Just 'beaning' around

Beans are loaded with protein, fibre and are low in GI so are the ideal food source and start to your day.

Tarian Pantry are all about homemade so our homemade baked beans are the BOMB! For the past two days, we have soaked our cannellini beans, boiled them to complete the cooking process and this morning combined them with our basic tomato sauce to complete the dish.

We served the beans on La Madre shallot and garlic sourdough, sprinkled with home grown parsley and then drizzled the dish with premium olive oil. The only problem with the meal I was told, there was not enough!

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Tarian Pantry. The complete food source.

The 'real' Honest to Goodness

There will only be one Honest to Goodness and that's the Honest to Goodness who are truly honest and who whole heartily care about food and what they sell to their customers.

Tarian Pantry's recent purchase of Honest goodies were ordered on a Tuesday evening and delivered to our door by Thursday morning, now that's service.

Based in Sydney, Honest to Goodness are an on-line retailer, a wholesaler and a distributor of certified organic and natural food. You will find no nasties and nothing weird in any of the foods in which you order, just honest wholefoods. Visit - www.goodness.com.au to get the goodness delivered to your door.

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Tarian Pantry. Sharing the goodness around.

Toasty toasty....

"Comfort food" by definition (according to Webster's Dictionary, in 1977): foods consumed to achieve some level of improved emotional status, whether to relieve negative psychological affect or to increase positive feeling.

We all have our favourite comfort foods and the team here at Tarian Pantry is no different. Ours has to be the old favourite, the toasted sandwich. We here at Tarian are all about wholefoods, eating foods for maximum nourishment however there are some exceptions!

Our toasted sandwich 9 times out of 10 needs to be toasted on white bread, or as we like to call it 'trashy white'. The outsides of the bread need to be buttered (nuttalex ofcourse) and the insides, well our favourite range from baked beans to our toasty toasty of the moment: tofutti cream cheese, corn relish and tomatoes.

Warming: All comfort food should be consumed in moderation, you can't have too much of a good thing now!!!!

Tarian Pantry. Because not all food consumed should be 100% healthy.

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Nuts about you.

We're nuts about nuts and having purchased freshly picked walnuts from the Abbotsford Convent markets on Saturday it confirmed once again, our love of all things that fall from a tree.

OK so the thought of having to crack the nuts yourself can seem a little tedious but armed with the right tools, its a task the whole family can partake in. We found the cracking 500gms of walnuts quite relaxing, there was something a little hypnotic about cracking one nut after the other.

The end result was ofcourse the most satisfying - we cracked ourselves just over 200gms of fresh walnut 'meat'. The flavour, well this is the type of taste that will have you buying shelled walnuts from here on, there really isn't anything like it.

The 'flesh' was white like snow and the flavour, now that's how walnuts should taste. Eaten raw, divine but eaten roasted in agave syrup and sea salt, out of this world!

So the next time you are out and about at the farmers market, look out for the stall selling bags of walnuts. If you are in Melbourne, look out for Alpine Nuts.

Tarian Pantry. Nuts about food.

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MISSCHU

The beauty of food is, there is always something and somewhere new to discover which keeps our taste buds very happy. Over the weekend, we dined at a cosy 'tuck shop' called MISSCHU. Located in both Melbourne and Sydney, this find was one we were happy to have stumbled upon.

Although not 100% vegan, they are conscious that there are people out there who don't eat animal/fish products and have tailored their menu accordantly. You feel confident that what you are eating is truly vegan and there has been no shrimp or oyster sauce sneakily added to your food.

MISSCHU are the makers of exquisite hand made Asian foods using the best and market fresh ingredients. The food is fresh, clean, healthy and 99% wheat free - perfect for the coeliac's amongst us. You will walk away from your dining experience feeling satisfied and content.

Pictured is the meal we devoured during our lunchtime visit - vegan rice paper rolls with a sweet chilli sauce and the Vietnamese warm vermicelli salad with sauteed shitake, enoki and shimeji mushrooms.

MISSCHU is certainly worth a visit. Visit www.misschu.com.au for locations and opening details.

