A handful of spuds

Zoe looking her most glamorous mashing potatoes!

This was a spontaneous recipe on Sunday 12 July. We were given lots of young potatoes by the market traders. Now, with such young potatoes, there was no need to peel them (this also preserved the most nutrients); just scrubbed hard to remove soil and dirt was all that was necessary. Besides, we had to be mindful of the time and resources available to us: so many potatoes, so little time and not enough potato peelers to go round ha ha ha!! (More thoughts on this later)

The potatoes were boiled and then mashed. Then came the creative bit: adding butter, oil, some milk (whatever we had to hand really) and lots of seasoning. A big block of medium aged, fairly savoury cheese was also collected that day so this was grated into the mash. Then we also happened to have had donated fresh mint as well as a small packet of dried dill (from our larder box) which were added to the mash. The combined fragrance of these herbs transformed the dish into something unique and special just for that occasion. More special still as the transformation created value collectively to the otherwise mish-mash of surplus ingredients. So there was no waste, and more good food!

Uniquely, our project needs to balance our use of time, resources and space each time we cook. Therefore labour intensive dishes aren't really do-able, nor are recipes which need extensive cooking times and/or involved techniques. We sometimes just have to think out of the box and be creative with conventional recipes and adapt them to work within our constraints and still make them taste great, which is all the more creative, challenging and rewarding. So it does mean minimising peeling which, in any case, is better for nutrition as vegetable skins contain a lot of vitamins.

We also made a fresh coleslaw on Sunday 12 July using donated cabbages, carrots and beetroot. To this was added donated fresh coriander and the aforementioned dried dill from our larder box. The fragrance of the fresh coriander and dried dill was very special too (I love herbs). Once mixed with some fresh lemon juice the coleslaw was a special one-off to behold: full of vitamins, healthy fibre and a visually gorgeous palette of colours.