About once a month, during the season, it appears in my organic vegie delivery. Surrounded by all the other beautiful and exciting stuff, it tends to be put in the bottom of the vegetable crisper, covered with everything else. I then forget about it, until a week later most of the other vegies have been used and the red cabbage is still sat there, rebuking me every time I open the door.

At the end of each fortnight I tell myself to cancel the red cabbage, but then I remember how good it is for me, it’s not the cabbages fault, maybe I ‘should’ be more adventurous. Red cabbage guilt, it’s a terrible thing.

And red cabbage is definitely very good for you. It’s a member of the brassica family, which also includes broccoli, cauliflower and brussel sprouts. This family is packed full of antioxidants (which protect us from the nasties like cardiovascular disease) and red cabbage is high in betacarotene, lutein (which protects against macular degeneration) and . . . lycopene! Plus vitamin C, manganese and vitamin K. Red cabbage also contains virtually no kilojoules – about 95 kJ per 100g (about 2 cups full).

This weekend I was off to a BBQ and needed to take a salad. I found this easy-peasy and clever recipe at Chocolate & Zucchini which used red cabbage. Perfect! Of course, I had to change it just a little bit, it being entirely impossible for me to follow any recipe 100%. This is a great way to use red cabbage and it tasted even better an hour after making, when all the flavours had time to marinate together.

This is also a great bugger-I-have-20-mins-before-we-have-to-leave-and-the- house-is-a-rubbish tip-and-my-parents-are-staying-tonight, recipe – a category I find very useful.

Red Cabbage, Dried Fig & Pepita Salad

Serves 6

• 3 tablespoons pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
• 1/2 head red cabbage
• 1 large handful bean sprouts (about 300g)
• 2 garlic shallots (or normal shallots), finely sliced
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 10 dried figs, finely sliced
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons shoyu

Toast the pepitas in a frying pan (no oil) over a medium heat. Toss frequently and watch them carefully as they tend to go from un-toasted to over-toasted very quickly.

Cut the hard stem / core thingy out of the cabbage and finely slice (this is the most tedious part of the recipe, so hang in there). Put into a large bowl with the bean sprouts, shallots, lemon zest and dried figs.

Mix together the rest of the ingredients in a seperate bowl or jam jar and pour over the vegetables. Toss through and if you can, leave for an hour before serving. It’s also very good the next day.

I’ve had some chipotle chillies in my cupboard for the last couple of months, so this was also a good opportunity to use them. They’re smoked, dried jalapeno chillies and are used a lot in Mexican cooking and also in the States, but they’re virtually unheard of here in Australia. I’m finding them really useful, as there aren’t many foods with that smoky flavour in vegetarian cooking. They’re not super hot, but do have a little bit of bite. If you can’t get chipotles, then use any other dried chilli.

Yellow split pea soup with ginger & miso

Serves 4

• 1 cup yellow split peas (c. 200g)
• 2 small potatoes (c. 200g), cut into 1 cm dice
• 1 medium carrot (c. 130g), cut into 1cm dice
• 1 small leek, cut into small pieces
• 1 chipotle chilli, roughly chopped
• 2.5cm piece of fresh ginger, roughly chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon shoyu (or soy sauce)
• 1 tablespoon miso, dissolved in about 2 tablespoons of hot (not boiling) water
• 1/2 cup parsley, finely chopped

Wash the split peas in a couple of changes of water and drain. Place in a large pan with the potatoes, carrot, leek, chilli, ginger, garlic and 2 litres of water. Bring to the boil, cover partially and turn the heat down to a simmer. Stir occasionally to prevent the split peas from sticking. Don’t worry if a foam substance forms on top, this will dissipate during the cooking. Simmer for about 40 minutes, until the split peas are soft.

Take out about a third of the soup, put to one side and then puree the rest. Mix the removed portion back in with the rest of the soup.

Add the vinegar, shoyu, miso and parsley. Stir through and then gently heat for five more minutes, to allow the flavour to amalgamate.

Nutrition Information per serving (based on 4 servings):

Total kilojoules: 896kJ;

Protein: 15g;

Total Fat: 2g (mostly poly-unsaturated);

Saturated fat: 0.6g;

Carbohydrate: 34g;

Fibre: 9g;

Sodium: 551mg (without adding any extra salt);

Number of vegetable serves towards daily total : 2.5 serves;

Additional nutrients: potassium, niacin, riboflavin, iron, folate, beta-carotene and other antioxidants.

However, I was home early, which meant I had time to cook and clean up, which made this recipe from Albion Cooks very attractive. While it does take about an hour to cook, it’s low maintenance. Ten minutes of chopping ingredients and then it cooked away in the oven, leaving me time to sort out the feral mess.

I wanted to make it from ingredients I already had in the cupboard and fridge, hence I’ve made quite a few changes – broccoli instead of cauliflower, chick peas instead of tofu, fresh herbs and so on. It’s a flexible recipe and a good example of how one idea can be changed and re-interpreted, according to what’s in the cupboard – from the original version by Gluten Free Goddess to Catherine’s version, through to mine.

While it won’t freeze very well, it will be be just as good the next day for lunch.