Tarian Pantry. Sharing the foodie love.

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Vegetable of the week - Romanesco Cauliflower

Farmers markets are more than just supporting local farming, its an education too! We found whist shopping at the Melbourne showground farmers markets this unusual vegetable called the Romanesco cauliflower (also known as Romanesco broccoli and Romanesco cabbage). Likened to the look of cauliflower, it tastes like broccoli so any cauliflower phobics out there need not fear!

Cooking this vegetable is simple: steam florets and pan fry in olive oil and garlic and serve topped with roasted pine nuts or steam whole and drizzle with a vegan cheesy sauce.

Tarian Pantry. Always an education.

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Farmers Markets - Melbourne Showground

There is no excuse for not purchasing your 'in season' fruit and vegetables from a farmers markets as there always seems to be one on no matter what the weekend day.

Showing support for our local farmers, Victorian Farmers Market Association now support the Melbourne Showground Farmers Markets held every Sunday from 9am until 1pm in the Federation Hall.

Briming with produce galore, these markets although small are certainly growing. Unlike supermarkets, the produce is fresh, grown by locals and most importantly grown in Australia.

To read more about the stallholders visit www.melbourneshowgroundsfarmersmarket.com.au

Tarian Pantry. Never one to miss out on a good market!

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Reasons to eat seasonally

Seasonal produce improves your health by eating foods that are going to nourish you i.e – eating watermelon in summer helps keeps us cool whilst rehydrating us.

Buying anything you want from the supermarkets all year around, is a likely sign that the produce has been imported and lacking in nutrients

Learn from Farmers Markets: if it’s not available, chances are its not in season.

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One scoop or two?

Looking for that perfect ice-cream to compliment your hot apple pie? Well look no further, we have discovered a natural ice-cream that seems to have everything going for it.

Nushie's Natural is the perfect non dairy ice-cream; gluten, egg and dairy free, contains no chemicals or artificial additives and no added sugar. Its cholesterol and casein free, low GI, vegan and its certified organic, we have just found our perfect product!

Made from coconut milk and cashew nuts, Nushie's ice-creams are extra smooth and can be found in the following delicious flavours:

Chocolate with organic raw 100% cacao

Royal green tea

Strawberry

Truly decadent tiramisu

Vanilla with organic raw vanilla bean

To find a stockist of this perfect product, visit: www.nushiesnatural.com.au.

Tarian Pantry. Sharing the knowledge.

www.tarianpantry.com.au

Warming pasties

It's getting cold outside and we are looking for foods that keep us warm on the inside and out. Instead of turning on the heaters and using unnecessary electricity, are warming up the old fashioned way; ugg boots, blankets, hot water bottles and piping hot food!

Vegetable pasties are an ideal meal to cook for either lunch or dinner. Served with an organic tomato sauce, pasties can be eaten on the go, eaten hot or cold or eaten in the front of the TV (one of our favourite TV dinners).

Here is our version of the favourite pastie (makes 16 small pasties or 8 large):

Ingredients

1 large potato, peeled and cut into 2cm cubes

1/2 jap pumpkin, cut into 2cm cubs

1 brown onion, peeled and quartered

1 large carrot, peeled and cut into quarters

Handful mixed herbs (parsley, dill, chives)

salt and pepper

4 sheets Borgs puff pastry

Method

Pre heat the oven to 200 degrees. Line two baking trays with grease proof paper and set aside.

Using a blender, add the potato, pumpkin, onion and carrot to the bowl and pulse ingredients until the mixture resembles small cubes (as in picture). Stir through the herbs and salt and pepper and set aside.

Lay the pastry sheets on your workbench and allow to defrost. Using a 11cm round cutter, cut 4 circles into each sheet of pastry. Add 1 tbsp of the vegetable mixture in the centre of the round and fold over to make a half moon shape squeezing the edges closed. Prick with a fork and place on a greased baking tray. Repeat until puff pastry and mixture is all used up.

Brush each top of the pasties with soy milk and bake in the oven until golden brown, around 20 - 30 minutes.

