I’ll second that.
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Raw - spinach / capsicum / cos lettuce / with sunflower seeds and cottage cheese / grilled paneer.
Roasted - sweet potato / carrot / beetroot / capsicum / pumpkin, in whatever combination. Baking at low temperature for a long time means I can add my favourite sauce, a mix of coconut milk and Indonesian Rendang paste.
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Avocado.
The perfect fruit, doesn’t ripen on the tree, so leave it there until you need it.
Wish I could buy a tree on modern dwarfing rootstock. Hass, maybe Shepard on ASHDOT rootstock, but not available in WA. Like so many fruit and veggie related plants, few are available in WA.
Perth is the perfect city for every street to have a dwarf Avo tree.
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Ah yes, another stunning Food Challenge!
My pick is 100% on capsicum
Why?
It has a phenomenal crunch
Is nicely spicy
And you can have with fried rice.
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Thank you @Read_CHOICE_AllNight
It’s nice to be appreciated.
I like the crunchiness of capsicums when mixed raw in a salad.
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Fried butternut pumpkin… cube it (~20~30mm), put pieces in a bowl and lightly flour them, and fry in butter and optionally sliced garlic in the pan until nicely charred on each side, about 15 minutes on medium heat. Each piece should be crispy on the outside and soft and sweet on the inside. The char will have a slight burnt butter flavour with the pumpkin’s sweetness being a foil. Salt and pepper to taste and serve.
It is a nice change from the routine roasted or mashed pumpkin recipes.
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“Doesn’t ripen on the tree” - certainly hard to find one almost ripe in the shops in Hobart. The last one I bought was still unripe after 2 weeks in a sunny kitchen.
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For those who like eggplant, here are some recipes.
https://kitchen.nine.com.au/recipes/best-eggplant-recipes/bb39fc37-a608-47a9-a877-8e4d070b6824
My wife loves moussaka which we make a few times each year, but I am looking for a mandolin with is adjustable for the thickness of the slices and wide enough to slice the eggplants lenghtwise as it will be easier to assemble in lieu of lots of round slices.
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I do enjoy Roasted Parsnip.
My favourite is when they are laid under the roast leg of lamb, and there is just a sprinkling of garlic in the cooking oil…
Yummm!
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Avocado
They have a mind of their own, even here in Qld.
The standard trick of putting them in a brown paper bag works best. It can be helped along with a banana. I change the banana every other day, or I’m left with a bowl of over ripe bananas. Some Apple varieties (assume you might have some down there) are also effective.
Some more info. If it works in the UK’s climate it should work in Tassie.
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One of my favourite vegetable is the Globe Artichoke.
It contains potassium, fibre, iron.
Can be cooked in many different ways, added to soups, or deep fried until it resembles a sunflower!
It pays to know how to pick a nice fresh one: glossy green or purple colour, not to big, with tight leaves, and no middle open hole or shrivelled leaves…
The external leaves are tough and need to be gradually cut off, and the top part removed. But the inner section, the heart, is very tender and delicious.
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A great vegetable that goes very well in antipasto and other Mediterranean nibbles. Stuffed and baked is very nice too. They have the odd sensory quality of being quite savoury but leaving an odd sweet aftertaste. This is from a compound that inhibits the sweet sensors in your mouth so when you stop eating it they bounce back and things taste sweet.
You are eating an immature flower bud. Mostly only the heart and base are eaten but if you are keen you can eat part of the outer leaves (once cooked) by stripping the soft tissue off the inside with your teeth and discarding the tough layer. An artichoke feast will have a spitting bowl on the table. The inedible ‘choke’ is the fibrous beginnings of the flower petals in a ring inside where the leaves join the base.
A perennial, they are easy to grow but take some room, put them in the flower garden or make a row down the drive and people will ask what the handsome plants are. They don’t like heat or dryness so if you live in a cool damp place they will look good most of the year. If you are in a warmer area they will only look good from late winter to early summer. To eat them you must pick them before the bud starts to open and before the flower inside develops. If you forget there is always next year and they have a pretty purple flower for a few weeks.
Being a thistle some cultivars have little spikes on the end of the leaves. Its close relative the cardoon is a noxious weed in some places.
You can get them fresh in the supermarket, usually in the spring when they are in season. As well as the hints Gaby gave you can tell if they are fresh (assuming the stem is attached) by shaking the stem. If it flops about they are not fresh, if it is stiff they are. You can also buy them pickled in jars all year round and when drained this is a good way to add them to your savoury snack plate.
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One I forgot above was LuHao. a Chinese vegetable grown in the lower Yangtze delta
I can’t explain the taste…possibly mild celery type flavour…but delicious. Unfortunately not available in Australia but worth seeking out if one is every in China (Nanjing, Shanghai and other lower river areas).
I am missing it just thinking about it.
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