It was a privilege to go around my garden with Chantelle Nicholson. She felt at home here because she buys seasonal, organic vegetables, and her restaurant in London just won a Michelin Green star.
First step was to check out the potential harvests of vegetables, flowers and herbs. Next, we lit the barbecues and she created delicious dishes with rich flavour combinations - see her recipes here.
Video timings are further down
RECIPES by Chantelle
Smacked cucumber, roast garlic, rhubarb
1 cucumber
2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp Sherry vinegar
Salt
2 bulbs garlic, roasted or BBQ’d until soft
4 sprigs tarragon
Szechuan pepper leaves
6cm stick rhubarb, finely diced
Take the whole cucumber and, using a blunt instrument, lightly bash until you can feel the cucumber give. Cut in half lengthways then, using a knife, cut diagonal lines to criss-cross the cucumber, approximately 4 mm from the skin.
Sprinkle the cucumber with salt. Splash over a little Sherry vinegar then drizzle over the sesame oil.
Peel the garlic and chop the flesh. Pop this on top of the cucumber. Top with the diced rhubarb & picked tarragon. Garnish with the Szechuan leaves.
Pea, broad bean & courgette salad
8 broad bean pods
handful of sugar snap peas
3 small courgettes
8 leaves mint
small handful dill
small handful blackcurrants
Courgette or squash blossoms
3 tbsp rapeseed oil
1 tsp sherry vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
Pop the broad beans onto the BBQ and char well on each side, cooking for approximately 8-10 minutes to ensure the beans are cooked through.
Finely slice the sugar snap peas. Cut the courgettes in half, lengthways, then finely slice. Chop the mint leaves and dill then pop everything in a bowl. Add the blackcurrants and lightly crush with your hands.
Mix the oil, vinegar and mustard together in a small bowl then add to the above. Season with salt to taste.
Squish the broad beans out of their pods into the salad. Stuff into courgette or squash blossoms.
Potato & Chard salad
1 medium sized potato
6 chard leaves
1 red chilli
1 tsp miso paste
1 tbsp sherry vinegar
2 tbsp rapeseed oil
Spiralise the potato and rinse in cold water. Drain off and pop in a dish. Add the finely chopped chilli then splash over the Sherry vinegar and season with a touch of salt. Leave to sit.
Cut the stems off the chard leaves. Drizzle with a little oil and season with salt then BBQ until cooked through.
Finely slice the chard leaves and pop in a bowl.
Pop the miso and oil in a bowl, with a couple of spoonfuls of cold water. Whisk.
Once the chard stems are cooked, chop and add to the leaves. Add the potato and the dressing and mix well.
Miso Broccoli & Spring Onions
1 head broccoli, quartered
8 spring onions
2 tbsp rapeseed oil
For the dressing:
1 tbsp miso paste
2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp sherry vinegar
2 tbsp water
Whisk all the ingredients for the dressing together.
Drizzle the rapeseed oil over the broccoli and onions and season with salt. BBQ to cook through then drizzle with the miso dressing.
#summervegetables #nodig #growyourownfood
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00:00 Introduction
01:13 Chantelle and I do a tour of the garden, harvesting as we go, starting with fennel
02:24 Broad beans
03:05 Squash for winter, and snap peas (some drying for dry pea harvest)
04:20 Asparagus
04:55 Onions, going to seed
05:11 Blackcurrants
05:41 Broccoli
06:27 We discuss onion seeds
07:32 Sorrel
08:21 Tomatillos, not quite ready to harvest
08:49 Cucumbers, and we briefly discuss hydroponically grown vegetables
09:59 Chantelle explains how she dresses lettuce in her restaurant
10:40 Rhubarb
11:43 Szechuan pepper
13:17 Carrots
14:14 Rye for grain
14:46 Potatoes - ease of growing with the no dig method
16:07 Happy squash plants!
16:25 Chard
17:21 Celery - Chantelle explains how she makes celery salt
18:26 Spring onions
18:39 The herb garden, and I explain how to pick some of the herbs
20:29 In the polytunnel - tomatoes, peppers and aubergines, and I demonstrate picking basil
22:06 Courgette
23:38 Picking squash flowers (Crown Prince and Kuri), and how they compare to courgette flowers
26:09 Parsnips growing for seed - we taste the flower
26:42 Flowering beetroot, and carrots
27:19 Picking dill
28:56 I try Chantelle’s dishes, and we discuss how she has cooked them
34:41 Outro
Filmed by Edward Dowding, 2nd July 2023 at Homeacres no dig garden, Somerset UK, maritime temperate climate.
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