Keep warm this Winter with food!

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Perfect basil pesto

As a vegan, its hard to find a pesto that doesn't contain parmesan. Even as a vegetarian, its hard as most parmesans contain rennet so they are technically not vegetarian. So is there a good pesto out there that vegans and vegetarian's can eat? There sure is.

Although the pesto we are talking about is not one that is purchased from a shop, its one made in your own kitchen preferably using ingredients from your own garden.

Using a food processor, this pesto will be made in, oh around 5 minutes (you couldn't get to the shop and back in that time).

Ingredients

100g fresh basil leaves

1/4 cup raw nuts (pine, cashew or walnuts are good)

2 garlic cloves, peeled

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

salt to taste

Method

Combine basil, raw nuts and garlic in a food processor and blend until the ingredients start to form a paste, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Slowly drizzle in a tablespoon or two of oil along with salt and process until smooth and creamy (adding more oil, if needed).

Pesto can be used in pasta's, spread on sourdough bread, used in soups or stirred through risotto's.

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A quince a day

They are all around us, they are everywhere we go! Tis the season for quinces and as a team, we have not experimented much with this pear/apple like fruit, but that was about to change.

Cooking is about being experimental, about learning how to create something new so on our recent visit to the markets, we enquired about quinces and made it home with a few in our basket. Let the experiment being.

Some experiments are a disaster, we have learnt this to be a part of cooking but our baked quince puree proved anything but a disaster. Below is our quince creation that has donned our porridge and muesli each morning and was even baked through muffins. Enjoy.

Baked Quince Puree

Ingredients

400g caster sugar

1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped

4 quince, peeled and cut into wedges and core removed

1L water

Method

Pre heat oven to 120C.

In a large saucepan, add the sugar, vanilla bean & seeds and over a medium high heat until sugar dissolves. Bring mixture to boil and remove from heat.

In large casserole pot, add the quinces and pour over the sugar syrup. Cover with a lid and bake in oven until deep red in colour, around 4-5 hours.

Allow to cool. Using a hand blender, blend to a puree and refrigerate until ready to use.

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Lemon pistachio cake

This recipe was adapted from a recipe I saw in a magazine last week. The beauty of cooking dairy free is learning to adapt recipes to suit your diet. This cake is beautifully moist and tastes just as good the next day. So simple to make, I suggest stocking up your Tarian Pantry with the necessary ingredients and get baking!

Ingredients

100g unsalted pistachios

220g caster sugar

75g plain flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

250g fine semolina

300ml soymilk

125g vegan margarine melted and cooled

rind of 1 lemon, finely grated

Syrup

220g caster sugar

125ml water

1 cinnamon stick

3 tbsp lemon juice

Method

To make the syrup, combine the sugar and water in a saucepan and slowly bring to a simmer. Add cinnamon stick and then simmer over a medium heat for 8 minutes. Remove from heat and stir through lemon juice. Cool until at room temperature, remove cinnamon stick and set aside.

Pre heat oven to 170 degrees. Lightly grease and line a rectangular cake tin (28cm x 17cm).

Using a blender or food processor, combine pistachios and sugar and blend to a fine powder. Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl, and then stir in the semolina and pistachio mixture.

Combine the soymilk, melted butter and lemon rind, then slowly add this to the flour mixture, stirring until smooth and well combined.

Pour this mixture into the lined cake tin and bake for 35-40 minutes or until a knife comes out clean. Pour over lemon syrup until it has been absorbed. Cut into diamond shapes and serve.

To be lovely and decedent, serve topped with rose petals.

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Vegan pub grub - Fact or Fiction?

Its seem the mere vegan doesn't have to miss out on much these days and this includes pub grub!

We all need a little 'comfort' food especially as we are heading into Winter, comfort foods are what warms us from the inside out. So on our quest to find restaurants, cafes and pubs in Melbourne to satisfy our needs we came across a 'club' that exceeded all expectations - The East Brunswick Club (www.eastbrunswickclub.com).

