Meatless Monday: How to use up garden excesses, or two ways with rocket

We have green vegies galore in the garden - kale, rocket, silverbeet and the leaves/tops of beetroot. I have enjoyed them but am now impatient to use them up so we can clear the beds for new summer plants. So I have been attempting a few different recipes with a common theme - they must involve plenty of greens! Here are two different uses for excess rocket.

Rocket and walnut pesto
5 cups of rocket leaves, stalks and garden bugs removed
1.5 cups of walnuts
0.5 cup of grated cheese (Parmesan or similar would be preferable but I used cheddar as that was all we had)
Enough olive oil or a mix of oil and water to make it smooth

Whizz the walnuts in a food processor until they are finely ground.
Add everything else and process until you have a green, oily paste.
That's it.

Eat with pasta and more cheese, or maybe as a dip with crackers and vegetable sticks.

Potato, lentil and garden greens soup

This soup looks like liquid grass but tastes fantastic. And anything with this many veggies has got to be healthy.

(Serves 2)
1 brown onion, chopped
A big salad bowl full of garden greens - mine was about half rocket, a quarter kale and a quarter silver beet
3 medium sized potatoes, peeled and diced
3 cups of vegetable stock
1/4 cup of dried red lentils

Fry the onion in olive oil in a big saucepan until soft and golden.
Add the potatoes, stock and lentils. Cook for about 15-20 minutes, or until the potatoes and lentils are soft.
Add the green stuff - if using kale add it first, then the rest a minute or so later. Cook for maybe another 60-90 seconds.
Mulch everything with a hand blender.

Serve with a spoonful of plain yoghurt and sourdough toast and feel very, very virtuous.

The signs of spring

I am a bit enamoured with this weather.

The heater's off, I hope permanently (or at least until next winter, anyway!)

I'm wearing thongs rather than ugg boots around the house. I no longer need socks in bed.

We're eating masses of strawberries and I want salads for lunch instead of pasta.

In the garden I can tell it's spring because

 

 the water table and wading pool have made a comeback

 

the apricot tree is promising good things (and this year we have bagged the first baby fruits that have appeared so we might even get to eat some!)

we're nearing the end of the bok choy and kale, and the broad beans are looking very
exciting.

We are spending hours outside any chance we get.

Hurrah for a change of seasons, there's nothing like it to lift the spirits.

Conversations with my chatterbox

A random monologue on Granny's garden:
Granny has a duck in her garden. Aunty Suse bought it for her birthday. Sometimes it rains in Granny's garden. Granny has new swings.

This dialogue with E playing all parts I overheard whilst lurking hopefully by her bedroom door to see if she had gone to sleep yet:

Hello, Olephant.

Would you like a biscuit?

Yes, I would like it.

Let’s eat it, Olephant.

Careful, Olephant, you’ll fall down.

Whilst pretending to be Curious George on the trapeze swing at Granny and Grandad's (and fortunately, I might add, not in the park or somewhere else public):
Granny, I want to go in a cage. Put me in a cage, Granny! Put me in a cage and lock it with a key! I want to go in a cage with a balloon on my hand!

(2 years and 5 months).

(With apologies to Kylie from Octavia and Vicky for stealing her post idea.)