Coconut Greens

It's amazing how a bad food experience can taint an ingredient in your mind and make you unwilling to give it a try again. This used to be the case with my relationship with greens. When I was younger, greens were typically served in soups and if my mother did not make that dish, the vegetables would be soggy and just mushy. I have issues with mushy super smooth textures so this invariably made me dislike greens. Intensely. 

Now that I am older and more conscious of eating a balanced diet, and the fact that I grow a lot of greens in my garden, I have had to find ways to make greens more appealing to eat.

This super easy recipe is delicious and quick so the greens retain their form and crunch. The addition of coconut milk adds a whole different flavor profile that is really really out of this world.

To make enough for 2 side dishes or 1 very generous portion, you will need:

• Olive oil (any oil of your choice will work)
• 1 small chopped red onion
• 1 clove chopped garlic
• 1/2 chopped habanero or scotch bonnet pepper (more or less to taste)
• 1/2 seasoning cube
• 2 cups mixed greens - fluted pumpkin leaves (ugwu), kale, swiss chard, amaranth (tete), spinach etc
• 1 can coconut milk

In a large pot, add enough olive oil to cover the base of the pot. Add onions, garlic and chilies and fry for about 2 minutes. Add the seasoning cube and mix well. Add the greens and stir well to combine all the ingredients. Cook for about 3 minutes and add the coconut milk. Stir and cook for another 2 minutes and take off the heat.

Serve on its own or as an accompaniment to rice, potatoes, chicken, fish or steak.

Enjoy!!! 

Tasty Coconut Greens

In the first video in the new series on YouTube, I show how to make greens totally moreish.

Enjoy!!!

From The Garden Of Uzo's Food Labs...

Our garden is doing all sorts of  wonderful things. What started out as a hobby in January this year has become  a growing business and another part of the Uzo brand. We sell our produce once a week and we now have 2 garden sites expanding everyday.

 

Here are some of the gorgeousness from our organic garden over the past few weeks

 

 

 

Sweet banana and jalapeno peppers

Turnip greens

Curly kale - the variety available in Lagos, We offer vegetable pots for sale like this kale pot so you can have a steady supply of kale for a few months

Forage premier kale

Experimenting with growing cauliflower. We have a head forming. Fingers crossed

Fresh basil dried and stored

Lima beans

Long rod okra

Curly kale pot on the way to its new home

Harvested lima beans

Cherry tomato coming through

Yellow pear tomatoes

Green bean flowers

Italian basil pots

Butter crunch lettuce

Black beauty egg plant

Carrot ready for harvest

Dill

Green beans ready to be picked

Sweet basil

Broccoli florets

Mixed produce basket for a client

Green beans

Interesting white and black speckled moth on zucchini leaves

Purple tomatillo plant growing

I am putting together a series of videos for the Youtube channel on gardening which will be fun, fun, fun.

 

I would love to hear from you - questions about the garden and produce. Please send emails to uzosfoodlabs@gmail.com

 

 

Enjoy!!!

Garden Update

As a gardener learning everyday, the rainy season has been interesting. A lot of seedlings died. Plants tilting in all sorts of directions. Some pots waterlogged. My blood pressure has risen and crashed so many times, I cannot even begin to count.

 

There is some stability now though. I asked questions, did research and made a few amendments. I have also made my peace with the fact that in this growing process, there will be all sorts of wins and losses. I will just take it all in stride especially as we work to expand the garden and offer more produce for sale.

 

 Here a few things we have growing:

 

Red Russian Kale

Curly kale. The kind commonly found for sale in Lagos

Forage Premier Kale

Cherry belle and white icicle radishes

Hungarian hot wax peppers

Prize head lettuce



From Uzo's Food Labs - #Gardentotable

 

I cannot begin to explain how busy we are on this end. Its a good thing however, the blog has obviously not been updated in a bit - one of the reasons is we are working on getting www.uzosfoodlabs.com up and running which means migrating all the content on this blog to the new site as well as adding all the other sections to the new site.