Located at 280 Lygon Street, East Brunswick 3057 this venue offers just about everything - 2 gig areas, front bar, kitchen, beer garden and as part of their food offering, amazing vegan food. So on a cold winters Saturday night, a group of Tarian followers sat in the front bar, watched AFL and dined on a 'Traditional Vegan Parmagiana' served with all the trimmings - chips & salad.

Lets just say, we were smiling for ear to ear as we have now found our new haunt for the not so traditional pub grub.

www.tarianpantry.com.au

An apple a day keeps the doctor away...

Well if I were to consume 4kg what would that do? It is recommended that we consume at least 2 serves of fruit a day as part of a balanced diet. Fruit is the ideal 'fast food'. It comes in all flavours, shapes and sizes and even comes in their very own recyclable packaging!

Whether you consume fruit on its own, cut up on top of your breakfast muesli, blended in your favourite smoothie or juiced; ensure you consume the recommended daily amount.

We purchased this 'orchard' of apples from the farmers markets on Saturday for $4 - yes you read right, organic juicing apples for $4. OK so there were a few bruises and marks but the juicer wasn't going to reject them because of a few imperfections! We blended the 4kg of apples with ginger to make a refreshing breakfast beverage.

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A new day, a new season.

It seems summer is well and truly behind us, especially if you live in Melbourne! So out come the ugg boots, the nana rugs and best of all, old and new winter recipes.

Whilst visiting the St Kilda Farmers Markets on Saturday, we saw the change not only in the weather but the produce that was on offer too. The colour pallet of the produce was different, the textures were harder, bigger bolder and the team here at Tarian, couldn't be happier.

If you are fans of Tarian Pantry, you will know we love soup! And what better time to hug a cup of soup than Winter time. Over the next few weeks, we will be testing out some new recipes and posting them on line in order to tempt you. The wild pine mushroom soup was a teaser and hopefully you have been able to find some of these delights at your farmers' markets, they are a hearty treat.

Below is a list of the fruit & vegetables that you will be seeing moving forward:

FRUIT

Apples (all varieties)

Custard apples

Limes

Nashi pears

Persimmons

VEGETABLES

Beetroot

Broccoli

Brussel Sprouts

Cabbages

Fennel

Pumpkin

Silverbeet

Spinach

New season means eating the foods that are 'in season'. Organic produce and buying will ensure you are eating foods that are grown to the current climate, not grown because 'we can't live without it'. We should be enjoying the new food pallet and all that comes with a new season.

Tarian Pantry - we will continue to inspire whatever the season.

www.tarianpantry.com.au

When bread becomes toast

Having spent the morning at the Melbourne Flower and Garden show, we could either eat out or make our way home for much talked about toasted sandwiches, we chose to make toasted sandwiches.

Using a sliced sourdough sliced bread from Chimmys in South Melbourne we toasted the bread and then filled it with toffuti cream cheese, beetroot relish, tomatoes, asparagus and rocket.

The tomatoes and rocket were straight from the Tarian Pantry's garden which made the sandwich even more satisfying.

Enjoy experimenting with your fillings for toasted sandwiches.

www.tarianpantry.com.au

Farmers Market - St Kilda

It's almost Saturday (how funny as I write this Elton John is playing in the back ground singing Saturday) sorry bit off track there but that was worth noting, a strange moment indeed. Now where were we? Yes its almost Saturday which means, the Farmers Markets are on again.

This week, our dedicated farmers set up stalls at the Peanut Farm Reserve, Chaucer Street, St Kilda. The farmers will be there rain, hail or shine from 8:30am - 1:00pm. As we are now officially in Autumn, we are seeing the last of the tomatoes, corn, garlic, stonefruit, cucumbers and berries. And saying a chilly hello to fennel, citrus, quinces, persimmons, rhubarb, pumpkins, nuts, wild mushrooms, apples and pears.

Remember to bring your recycled bags and an appetite for good honest food. See you there, I will be the one with many followers - carrying all my bags of produce ofcourse!!

Tarian Pantry - Encouraging produce buying through local farmers markets.

