Vegetables galore!

Not much melody to it - more of a tuneless whistle. Slimming world was late catching up on it - our Burns Lunch more than two years ago included microwaved swede, which was voted a great success (as was the microwaved frozen potato!) The swede had been mentioned on Gransnet a few months before that.

The Singing Swede was in a Slimming World magazine some months ago. I have to say it's a disappointment as far as the singing is concerned!!

No, it doesn't explode. This has been tested by lots of GNers, almost all of them are converted. But don't try it with little turnips - it has to be a swede.

Elegran. Are you sure the swede won't explode whilst cooking.
Sounds a bit dangerous, but will give it a go.

PenJK50 - yes endive is the same as chicory. I think the root end is the bitter part so I cut it off.

Put the celery in a casserole/pot roast, adds a little something to the taste. PLEASE DO NOT USE OLD SWEET PEPPERS! Made me SO ILL,gone off salad since that meal!
annifrance, fartichoke,tehe

Endives can be somewhat bitter/sharp sometimes.
My French husband enjoyed them braised, but not to my taste.

TriciaF - are endives what we call chicory in the UK? What I know as endives are a curly salad leaf which I can't imagine adding to a casserole.

There are some popular vegetables here (France) that you don't seem to get so often in the UK.
Fennel - can be used with onions carrots celery etc in a casserole. And as a separate dish. Good with fish.
Endives - very popular. I add them cut in half lengthwise to casserole dishes near the end of cooking. Locals braise them as a separate dish.
Tarbes beans - we've grown them, they dry out on the plant. After soaking, very good in winter stews. A bit like butter beans but the skin goes softer.

Trim swede base flat so that it stands straight(ish), and cook it on a microwaveable plate for about 20 minutes on full power. It makes hissing noises as it cooks - don't panic! It will be soft enough to cut into and scoop out the inside to mash with butter. It will be very hot, watch your fingers.

Can anyone please remind me how to cook swede in the microwave. I also have a job peeling it as it's very tough skinned and can't get a knife through it without fear of chopping a finger if. Thanks.

teetime just jealous of everyone else. My OH tends to think frozen sweet corn for every meal!

My d-in-law saves any left over meat or vegetables from Sunday roast and pops them in a casserole with a tin of tomatoes and perhaps a few herbs.She covers with mashed potatoes and sometimes grated cheese.Then she cooks in the oven for about 30-40 minutes on a medium heat.The family loves it!

tigger, infortunately my local Asda is a smallish store and isn't one of the ones doing the wonky veg. I would gladly buy it, it won't be any worse than my home grown efforts!

Another beetroot hater here - yuk!

We grow masses of veggies every year in our large plot. All the usual suspects and more. I freeze a lot, process a lot into soups, sauces, preserves. Last year was a bumper crop and didn't know where to put them all!

We eat very few canned - just sweetcorn, Haricot Blancs and Rouges and Flageolet. Bought frozen is only Spinach if we run out of fresh and petit pois - peas are a pain to grow as it takes forever to shell them then blanche and freeze them and we both agreed the frozen variety was more palatable.

We have a wonderful weekly market here with masses of superb and cheap veg, so if we have run out of things by early spring we know where to go. We are also near the Spanish border so I don't mind buying Spanish and Moroccan veg in spring before ours come through, on the basis that they haven't travelled too far.

OH loves to cook and experiments a lot. This winter I have grown salsify for the first time and that is delicious - done it boiled, roasted, mashed. We also love the prolific Jerusalem Artichokes - roasted, soups, in casserole, and I am told that eat them regularly and the gut gets used to them and there is no longer a wind problem!

Has anyone else seen the ASDA deal where you can buy a "wonky" box of vegetables to feed a family for a week for £3.50p?

My latest gadget, soup maker, is good at mopping up my excesses, but you have reminded me to get the spiraliser out again and give it another try

I shop frequently as I don't like having a fridge full! I plan my meals and buy when I need to.

tizliz I hope you don't think I was critising - I'm just lucky here to have such a lot of choice. When we lived in the Yorkshire Dales the winter was all tinned and frozen as we were so far away from anything and its all perfectly nutritious.

Has anyone noticed that veg bought from Lidl can last a remarkably long time. What can they have done to it to cause that?

I have ten in the kitchen (squash, toms, beetroot, cauliflower, peppers, onions, celery, carrots, aubergines, courgettes), fourteen in the freezer (too many to list, but all garden produce from last year), four in the garden (Jerusalem artichokes, winter kale, spinach and chard) and pumpkins in the potting shed.
I got a tagine for Christmas and love how it cooks, with such a tight seal. I put a splash of olive oil in the base, chop onions and garlic and stir in spices (raz-al-hanout mostly), layer that with a large assortment of veg, sometimes meat or fish, maybe something like preserved lemon, dried fruit, quince, olives or nuts, add a small amount of home-made stock (OH makes huge quantities of different stocks, reduces and freezes as ice-cubes) and then cook it all very slowly for about three hours. No pre-cooking or browning and the flavours are wonderful.

Cari - devil's food is, for my SiL, beetroot. A pity as my daughter makes lovely beetroot muffins. He doesn't know what he's missing.
Odd really, he'll eat anything, try any unusual cuisine, but not beetroot, the 'earthy' taste seems to be the problem, it's that taste I enjoy!

I make a giant pan full of mixed roasted veg twice a week, to mix into couscous or quinoa for lunch, so we always have loads of different kinds, plus what we have growing in the garden. Tonight I made a chicken and butternut squash and red pepper casserole, and served it on a bed of four different varieties of cabbage and two of onion, plus leeks. I love all the colours. Plus it makes the rabbit very happy, she loves all the peelings and end bits. She refuses red cabbage, though.