 

One project that has taken off in ways I did not quite expect - the garden and produce has gone into over drive mode and we now offer straight from the ground harvests for sale. The demand for the organic produce and people using the hashtag #gardentotable on social media has been overwhelming. This means we are expanding the garden so we can offer tasting bags for pickup once a week. Here are a few of the orders we filled in the last few weeks. 

 

 

I was also very privileged to sit on a panel with some amazing women talking #redefiningfinance on April 26th. It was a wonderful experience and I dare say life changing for some women based on the feedback we received.

For more information on the garden and produce and if you just ant to say hey or ask me any questions, send an email to uzosfoodlabs@gmail.com

Enjoy!!!

Green Egg Scramble

Eggs. Simple enough to make one might think but it is for that exact reason that eggs can be boring. Like a lot of foods that we eat regularly, we tend to go into default mode with eggs – boil or fry. Make an omelet with onions and tomatoes and some chilies if you like some heat.
I love to use eggs as a carrier for vegetables. It is a lot easier to feed my family insane amounts of vegetables if I include them in eggs. This green egg scramble concept is also a very delicious way to deal with egg white only omelets if you are on a diet. By loading the eggs up with all these fiber and nutrients, a small bowl is quite filling which means – no need to have carbs on the side to fill you up. You can also make a few eggs go a long way as well.
To make a 4 egg scramble, you will need:

• 4 eggs
• A small bunch of greens – spinach, kale, ugwu (fluted pumpkin leaves) or lettuce will work. Use one type or a combination
• 1 green bell pepper – deseeded and finely chopped
• 1 carrot – grated
• 2 spring onions – finely chopped (white and green parts)
• Cheese – grated cheddar,mozarella, smoked gouda – any kind of cheese you prefer or a combination. I usually use a smoked cheese because of the delicious flavor it adds to the omelet
• Salt and white pepper
• Oil: Olive, vegetable, canola oil can be used. Unsalted butter can be used as well

Directions:

• Prepare all the vegetables and set aside
• Crack eggs in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Whisk till well combined
• In a large skillet or frying pan, add just enough oil to coat the bottom of the pan
• Add the vegetables and cook for 5 minutes stirring constantly
• Add the eggs and using a wooden spoon or spatula stir the eggs constantly on low heat. Low and slow is the secret to moist eggs
• Add the grated cheese and stir mixture until the cheese has melted
• Serve hot

Enjoy!!!

From Garden To Table - Cucumber, Onion & Radish Pickles

After harvesting the last of the cherry belle radishes in the pot, I knew having them in a salad again would not go down well with the mister. I had a basic pickle recipe saved up using radishes but I only had 6 cherry belles left - they aren't called cherry belles for nothing. They are cute but really tiny. So clearly, I would need literally baskets of radishes to have enough for a decent sized jar.

Solution: a mixed pickle jar. This is a quick pickle recipe which means the pickles will be ready to eat in as little as 3 hours. I am keeping the jar in the fridge overnight and will use on sandwiches tomorrow.

To make a jar of these mixed pickles, you will need:

• 1 large cucumber
• 1 medium white onions
• 6 radishes
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup water
• 9 table spoons sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 cloves peeled garlic
• 1 dry bay leaf
• 6 whole black peppercorns

Directions:

• Using a mandolin slicer or a very sharp knife, thinly slice the cucumbers, onions and radishes and place in a jar with a lid that secures firmly. Add the garlic cloves, bay leaf and peppercorns and set aside.
• In a saucepan, pour the vinegar, water, sugar and salt and warm through until sugar dissolves
• Pour mixture over vegetables and aromatics in jar and close
• Refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

These pickles will be excellent in sandwiches and burgers, over grilled steak or as a crunchy, tangy elements in a salad and should keep in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.

Enjoy!!!

Garden Update: Harvest.....

Look at these little beauties. My first harvest - well 2nd but all radishes. I pulled 4 radishes out of the pot yesterday and had them in a little salad. Peppery and crunchy - they added a bite to the salad that I love. These 3 I got out today and there are only 6 left in the pot. The feeling I have  - excitement, happiness and fulfillment. I shall try my hand at quick pickles with these 3 tomorrow and I shall post results - success or fail.

