This outdoor garden cooking session with a group of mothers was a fun and social way to enjoy time in the garden, meet new people, learn new skills and prepare some delicious meals.
Definitely a successful day at the Whitehawk Community Project, in the garden and kitchen collaborating with Chomp and Kitchen Therapy - two organizations inspiring others to grow a holistic mindset towards enjoying food, cooking, eating and connecting to nature.
As its October - todays session included a range of recipes focused on seasonal ingredients which can be currently harvested from the garden.
These included 2 varieties of pumpkin soups & stews cooked with carrots, onions, tomatoes, ginger, celery, and coconut milk for an amazing creamy texture and also an apple and courgette chutney.
🌱 Handy hint:
Eating food in the sun outdoors tastes better because the warmth of the sun naturally increases the flavours in foods
Chomp is a charity organization who are passionate about supporting families with children who find themselves in challenging circumstances. They provide integrative support that spans across immediate needs such as food poverty and holiday hunger to meaningful engagement across interdependent communities
Kitchen Therapy helps connect people with their food and a positive mindset. Through an appreciation of food, symbolism and people, Kitchen Therapy seeks to enhance relationships with ourselves, each other and our world. Letting go notions of perfection, we find potential, possibility and pleasure take its place.
As usual at this time of year, anyone who has grown a courgette plant will know just how many courgettes one plant can produce, which can leave people with too many and not know what to do with these!
A great recipe for using up excess courgettes and apples in the garden is this quick chutney mixture - as shown in the pot in the image above, finely chopping all the ingredients and cooking in a pot on the stove for about 15 minutes until softened and flavourful, this can then be stored in jars in the fridge for a couple of weeks, I also like to blend 2/3 of the mixture to add a smoother consistency, but still retaining a nice bit of texture and crunch.
Ingredients include:
apples
courgettes
ginger
shallots
malt vinegar
coriander powder
black pepper
sugar
apricots
raisins
Another great suggestion for your pumpkins and to reduce food waste is to cook up the scooped out pumpkin seeds. As seen in the image above, these were simply cooked in a pan with olive oil, you can also add a sprinkling of herbs if you like, they have such a great flavour and a fun snacks for kids too.
Once everyone had finished preparing their food thanks to the instructions and fun advice from Charlotte, along with a large plate of freshly picked salads from the garden - which included nasturtiums, swiss chard and sorrel - we all sat around the table in the garden, enjoyed the food, fresh air, and friendly company.
Thanks for reading, if you have any questions or would love to join us at Whitehawk, head to the contact section and let us know!