Before I had a child I imagined (naively) that any I did have in the future would eat everything, none of this fussy nonsense in my kids thank you very much. Especially they would eat veg, because I’d just give it to them when they were too small to care and never stop so they wouldn’t think not to eat it.

I’ve had to revise my thinking a bit in the light of actual experience.

It turns out that children very quickly make their own minds up about what they’ll eat and try as you might it won’t always be what you think they should. And I ended up with one who, though cooperative and easy going in almost every other respect, thinks vegetables are akin to rat poison and to be avoided at all costs.

So of necessity I have become something of a whizz at sneaking in veg or dressing it up in a way that means at least a little goes down. My favourite ploy is tomato sauce, in which, if you simmer it for long enough, you can dissolve pretty much any grated vegetables.

These turnip chips pass muster too and are at least nibbled at whereas ordinary turnip would be spurned completely. They are also an excellent replacement for potato chips for anyone watching their carbs. Lidl often have HUGE turnips for anything from 69c to 89c, so they are very good value too.

They are very simply made, but a little care and attention is required or they can just be soggy and greasy. The secret is browning them fast in very hot oil. This amount is enough for three or four people, depending on their age and how hungry they are.

• 1/2 a large turnip
• Dessert spoon of soy flour
• generous shake of black pepper
• Pinch of salt
• Grated nutmeg (I use about half a nutmeg)
• Olive oil

Cut the raw turnip into chip shaped pieces and boil in lightly salted water for about 30 minutes. The actual time varies a bit from turnip to turnip, so it can take as little as 20 mins or as long as 40. You want them cooked, but not too soft.

Drain well and return to the saucepan over the heat for a minute or do to steam off any excess water, then leave aside to cool for about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile put the olive oil in a large metal baking tray. If you happen to have chicken, goose or turkey fat using this mixed with the oil gives a great flavour. You need enough oil to cover the base of the tray to a couple of millimeter depth. Put this into a hot oven - about 200°C.

Mix the soy flour, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Sprinkle over the turnip. Put a lid on the saucepan and shake it gently, turning it upside down and sideways as you do. This will slightly roughen the outside of the turnip and make sure it’s fairly evenly coated with the flour mix.

Tip into the baking tray and toss around to coat in the hot oil (it needs to be really hot at this point). They take about 10-15 minutes to cook - toss again half way though to turn the chips over.

Drain on a little kitchen paper and serve immediately - they get a bit soggy if left hanging around.

The soy flour browns very well and gives a slight extra crispness, you can of course vary the flavouring to suit yourself.

I don’t have a deep fat fryer, but I imagine these would cook very well in one and would probably be even crisper.

Tags: Recipes, Turnip, Vegetables
Posted in Low carb, Recipes | 5 Comments »

I don’t buy frozen veg much and in particular dislike frozen broccoli, which always seems to have a weird and vaguely plasticy texture.

However, having seen these on the stranger’s shopping list I posted last week (of which more below), and because the pack looked kind of inviting, I thought I’d give these a whirl in the interests of research.

They are part of a Lidl range of microwavable vegetable products, some of which include pasta and none of which I’ve previously tried.

We had them for dinner last night, along with home made beefburgers in mushroom sauce, and they were really pretty good.

The broccoli had a good bite to it and none of the texture I so dislike, the sugar snap peas were crisp and the peas were small and sweet, petit pois like. Everything tasted really fresh and there was plenty in the pack for two decent portions.

My one quibble, and it’s a major one, is with the glaze.

Not with the flavour, in fact you’d hardly know it was there and since I took the veg out with a slotted spoon most of it remained in the dish anyway. It’s the ingredient list that bothers me. Aside from the Broccoli, peas and sugar snaps we get:

Palm Oil, Butter, Parsley, water, salt, seasoning (hydolised soya protein, salt, palm oil, sunflower oil), sugar, pea flour, pea flour, mustard flour, spices, carrots, celery, yeast powder.

This lot actually makes up 6% of the package content.

These sort of microwavable veg products are marketed as being healthy and this range in particular is heavily promoted in the Health Eating leaflet that Lidl produced recently. I’m sorry but not only does this contain fats, which most people would not expect, but the trend towards putting sugar in anything and everything is one that in particular drives me mad. Is all that stuff really nessesary?

I suppose it’s a case of buyer beware and remembering always to read the small print.

So would I buy this again? Oddly enough, in spite of my misgivings, I might. While 99% of the time I prefer to use fresh veg, it is handy to have a backup in the freezer and they were very tasty.

Now, a change of topic.

Last week I posted a shopping list I found discarded in a trolley and asked you to guess the price.

Here’s the list again, with prices.

The total cost was €103.02.

Everyone guessed too low except Wendy who was a bit too high.

So it seems that while in some cases Lidl give us more then we expect, in other cases they give us less.

Tags: Frozen Food, Shopping Basket, Vegetables
Posted in Shopping Baskets, Taste Test | 4 Comments »

Now and again a fairly exotic vegetable or fruit turns up in Lidl. Most of the early part of this year they had Chinese radish, which we became quite fond of, both grated raw in coleslaw or roast with onion, garlic and olive oil.

The other day I came across these sweet little wicker baskets of Chinese garlic, which at just 59c for 14 small bulbs of garlic were irresistible.

Now maybe you have Chinese Garlic all the time, but I have never seen garlic like this before.

The bulbs are not divided into cloves - or it might be more correct to say that each bulb contains only a single clove. The skin peels away easily and when I tasted a slice raw (I wasn’t planning on getting up close with anyone) it was pleasant - pungent and quite intensely garlicky but not bitter.

I looked these critters up on the web, and found out they were sold in Trader Joe’s in the USA for a time, as “The Emperor’s New Cloves”. Cute. It seems they sold well there, in slightly fancier wicker baskets for $1.69 (about €1.05) each, until they were withdrawn because of their Chinese origin.

The stated reason was concern over the quality of food from China, but reading between the lines I suspect it it may actually have been more because of complaints from home producers. Apparently the garlic market in the USA and in other places is in upheaval due to the vast and growing volume of Chinese garlic exports. Who knew?

Still, the Chinese radish didn’t kill us and I don’t suppose this will either.

I’ve used these twice since I bought them. The first time I used one in a mushroom sauce, which I thought would make it very, very garlicky because in volume that was the same as maybe 5-6 standard cloves. It didn’t, in fact you’d hardly have known there was garlic in it at all.

The second time I tossed them in this olive oil and roast them with some chicken. They were absolutely delicious, really sweet and soft. So I think this is the ideal way to have them, and I’ll definitely buy them regularly for that purpose, but won’t cross ordinary garlic off my list entirely.

Tags: Garlic, Vegetables
Posted in Best Buys | 5 Comments »