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Sunday morning fry up

Breakfast is truly the most important meal of the day.

Monday to Saturday the Tarian Pantry team start the day with a beverage of lemon juice and hot water followed by granola and or muesli with fresh fruit. At the moment, papaya and blueberries are gracing our bowls. However come Sunday, we love a good ole fry up!

Fry ups don't need to make your arteries squeal with fear, they can be healthy too. The Sunday just gone, the goodness that made our fry up was:

Steamed spinach

Swiss brown mushrooms cooked in tamari

Vegi deli sausages

Homemade baked beans (basic tomato sauce and cannelloni beans with smoked paprika)

Sourdough sliced bread

We were satisfied until early afternoon when we were ready for the next meal - lunch!

Tarian Pantry - we are all about food!

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Farmers market weekly shop

The Tarian Pantry team have a pretty simple Saturday morning routine:

1) wake up to our body's natural alarm clock

2) Brew the perfect pot of tea

3) Visit the weekly farmers market for fresh local sustainable produce

Every week around Melbourne there are different farmers markets on. Whether they be in the grounds of the Collingwood city farm or the oval in St Kilda you don't need to travel far to purchase 'real' produce. On the third Saturday of every month, the local farmers markets are held in The Gas Works, Albert Park.

Armed with our baskets and bags, we arrive at the markets first thing to stock up the larder. Attached is an image of this week's shop.

On return home, we steamed the silverbeet, roasted the tomatoes, juiced the apples and pears, grated the carrots, steamed the corn and roasted a few potatoes. We are now half way there in the preparation for the week's dinner ahead. Doing small but effective cooking prep will ensure you eat well during the week and reduce the time it takes to prepare a healthy and nutritious meal.

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Soup Saturday

On our weekly visit to the Farmers Markets (this week we visited the Gas Works, Albert Park) we came across Pine Mushrooms. Instantly our taste buds imaged thyme as the perfect match to these mushrooms so this ingredient along with the mushrooms are the base for our soup.

Pine mushroom soup (serves 4 – 6)

Ingredients

350g fresh pine mushrooms, thickly sliced


2 tablespoon olive oil


1 tablespoon nuttalex


2 leeks, thinly sliced


1 brown onion, roughly chopped


1 garlic clove, roughly chopped


1.5 litres (6 cups) vegetable stock


3 sprigs fresh thyme
, stalks removed

150ml (2/3 cup) soy milk


salt and freshly ground black pepper


Method

Heat the olive oil and butter in a large saucepan. Add the sliced leeks, chopped onion and garlic and cook gently for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until softened.

Add sliced mushrooms to the pan. Stir over a medium heat for about 5 minutes until they begin to soften.

Pour in the stock and bring to the boil and then add thyme and seasoning. Simmer gently for 30 minutes over a low heat stirring occasionally. Using a hand blender or food processor, process the soup until smooth. If using a food processor, return the soup to the saucepan and stir in the soy milk. Heat until boiling; add more stock or soy milk for creamier texture if the soup is too thick.

Taste for seasoning. Serve hot.

Pine Mushrooms grow from April and last throughout Autumn and Winter. Due to the cold temperatures and high rainfall, they started growing a month earlier (no complaints from us).

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The Tarian Garden

Over the past few months, the Tarian Pantry team have been turning our thumbs green! Starting small, we are learning the tricks of the trade starting, growing and harvesting our own vegetable & herb garden. Bringing food back to basics is what we are about, eating in season, eating local and eating the 'fruits of your crop' are what we encourage.

After a few sunny days in Melbourne over the summer months, the vitamin D has graced our tomatoes and they are now turning red - no green tomato chutney for the team then. Here are a few images of our one red tomato - we are now waiting on 7 others to do the same (in the picture is the Tarian team's cat, Stan - handsome we know!).

We will blog further about our garden and what we are growing, hopefully our words and images will give inspiration to all.

www.tarianpantry.com.au

Scrambled Sunday's

Sunday's are all about lazy mornings, cups of tea and cooked breakfast! The Tarian Pantry team have rediscovered our love of scrambled tofu and this Sunday was no exception.

