Recipes

Quick and Easy Leek and Potato Soup Recipe

Quick and easy, and very 'leeky' - our leek and potato soup recipe.

This leek and potato soup recipe has become a seasonal staple for us. Leeks are reliable, low maintenance and easy to grow. They remain ready to harvest for long periods at a time, meaning that we can enjoy regular harvests for many weeks. We began using them in soups – a delicious warming meal that is perfect for workers returning from a cold plot. But leeks can easily get lost in a soup. We wanted our homegrown leeks to come to the fore and be the stars of the show. We also wanted this soup to be quick and easy,…

Spiced plum jam recipe

This spiced plum jam recipe is one that we have been perfecting for the last few years. We settled on this mix of spices when we used to make a spiced jam from foraged damsons and crab apples. When we moved to our current house a couple of years ago, there were so many plum trees in the garden that we started making it all plum. This is how we have made our jam the last two years and both batches were absolute triumphs. Ideally you should include a good few plums that aren’t yet quite ripe, as they are…

Delicious garlic bread balls to tear and share!

This recipe has evolved from something that Liz came up with last year as a fun way to get the kids to enjoy our homegrown garlic. It’s since become a family favourite, and so we decided to share it. So here it is: our tear and share garlic bread recipe. Ingredients 500g strong flour About 3 cloves of garlic, minced. Use more if desired 50g mature cheese, grated 5g salt 7g yeast 1 tbsp Oil 5g dried herb of choice* About 325ml warm water *We tend to use 5g dried oregano, or about twice as much if using a fresh…

How to prepare spaghetti squash.

Spaghetti Squash Recipe Introduction I’ve posted before about just how excited we have been to try a spaghetti squash. It is certainly a crop whose fame has outspread its availability, at least here in the UK. We first read about them years ago and ever since have wanted to grow them. But due to the sprawling nature of squash plants and our lack of suitable growing space, we’d never had the opportunity. We have never seen them for sale anywhere, so they were off the menu. That was until last year. When we moved into our new home and discovered…

A jar of homemade pickled runner beans.

In previous posts we detailed how to freeze runner beans and how to salt runner beans. In this post we look at a third method of runner bean preservation: pickling. How to Pickle Runner Beans Equipment: Large saucepan or preserving pan 1.5 litre jar Ingredients: 500g runner beans 2.5 pints distilled vinegar Spices for spice bag Method: Choose your spices and make up a spice bag. We used 8 peppercorns, 6 cloves, 5 all spice and a stick of cinnamon. Tie the spice bag to the handle of the saucepan and pour in the vinegar. Bring to the boil…

Roasted or baked - which is best?

We’ve had a great year for beetroot. We didn’t plant many seeds, but from the little space we dedicated to them we’ve had a decent crop. We’ve never actually grown beetroot before, so we haven’t had a lot of experience of cooking them in a way that makes the most of them. After our first harvest, we both fondly recalled an episode of the BBC’s Great British Food Revival, in which Antonio Carluccio simply baked a beetroot in a bucket outdoors and seemed to enjoy it immensely. We were eager to somehow replicate that experience, but with the days getting…

Our homegrown quince poached in syrup served with some clotted cream - yum!

Here at Slightly Self-Sufficient HQ, we love quinces. This fascination started about four years ago when we followed a Nigel Slater recipe for a Christmas pudding which called for a couple of quinces. Neither of us had ever used one before, and we found them astonishingly difficult to source. Then, in a remarkable act of serendipity, I started helping at a local community garden and found that there was a quince tree growing there. It had been a poor year for them, but I was told to help myself. So I took the two we needed for the recipe and…

The first instalment of apricots from our neighbours.

Our neighbours have had a really good crop of apricots this year and have been donating us their surplus in instalments. They also offered us their tried and tested apricot jam recipe. It is pretty much the standard a pound of sugar per pound of fruit recipe, but they were quite specific on how to process the kernels, and how many to use. We love jam in our house. The children particularly love it. Thinking about it from a child’s point of view, what’s not to love? It’s fruit and sugar, probably their favourite ingredients in the world aside from…

A donation from a neighbour - some windfall apples and some overripe gooseberries.

The gardens here are filled with apple trees. It was a beautiful sight when we moved in back in May and they were all in blossom. It’s beautiful now too, as the fruits are really starting to fill out and the different varieties are starting to show their own traits. We had strong winds the weekend before last, and one of our neighbours gave us some windfall apples from her trees. This time of year they are nowhere near ripe and so far too tart to eat raw, but she wondered whether we might find a use for them. Now…

Charred, soft, moist and slightly salted courgette slices.

Last weekend we harvested our first courgettes of the year, and we’ve been doing so regularly ever since. The week before had been a busy one for me, and I’d barely found time to get out into the garden. I’d seen that there were some courgettes just about ready, but I left them for the weekend. The weekend came and we were away visiting family all day Saturday, and it wasn’t until Sunday afternoon that I got out into the garden. There had been a lot of rain on Friday and Saturday (I’m sure I heard somewhere that we had…

Slightly Self-Sufficient

Tasting The Good Life

Recipes

Quick and Easy Leek and Potato Soup Recipe

Spiced Plum Jam Recipe

Tear And Share Garlic Bread Recipe

How to Prepare Spaghetti Squash

How to Pickle Runner Beans

Cooking Beetroot – Two Methods

Poached Quinces in Syrup

Apricot Jam Recipe

Putting Windfall Apples to Good Use

Griddled Courgettes