Greek style vegetable gratin

This recipe makes three portions, although you could stretch it out to four if you served it with some rice. I’ve been using Danish fetta a lot recently, I like its softer texture and mild flavour. Plus its lower in total and saturated fat than most other fettas. Serves 3 – 4.

• Small bunch of broccoli (c. 250g), cut into florets
• 3 small potatoes (c. 300g), cut into 1.5cm cubes
• 2 zucchinis, cut in half lengthways and then into 1.5cm slices
• 1 red onion, cut into 6 wedges
• 2 large ripe tomatoes, cut into 8 wedges
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 100g green beans, cut into 2.5cm lengths
• 300g cooked chickpeas, or 1 × 400g tin drained
• 1 tablespoon capers
• 100g olives
• 3 sprigs fresh oregano (or 1/2 tablespoon dried)
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• 1/4 tablespoon parsley, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup (35g) breadcrumbs
• 1 tablespoon (10g) parmesan
• 100g Danish fetta, crumbled

Preheat oven to 220°C.

Put the broccoli, potatoes, zucchini, onion and tomatoes onto a baking tray. Drizzle over the olive oil and roast the vegies in the oven for 30 minutes.

In the meantime place the beans, chickpeas, capers, olives, oregano, garlic and parsley into an ovenproof dish. When the vegetables are cooked add them to the pan and stir through. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs, parmesan and fetta over the top. Place in the oven and cook until the topping is browned and slightly crisp.

Nutrition information per serving (based on 4 servings):

Total kilojoules: 2,006kJ; Protein: 25g; Total Fat: 23g (mostly mono-unsaturated); Saturated fat: 3g; Carbohydrate: 43gg; Fibre: 14g; Sodium: 1,189mg (without adding any extra salt); Number of vegetable serves towards daily total : 4 serves; Additional nutrients: potassium, niacin, riboflavin, iron, folate, beta-carotene, lycopene and other antioxidants.

While they’re the same species as normal celery, they are bred produce a large stem base – which is the part you eat.

Celeriac has a milder and slightly sweeter flavour, which makes it quite different from standard celery.

It’s also a very flexible vegetable and can be used both cooked and raw in salads. Celeriac can be baked with other vegetables, made into soups and is often mashed in with potatoes. The classic dish is celeriac remoulade, where the vegetable is grated or cut into small pieces and served with a mustard mayonnaise.

Ingredients that match with celeriac

• fennel (both seeds and the vegetable)
• mustard
• parsley
• rosemary
• chives
• olives
• potatoes
• most meats
• eggs
• blue and goat’s cheese
• white beans
• walnuts.

Nutritionally, it’s low in kilojoules and high in fibre. Celeriac is also very low in fat and has useful amounts of potassium, niacin and riboflavin.

Having recently bought a celeriac at the Castle Hill Growers’ Market, I decided to make it into a soup. This is a lovely, delicate flavoured soup, that’s perked up by the addition of mustard. It’s a very loose recipe, which I made from what was in the fridge. If you don’t have a leek, add in some onion; it doesn’t matter if your celeriac is bigger or smaller; and adjust the mustard to your own taste. You could also add some chives or parsley at the end.

Celeriac, leek and white bean soup

Serves 3

• 1 celeriac (about 500g), peeled and cut into 2cm chunks
• 2 sticks of celery, washed and cut into 2cm chunks
• 1 leek, washed and cut into 2cm chunks
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 tin of white beans (I used lima beans)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons mustard (or to taste)

Cook the vegetables: Put the celeriac, celery, leek, garlic, white beans and salt into a large pan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer gently for about 15 minutes, or until the celeriac is tender.

Finish the soup: Take out a couple of spoonfuls of the soup and then blend the rest together. Mix the mustard into the removed portion and then stir back into the rest of the blended soup. Adjust the seasoning to your taste.

Nutritional information per serving (based on 3 servings):

Total kilojoules: 650kJ; Protein : 12.5g; Total Fat : 1g; Saturated fat : negligible; Carbohydrate : 26g; Fibre : 17g; Sodium : 413mg (without adding any extra salt): 1.5 serves; Additional nutrients : potassium, niacin, riboflavin

A few weekends ago the SMH’s Interactive Cook section featured two celeriac recipes by Steve Manfredi – celeriac and chestnut soup, plus a celeriac and gruyere tartlet. There’s also a video of him making the soup –

For many people, pasta is their easy back-up meal. Cook some pasta, throw over a pre-made sauce and Bob’s your uncle. However, while I get the convenience of it, I’ve always found pre-made pasta sauces annoyingly over-priced and disappointingly bland. Also, if you’re simply pouring a pre-made sauce over cooked pasta, I hate to be a killjoy, but it’s not a very well balanced meal. It’s a meal that has too much starchy carbohydrate and nowhere near enough vegetables.

Hence the quickie pasta sauce challenge . . . is it possible to make a healthy, better balanced sauce, in the time it takes to cook the pasta and without getting too frenetic?

