If you have more veg than you know what to do with, then you may find these suggestions useful. Each dish can be tailored to use up whatever you currently have a glut of…
Paella and stir fries – These are a great option for using up lots of different veggies all in one go. Great for beans, courgettes, peppers, tomatoes, onions, leeks, mange tout and peas, as well as spinach, chard or kale and broccoli.
Minestrone Style Soups – Make a good stock base, and add lots of chopped veggies and some noodles for a light lunch soup. You can go Asian in flavour with chillies and lime, or more Mediterranean with lots of fresh herbs.
Go the extra mile on yummy Salads – ribboned courgettes and cucumbers are great for mixing with a big handful of wild rocket making a salad into something a bit more special – add lots of fresh chopped mint and lemon juice. It’s a great way of using up a glut. Likewise you can make a lovely salad with a medley of different French and Runner beans as well as mange tout and sugarsnap peas – add lots of herbs, some olive oil and seasoning. Chopped celery can be added to almost any salad quite happily, so add that too if you’re growing it. Don’t forget the simple tomato salad too – with a splash of olive oil, some sea salt and fresh herbs like oregano, marjoram or basil, you can make it really tasty (great on bruschetta!)
Veg medley for roasts etc – if you’re doing a family roast you can easily use up loads of veggies. Just don’t cook so many potatoes and give your greens a little extra attention and they’ll be gobbled up. Hopefully. We like to mix up a few different things. For example, you can use a lot of greens – spinach, kale, chard – and wilt them down with butter and garlic, throw in some blanched French beans, some sautéed leeks and onions, and if you have a surplus of courgettes or carrots you can grate them in as well. Add fresh parsley, rosemary and/or thyme.
Lentil and roast veggie dishes – this is a really good one for things like beetroot and carrots. Just roast the beets and carrots (we quite like seasoning them with cumin, paprika and coriander), cook the lentils separately in veg stock, and then you can mix it all together. Add spinach, chard, cooked green beans and any other greens too and maybe some goats cheese.