Veg box round up

I have enjoyed the challenge of incorporating different types of veg into our diet. The most interesting was kale. My children and any type of cabbage-style vegetable do not mix. However, I had a go at this pasta sauce which is for kale or it's cousin, cavalo nero. The recipe doesn't give any quantities at all, so I winged it. I used a small pot of single cream and a handful of parmesan-style value hard cheese. I rather think that the fat in the recipe might negate the health benefits of the kale. (The website for the recipe isn't the veg box scheme that I am using.)

It turned out to be a very vivid green, almost luminous! You can definitely sense the chlorophyll. I added some crispy bacon but I still thought it tasted a bit bland. Then I realised that I'd left out the chilli. Doh! But I had four clean plates at the end, so it must have been OK. Or my children are humouring me...

The children actually ate asparagus as well. We had it dipped in poached eggs, which strangely worked quite well. The season is more or less over now, so they are spared asparagus for another year.

We used up all the salad in various guises, and ate spinach in fish pie. We have eaten one courgette loaf, and one is in the freezer. All I have left are some carrots and onions. The carrots will go in veggie chilli tomorrow. I'm not worried about the onions because I had half a bag in the fridge before the veg box arrived, and now I only have three left.

I also spent an inordinate amount of time in the veg aisle of the supermarket finding prices for veg. I did a comparison with both organic and non-organic produce. 

Organic first! Even though I go to a big local supermarket in a large town, they didn't have all the different varieties of organic veg, so I couldn't do a valid comparison. However, my gut feeling after looking at the prices is that it would have been slightly more expensive to get them from the supermarket.

The non-organic veg worked out to be £8.94, and my box came to £12.25. I used the cheapest veg I could find for my test. This is more or less what I expected, I never thought this would be a cost-saving exercise!  For me it is a lesson in seasonal living, learning to cook in a different way and educating my children.