Well this is something I’ve been working on for a while and I’ve come up with a number of variations on a theme. In this one I’ve quickly roasted cherry tomatoes on a high heat and then tossed these with olive oil, herbs and lemon juice to make a sauce-y dressing, which is then tossed through cooked pasta. It includes enough vegies for your daily quota. Sprinkle over some pinenuts and ricotta cheese, for the protein part of the meal and you’ve got a well balanced and tasty dinner.

Follow the instructions in the order I’ve written them and it’s made in the time it takes to boil the water and cook the pasta.

Quickie Pasta & Sauce

Serves 2

• 1/2 punnet cherry tomatoes, washed
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 100g green beans, cut into 2.5cm lengths
• 150g broccoli florets (8 – 9)
• 200g pasta (I used rigatoni)
• 1 tablespoon pine nuts
• 2 tablespoons fresh ricotta

For the Dressing:

• 2 shallots, thinly sliced
• juice of half a lemon
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1/3 bunch parsley (or English spinach), finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, crushed

Switch the oven on to 220C.

Toss the cherry tomatoes in the olive oil and put on a baking tray.

Put the kettle on, to heat up water for the pasta and while waiting for this, prepare the vegies.

Put the tomatoes in the oven (for 8 – 10 minutes in total).

Once the water is boiled, pour into a large saucepan, put on a high heat and bring back to the boil. Add the pasta and cook for 5 minutes. Add the beans and broccoli to the pasta water and cook until the pasta is al dente.

While the pasta is cooking, mix all the dressing ingredients together in a bowl. Once the tomatoes have cooked, add these to the dressing and stir to combine, slightly mashing the tomatoes as you go.

Once the pasta and vegies are cooked, drain and then toss through the dressing. Serve immediately with the pine nuts and ricotta sprinkled over the top.

Nutrition information per serving:

• Total kilojoules: 1,980kJ
• Protein: 16g
• Fat: 21g
• Saturated fat: 2g
• Carbohydrate: 10g
• Fibre: 9g
• Sodium: 50g
• Number of vegetable serves towards your daily total: 3
• Other nutrients: lycopene, iron, potassium, folate, niacin, thiamin, beta-carotene, calcium

While I regularly cook foods from around the world, I’ve never used these home-grown flavours and spices before.

I’m comfortable cooking Indian, Italian, Greek, South American, North African and yet I don’t know where to start with foods that have been grown and eaten in Australia for thousands of years. This seems a bit crazy and I want to know more.

I’ve been investigating bush tomato (also known as desert raisin or akudjara) this week. It’s from the Solanaceae family, so it’s a relative of the classic tomato and it grows in Central and Western Australia.

The fruits are quite little and are a purplish-yellow colour when ripe, although they have to be dried before they can be eaten. Bush tomatoes have a strong place in the dreaming of the Warlpiri and Anmatyerr people of Central Australia. As with many native plants, bush tomatoes go crazy after bushfires – the fire stimulates them to fruit prolifically.

Bush tomatoes have a kind of fruity, slightly bitter, sun-dried tomato mixed with a bit of caramel flavour, which means they should be good in both sweet and savoury dishes.

I really wasn’t sure what to do with them at first, but fortunately the back of the packet had a recipe for Bush Tomato Risotto. Given the multicultural city I live in, I thought this mixture of Italian and traditional Australian culture seemed appropriate. I have (of course) changed the recipe around quite a lot and I have to say, it’s really, really good. I loved the flavour given to the risotto by the bush tomato. It’s tomato-y, but there’s a whole lot more going on than just straight tomato flavour – the caramel and the sweetness really come through, especially in combination with the basil. I’m pretty chuffed with this dish.

I often use ricotta with my pasta and risottos, instead of parmesan – I like the creamy texture it gives, plus it keeps the saturated fat content under control. I also think this would work with a few pinenuts sprinkled through, for a contrast in texture.

Bush Tomato, Spinach & Mushroom Risotto

Serves 2

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons ground bush tomato (akadjura)
• 200g (1 cup) arborio rice
• 100g (1 cup) peas – fresh or frozen
• 1 litre hot water
• 100g mushrooms, stalks removed and cut in half
• 1 tomato, finely chopped
• 1 large handful basil
• 1/3 bunch spinach
• 2 tablespoons fresh ricotta

Put the oil in a medium sized, heavy based pan and set over a medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and gently stir fry for 3 – 4 minutes, until softened. Add the bush tomato and stir, coating the onions for about 1 minute. Then add the rice and peas to the pan, continuing to stir and fry for another minute.

Add 1 cup of water to the rice and stir to combine. Once this is absorbed, add another cupful and keep doing this until all the water has been used up – this should take about 20 minutes. Add the mushrooms, tomato, basil and spinach. Stir through and cook for another 2 minutes, until the spinach and basil are wilted.

Serve immediately with the ricotta cheese on top and a green salad.

Nutrition information per serving:

• Total kilojoules: 2,050kJ
• Protein: 15g
• Fat: 12g
• Saturated fat: 1.8g
• Carbohydrate: 87g
• Fibre: 10g
• Sodium: 14-mg
• Number of daily vegetable serves: 4 (not including salad)
• Other nutrients: potassium, carotenes, iron, niacin, vitamin C, lutein and other antioxidants