A wide range of quick and easy recipes for your favourite fresh vegetables
Go directly to recipes Carrots are believed to have originated in Central Asia and first cultivated in what is now Iran and Afghanistan over a thousand years ago. Notwithstanding, there is also evidence that carrots were cultivated in the Roman Empire even earlier. Carrot seeds were carried along trade routes …
Go directly to recipe collections These days supermarkets and our neighbourhood greengrocer stock piles and piles of familiar and exotic fresh vegetables, in fact, the basic ingredients of all the world’s cuisines. We would so much like to try them all, but as a single cook who has undergone gastric …
Vegetables are an essential part of our diet, but in our situation, it’s all too easy to bypass them altogether. I’ve found that a good way to ensure that I get enough vegetables in my diet is to have at least one all-vegetable meal every day. I also try to …
Go directly to recipes Mushrooms have been gathered and eaten since time immemorial. While mushrooms have been cultivated in China since ancient times as both food and medicine, Europeans did not know how to cultivate them until making a chance discovery. In about 1650 French farmers noticed that mushrooms grew …
Go directly to recipes While called zucchini (Italian for ‘small marrows’) in Australia, this vegetable is also known by its French name, courgette, and as baby marrow. It is closely related, but not identical, to the marrow, though its fruit may be called marrow when mature. Zucchini are descended from …
Go directly to recipes Cabbage was most likely domesticated in Europe before 1000 BC and was considered a luxury by the Romans. By the 17th and 18th centuries, cabbage was a popular staple food in central, northern, and eastern Europe and was then exported to Asia and the new world. …
Go directly to recipes Technically a fruit, the pumpkin is a winter squash in the family that includes cucumbers and melons. Pumpkins originated in Southern North America and Central America around 9000 years ago and, along with other forms of squash, were an historically important food staple for Native Americans. …
Go directly to recipes Widely cultivated for its tender, succulent, edible shoots, asparagus has been eaten in the Mediterranean region as far back as 3000BC when it was pictured as an offering on an Egyptian frieze. The ancient Greeks and Romans prized asparagus for its unique flavour, texture, and alleged …
Go directly to recipes The potato is a native of South and Central America and was brought to Europe by Spanish Conquistadors and English explorers. The potato was distrusted at first by Europeans and either used as fodder for animals, or considered food for peasants. However, it was eventually recognised …
Go directly to recipes The cultivated avocado (Persea americana) has its origins in Mexico, where its existence in the wild can be traced back over 10,000 years. It is believed to have first been domesticated over 5,000 years ago. In the 16th century, the Spanish conquistadors learned about the fruit …
Go directly to recipes A member of the cabbage family, cauliflower may have been cultivated in Italy as early as the Roman Empire, but in the Middle Ages, was generally believed to have originated in Cyprus. By the 17th century it was a popular vegetable in Italian and French cuisine. …
Go directly to recipes Capsicum – also called a bell pepper or sweet pepper – is native to Mexico, Central America and northern South America. Capsicum seeds were imported to Spain in 1493 and then spread through Europe and Asia. The earliest capsicum brought to Europe were the more pungent …