I have planted another type of radish - white icicle radishes and since I have never tried them before, I am keen to see if the flavor is the same as these cherry belle ones.

From Garden To Table - simply amazing.

Enjoy!!!

Gardening Update: Lots of progress. And some vendors....

All is gong very well in my green world. I cannot wait to share the updates below - which by the way are not all that I have growing.

 

Before I get into the gorgeousness growing, I get a lot of questions about where I get my seeds an supplies from. Someone on Instagram mentioned seeing seeds at Shoprite at the Ikeja Mall so yesterday, I went to the Shoprite at The Palms in Lekki and found a small garden aisle Pots of different sizes, garden hoses and pressure pumps and seed packets. A decent selection of vegetable packets including onions, tomatoes and some squash as well as some herb packets including parsley and cilantro. I also saw some flower seed packets including marigolds....I scooped up a few packets of flower seeds and a few vegetable seeds I do not have. I will plant them this weekend and see how they do. I also checked out the garden aisle of Game and found a lot of pots and hardware for the garden at decent prices. So yaay for that.....

 

Onto the updates:

 

 

 

Butter Crunch Lettuce - this type of lettuce will have a head like cabbage but you can also eat the out leaves. Remember I had these growing before? I obviously planted too many seeds in a very small pot. This pot has just one plant and it is flourishing

Golden Jubilee Tomato plant - it is time to add supports to this pot so the plant can grow without breaking especially as the fruits come in

Copenhagen Market Cabbage - this plant is going to grow very full before the cabbage head comes in. I expect I will move this out of the green house in the next week or 2

Of all the herb pots I have planted, these 2 are doing so well. They sprouted very quickly and the sweet basil smells so good already

Clemson Spineless Okra: I have read that okra plants over produce fruit so I am already thinking of as many ways to use the pods as possible.

Scarlet Nantes Carrots: These are doing so very well too. I have been told that I planted them too close together and the resulting carrots will not be a good size. Lesson learnt.

Collard Greens: This is another plant that will get pretty big. I don't mind that at all seeing as I love greens

Bok Choi: Chinese cabbage that is excellent in stir fries. These sprouted in 4 days. Super fast

Broccoli: I suspect I should have planted just one seed in the pot as these are going to grow very very big before the broccoli head comes in

Bunching Onions: I had given up on these plants and actually have another pot with 2 plants going. However, I did some research and it was recommended that I scrape off the top layer of soil and add a fresh layer. I did that and the plants have taken off

Cherry Belle Radishes: I had a pot of these that just turned yellow and died. I definitely had too many plants in that pot and also over watered the plant. Now I tried to do 2 seeds in a row and these are doing so well . I can actually see the tops of the radishes poking out of the soil

Mustard Leaves: I got these in a herb set and planted it like I would herbs. I really hope these are not mustard greens  which are giant plants...

Forage Premier Kale: This replaces the other kale plants that fell and got destroyed.

Brandywine Red Tomato: Seeing as I don't like raw tomatoes and I have quite a few types of tomatoes, what sense does that make? Well my boys love raw tomatoes and I have a lot of recipes than need tomatoes so why not?

Golden Bantam Corn: I am watching these with a lot of interest. We have ears but not kernels yet. Which requires pollination to happen. I will watch videos on how to self pollinate and try that.

Beets: I planted a few beets and this is the only survivor. The birds kept eating the seedlings.

Sugar Baby Watermelon: This is a huge experiment. Watermelon in the biggest pot I could find. Fingers crossed

Green Zucchini: Flourishing and producing male flowers. No female flowers yet  be pollinated but apparently a rash of male flowers first is normal

Mixed cacti pot

Blooming flowers

Blooming flowers

Lemongrass: This is used by a lot of people in a malaria treating concoction but it is delicious used in Thai style dishes. This plant grows voraciously so I have to be ready

Jalapeno Peppers: I am so so happy with how these plants are doing.



I have a few more pots not pictured here as they are just sprouting- I expect I should have a harvest post next in the series - the radishes I believe.

I would love to hear from any budding gardeners

Enjoy!!!