Vegetables

German Spatzle

Whenever I make Spatzle I think of my sweet grandmother. This German-inspired dish is something she used to make often. She wasn’t German, but lived close to the border and it was cheaper to do grocery shopping there. When she had a growing family it was a thrifty, simple & delicious dish everyone loved, so

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Spinach sauce with pasta

This recipe is nutrient dense with spinach goodness! You can use a lot of it in one dish and you can use all types of spinach for this recipe. Of course this recipe is healthy, easy and, depending on the pasta and type of cheese you use, it can be vegan and glutenfree as well.

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How to Grow a Ton of Snow Peas

‘As easy as shelling peas’- well that’s how the saying goes- but is growing snow peas really that easy? Well yes, it can be easy, if you follow my 5 top tips on how to grow a ton of snow peas! Snow peas are usually grown to eat whole, and they’re remarkably similar to sugar

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Versatile Veggie Pancakes- Sweet or Savoury!

Everybody loves pancakes- I have yet to meet anyone who doesn’t. But sometimes pancakes are not the healthiest food on the planet. So I added vegetables and made them gluten- and lactose free. These versatile veggie pancakes can be sweet or savoury- that’s a better batter! These pancakes have zucchini (courgette) and carrot in them.

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Tzatziki with Cucumber – Greek Dip

This traditional Greek tzatziki dip is a classic! Just thinking about it transports me back to the holidays we had in the Greek islands. Tzatziki is very refreshing and this version is full of cucumber. Tzatziki dip is a natural accompaniment to Greek dishes like gyros and souvlaki. I like to use it instead of

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Best All-Purpose DIY Garden Bed Covers

They say that necessity is the mother of invention, and that saying proves to be true when it comes to my garden. These portable garden frames have turned out to be the best all-purpose DIY garden bed covers ever- but I kind of designed them by accident! They are essentially a drop-over portable greenhouse or

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Sweet Cauliflower Porridge

Cauliflower is amazingly versatile. You can cook, roast, bake, steam, puree and make soup out of it. You can even use it as a substitute for rice. But did you know you can also use cauliflower in sweet dishes, and as a substitute for oats? Wait, what?! Cauliflower in something sweet? You must be crazy.

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5 Exotic Tomato Varieties

I don’t think there’s a vegetable gardener in the world that doesn’t love tomatoes- and rightly so! They are one of the most tasty, versatile and all-round fabulous food plants to grow. With the main growing season coming up here in the subtropics and the northern hemisphere, it’s time to think about what to sow.

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7 Things You Can Bury in the Garden

Burying things in the garden benefits your plants and soil in a number of ways. It helps the environment by reducing waste and landfill. You will save on buying fertiliser and other costly additives that improve your soil. It even reduces your carbon footprint by lowering methane emissions. Let’s have a look at 7 of

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Pea and Sugarsnap Stir Fry

Frozen peas are good, but fresh peas are even better! The same goes for sugarsnaps. And they are so good for you too.It is one of our quickest-growing crops here in the Netherlands, and they are so yummy when eaten fresh. So when we can harvest, we do so immediately to make this pea and

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Carrot Cake

This carrot cake with warming spices and dried apricots is so very more-ish! There’s no need to feel guilty either; it’s vegan, gluten free and contains no refined sugars. We eat this carrot cake for breakfast, lunch and dessert! If you can make this carrot cake last for longer than one day, you have amazing

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Subtropical Winter Planting Guide 2022

Welcome to winter in the humid subtropics- all three weeks of it. Okay that’s a local joke where I live (Brisbane, Australia), but it’s not far from the truth. The subtropics give us a specialised climate- one unlike any other. Most gardening information found online and in books is written for cool or temperate climates,

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Splitpea Soup

This splitpea soup is a typical Dutch dish, which we only make in winter. It is a hearty, thick and very filling soup, full of veggies. We love it! Whenever I think of splitpea soup, I think of the winters when I was a child. Back then winters were still cold and long, so much

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5 Easy Steps to Onion Success

I love to grow onions at home. Even though they’re cheap to buy, there is just something special about a freshly harvested, crisp onion. They are so versatile in the kitchen, being useful in everything from sauces, curries, soups to pickles and ferments. I grow them without any chemicals at all so they’re organic, which

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How to Grow Perfect Carrots

There’s nothing better than biting into a fresh, home-grown organic carrot. They’re sweet, juicy, crunchy, and incredibly healthy! A basic vegetable the world over, carrots are versatile in the kitchen. They can be a base for soups, stews and juices, and make a tasty addition to salads and stir-fries. Despite being well-known and well-loved, carrots

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Red Cabbage with Apples

This wonderfully purple recipe is a traditional Dutch dish. Red cabbage with apples is sweet and a little sour, easy to make & an extremely good way to get kids (and adult kids!) to eat red cabbages. Originally it is eaten with baked potatoes or potato croquettes and a beef stew that is literally translated

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Roasted Pumpkin and Beetroot

This year I had the honor of getting the whopping amount of one pumpkin on my pumpkin plant! Luckily I had another plant, but same story, just the one pumpkin. I don’t know what happend, but apparently my pumpkins just didn’t want to produce more than one per plant. Nevertheless, I was glad to have

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Pumpkin Semifreddo

Pumpkins are great! I love pumpkins because they taste great and they are so versatile. You can use them for sweet and savoury dishes, roast, cook, bake and puree them. The choices are endless.This time I made a pumpkin semifreddo with it and it came out great (if I do say so myself). I had

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How to Grow a Ton of Sweet Potato

Sweet potatoes are one of the easiest and most handy vegetables to have in your garden. They’re mostly grown for the delicious & nutritious tubers, but the leaves can be eaten too. Sweet potato leaves are high in fibre, rich in numerous vitamins, and are used as a spinach in many parts of the world.

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Why You Need to Use Ash in the Garden

Did you know that ashes from a fire can be spread around the garden to produce more, bigger, better and healthier fruit & vegetables? Well it’s true! Even better, it’s completely free, easy to make, and easy to use! In this article I’m going to explain how that works, how to do it, and why

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