My Herbs

Just a quick post to show you how well my homegrown herbs are doing...

The leaves actually resemble parsley and basil now! Can't wait till I can start using them in my cooking, not that I have an abundance of either of them yet.

I feel guilty for my lack of posts recently, I've had the most stressful week working 11 hour days and the heat has left me completely exhausted. I hope to resume writing more consistently in the coming week. Hope you're enjoying the sunshine!

Lisa x

Spaghetti with Pea Pesto Recipe

Check out this lovely pea pesto mixed into spaghetti - just like classic pesto, only more summery!! I found this recipe in the latest edition of Waitrose Kitchen (July 2013), a really nice food magazine - it made me hungry just reading it, and I plan to try a few more of the recipes from it in the coming weeks.

I'm not the biggest pea lover, but this turned out to have a nice flavour - not too strongly pea-flavoured! The only thing I would say about this pesto is that it does have quite a strong garlic flavour - great for me as I love garlic, but if you are not so keen you could miss out one of the cloves.

According to the Waitrose Kitchen magazine, one portion is a reasonable 518 calories (if you're counting!) and of course all those peas help towards you getting your 5 a day - something I've recently been aiming to do every day.

Recipe - Pasta with Pea Pesto

Serves 4

Ingredients:

350g dried spaghetti

400g frozen garden peas

3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

50g parmesan, roughly chopped

3 tbsp olive oil

The juice of 1 lemon

25g basil leaves

Method:

1) Cook the spaghetti according the packet instructions. Once cooked, drain the pasta but reserve a cupful of the cooking water.

2) Whilst the pasta cooks cook the peas in a saucepan of boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain and leave to cool.

3) In a food processor (I used my Kenwood Mini Chopper – see here) blend together the garlic cloves, parmesan, 2 tbsp of the olive oil, the juice of half a lemon and a ¾ of the basil leaves to form a thick paste. Add the peas and blitz again until just combined. Season the mixture.

4) Put the spaghetti back into a saucepan with 6 tbsp of the reserved cooking water, the pea pesto mixture, the remaining oil and the juice of the other half of the lemon. Serve scattered with a few torn basil leaves and some grated parmesan. 

Lisa x

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A Quick Herb Update!

I mentioned last weekend that I had planted some parsley and basil seeds (see here) - and thought I'd show how my basil is progressing...

It's started growing!

Wish I could say the same for the parsley, but nothing has sprouted from my Seedpod yet :( I've been told this is to be expected though - basil apparently grows faster than parsley. Will continue to keep you posted!

Lisa x

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Planting Some Herbs - Parsley Seedpod & Sutton's Sweet Basil

As I mentioned earlier in the week, I received some free Suttons sweet basil seeds with my copy of Jamie Magazine this month. I also picked up a 'Pat Parsley Seedpod' for £3 at the Foodies Festival in Clapham last week - meant for kids but who cares?!? I've never been particularly green-fingered so a kit aimed at kids is probably my best chance at making some herbs grow!

So this morning I decided it was time to plant my seeds and attempt to grow some tasty herbs. I chose to plant my 'Pat Parsley' first as the kit seemed pretty straightforward and all you needed to do was add water!

The kit included some gravel, a 'coir' (a natural fibrous bi-product of the coconut husk - an eco-friendly soil), the seeds and instructions. You use the plastic Seedpod box to plant the seeds which is handy! 

Firstly I emptied the gravel into the Seedpod box, followed by the coir. I then added 70-80ml of water (the lid of the box can be used to measure the water - 1 capful). The soil then expands and you can plant 5 or 6 seeds into the soil. You need to leave the pod (without lid) in a warm, light position so I left it on a ledge in my kitchen.

I then dug out a plastic plant-pot from our shed, filled it with some compost and planted a small amount of the basil seeds. I left them on the kitchen ledge next to my parsley, in a small foil pie tray which I can top up with a little water from time to time. Not quite as pretty as the parsley Seedpod, but you've got to work with what you've got!

According to the Sutton's instructions basil should be sown anytime between mid-Feb and mid-June (so I got it done just in time) and can be harvested between June and October.

 

Fingers crossed my herbs sprout, I will keep you updated on their progress (and hopefully not their lack of it!)

Lisa x

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