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Archive for the ‘vegetables’ Category

Silverbeet is a lovely leafy green vegetable that contains lots of iron, folate, vitamin A and vitamin C. It can be cooked or eaten raw.  Sometimes it can be difficult to get kids to eat it so I like to cook it with a few things added to give it a little more flavour. When cooked, silverbeet reduces quite a bit.

Here are some suggestions on different things you can do with silverbeet. Of course, you don’t have to do exactly as I suggest. Use your imagination and whatever you happen to have to hand.

Wash and roughly chop the silverbeet.

Then chop and lightly fry some onion and/or garlic in a large fryingpan . Add the chopped silverbeet and fry over moderate heat stirring occasionally. I like to cover it initially so that the steam helps to cook the upper layers of the silverbeet to get it to reduce in size a bit quicker. Otherwise it is difficult to stir without it falling out of the frying pan.

I usually add a sprinkle of salt as well.

Sometimes I do it with egg. Fry the chopped silverbeet (with or without the onion) until it has mostly reduced in size and most of the liquid has evaporated. Lightly beat one or two eggs. Clear a little room in the centre of the frying pan  and add the egg. Allow the egg to cook awhile and then stir it into the silverbeet.

If you have mushrooms, you can chop these and cook them with the silverbeet to give a nice flavour and a variation in texture.

Leftover silverbeet can be added to other dishes. I have used it in fritters, stir fries, polenta, stews etc.

And if your kids watch Popeye, you can tell them that silverbeet is related to spinach and that might encourage them to eat it!

Asian style vegetable cooking is notable for its colours and flavour. While roast vegetables or steamed vegetables can be tasty with a meal, stir-fried vegetables are much more interesting in the tastes and textures.  They are also very healthy as they are cooked for a very short period and thus retain more of the nutrients. As with most recipes here, you can use whatever vegetables you have to hand.

Stir-Fried Vegetables

Ingredients:

3 sticks celery
250 g Chinese Cabbage (wong buk)
250 g broccoli
100 g green beans or snow peas
2 small white onions
3 Tbsp oil for cooking
1/2 cup rich chicken stock
1 chicken stock cube (optional)
1 Tbsp Oyster sauce
2 tsp light soy sauce
s tsp finely chopped ginger

Method:

1. Prepare vegetables and cust into even sized pieces. Keep each type separate.
2. Heat wok, add oil and heat. Lightly fry ginger for 6 – 7 seconds.
3. Add vegetables to cook according to hardness. Stir fry constantly to keep from burning. If the wok is too dry you can add a little stock.
4. Crumble stock cube into remaining stock and add to wok together with oyster sauce. Season with soya sauce.
5. Sauce can be thickened if desired with a little cornflour blended with cold water. Bring to boil and serve immediately.

Variations

I usually include some carrot and baby corn in this just to have a variety of colours. Water chestnuts can be used to give more interest to the texture.  Red capsicum makes a bright splash of colour when it is in season as well as providing a dose of vitamin C.

Tips

If you want to prepare this ahead of time, you can blanche the vegetables instead of cooking them in the wok. Then when you want to serve them, just cook the ginger, reheat the vegetables with the sauce and serve.

This makes a great accompaniment to just about anything.