Scrambled tofu can handle just about any vegetable but our favourites are:

Spring onions, diced
Zucchini, grated
Carrot, grated
Roasted cherry tomatoes
Italian Parsley
Spinach

To make is easy: heat 1 tsp olive oil in a medium saucepan or frypan and add the spring onion. Add the remaining ingredients including 1 block of tofu (earnest bean our favourite) crumbled and then stir through 1 tbsp tamari, 2 tsp dijon mustard and 1 tsp turmeric. Season and cook on a medium heat for 10-15 minutes. Serve with avocado and sourdough bread.

This meal is so delicious and fulfilling, you will be finding yourself needing a late lunch!

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My goodness, my schnitzel!

Working from home certainly has its benefits, especially as it means you spend more time preparing a scrumptious lunch to see you through the remainder of your day.

The Tarian Pantry team didn't want to overload with too many carbs, with a lot of work ahead of us, we didn't want to find ourselves in need of a nana nap due to the food we consumed making us sleepy.

Wheat free wraps are a great alternative to bread. They are light but fulfilling and can handle what ever you fill them with. Today, we filled ours with:

Freshly picked rocket from the garden

Homemade bean & tomato salad

Homemade chilli sauce

Roma tomatoes

Mayonnaise (a treat)

and last but not least, a schnitzel (and no, not of the veal kind)!

We think the picture says it all!

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Off to the markets.

Farmers marketscan be found far and wide although in this case, this farmer's market was only 7km from Melbourne's CBD.

On the second Saturday of each month, the farmers set up shop in the grounds of the Collingwood City Farm (18 Heliers Street, Abbotsford, VIC 3067). What a delight to visit these markets. Majority of the produce was picked less than 24 hours before the market and you could most certainly tell. The smell of the tomatoes were fresh, they smelt of tomatoes and the onions still had the dirt of the farm on them - that's the way I like to purchase my produce. We even found a snail in our silverbeet, thankfully a whole snail not a half which has been done before!

Tarian Pantry supports all things local and it goes without saying, our love and support for the farmers markets are growing stronger each week. Shopping at Farmers markets is not only an education in changing our shopping habits but its encouraging us to buy organic, sustainable and in season produce.

www.tarianpantry.com.au

The starting point...

The past 3 weeks have seen the Tarian Pantry team visit local farmers markets, and the vegetable that has taken our fancy are the ever so versatile Aubergines (or eggplants).

Local and organic produce has a reputation of being the 'ugly kid on the block' however the aubergines we have come across, are quite the opposite. With thick shiny purple outers, it almost felt like we could buff the side and see our reflection in the perfect unmarked skin!

The team decided to make an aubergine salsa but with any dish, you need to have a starting point. With a small amount of oil in the fry pan, we cut the aubergine into 1cm rounds and fried each side for 3 minutes. Aubergine acts as a sponge, so be careful to only use minimal amounts of oil.

We then cut the aubergine into cubes and combined it in with our basic tomato sauce (chunky style) and there you have it, an aubergine pasta sauce or an aubergine salsa - yum.

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Leftover Lasagne

Sometimes the meals you can only cook once are some of the best. Being creative in the kitchen doesn't mean you need to go out and buy yourself a basket full of ingredients, its about making the most of what you already have in the fridge.

Using a few left over ingredients, the Tarian Pantry team made this delicious lasagne - it was SOOO good we are hoping we can create this master piece again.

Our ingredients were:

Steamed spinach (purchase from the weekend Farmer's markets)

Aubergine salsa (or pasta sauce depending whether you had it hot or cold)

Kalamata olives

Sundried tomatoes

Onions and Garlic

Spelt lasagne sheets

Cheezy (vegan) sauce

Baked in the oven for 30 minutes, this bubbling lasagne was served with a green salad drizzed with a mustard lemon dressing.

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10 minute meals

Finding inspiration about what to cook for dinner can be challenging but finding the time to cook the meal can be even more challenging. Well look no further than this 10 minute meal, its quick, easy and super delicious. So simple this meal will have you prepare, cook and serve before anyone can ask 'what's for dinner'!

