Growing Challenge (Month 1) from The Little Veggie Patch Co on Vimeo.

One of the reasons I don’t tend to try harder at growing veggies in my garden is that I usually get an extremely small yield – a tomato here, a spring onion there, a worm eaten beetroot or a bitter little radish. (Possibly this is due to the fact that my garden is mostly concrete but still). I have loved The Little Veggie Patch Co for a good while now – their determination in helping us suburban folks in growing our own foods is endlessly enthusiastic, plus my heart always swells a little when I see their cute little van driving around my hood, with the guys wearing their straw hats.

But for the more economically minded among us, their Growing Challenge is a pretty rad idea – tracking how much in financial value their little veggie patch is growing for them, month by month. Take a look! And you can visit the garden at Fed Square in Melbourne too.

Follow Little Veggie Patch Co on Facebook for all the veggie growing gossip. xx

Travelling through Bangkok last year I was determined to do a vegetarian cooking class. I have always adored Thai food, but seriously struggled cooking it at home! The class I did was such an amazing thing to do, in a short few hours at the May Kaidee restaurant we were whizzed through so many different Thai dishes – now when I’m experiencing a bit of wanderlust I often cook a Thai dish! I love how smells & flavours can transport us to other places and help us recall vivid memories.

Click to view the recipe…

Every year it’s the same – as soon as the weather gets cold I want to make a LOT of soup. I don’t know why, I suppose I used to equate cold weather with hot cocoa, but soup is healthier so now I’m onto that instead!

I love love love this recipe. It’s quite simple, and it’s very much inspired by awesome Veganomicon – they have a similar tomato soup which contains sundried tomatoes. Amazing! I even made this soup for my grandparents a few years back, and they had no idea it contained lentils. That’s right. Oh My Green is here to help you trick people into eating legumes! You’re welcome. But seriously, lentils are really filling, they’re a great source of protein, they are (in my opinion) the easiest dried bean to cook, and they’re yummy. Are you in?

(Yes, you can create soup even in a kitchen with a teeny tiny bench-top!)

Healthy Tomato Soup
Serves 6 – 8

Ingredients:
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 leek, chopped
pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup red lentils (soaked overnight if possible)
2 large potatoes, sliced thinly (or a potato/sweet potato combo!)
1/4 cup brown rice or buckwheat (or a mixture)
2 litres stock / water *
100g sundried tomatoes (not the ones in oil, just plain ones)
1 x 810g tin crushed tomatoes (I like ardmona brand)
salt, to taste
fresh basil (optional)

Fry onion, garlic and pepper (feel free to add herbs!) in the oil for about 5 mins, or until the onions are starting to brown slightly.
Add the stock / water, lentils, potatoes and rice. Bring to the boil, and then simmer for about 20 mins, or until the lentils and rice are mushy.
Add the sundried tomatoes and more stock / water if necessary and simmer on a low heat for 20 mins or until the lentils are soft and the tomatoes have plumped up.
Blend the soup well (a stick mixer works great), add the tinned tomatoes and blend again until smooth.
Add salt & pepper to taste, feel free to chuck in some fresh basil.

* I used water, but sploshed in some soy sauce for a bit of extra flavour

Soup best served with onion bagels. Of course.