The Garden Clinic

Anchovy and chilli dressing

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

This recipe, from River Cottage, is a great sauce for broccoli, cauliflower or kale.

Apples: 3 ways

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

More recipes for your apple harvest.

Asparagus: 3 ways

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

Asparagus growing like wild fire? Then you'll need some tasty ideas. Here are 3 of our favourites.

Baked apples with blueberry compote

18 March, 2021 | Gabriel Gate

Gabriel Gate says he was raised in a family that loved eating fruit - there were more than 20 fruit trees in the garden around his house. No surprise then, that he prefers a fruit dessert like these delicious baked apples to a rich cake or pudding at the end of a special-occasion meal.

Barbecued sweetcorn with chilli butter

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

Fire up the barbie for this simple way to make the most of the natural sweetness of just-picked sweetcorn.

Best-ever roast potatoes

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

Want the best-ever roast potatoes? Simple, delicious and deeply comforting the humble roast spud is a must-have in the cook’s bag of tricks. Here are a few of our favourite versions.

Broad bean custard

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

The broad bean’s short and sweet season is celebrated by Italian home cooks, chefs and us! In this recipe Sydney restaurateur, Lucio Galletto turns the humble bean into something really special. It’s from his new book ‘Lucio’s Ligurian Kitchen’.

Broad Beans: 3 ways

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

Some more recipes for your broad bean harvest.

Brussels sprouts: 3 ways

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

More recipes for Brussels sprouts.

Caramel pineapple upside-down cake

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

Sweet pineapple and toasty coconut are always a happy combination and they make this cake mouth-wateringly delicious.

Cauliflower soup

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

Warm up with this wintery soup.

Chinese style Brussels sprouts

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

The European sprout gets an Asian makeover in this tasty stir fry.

Crepes Suzette

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

Light crepes bathed in a warm, sweet orange sauce heady with liqueur, served on a dramatically flaming dish: no wonder this is such a famous dessert!

Delicious: Carrot, fennel and thyme salad

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

Yes, it’s thyme for a salad!

Delicious: Garden pea risotto

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell, Recipe: Marian Somes Photos: Sue Stubbs

One of my favourite gardens in Victoria is Picardy, a romantic French provincial style garden in the picturesque hills of Neerim. Marian and Bryce Somes had always been Francophiles - mad for French food, in love with the language - but it was a trip to France to celebrate a significant birthday year in 1986 that confirmed a passion for French style.

Delicious: How to roast a duck

18 March, 2021 | Annie Smithers

When travellers on the Ross Garden Tours Victoria tour sat at Annie Smithers’ table and ate her roast duck salad there were two big questions: how did you do that; and can you do it for us again tomorrow! Here she reveals her secrets.

Delicious: Lentil’s summer breakfast bowl

18 March, 2021 | Lentil Purbrick

Breakfast eggs get a super-fresh makeover in this dish from ‘The Village’ by Matt and Lentil from Grown and Gathered.

Delicious: Lime Posset

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

This ancient British dessert is a marvel of alchemy. With just four ingredients and no skill required, it sets to a sweet and tart silky softness.

Delicious: Strawberry and rhubarb jam

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

Rhubarb and strawberries are perfect partners – in pies, crumbles, and in this jam. Here Robin Powell shares her Strawberry and rhubarb jam recipe with us.

Delicious: Sweet potato and chickpea curry

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

Sweet potato and chickpea curry is comfort food of the first order - warming, satisfying and dead-simple.

Delicious: Warrigal greens with fettuccine

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell and Sarah Glover

Make this fresh green sauce ahead of time for quick summer dinners. It will keep for a week in the fridge.

Delicous: brownie

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

Not as heavy as a traditional brownie, but with a satisfying double-choc hit and bonus health food scores from its secret (almost indetectable) vegetable content, this is a great, year-round treat. In summer serve chilled, straight from the fridge.

Edibles everywhere

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell Delicious ideas seen on our travels this year Read More

Eggplant salad with chilli and mint

18 March, 2021 | Bill Granger

Bill Granger says that grilled food with salad is still his favourite way with eating despite his father having had less than chefly barbecuing skills. “My dad had a bright orange barbecue that consistently worked miracles – every single item that came out of it was charred black on the outside but remained basically raw on the inside.”

Eggplant: 3 ways

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell Read More

Fennel and asparagus salad

18 March, 2021 | Chris Arkadieff

This salad is a fresh, crunchy starter or a refreshing follow-up to a rich and hearty main meal. The combination of zingy herbs, aniseedy fennel and citrus tang offers an explosion of flavour.

Fettucine of Gete Okosomin Squash Brown Butter and Fennel Pollen

18 March, 2021 | Peter Gilmore

Peter Gilmore’s delicious ‘fettuccini’ uses golden squash as both noodle and sauce in a dish that’s much easier than it looks.

Fig and raspberry crostata

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

Trust the Italians to come up with the world’s easiest pie.

Fish baked in paper with tomatoes and olives

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

These fragrant fish parcels are tasty, healthy and quick. And as a bonus, there’s no washing up!

Gazpacho

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

The freshness of fennel and lemon add a modern zing to our favourite cold soup for hot days.

Ginger: 3 ways

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

More recipes for ginger!

Homegrown: Sweet Potato

18 March, 2021 | Linda Ross

This delicious tuber is one of the least-demanding vegetables in the patch. All it wants is sun and space.

Hot and sour prawn soup, Tom yum goong

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

With the fragrance of kaffir lime and lemongrass, the heat of ginger and chilli, and the tang of fresh lime juice this soup is mouth-wateringly good.

How to: cook spinach pie

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

In Greece local cooks prefer to make their spanokopita (spinach pie) with the mix of wild greens known as horta. To do the same from you own garden pick a mix of spinach, silverbeet, sorrel, endive or other dark leafy greens

How to: cook with bayleaves

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

The winter cook’s herb supply is much depleted but the noble bay tree is still offering leaves to flavour savoury and sweet dishes. Robin Powell shares some favourites.

How to: cook with broad beans

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

Cast yourself back a thousand years and the humble broad bean could have made you king of France for the day!

How to: cook with cherries

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

Even though only gardeners in cold climates will be picking their own cherries over the summer, we’ll all find ways to celebrate Christmas with a fruit that is still stubbornly, deliciously seasonal.

How to: cook with lavender

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

Lavender’s flatmate from the hot dry rocky spots of the Mediterranean is rosemary. Both share a fabulous fragrance that scents the garden, especially when summer’s heat draws out the essential oils in the foliage. And both can be thugs in the kitchen: cooks must proceed with caution.

How to: cook with wattleseed

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

It’s said that there is a wattle in flower somewhere in Australia every day of the year. Not all of the seed of these 1000-odd species are edible, indeed some a slightly toxic, but there is evidence that aborigines ate the seeds from at least 120 of them. Wattleseed has a unique fragrance and flavour – mocha-chocolateyy, smoky and nutty all at once.

How to: deal with zucchini overflow

18 March, 2021 | Robin Powell

What we love about growing zucchini – it is so generous you need to harvest every day all through the summer – is what drives us crazy about growing zucchini - you have to harvest every day all through the summer! Around about now gardeners are on the lookout for some clever new ways with zucchini.

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