10 minute Tomato and Rocket pasta

Ingredients

3 tbsp olive oil

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 onion, thinly sliced

1/2 red capsicum, diced finely

1/2 tsp chilli flakes

1 punett cherry tomatoes

Handful rocket, roughly chopped

1 packet Gluten Free spiral pasta (cooks in 7 minutes)

Method

In a large saucepan, boil 1.5L of water and add the pasta. Reduce heat and cook for 7 minutes or according to packet instructions. Drain and set aside.

In a fry pan, heat the oil and add the garlic and fry for 30 seconds. Add the capsicum, onion chilli and cherry tomatoes and fry for 3-4 minutes on a medium to high heat.

Using the back of a wooden spoon, gently squash the cherry tomatoes to create a 'sauce'. Heat through then towards the end of cooking, stir through the rocket and season with salt and pepper.

Add the pasta to the fry pan, mix well and serve immediately.

Tarian Pantry - Assisting you cook meals in no time!

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Toastie Toasties...

The Tarian Pantry team are all about making the most of left overs and with a small quantity of homemade baked beans remaining in the fridge, we decided to get creative and make ourselves 'baked beans toastie toasties'.

With few ingredients: 2 slices sourdough sandwich loaf, 2 tbsp baked beans, seasoning and a spread of nuttalex our delicious breakfast (or lunch) was soon created.

Warning: contents once removed from the sandwich press can be likened to lava! Remember to cool down slightly prior to biting into (that's if you can avoid the temptation).

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Homemade baked beans

As a child there was always the dilemma of what was more liked: canned spaghetti or beans. But now as 'grown ups' the dilemma is now very much one sided - we are all for the beans.

The Tarian team are still partial to Heinz beans. We grew up with this canned variety so its part of our heritage however after many Sunday morning fry ups, the perfect food item on any plate is homemade baked beans.

The ingredients are simple: Tarian's basic tomato sauce, lima beans, paprika, chilli and additional vegetables such as carrots & celery if you want to make 'gourmet' beans.

We decided to soak the lima beans ourselves, giving it that true homestyle flavour. The beans were soaked for 24 hours and then boiled and simmered for around 2 hours. We then added the tomato sauce to the beans and served them on sourdough bread - breakfast is served.

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Grow Local - Eat Local

We here at Tarian Pantry encourage you to explore growing your own vegetables. It can be a little overwhelming when trying to think about growing your own produce, but start small and work your way up to something big. We all have to start somewhere.

These beauties were grown in our families gardens and consumed on the day in which they were picked. There was such satisfaction in consuming produce that we literally grown in the front garden.

The Tarian Pantry team were so inspired by our families efforts that we too are now launching into growing our own gardens. We are planning out the garden now so will keep you all posted on our developments.

www.tarianpantry.com.au

Salads - More than a side dish

With temperatures reaching 40 degrees here in the city where they experience 4 seasons in a day, salads still seem to be on the top of our menu planner and are taking centre stage on our dinner plates.

The Tarian team once again threw together a fresh and tasty salad, the ingredients were:

Cos lettuce, rocket, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives and spanish onions.

For the dressing: 1/2 lemon, juiced, 50ml olive oil, 1 tsp dijon mustard and seasoned with salt and pepper.

Method: Toss all the salad ingredients in a bowl and then drizzle with the dressing.

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Summer salads a go

'S' is for summer salads so while the weather is warm, the team are taking full advantage of making and consuming summer salads. Tossing together a few ingredients results in meals that are quick, simple and saves your kitchen from reaching temperatures warmer than they are outside.

During the Christmas break, we headed to Adelaide and enjoyed home grown produce from

the families vegetable patch. Our favourite had to be the peppery and crisp flavours of the radish, picked that day - now that is local produce. We threw together this delicious cabbage salad with a lemon and olive oil dressing.

This salad can be consumed as a side dish or as a main meal.

www.tarianpantry.com.au