taste. So when you are growing these bad boys, keep an eye on them! The ideal size for a courgette is about a pinky finger to thumb length! The other thing about growing courgettes is the plant can produce a lot! As you keep harvesting, there is more potential for new vegetables to grow, so having a few recipes up your sleeve that use these glorious vegetables is a definite must! I have a couple of unique recipes that I will post soon! But for now, enjoy this beautiful picture of our first courgette baby!

I don't know if its the volcanic soil we are blessed with or the perfect growing conditions or what, but seriously we are getting some big plants in a small amount of time! Look at these giant lettuces that we have! Luckily we have two families as well as us to share them with! Because that would be a lot of salad that we would have to consume!

We have also started growing peas in our garden! They are gorgeous plants that are very delicate looking and are truly just beautiful!

I will post some more about growing peas as well as some courgette recipes, but in the mean time, enjoy this photo of our glorious greenery!