5 Great Vegetable Recipe Ideas for Early Spring

Tasty dishes created from the No Dig Cookbook, which contains advice on growing too.
This was a feast, from recipes by Catherine Balaam and cooked by Nicola Smith, who filmed and edited too.

By late March, there are fewer fresh vegetables, even than in early winter. I add to the options by harvesting tops of stinging nettles, which you see is a super tasty and highly nutritious pesto.

Also I show you a carrot and beetroot hummus, a bean and chard salad, and my no knead bread. Complemented by a bowl of seasonal salad leaves, from the polytunnel mostly.

The cookbook is available now in North America from @chelseagreenpub
from my website https://youtu.be/4b8nP1Y_Js4
and in the usual places!

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20 Replies to “5 Great Vegetable Recipe Ideas for Early Spring”

  1. I love to grow our own food. I love to cook for my family. But I hate the perpetual cleanup. So please some
    'no cleanup' recipes Charles ????

  2. Full of admiration for this book (You all should be proud of it) which I'm buying for my sister who might take more notice of you than she does of me !!. I have always shunned making Sauerkraut because it was so cheap to buy (in buckets !) in France but as its not abundant in the UK I may give it a go. I LOVE Nettles = soup, fritters & now I must try Pesto.. I always use up my excess Rocket for pesto……and my excess Lettuce for soup in case you are interested !

  3. Looks like what you’d eat on some kind of health detox camp, very creative though.

  4. It looks delicious ????!
    And to try to eat or taste all that awesome food without a glass of water or whatever ???? ? It means at to be delicious!!

  5. I can testify that every time I give away a few no-dig-grown veg to local people like my mum's hairdresser, our next door neighbours, my cousins and their children, they tell me that they taste better than supermarket fare. And making home-made soups from no-dig vegetables does seem to be a banker in providing healthy edible fare to almost everyone. My challenge right now is finding ways to use up onions and potatoes as they are beginning to sprout! Still have five garlic bulbs left from last summer and six squash (three Crown Prince, two Red Kuri and one Butternut variety). My cousin (who was an Italian teacher before retiring) told me that Italians say use either onion or garlic but not both, and I can tell you that making tomato soup using six garlic cloves instead of an onion certainly creates great taste.

  6. Very good inspiration ! B.t.w., I'm still eating a red cabbage sour kraut made a year & a half ago ( Oct. 2021). It's been in the fridge since the initial ferment period. I didn't start eating from this jar until this past Autumn – it smelled fine but I removed some slightly discolored amount from the top. It had been under the juices, although a few pieces had floated to the top of the glass weight I had in there. I'm trying to get it finished up now… it was in a more than half gallon size jar originally. I have some bell pepper/celery ferment from last Autumn I'm also working on eating. I'd preferred to have had more nasturtium leaves and flowers in that, I did that once with a still modest percentage and really liked it, but long story short I wasn't able to last time.

  7. You need to organise a you tube cook along so we can all have a taste ????

  8. I'm glad your book is for sale over here now, I'll headed to Barnes & Noble, If they don't have it, I'll ask why in the world not. Good timing too, I have some nettle seeds, didn't start those, I will today tho, I have seen others use it in soup. Everything looks delish, can't beat easy bread either.

  9. That carrot beet dip sounds delicious. Am going to try that with the radish. Nice combination. Great video, Charles.

  10. Hi love the book, I have tried making sauerkraut and it goes green and off, is the salt a certain one? Thanks

  11. Jeden kciuk, to za mało ????
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  12. Do u folks have ramps?(wild plant similar to garlic & onions) They're coming in season now & would pair nicely with your "pungent" dishes.

  13. And some wild garlic flowers with sweet marjoram fried in a pan with two eggs cooked on top. Served on shop soda bread will have to do

  14. Nettle and mint tea absolutely delicious. Teaspoon of honey in @2ltr and cool for a spring afternoon. I'm off to make it now

  15. It’s really great how your linking everything together Charles
    I still find myself wondering what to do with all my produce sometimes, it can get overwhelming at times.
    Love sauerkraut I brought a 5lt handmade pot with water trap from Germany to make big batches, I give it to family and friends, so good for you fermented foods!

  16. This is wonderful! I’m always looking for recipes I can make from my garden. Thank you!

  17. I got this book for my birthday, a complete surprise. It is beautiful inside, and the recipes as inspiration or jumping off points is a lovely touch. Suits my style perfectly. Already made a version of the rocket pesto using peanuts, garlic greens and a squeeze of lemon.
    I'm hoping to get a more garden focused one this year ????
    My first full season of a large No Dig patch. Thanks for all the precious knowledge, Charles.

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