Silverbeet Recipes

[Curmon]

Hey everyone,

I decided to plant some silverbeet in the vegie garden and now that its ready to harvest i have no idea what to do with it. To be honest i have no idea why i planted it in the first place as i have never used it in the kitchen before so any ideas would be appreciated.

Claire

[suse]

You can pretty much use it for anything that you would use spinach for - it's also used in spanakopita (greek silverbeet and ricotta pie/pastries, there is also a turkish equivalent), it's great in vegie lasagne, vegie curries and stirfries. It can be lightly steamed/wilted and served as a side with butter, pepper and a bit of nutmeg.

Good luck with whatever you do with it - it would be delicious fresh from the garden! Yum!!

[canberramomma]

Yup, go the spinach substitute!!! Snails got all mine!!

[dusty]

Simple Silverbeet and Ricotta Pie (dusty's own recipe for home grown silverbeet).

Get big bunches of fresh silverbeet from the garden, and slice into thin strips. Place as much as you can in a pot with little water on the bottom (to steam) and cook for about 5-10 mins until softened. Drain and squeeze out any excess water you can.

Add a tub of ricotta (fresh from farmers markets is best) (about 300-500gm), some cubed feta (100-200g), fresh grated nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Fry some chopped onion and add to the mix.

Spray olive oil spray (or rub OO on) a baking dish (like a lasagne dish).

Take some frozen puff pastry and line the base of the baking dish (and sides if you wish). Add the silverbeet mix on top and smooth down. Add more puff pastry to the top to cover.

Baste top of pie with olive oil.

Cook in a med-hot oven until the puff pastry is golden brown and cooked.
Serves about 4-6.
Serve with home grown salad.

Yummo!

[Bathsheba]

You can pretty much use it for anything that you would use spinach for - it's also used in spanakopita (greek silverbeet and ricotta pie/pastries, there is also a turkish equivalent), it's great in vegie lasagne, vegie curries and stirfries. It can be lightly steamed/wilted and served as a side with butter, pepper and a bit of nutmeg.

Good luck with whatever you do with it - it would be delicious fresh from the garden! Yum!!

Yum! I was going to say this... looooove spanakopita!!!

[Nelle]

Yum! Dad always grew silverbeet in his vegie patch! We had it mixed in with mashed potato and bacon (tasty way for mum to give us greens ), you can use it as a green in salads, man...anything!
Use it instead of spinach in spinach dip! Mmm....with some crusty bread...

ETA: Dusty! Yuuuummmmm! Sounds delish! What actually is nutmeg, not sure I'd know it by sight - I only have dried ground? Is it a root like ginger?

[dusty]

lol Nelle at your edit - it is a hard round brown smooth nut about the size of a 5 cent piece. best used freshly grated rather than bought ground. You can buy it at good shops. They last a long time so even if they look a bit exxy (can't remember how much they are) well worth it whole. Also really good to use in fresh banana smoothies/milkshakes. ummmmm!

I agree Nelle, silverbeet is really good mixed in with lettuce as part of the base of a green salad. Just use the softer bits (not near the stalk). Fantastic energy salad food, with roasted almonds or pepitas and sunflower seeds.

[Kazbah]

I made a lovely silverbeet risotto with mine - use veggie stock, soften your onion and then add the stock / wine. Add a handful of silverbeet after every stock addition until you've put in about 8 cups of silverbeet, then add in your cheese etc at the end.

If all else fails, find some chickens cause they help the chooks give lovely deep yellow yolks.

[AngelPunks]

steamed/wilted with butter, lemon juice and black pepper - by the bowlful - YUMMMMMMMM
or
straight from the garden eaten raw (if you've not used chemicals on your garden, if you have then a good wash in LOC then eaten)